Educational Services Weekly Update
8/17/20
Resources and Research
First Week of School!
Happy First Week of School!
We know that the 2020-21 school year will be a unique experience in our educational and professional journey, but we are on this journey together. This week we have asked our staff to focus on three areas:
- Build connections and community
- Establish schedules and routines
- Begin assessing student learning
While each of these areas is important, the order of them is as important. As a district, we continue to stress the importance of making connections, building community, and getting to know the stories of our students, their families, and our colleagues. Establishing schedules and routines is how we are going to support our students and families be successful in distance learning. They need to know their daily and weekly expectations, so that they can create schedules that allow for students to access all instructional sessions. Attendance is required in all school elements, but we also recognize that we will need to be flexible with families and their individual needs. Finally, we know that some of our students have already experienced learning loss from last spring. We want our staff to create an assessment plan that will ensure that all teachers know their students' academic strengths and needs.
The Educational Services team is here to support our staff with these areas (and more). Please reach out to our team any time!
Additional Supports
- This is a reminder that Leslie has assigned specific ASPIRE staff to each of our 9 schools. These staff are there to support principals and teachers. First priority should be to assist Kindergarten teachers to ensure that all incoming Kinder families have accessed the LMS. Principals can determine how else to use these staff members during the first week of school. You might connect them with any families who don't have email, to ensure they have access to the teacher's information.
- Enrichment and Intervention staff should also be assigned to K-2nd grade teachers to support ESGI and Literably assessments during the first two weeks of school.
- Our order of 100 more hotspots is scheduled to be delivered next week. Rachel T. and Julie S. will get those out to sites as soon as Sher and IT have processed them.
CELEBRATIONS & GRATITUDE!
KUDOS
Please join me in thanking the following people.
* Glen - Kudos to Glen who is serving as a virtual site administrator for the first time in his career, while also supporting Ed Services in his role as Director of LOL! This is going to be a busy year and our team is here to support Glen and Cloud Campus!
* Christie Kay- Thank you for all of your work co-facilitating the Learning and Instruction subcommittee, your work to create draft enrichment schedules, and your work to organize an incredible set of resources for teachers for the first two weeks of school!
* Leslie - How amazing is Leslie? Not only did Leslie support Christie and I with the Learning and Instruction subcommittee and the enrichment schedules, but she has also created about 50 different child care plans for all contingencies. Leslie and her team have been flexible as they have adapted to each new twist and turn on the child care journey. We appreciate your leadership and support of our community!
* Julie S., Rachel T. and Veronica - Thank you for the teamwork and efforts to get iPads returned after EL Summer Academy, and to get hotspots back into the hands of families to support them for the first day of school! Veronica has also been instrumental in ensuring that the families without Internet have received our messages this summer.
*Tiffany - Thank you for all of your work to ensure that all students, teachers, and classes are updated in Illuminate and ready to go for attendance, rosters, and more, oh my!
*James, Robyn, Sanjana, and Ashley - Thank you to our Team TOSAs for providing trainings on our 3 LMS's and literacy assessments this week to support staff. Thank you for being flexible and supportive in all modalities!
* Heather - Thanks for sharing your creativity with us in the form of a new design for our focus this year (great shirts!), and for keeping our community updated with constant additions to our website and social media sites.
*Rachel Blatt - Thank you for running around to all sites helping with iReady material and supporting Cloud Campus!
* Christy A. - Thank you for keeping our CALPADS data accurate and current to all the moving parts!
*Marisela and Kathleen - Thank you for continuing to adjust the ASPIRE software to reflect whatever the current child care plans might be. We appreciate your constant flexibility as you answer the stream of questions coming in!
*Jamie and Angie - Thank you for all your working ordering supplies and creating schedules to match each of the potential child care plans. Something from the amazing work you have done WILL be used and useful soon (fingers crossed)!
*Other departments - Ed Services couldn't complete our work this summer (and during the last crazy week!) without help from many other people. From IT working nonstop to prepare student iPads, to Business staff helping getting orders submitted, receiving (late into the night!), and processed, to Admin Services hiring TONS of new staff, to Student Services preparing all specialized support, to CNS preparing lunch plans and getting lunch cards out to sites, to everything that the amazing Kristine does for us all! We love our district team!
*Principals - We know you are the front-line leaders and we appreciate all you do to support students, staff, and our community. Thank you for your leadership!
Distance Learning Key Links/ Resources
- bit.ly/eusdddistance - This is the PowerSchool page that will house all of our updates and information!
- 8/10/20 Ed Services update
- July Ed Services update
- Attendance Poliy
- Intervention Plan
- EUSD Essential Standards
- Enrichment schedule drafts - Principals can copy, edit and make their own!
Updates & Calendar items of interest
Please see below
Key dates for you:
- 8/17- First day of school!
- 8/27 or 9/1 - Back to School Night- virtual and live!
- ILC will be on Tuesday mornings at 8:00 AM once we stop having daily principal update meetings!
- Each week during last spring our Ed Services department had a weekly check-in. I will be sharing our check-ins here occasionally and anyone who receives this weekly update is welcome to check-in with me here. This first check-in gives you a chance to volunteer to share part of your journey with us throughout the year!
Educational Services
Email: amy.illingworth@eusd.net
Website: www.eusd.net
Phone: 760-944-4300
Twitter: @AmyLIllingworth