Hearst Weekly Update
May 17, 2020
Principal's Message
Good afternoon, Owls,
In case you missed my Bloomz post on Wednesday, Mayor Bowser has postponed her announcement on the status and schedule of schools until Friday, May 22nd. There is talk that she will now share the city’s revised budget for FY21 sometime this coming week. This means we do not yet have answers around our school budget for the coming school year, the dates or plan for summer school and continuing learning at home this summer, the calendar for the coming school year, or models of teaching and learning for the coming school year.
Additionally, the stay at home order in DC, originally set to expire on May 15, was extended to June 8. Our plan for pick-up of student belongings the last week of school may be impacted by this. I’ll share more information about student belonging pick-up when I have it.
In addition to receiving news on the 22nd from the Mayor about summer and next school year, the 22nd is also Parent Teacher Conference Day. Below is additional information to read prior to conferences in order to make the best use of the time you'll have with staff. One thing that I will continue to emphasize is that our priority during this pandemic remains your child's social emotional well-being and health. We know that kids aren't going to be academically and social-emotionally where we would normally anticipate at the end of this school year, nor will they be when we start the new school year. Know that we will continue to do what we excel at as Hearst staff, which is meeting kids where they are and moving them forward from there. As you go into conferences this week, remember that no child is behind and no child is ahead. All children are exactly where they need to be.
Also tentatively scheduled for this week are community meetings for families. Specific times and log in information are below. Please note, these meetings may be rescheduled to the last week of school depending on whether or not I have any information to share about the budget, the end of this school year, summer learning, and next school year. We’ll also include a brief PTA wrap up at the end of the meetings. In the interim, if you have questions about the proposed PTA budget please email them to Susan Chun (susan.chun@gmail.com), as she will be compiling all questions and concerns about the budget. Feel free to email questions about closing out this school year, summer learning, and next school year to me at jennifer.geoffroy@k12.dc.gov.
As always, please reach out to let us know how we can continue to support you and your family in the coming weeks.
In partnership,
Jen
About Us
Email: attendance@hearstes.org
Website: www.hearstes.org
Location: 3950 37th Street Northwest, Washington, DC, United States
Phone: (202) 282-0106
Facebook: facebook.com/hearstes
Twitter: @hearstes
News and Announcements from Hearst
Quick Updates
Below is a link to an article from Responsive Classroom with clear and succinct for ways to engage with kids offline. While it is geared toward teachers, it also has some great ideas for family "challenges" at home:
https://www.responsiveclassroom.org/supporting-students-offline/.
Reminder - DCPS revised the at home learning dates. Week 8 is 5/14-5/20 and Week 9 is 5/21-5/29.
- Reminder - In order to access the content from our special subject/Inner Core teachers, visit the individual content channels on each homeroom Teams page. It may be helpful to unhide all these channels for ease of access. You can do that by hitting the three dots next to the Team name --> Manage Team --> top tab "Channels" then click the checkbox under the column "Show for me."
- Reminder - This year, in place of Hearst’s typical International Festival, the ELL team has organized a virtual International Celebration. Languages from Hearst will be celebrated in the morning announcements from May 4-May 28. We are so lucky to be a part of such a diverse and unique community! This is something we always want to celebrate. Tune in to the morning announcements each day and feel free to leave your comments in the post.
Upcoming Key Dates
- Wednesday, May 20 - Tentative Community Meeting, 2:00-3:00, https://virginia.zoom.us/j/99284000366
- Thursday May 22 - Tentative Community Meeting, 4:00-5:00, https://virginia.zoom.us/j/99354506758
- Friday, May 22 - Parent Teacher Conference Day; Mayor's Announcement re: Summer Learning and Calendar for School Year 2020-2021
- Monday, May 25 - Memorial Day Holiday
- Tuesday, May 26 - LSAT Meeting, 4:30-5:30
- Tuesday, May 26 - Thursday, May 28 - Tentative Student Item Pick Up
- Friday, May 29 - Last Day of School for Students
Hearst's Distance Learning Plan
Weeks Eight and Beyond (now through 5/29)
We will continue to modify the ELA and math work in the DCPS packets to address where our students are in their learning. We'll also be doing a modified version of the writer's workshop that kids experienced when we were learning at school. All teachers will also be recording and posting at least one video this week that students can access when convenient to your families. This video will focus on teaching new content to students. Staff will also continue to focus on live/synchronous individual or small group Teams meetings with all students. They will check in with kids (and you!) and answer questions related to work packets or materials that have been posted in Teams. Staff may record additional videos that students can access when convenient to your families. These videos may be used to: host Morning Meeting, present content to supplement or clarify information in the work packets, make announcements, organize student groups, and facilitate online asynchronous discussion forums. As a reminder, we are not yet engaging in synchronous/live whole or large group meetings or instruction at this time and will likely not do so this school year as we still face many implementation barriers to engaging all learners at the same time. However, should you be looking for supplemental materials for your kids, students continue to have access via Clever to a variety of blended learning programs such as iReady, Lexia, Edulastic, Typing Agent, and Newsela. Please reach out to your child's teacher with questions about these programs.
Preparing for Parent Teacher Conferences on Friday, 5/22
We were hoping that we would be able to mail students' Term 3 report cards home prior to our conference day on Friday. However, now that we know Term 3 and 4 report cards will not be mailed until June, it's important to know how we, as a school, graded K-5 students in Term 3. Following District of Columbia Public School's (DCPS) guidance, grades on the Term 3 report card reflect work completed from January 29 through March 13. No post March 13th deductions have been taken regardless of assessments, assignments (complete or incomplete), and/or student participation. Except in rare circumstances, students' Term 2 grades have carried over to Term 3 and any questions about your child's Term 3 grades can be answered by their homeroom teacher.
If your child's teacher has not yet done so, they will be sending conference sign ups out by the end of the day on Monday at the very latest. If you would like to have a conference with any other member of the Hearst staff outside of your child's homeroom teacher, you should email that staff member to schedule a time to talk. This includes the other content lead in our 3rd-5th grade classes (e.g. if your child is in Ms. Dilley's homeroom you'll have to email Mr. Stacey if you want to conference with him), special subject teachers, specialists, etc.
So that staff can prepare for conferences, it would be helpful to send any questions to them prior to the conference. As a reminder, questions about big picture things like summer learning structures and timelines and what next school year will look like can be sent to jennifer.geoffroy@k12.dc.gov. Our staff looks forward to talking with you about your child and their social emotional and academic experiences during at home learning.
Reminder: Hearst Modifications to the DCPS Term 4 Grading Guidance
Two weeks ago, DCPS shared Term 4 grading, promotion, and graduation guidance (Click here to read more). Knowing that families continue to experience barriers to at home learning, we have refined the grading guidance for Hearst and will be using the following guidance for Term 4 grading:
- If students engage in any one Inner Core subject once per week, they will receive a P in all Inner Core subjects (K-5). This means that, for example, a student can choose to engage in art once per week and will receive a P in Art, Music, Spanish, and PE.
- If students engage twice per week in ELA, Math, Science, or Social Studies, they will receive a P in all subjects (Grades K-2).
- If students engage once in ELA and once in Math per week, they will receive a P in ELA, Math, Science, and Social Studies (Grades 3-5).
- K-5 students will be assigned a “NM” (no mark) if they were unable to engage in at home learning assignments and activities.
- PK: For the Spring Checkpoint, teachers will share narrative comments about children’s growth and development rather than the GOLD Development and Learning report.
- Engagement at Hearst is defined as but not limited to: completing assignments, responding to prompts/messages posted in Teams, asking questions on Teams, engaging in small group instruction, and posting a photo of completed work
News and Announcements from DCPS
Parent University Workshops in May
Parent University virtual workshops continue throughout May. Families can sign-up to attend these free sessions athttp://bit.ly/dcpsparentursvp.
The workshops are an opportunity for families to share strategies and learn new ones from each other and DCPS Central Office teams. Download a flyer for all upcoming sessions to share with your school community and email us atCEO.info@k12.dc.gov with any questions.
Upcoming events:
· May 18 at 2:00 pm — Paying for College
· May 21 at 4:30 pm — Conversation is the New “Talk”
Reminder: Enrollment for SY20-21
For more detailed information on changes in enrollment, please see our Frequently Asked Questions. As always, we are ready and eager to support you with any enrollment questions you may have, especially if you need help with the new electronic submission process. Please don’t hesitate to contact Ms. Hinchey (manik.hinchey@k12.dc.gov) or the DCPS Enrollment Team at enroll@k12.dc.gov or (202) 478-5738.