Greenway Gab
September 20th, 2020
Our Collective Work
Consistent Curriculum Implementation In All Classrooms
Meaningful Feedback to Students and Teachers
Social Emotional Learning
New Books for our library collection
stacks and stacks!
And a copy of The New Kid included!
Highly Recommend!
Message from Jennifer
Hello Greenway Staff- I know that the rain brought a much needed relief to the hazardous air conditions we experienced this weekend. Oregon Sunshine (ie rain) took on a new meaning for when I heard the rain on our roof top. Rain or Shine, I am getting out for some long walks this weekend with my family, and especially Baker!
We are all exhausted right now, HOWEVER, guess what?? Our average attendance this week was....92%! In August I set a goal for our school to try and get to 90% by October, but in our first week kids showed up to zoom, and they found a learning community. This engagement is a true team effort from teachers communicating and connecting, to Kate and Lauren doing tech help outside in the smoke to Pati and Naomi checking out devices, looking up passwords, to paraeducators supporting students to Lisa and Gabby fielding multiple calls! 92% is all of us, working so hard, to connect and learn! No wonder we are tired! Get rest this weekend!
Check out the pictures above of some new titles from our library collection. We added these titles with the remains of our title one budget from 2019-2020. Jenny Takeda, the district librarian, curated an really great collection of books engaging texts that reflect all of our learners. I took Rebecca Stead's new book home to read it, and I highly recommend it. She is one of my favorite middle graders author!
I am going to host a q/a with parents about curriculum on Wednesday night at 5pm. At that time, I need to share the title one compact as part of our title one grant requirements. I will share with parents about adopted curriculum, as well on workshop model, building independence, and things they can do at home during distant learning. Grade levels have done individual parent nights, but I need to make sure the title one info is also shared. Join if you would like!
We are excited to welcome Sarah Bobbe as our newest staff member. Sarah will teaming with Laurie, and they are ready to welcome a great new group of children! A special thank you to Tomi for jumping right in and taking over the class, meeting all the parents, and teaching the first days!!
Lastly, I knew Supreme Court Justice Ginsburg was not doing well, but was still surprised to hear of her passing. Inspiring to say the least of a life well lived. I enjoyed listening to this NPR story from her good friend NPR correspondent Nina Totenberg.
Be well and hope you are taking time to really breathe in the fresh air!
Weekly Schedule
- 10:00 am BH & W
- 3pm IEP (Jen)
Tuesday, September 22nd
- 12:00 MFS Meeting (Jen)
- Committee Meetings- Review in small groups draft of school learning plan
Wednesday, September 23rd
- 7:30 Supt Meeting (Jen)
- 11:00 am SPED Check in Meeting
- Greenway PD at 1:00 pm-all licensed staff (slides will be posted on Greenway Website, topic-continuing our journey to become anti-racist educators.
- 3:00 Food Pantry
- 3:30 pm MFS meeting
- 5:00 parent meeting
Thursday, September 24th
- 8:00 -12:00 pm Elementary Leadership Meeting
Friday, September 25th
- Safety Meeting 1pm
Link for Staff Meetings and PD
Meeting ID 481 141 4851
509942
Community Circle Guests
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/11s8uAOeYkMpcSMqllesQl4dJ4dZf2lo57lv0dfPTsCA/edit#gid=0
Seesaw Tips
Canvas Tips
Wednesday Schedule
Linked below is the Wednesday calendar, which indicates which Wednesdays are building PD, District PD, and student days. When there is a 4-day week on the calendar, that Wednesday becomes a regular synchronous student day.
In accordance with guidance that came from the BEA Demand to Bargain, here is how the Wednesday time works out beginning on Wednesday, September 16:
- 2.5 hours Admin Directed
- 3.0 hours Member Directed
- 2.0 hours Student Family Connections - includes the launch
Zoom Security Change for Monday, September 21
To reduce the chances of “zoombombing” and increase our ability to determine zoombomber identities, IT will enable the “Only Authenticated Users Can Join” setting by default. For all new zoom meetings set up after September 23, the default setting will be that only BSD staff or students who are signed into Zoom will be able to join. If you need to set up a meeting to include non-BSD students or staff, go to the Advanced Options when setting up the meeting and change the setting from “BSD Only” to “Sign Into Zoom.” More information is at this link: https://bsd48j.sharepoint.com/department/IT/SitePages/Zoom%20Security.aspx
To activate the protection from Zoombombing that this change will bring, a new meeting needs to be set up to benefit from the updates. It is not necessary at this time to update your meetings, but it is encouraged to do so in the near future to ensure your meetings are protected and to allow IT the ability to discover the students responsible should this occur.
Student Attendance and Participation
Students are expected to be engaged in learning five days a week. We will encourage full participation, however, the reality of the pandemic requires flexibility on how a student demonstrates meeting that expectation. For example, a student may attend a live teacher-led session, watch a teacher-recorded video, interact with the teacher via email, and/or post completed coursework.
Staff are expected to take attendance in Synergy every day by 4:00pm.
Students are considered "present" if they engage in any aspect of CDL during the day. The interaction does not need to include synchronous participation.
Teachers will mark students "absent" on school days if they did not engage in any aspect of CDL.
- No engagement/No parent communication = Unexcused Absence
- No engagement with parent communication = Excused Absence
- Any engagement = No Absence Recorded
Auto-Dialer messages will begin around 4:45pm each day. Only families marked with unexcused absences will receive a call.
For any students marked absent, teachers must check for any participation the next day. If a student participated between the time attendance was taken and midnight, the attendance should be updated. At this point, teachers update their own absences. We will revisit this process after one week. When reviewing absence, check Music and Pe. There are linked on the website under CDL.
Sub Information
What To Do About Sub & Absence: Please review this guidance link below for setting up ALL of your zoom sessions via Synergy. This allows a sub to access your Zoom sessions if you are out ill.
If a staff member is ill we're asking you to call the Sub Desk versus enter it in Absence Management, so that we know immediately a sub is needed. (503) 356-4340 Sub Desk
Subs will be expected to report to the school, check-in with the front office designee for the day, receive a loaner laptop and facilitate synchronous lessons from the absent teacher's classroom. While in the building, they must follow all social distance requirements. In the event of an absence, teachers are required to proactively create lesson plans and share the information with the office staff or directly with the substitute. Once a sub reports to the building for their assignment, the front office staff will provide guidance and share the lesson plan.
Additional Information:
- When a teacher is unable to meet with their students during the synchronous portion of the day, a sub can be arranged. HR is still working out how to do that, whether it will be the usual manner in Sub Management or calling the Sub Desk. Teachers should put the absence into absence management..
- Subs are only booked on 4-hour increments because subs only work a minimum of 4 hours. If a school is covering the absence "in-house" and there's no out of building sub needed; then you can enter into the system any amount of time... less than 4-hours.
- if you just need a sub for one day, let me know and we may be able to work it out in the building. If you need a sub for 2+ days, contact sub management.
- please also text Jennifer at 503 806-4202 so that I will expect a sub for you.
Talking Points App
You may have had training in this, but I want to reintroduce (or introduce) you to the Talking Points app. It is an app that allows you to text families in English and it automatically translates it to the language that you select for the family. It also generates an anonymous number where the texts originate from and where families can return your texts. It keeps you from having to use your own phone number. If you want to learn more, go here.
Daily Check-In Forms
This resource is awesome! It's a daily check-in google form that you could use with your students to see how they're feeling and what they need. The author also included check out forms. Carrie's slides were chock-full of great resources, so I'm sharing that as well.These just reminded me of our pre-service and an emotions matter mindset. Enjoy if you find them helpful.
Carrie's Slides - slide 16 is a treasure trove