SMMS Staff Update

I'm so proud of our team with how we're handling Distance Learning. We've had parents actually call the district to say that they've appreciated how much our staff has reached out to them. The time each one of you is putting in to make personal comments to students in their classes, make phone calls to parents, and collaborate to provide the best instruction possible is paying off. We still have a ton to do, but I know that what we are doing is making a difference!

What we are finding is that learning to navigate the online learning is taking a lot of our students' and families' bandwidth. So right now, I think the best thing we can do is keep our online assignments pretty simple. As we see kids understanding the mechanics of the Google classrooms more readily, we can increase some of the academic tasks as we know the majority of kids are able to focus more on their learning rather than just how to even do Google Classrooms at all. I think slow and steady will win this race.

If you need me, please send me an email or hop in to my office hour from 9:00 to 10:00 at this Google Meet address: https://meet.google.com/omp-iwke-ugo?pli=1&authuser=0. We have a great team working hard each day in the office, as well as the nutritional services team in the kitchen, and the custodial team throughout the building to keep business moving at school and I know that everyone working from home is putting in lots of time with unique schedules to help kids access online learning. Together, we've got this, so keep up the hard work!

• Staff are welcome to come into the building to get supplies and materials. Please check in at the main office so we know who is in the building. We need to keep track of how many people are in the building at once and where they have been going.
• Check this site for more support on providing Distance Learning to our students.
• If you are going to record any interactions with students during Distance Learning, please alert all participants so they can choose to opt out of the meeting if they want to.
• As we work on finalizing budgets for the year, please let me and Claudia know of any purchases your department would like to make. If it is technology, we have to submit the order before the end of May.
• We're still waiting on student hotspots. Sorry they are taking so long! I hope we'll have them sometime next week.
• We need to keep track of students who are "attending" each week. Please use our Attendance Spreadsheet to mark any students who ARE NOT participating in some way at least once over the week. Please have this done by Monday at Noon. Then we'll use this document for our outreach team to keep track of who we reach out to and how it went.
• Here is a document of all Google Classroom codes so support staff and specialists can join different classes: SMMS Google Class Codes
• Here is a link to the "live" or "synchronous" learning taking place at SMMS: Live Meetings, if you have any to add, please email Krista.
• If you need additional help from classified staff, or if you are a classified staff and need more hours, please use this document: Request for Classified Support
• Let's have fun and take care of each other! Here's the class code to our Google Classroom that everyone can join for the Sunshine Committee: op4qmhl

• Here is the document for grading guidance from ODE. Section six covers the updated information regarding grading in K-8. I'll work with all of you in the coming days on what this means for our efforts moving forward. For now, just focus on giving students feedback on what they're able to do. Please don't send anything to your students and families about grading yet. I'd like to make sure that I give a single, consistent message to our community regarding grading. For now, if anyone asks, just say that you'll keep giving feedback to students and supporting them with the skills they need for success. If they have questions about ODE's grading mandate, they can communicate with me and that the teachers job is to continue to provide instruction and feedback on student work.
• I'll hold a staff meeting about grading on Friday at 11:00 for anyone that wants to participate in this conversation. I'll send everyone an invite. This is optional, but it may be nice to hear directly from me about how we'll move forward with grading and what the communication with families will look like. There's no perfect time for everyone, so sorry if this time isn't ideal!

• Teachers need to have their office hours and Google classroom information posted on our Distance Learning website. Please send Krista any updates you need to make as well as classroom codes for Google Classrooms and make sure Krista, Justin, and Jose are all collaborators in Google Classrooms.
• Many students are asking for INBs from your classes. We'd love for kids to be able to get them when they come for locker supplies or whenever they can stop by the school. It would be very helpful if you are able to bring the INBs or other student items from your classes to the main entrance under the stairs. That's where we are keeping all these items. If you can label the INBs or items by which period they came from, that is helpful. If you can't do this, but would like things gathered from your class, please email Pete Perez with specific instructions so he can do it for you.
• Now that we're settling in, please work on providing support for all our learners in Google Classrooms. Here's a great resource for ideas of how to help all students have access to learning online: Best Practices for Newcomers and EL 1's and 2's. Ask Connie, Kasumi, and Krista for more help on implementing these things.
• Krista will send a Friday Message each week with cool things going on in Google classrooms as well as tips to make all our work more effective. Watch for this great update and feel free to reach out to her if you need anything in your Google class!
• All teachers will need to have a printed alternative to their online classwork. Here is the folder to add each week's printed materials: Google Classroom Printed Materials. Please have this updated each week by Saturday night at 8:00 so we have plenty of time to prepare your packets. If you know that you have zero students in a certain subject that need packets, you don't need to submit anything for printing.
• We will be contacting teachers when students have returned packet work. You can come pick up those packets if you'd like to work with the hard-copy of student work, or we can have someone scan them and send them to you.

• Keep logging all your hours!!! This includes conversations with colleagues and supervisors about work and checking your work emails. We'll continue to work together to make sure that every single person has enough hours to get paid. We'll figure it out!
• Check the staff website for more information on how to complete hours and help our kids!
• Here is a spreadsheet our amazing Graduation Coach Cooper made so we can provide more targeted support to students who were struggling with D's and F's. Classified staff can select a student they want to "mentor" during Distance Learning.
• If you do any driving for deliveries to families, please keep a mileage log so we can pay you for those deliveries.
• Let Jose or Claudia know if you are still in need of more hours. We have LOTS of ways you can help out whether from home or school.

Each Wednesday from 4:00 - 6:00 - We will pass out packets and collect previous work done in the packet format. Teachers need to have materials that they want to include in packets submitted by Saturday night at 8:00 for the following week. We'll also be sending out student personal items for a group of advisory classes each week at this time.

I'd like to have a fun staff meeting for anyone who wants to participate. I'll create a quick game we can play. Winner gets a sweet prize. I'll send an invite for 3:00 on Friday, May 1st. I hope you are able to play!

I can't overstate this enough - These plans WILL CHANGE. I can pretty much guarantee this. This is just our current projection of things that are coming up and we'll adjust as needed.

It's been an adventure! I hope you are still taking care of yourself and finding a schedule that allows you to be available for the needs of yourself and your family and also allows you to support your students who also need you. That can feel overwhelming, so stay in contact with your teammates. When we support each other, we will be more successful. If we are successful, our kids will achieve more.

Our main focus is to help the kids feel connected to us, their learning, and that they are successful. Keep up the hard work reaching out to our kids and their parents. If we do this right, then our kids will be minimally impacted by any additional "summer slide" that the school closure may cause that disproportionately affects students in poverty. Our kids need us, so keep earning those paychecks by helping our kids keep learning. Their future does depend on it!

I look forward to seeing you in my office hours, even if it is just to say hi!

Also, let me know how else I can support you in your work. That's my job, so feel free to share ideas you have.

Here are some links if you want to start exploring more about online education:

HSD Distance Learning Plan - Current information on how we will move forward as a district.

Teachflix - This is a great website from our district of videos you can watch for Professional Development. Check it out!

Tech, Teach, Grow - There's TONS of stuff in here. It is also curated by HSD staff specifically for HSD staff.

Best Practices for Online Pedagogy - This is from Harvard. It gets you thinking about how to maximize your effectiveness from teaching online

Advice for New Online Teachers - Due to Corona Virus, many teachers are trying to build their online teaching skills. Here are some tips.

How to use Google Meet with Outlook - Google Meet is a convenient way to collaborate with others. I plan on using this a lot as we move forward.

This should get you started. I look forward to working with you again soon!