Week Ahead: Aug. 16-20

| August 14, 2021 | Week Updates | No Comments

What a spectacular first week (glitches and all)!  As we settle into our school year, we are going to find additional things we want to fix, tweak and change along with things that we did indeed get right!  So let’s celebrate the fullness of our experience!  We are definitely modeling a growth mindset, resilience, and a great sense of humor.  I have found a new way of sharing my love of most-things-tik-tok by embedding them into the blog ???. Enjoy!

Let’s see what next week brings:

Monday, Aug. 16
VS ABCD
1:45-4 Grade book Set Up Support w/Daniel M

Tuesday, Aug. 17
VS EFGH
9:30-10:15 SST Mtg
1-1:30 New Faculty: Advisory Program Overview (with Roxanne)
3:15-4:30 MS Leadership Team (Agenda)

Wednesday, Aug. 18
VS Wellness/Consolidation
1-1:45 MS Parent Tech Tool Training
3:15-4:30 Divisional Mtg

Thursday, Aug. 19
VS ABCD
*Star Reading (administered in ELA)
8:15-9:15 AS Parent Ed: Managing Tech at Home

Friday, Aug. 20
VS EFGH
*Star Reading (administered in ELA)

Upcoming (on the radar)

  • Aug. 26: Curriculum Night
  • Sept. 2, 3: Vietnamese National Day, No School
  • Sept. 17: MS Movie Night

 

Advisory Program Overview for New Faculty: Tuesday, August 17, 1:00-1:30PM: 

Roxanne will be hosting an overview of the MS Advisory program for all new faculty, however all are welcome.   A calendar invite w/Zoom link will be sent and available on the MS Faculty Calendar.

Note:  New faculty who are note advisors are also asked to attend so that you understand an important part of our middle school program

 

Adjusted working hours: 

The following faculty have adjusted work hours.  These are times when they are available:

Hillary Banks: 7:30AM-8:30AM and 10:30AM-5:30PM

Daniel Mendes: 8:30-4:30

 

 

Advisory on Monday: 

Chinh’s message was an outstanding opportunity to support our students, and also their families, in better managing their physical and mental wellbeing. We do not want to lose the life-changing value of Chinh’s message on self-care. For this reason on Monday advisory on 8/16, please make the following shift:

1) Review the 6 items students have put on their lists and let them add to it. This list should be written on paper and posted near their work area (if they have materials to do this)
2) Watch/Rewatch the assembly video together. Ms. Chinh’s presentation.  (note if everyone in your advisory was actually able to see and hear the presentation, there is no need to watch again)
    • Pause and discuss as you go to help students digest.
    • Zoom Chat, Padlet or find another way to anecdotally assess what students are taking away
    • As an advisory, figure out some ways you can support each other in actively engaging in self-care this year.
3) The Time Management Lesson will be moved to the end of your Dragon Day slides for future use.

 

Attendance During Virtual School (from Roxanne): 

We understand that taking attendance during virtual school might be more challenging than when in physical school. We are looking for solutions to make the process more efficient and are open to your suggestions. We are sharing how the office handles unexcused absences, medical absences and tardies during virtual school and what you can do to support students with their attendance.

  • Unexcused Absences – Each time a student is absent from a virtual school class, Ms. Duong calls the parents. If she cannot reach them, she sends this email to the parents at the end of the day. These absences are recorded in PowerSchool. Ms. Duong sends out attendance reports in the morning and at the end of the day. If you notice a discrepancy between the students she has noted absent and your attendance record, please notify her immediately.
  • Medical Absences – Parents are expected to call or email the office when their child is sick or has a medical appointment and cannot attend virtual school classes. Such absences are recorded in PowerSchool accordingly. When the child returns to school they should be given the same number of days they were absent to complete work assigned or due in their absence.
  • Tardies – Whenever a student is late to a class meeting, even by one minute, mark them tardy. During WOW week and the first week of school we will not be following up with students who log in late to class. Beginning the second full week of school, the office will send this email to parents & students with 3 or more tardies absences that week.
  • How to support a student who is repeatedly tardy:
    1. Engage the student in a 1-1 exchange via Chat, Zoom, or email, to support them in being on time. (Make 2 attempts before moving to step 2)
    2. If #1 is not successful, email the parents and describe the situation, the impact on student learning and solicit their support. cc the student on the email.
    3. If #2 is not successful, try again and cc the MS Dean
    4. If #3 is not successful, inform MS Dean who will intervene on your behalf
* If you have a student who is chronically tardy to your class or advisory, you make note of it in a virtual school doc that will be shared during our 8/18 Divisional Meeting.

 

 

From Jacob Humes – Child Safeguarding:

Our Code of Conduct policy has been collectively written to reinforce our culture of care, and to guide us through the process of reporting concerns. Please take an opportunity to read this over the next week. We will be convening a group to review the Code of Conduct in May before putting the final draft in school handbooks.

Please see Jacob’s email for emergency numbers to put in your phones.

 

 

Creative Use of Breakout Rooms shared by Erin J: 

I shared this with my team today, and it could be a way for the time after the “30 required minutes” teachers are used to.  Kids can choose which breakout room they want to work in!

 

 

From Daniel M: 

The tutorial video for how to set up syncing between Schoology and PowerTeacher Pro is complete. This is a critical tutorial to watch so that you can set up Schoology and PowerTeacher Pro properly so that syncing will work. Go through the whole video, being careful to do each step of the process carefully. Do this set up this weekend.

Daniel also sent out a tutorial on weighting grades.  However, weighting is not a feature we use.  Please review the MS Grade Reporting Guidelines for additional information about this.

Zoom and Schoology Tutorials:

Below are a few notes and video tutorials about Zoom and Schoology.

Which Zoom link are you suppose to embed?  It should look like this with the password embedded (pwd=ckd) in the link.  You only need this one link for all of your courses and advisory.

 

 

Please ensure that you have read the Zoom for Teachers guide

 

Below are some video tutorials that you have asked me over the past few days.

 

Workload Planning

Also, it is fabulous to see teachers begin to assign homework via Schoology.  How do I know?  Through the workload planning feature found on the left sidebar of your screen

By adjusting the criteria at the top, you can see how many assignments/assessments have been given to the students on any day of the week.  A great way to see how busy their week is.

 

 

Want an SSIS Icon in your waiting room?

You can add the SSIS icon in your waiting room (or customize it how your heart desires).  Here is how I did it Add Logo/Icon to Waiting Room

 

Apple Training:

Whether you’re new to Mac or feel like sprucing up your skills, the apple teacher training website is an awesome training resource with self paced and guided tutorials in everything from your desktop and finder to multitasking and screen recording – and of course the suite of built in applications such as iMovie, Keynote, Pages etc.

Note that you need to have an Apple ID that was not created in Vietnam to sign in to Apple Teacher. However, if you do not have such an Apple ID, you can still work your way through similar tutorials and user guides on Apple’s official site here.

 

Related Posts

About The Author

Ms Principal