Be sure to check out the District and various school Facebook pages to see the posts from families, staff and community members!

Here is an article on Teacher Appreciation Week, and a fun little video for your enjoyment!

Captured from the Kitsap County Facebook page (and shared to the District Facebook page).

Tomorrow is School Nurse Day!

We want to recognize the role school nurses play in providing school health services – today and every day. School nurses are an essential component to the health and well-being of students, particularly those with acute and chronic health conditions.

Research shows that students learn best when they are healthy, safe and feel connected to their school. This can help students avoid unnecessary absences and reach their full academic potential.

Thank you to the entire Bremerton School District Health Services team for your tireless dedication to our students.

Here is a video tribute to school nurses - just for fun!

Thank you CNS for your continued hard work and dedication to our students during this school closure! Check out this brief video we posted on Facebook last week.

Nora Zollweg, Student Services coordinator at West Sound Technical Skills Center has been named the Career Guidance Professional of the year for Region V by ACTE - a national association representing thousands of career and technical education professionals. Nora is passionate about developing employment opportunities, ensuring equity and access, and supporting students so they can thrive in the career of their choice.

Unfortunately due to public health concerns related to coronavirus, WWU has made the decision to cancel in-person youth programs and camps at SEA Discovery Center this summer. They are working to develop virtual and online offerings to continue providing services during summer.

Please consider taking a few minutes to fill out their survey by May 8, 2020 to help them deliver the best possible alternative options this summer.

Important reminder for staff: All staff helping with meal distribution must follow social distancing guidelines.

• Gloves are required *
• Face masks are strongly encouraged *

*Both will be provided by the District.

Please see the guidance document below for details.

During times such as these, full of stress and unknown, community is more important than ever. However, the current public health practice of “social distancing”, while critical for flattening the curve of this pandemic, is a huge barrier for our community to naturally give and receive the support they need, the very type of support that can transform toxic stress into tolerable stress.

Kitsap Strong is fundamentally focused on helping to make sure that the stress families are facing due to COVID-19 does not become "toxic stress", and we recognize that it absolutely has that potential. This is why we are excited to announce the launch of Kitsap Strong's Virtual Community Center. Our goal is to help our community find connection through “regulation” activities/practices (regulation refers to science-informed activities that help individuals manage stress; art, music, drumming, singing, movement, play, breathing, mindfulness, etc.) all while still practicing social distancing and gathering virtually.

Our Virtual Community Center will be launching tomorrow and will run for approximately two weeks. Information on all available content will be posted to the Kitsap Strong Facebook page via events. Each virtual session will be provided via zoom or previously recorded videos and is all free to our community. We are also exploring other accessible ways to share this content with community who aren’t currently online.

Please help us spread the word with all of the families in your life! We look forward to becoming part of their community! Thank you for helping make Kitsap strong!

Our buildings may be closed, but we've got some great stuff happening in the District. We want to tell our story via social media with a "campaign" called: What does home-based learning look like? We will be featuring examples of different home-based learning on the District's Facebook page (see example on right).

BSD staff are encouraged to submit photos and videos of “home-based learning”

• Submissions MUST include brief-write-up to explain the photo/video. This is a chance for us to showcase the great stuff we are doing and share all of your creative ideas!
• Students will not be named in any social media post but must be cleared for opt-outs prior to submitting.
• If you do not have access to your building's opt-out list, please email your OC the names of the students and ask them for assistance. Thank you, OCs!
• While we will not be using student names in the posts, we can use student grade, school, teacher's name and/or subject.
• I will tag buildings when I feature staff/students from that building.
• In each post, we'll ask families to comment with their pictures of what "home-based learning" looks like for them. We may end up featuring some of these in posts down the road. But we are currently NOT going to ask families to send in photos by email.
• Staff should send photos and information to Karen.Bevers@BremertonSchools.org
• It doesn't have to be a perfect or super artistic photo....It is about telling our story - not perfection!
• NO RUSH on this. I plan to continue doing this through the remainder of the school year so this is an ongoing request!

If you're using Screencastify, but the five-minute limit is too short, they're offering a free upgrade for the month of May. Here's how to sign up!

To activate Screencastify Unlimited access, follow these instructions:

• Visit this page and click "Redeem coupon" (under the Next Billing Date)
• Enter code CAST_COVID
• Click "Activate License" (no credit card required). Ignore the Next Billing Date - that will be incorrect
• Here's a quick video that demonstrates these steps.
  

What do you get with the upgrade?

• unlimited recording time
• cropping and editing features
• add text over video
• merge and reorder video clips
• annotation tools
  

The upgrade is good through the end of May.

1. In your short cuts under "BSD Staff" in Google Chrome.
2. On the bottom, right corner of the District home page (look for the BSD Teach graphic below the District calendar.
3. Under the "STAFF" drop-down tab on any District webpage.
4. On the BSD "Directory" on the website (www.BremertonSchools.org/Staff)

And a tip for classroom teachers who have used GoGuardian in class - check to make sure your scheduled scenes are turned OFF at this time. We're finding that students are being blocked from websites and resources they need for other classes because one of their teachers had a "no YouTube (or whatever) in class" scene set up and hasn't turned it off yet. Since we're all working asynchronously now, scheduled (and forgotten) scenes can cause some access problems.

The amazing Joe Marquez, tech guru extraordinaire, has offered us weekly drop-in tech help on Wednesdays from noon to 1 pm. Stop by to get your tech questions answered! https://zoom.us/j/966825544

And for more tech help, especially as it relates to this brave new online learning world we're exploring together, visit BSDTeach. There's a whole new section on Digital Teaching and Learning you can find here: https://sites.google.com/bremertonschools.org/bsd-teach/instruction-and-engagement/school-closure-resources-for-teachers

If you need assistance, you can also contact Kati Carthum (360-473-1056).

Most of you have your voicemail set up so that it automatically goes to your district e-mail as a wav file. If that is the case just click the wave file link and listen to your message.

For those of you who are not set up using your email here is how to retrieve your voicemail messages from your office phone.

1. Dial 360-473-1000
2. when the recording starts press the # key
3. When prompted enter your 5 digit district phone extension number
4. When prompted for your password enter it followed by the # key.
5. Once you are in your voicemail box, navigate through it as you normally would sitting at your desk.

Questions? Contact Mike Schiano.

• View past issues of the Staff Updates newsletter
• Submit ideas or content for the Staff Updates newsletter to: Karen.Bevers@BremertonSchools.org

BSD Staff Updates Newsletter 2019-20 / Issue #17 : 5/5/2020

Photo: Grab-n-Go Meal assembly at MVMS (photo by Larry Steagall).

Website: www.bremertonschools.org
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BremertonSchools/
Twitter: @BremertonSD