Saturday, December 12, 2020

The Middle Update 12/11/2020

 We are back to the building on Monday.  We may have to re-establish the routines and procedures that we had in place prior to our virtual learning experience. This will be an important week and a half before the Holiday break!

Resource of the Week

Our resource this week takes a look at the lessons learned by schools during the past 9 months.  The importance of strong relationship building, innovative instructional strategies are things we have seen and know much about.  I thought the part about forming community partnerships is an area that we can explore further in our school.

"What Educators are Learning During the Pandemic" - Becki Cohn-Vargas


Return to In-Person Learning

We'll be back together in our building on Monday.  You all did a great job with our students while we were learning virtually!  There certainly are natural strengths to the all-virtual model and there are other strengths to being in-person...with the main strength being more engagement by more kids on the schoolwork while kids are in the building.  We'll continue doing the best that we can, learning along the way...and as we have almost made it to the year 2021 and the 2nd semester, the planning for next year begins...lots of things to takeaway from what we are doing now, and how it will impact how we can be even more amazing in the fall of 2021.

There was one mistake in the announcements from Friday morning...It will be an A day for 6th, 7th, and 8th grades - It will be a D day for 5th grade.


Message to Families on Friday

The following message was sent out to families on Friday...

Hello,

We are planning to return to our in-person learning model on Monday, December 14th.  We will return to the same procedures we had in place prior to our pivot to Virtual Learning in November.  As we look ahead to Monday, please take note of the following:

-A big part of our Mitigation Plan is for people who may be at higher risk of transmitting the virus to stay out of school.  Please do not send your child to school if any of the following are true:

     *He/she has symptoms of COVID-19

     *In the past fourteen (14) days, they have had a known close contact with someone who is confirmed as having COVID-19; or

     *There is anyone in the household currently waiting for a COVID-19 test result. 

-We will be spending time outside, so please make sure students are dressed to stay warm in cold weather.

-Our virtual learners will now go back to the meeting times with teachers that were in place prior to the pivot to all in-person learning.

     5th (coordinate w/your classroom teacher)      6th      7th      8th

We appreciate the flexibility you have shown during this school year and the support given to your student in making the most out of this learning experience.  Please contact us with any questions that you may have about the upcoming adjustment in our learning model.  


Continuous Improvement and Innovation

As we get comfortable and understand our learning model, we have more of an opportunity to address the areas that hamper our ability to educate all kids like we know how to do...for example, not being able to see and work with each kid one on one.  As we have learned this year, we have made many improvements along the way, and I've had a chance to talk with many of you who have ideas for how to fix those areas that have been frustrating up to this point.  Let's continue to share those things with each other, and continue our work to make the difference in the life of each one of our students.  Every day is another opportunity to impact the trajectory and life of a kid.

Thanks for all you do!!
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The Middle Update 12/11/2020

 We are back to the building on Monday.  We may have to re-establish the routines and procedures that we had in place prior to our virtual learning experience. This will be an important week and a half before the Holiday break!

Resource of the Week

Our resource this week takes a look at the lessons learned by schools during the past 9 months.  The importance of strong relationship building, innovative instructional strategies are things we have seen and know much about.  I thought the part about forming community partnerships is an area that we can explore further in our school.

"What Educators are Learning During the Pandemic" - Becki Cohn-Vargas


Return to In-Person Learning

We'll be back together in our building on Monday.  You all did a great job with our students while we were learning virtually!  There certainly are natural strengths to the all-virtual model and there are other strengths to being in-person...with the main strength being more engagement by more kids on the schoolwork while kids are in the building.  We'll continue doing the best that we can, learning along the way...and as we have almost made it to the year 2021 and the 2nd semester, the planning for next year begins...lots of things to takeaway from what we are doing now, and how it will impact how we can be even more amazing in the fall of 2021.

There was one mistake in the announcements from Friday morning...It will be an A day for 6th, 7th, and 8th grades - It will be a D day for 5th grade.


Message to Families on Friday

The following message was sent out to families on Friday...

Hello,

We are planning to return to our in-person learning model on Monday, December 14th.  We will return to the same procedures we had in place prior to our pivot to Virtual Learning in November.  As we look ahead to Monday, please take note of the following:

-A big part of our Mitigation Plan is for people who may be at higher risk of transmitting the virus to stay out of school.  Please do not send your child to school if any of the following are true:

     *He/she has symptoms of COVID-19

     *In the past fourteen (14) days, they have had a known close contact with someone who is confirmed as having COVID-19; or

     *There is anyone in the household currently waiting for a COVID-19 test result. 

-We will be spending time outside, so please make sure students are dressed to stay warm in cold weather.

-Our virtual learners will now go back to the meeting times with teachers that were in place prior to the pivot to all in-person learning.

     5th (coordinate w/your classroom teacher)      6th      7th      8th

We appreciate the flexibility you have shown during this school year and the support given to your student in making the most out of this learning experience.  Please contact us with any questions that you may have about the upcoming adjustment in our learning model.  


Continuous Improvement and Innovation

As we get comfortable and understand our learning model, we have more of an opportunity to address the areas that hamper our ability to educate all kids like we know how to do...for example, not being able to see and work with each kid one on one.  As we have learned this year, we have made many improvements along the way, and I've had a chance to talk with many of you who have ideas for how to fix those areas that have been frustrating up to this point.  Let's continue to share those things with each other, and continue our work to make the difference in the life of each one of our students.  Every day is another opportunity to impact the trajectory and life of a kid.

Thanks for all you do!!