The Middle Update 7/31/2020

It's the last day of July 2020!  That means the calendar turns to August and back to school mode begins to pick up a little more steam for all of us.  After meeting with multiple small groups of teachers this week, we have made some important decisions about the instructional mode we will utilize for the coming school year.  We have chosen a mode that allows us to follow the recommendations put forth in the guidance from DPI, Department of Health Services, and the CDC.  Our school day will be different, but like many things, provides us all opportunities for growth.  Thank you to all of you for the availability and willingness to engage in discussions...your input and feedback is critical to a good plan.

Resource of the Week
When looking at virtual learning, we need to focus in on what the best practices are for an implementation that will get students to thrive, instead of merely maintaining their current levels.

The resource provides information one way to structure our classes in a way that has proven to be successful for students learning both in-person and at home.  As we move forward, we'll be looking to implement both synchronous (conferring, dialogue, feedback from an adult) and asynchronous (recorded lesson, resources to read, etc).  This article provides information that will help our planning.

"Hacks for Helping Students Achieve in Class or From Home" - Heather Clayton Staker

Virtual Learning Planning
I have had many good conversations this past week about logistics and planning for the upcoming school year.  Next week, we'll work to refine our Virtual Learning Plan even further with a group meeting on Monday afternoon (let me know if interested).  Thanks to all for your input and feedback so far.  We'll keep working on and sharing information about our in-person instructional model and our virtual model.

Floating Inservice Days
With the calendar turning to August on Saturday, it's time to start thinking about Floating In-service Days.  The Floating Teacher In-service will be 3 additional days to be used between August 10 to August 31.  I'll be sharing more information about In-service logistics next week.  The official Poynette School District calendar can be found at this LINK.

Construction Update
The project continues to move along.  We saw ceiling tiles get dropped, flooring installed, and the parking lot is beginning the process of a transformation.  Things are starting to come together with a more finished look each day.  We still appear to be on track for an August 24th takeover of the building.

The Middle Update 7/24/2020

Decisions made this week have helped provide guidance for the direction of our preparation.  Thank you to all of you who are willing to be a part of the planning process.  I was able to host a couple of productive meetings Friday, and have some more scheduled for early next week.

The general procedures for how we will operate were shared in the Reopening Plan shared by Dr. Shappell in an email last Thursday.  HERE is a copy of the letter sent to parents as well.  We have a couple of general potential instructional delivery/schedule models we could follow, and the feedback and discussion from the small groups will help guide that decision-making process, which we'll look to finalize by the middle of next week.  Safety recommendations and guidance will take priority in a F2F learning model.  There are still many more granular parts of the plan that need to be worked out, but each discussion of scenarios help to put those parts of the plan into focus.

If you would like to talk through things on your mind or questions, please reach out to me at any time.  A couple of things to remember...we have been thorough and diligent with our outreach to experts on the overall safety for all in our planning; and the plan is still subject to change depending on many different factors that may occur in the next couple of weeks.

Resource of the Week

Feedback from last spring was clear about one thing for sure...we need to be proactive about building relationships with families.  The resource this week provides guidance and tips for how this can be done very well.  We'll be looking to some of these ideas as we prepare.  In my opinion, this was one of the best articles I've read on this topic.

"A Strategy for Building Productive Relationships with Parents" - Crystal Frommert

Renovation Update

Most of the build-back and structural work is complete...now it's time for paint, ceilings, and flooring.  Things are starting to take shape...

The Middle Update 7/21/2020

The district's "Return to Learn Plan" was approved by the School Board on Monday night.  For our plan, I have been working on a couple of scenarios that both include utilizing cohort groups and maintaining an online platform for instruction as the basis for how we will conduct our day-to-day educational operations.

It is clear that we will have to be nimble, and things could change even before school starts depending on the conditions.  At this time, I have a couple of plans outlined that can work with our staff and students in place.  There certainly are parts of the plan that need to be refined and worked out.  One part of the plan is to utilize a "Virtual Learning Day" on Wednesdays.  This has many benefits, including getting the chance to review expectations with students prior to the virtual learning day and give them timely feedback on the day afterwards.  It will also help us build student routines and expectations in case it is decided that we need to move to an all virtual learning format.

With that being said, I'd like to get some input and feedback from any of you willing to talk through the logistics of our plan, and narrow in on the model that would be best for our school.  I would also appreciate some collaboration about the structure and guidelines for our online learning Wednesdays, and a potential full virtual learning plan.  If you would be willing to participate in either group, please email me, and I will put together a couple of small groups and set some meeting times.  Your insight and guidance will be an important step to be able to communicate and get things rolling in a timely manner before school starts.  At the end of the week, I'll send out days and times to meet and get the ball rolling with this more detailed planning.

Resource of the Week
The resource this week comes from the expert minds that we have on our staff.  As we plan for the reopening of schools, there will undoubtedly be instruction that will be delivered virtually.  Below are suggestions for our staff about how to make the remote learning experience better.  We'll utilize these thoughts as we build our structure.

Teachers and students keep all scheduled breaks and lunch times, use WIN time to schedule 1:1 with teachers as they are available. Use Homeroom time to check in on student progress. Teachers can post recorded instruction during their prep for students who are otherwise occupied during school hours (sharing computers with sibling, help sibling with school, whatever).

Schedule for conferring with all students in all subject areas. Small groups of students know what day/time they should meet to conference and work with teacher on concept(s).

"Following a typical schedule would be my number one suggestion. As much as "I" enjoy the flexibility of online learning, consistency and routine is a better way to support our students. Keep the days in-person schedule, just online. I would suggest all students logging on for a lecture, demo, etc, and breaking into small groups from there. 30 minutes of total group instruction, 15 minutes with 4 smaller groups to follow up & check understanding. Or for 45 minute classes, 10-12 minutes large group instruction, 10 minute small group instruction."

I think it might make sense to look into "blocking" their remote learning time so that they don't have to try to do every class every day (but might have work from a previous day to continue working on). For instance, they might have "live" ELA 2 or 3 days a week, but then have "workshop" time the other days. This might limit the confusion/stress for families. I do think we need to coordinate more as a middle school and try having our remote communication be combined. So instead of having emails going out from every class, we might have 1 singe daily google doc go out to each grade, and then every teacher that teaches that grade can add their checklist for what students need to do. Students could then refer to that one document to know what to do for each class they are taking. That would also make it less overwhelming for students and families.

I wish I would have done more small group or one on one check ins. I saw my sister be very successful with a few of her students. She set specific times and days that they needed to show up and she had great attendance. I think at the middle school level this will need to be communicated with families just like it was at the elementary level. While my sisters time was optional, I think we need to make it more mandatory moving forward.

I think we need WAY more communication with parents. Literally every single parent that I talked to was genuinely surprised that their child wasn't doing their work. The kids are on computers and parents assume they are doing what they are supposed to and have no way to verify that. Infinite Campus was not useful for staying current on assignments last spring. There are middle school students who are not developmentally ready to manage virtual learning on their own and the parents were not provided enough resources to be able to help. The parents that I worked with felt helpless and I didn't have much to offer them to help remedy that. It would be nice if we had a system in place to allow parents to be more involved - maybe putting all the assignments in campus and giving grades (even if they won't count later) so parents can see progress, or weekly update emails/calls to anyone missing anything, or loom videos to parents to teach them how to use google classroom or to show where to find their child's progress?

Make sure that teams are working together to send a joint message. I think emailing every morning/weekly with the list of required work would help keep kids and parents stay focused.

Front load families now. The more support we can offer before school begins the more comfortable and confident our families will be when we are virtually learning. For example, parent workshops or videos on how to use Google Classroom/Seesaw. I also believe to offer parents consistency, give them time to prepare and give them a stable routine we need to begin the year with virtual learning.

I think we all need to have patience and an open mind with ourselves and our students as we move into next year. I think preparation is going to be critical during these last few months of summer regardless of the plan for the upcoming school year. If we engage in virtual learning, I would like to take this time to really better prepare my video lessons as well as think of creative ways to engage students in virtual discussions such as through the use of flip-grid or looking into the online platform called the Big Blue Button. Further, I would like time to create digital versions of assessments and check-ins as well as to create a better schedule that allows me to meet virtually with students more often. I think planning and preparing will be key. All of the teachers need to be on the same page in terms of the amount of content assigned and the rigor of the work. I feel that we will need to meet as a staff several times to make sure that we are using consistent approaches if we teach virtually. A schedule will be critical for students to be able to organize their learning and keep up with the work from each class.

Giving the students a packet at the beginning of each unit with all the materials. It helped with my math students.

-Keep up with personal connections as much as possible. -Keep students interacting with each other. -Find a way for students to complete work together remotely. (Google teams?, etc.) -Put the procedures in place now with how students access and turn in work so that there are minimal, if any, changes when we switch to remote.

1. I really liked how the 5th grade team outlined the work that students needed to complete for the week. I know that it helped my stay on top of my daughter's work and allowed her to be more independent in her work. 2. I think 1:1 meetings with your teacher and weekly class meetings still allows a connection between teacher and students and with the classroom community as a whole. 3. If there is an extended time of virtual learning it might be helpful for parents and students to Google Meet together regularly during that time to stay connected, especially if there is lack on engagement with a particular student.

Regularly scheduled meeting times for students who need additional support with assignments.
Once an electronic instructional method is chosen, consider PD time for educators and eventually "cheat sheets" or online training for families as well.

Provide access to materials for parents that don’t feel like their students are getting enough “work” through virtual school. - Provide daily check-ins (beyond the classroom teacher) with students who will need help with work or just need someone to check in with them.

Allow for one catch up day a week, make this day consistent among all teachers in that grade. That could be there team meeting, curriculum planning day as well.

Be realistic in our expectations. We know all of our families have different situations in their homes. We need to be aware of that and remember that these families are not choosing to home school their kids. For Middle School kids this could mean juggling 5 or more classes at a time, that is asking a lot of a 10 year old!

Scheduling office hours for teachers seemed to benefit parents over students. I would suggest an hour in the evenings for this purpose. Meetings can be scheduled with students/parents that need extra support during these times.

Focus on core academic classes. Last year I know some of our students became overwhelmed with the encore classes.

-Teachers need to track missing assignments in IC and we need to remind caregivers that that is where to look for missing work. (Students turned in blank assignments via Google Classroom, which then mark the work turned in. Even when teachers return the work to the student, it doesn't get marked as not done.)
-At the beginning of the year, Have some staff available to work with small groups and 1:1 to walk kids and caregivers through how to access everything, submit work, etc.
-Communicate to staff the expectations for grading, curriculum, communication with families, etc. 
-Helping teachers see that students with IEPs/504s with accommodations/modifications will still be entitled to those virtually.
-Subject lines of emails should have class subject in Bold in them--so caregivers/students can see what the class the email pertains to. Ex--if I'm writing about 6th grade math, the To line should be: MATH gr6 Assignment due Wednesday....
-Caregivers stated that they would like a "one stop shop" to find out the assignments for the day. We could possibly create a doc that has the classes and then have each teacher fill in for the week.
-Less is more. Assignments/Communication should only be posted for the day of, not for the entire week. Students and caregivers got overwhelmed by the sheer number of emails they were getting.
-We have to help kids schedule and prioritize, if caregivers don't--whether that's showing them how to use Google Calendar, a physical planner, sticky notes, whatever...Get them into the habit of planning and prioritizing.

Construction Update
Steady progress is being made in the Middle School. The work appears to be on schedule, and right now the target date to get the building handed over to us is August 24th.  This Fall will sure be historical in a lot of different aspects!

The Middle Update 7/10/20

Resource of the Week
As we continue to look ahead to the fall, and look at different options for the specific structure of what learning will look like in a time of a pandemic, with student and staff safety as a top priority, it's apparent that we will be using different modes of technology to interact with students.  Our resource this week provides some guidance for educators on how to best facilitate discussions online.

"4 Tips for Productive Online Discussions" - John Ng

Renovation Update
The work continues to progress in the Middle School.  Enjoy a couple of pictures of the progress.

Encouraging our Students

Enjoy your Weekend!!