Totem Middle School
November 2020
MESSAGE FROM THE PRINCIPAL
Our newly updated grade book offers additional ways to communicate to families and scholars more accurately around scholar progress towards mastery of standards. A new reporting measure is the use of an “IE” to indicate that at this time there is “Insufficient Evidence” to support providing a letter grade. When you see an IE reported it is an indicator to you and your child that they are either missing work or have not provided completed work to their teacher.
We are continuing to refine our systems and practices to fit within a remote teaching and learning structure. As we have transitioned to the quarter system for our High Schools, there has been a need to report progress towards meeting standards sooner to families and scholars. This switch is being made to our reporting system now in order to report out progress towards mastery. Scholars will need to provide a minimum of two pieces of evidence per priority standard to generate a letter grade. If one piece of priority standard evidence is an IE the reporting standard and the course grade will be reported as an IE (insufficient evidence) in ParentVUE and StudentVUE.
The impact at this point in the quarter/ mid-semester: Currently there are some scholars who are showing a letter grade with only one piece of evidence submitted. With the switch in the system this will change to an IE in order to indicate that there is a need for this scholar to submit more evidence in order to create a letter grade.
Next Steps: the system updated the evening of Wednesday October 28, 2020. Scholars and families will see these adjustments in Scholar/ParentVue starting Thursday October 29, 2020. If your scholar previously had a letter grade showing and now has an IE, the next step will be to complete any previously assigned work or assignments. Once your scholar has provided two pieces of evidence for each reporting standard, they will generate a letter grade.
Teachers will be accepting late work throughout quarter one in order to allow needed time for scholars to submit their work. The quarter closes on November 9, 2020.
IMPORTANT DATES BELOW
Monday, November 9th
Monday, Nov. 9 will by an Asynchronous day (independent learning day)
Veteran's Day
Wednesday, Nov. 11 No School in observance of Veteran’s Day
Scholar Led Conferences
SLC (Scholar Led Conferences) are now Dec. 10 and 11. Previously scheduled SLC days in Nov (5th & 6th) will now bE Synchronous learning days.
Canvas Parent Observer
K-12 Teachers are using Canvas with their class to post weekly schedules and remote learning activities with your scholar.
The Primary Parent listed in Synergy for the scholar will be added as an observer to the Canvas Class.
**If you need to update or add to your child's Primary Parent, go to this page to learn how: https://www.fwps.org/Page/7595
If you have questions about Primary Parent, please contact the school office.
Parent Canvas Observer Instructions: https://www.fwps.org/Page/7547
SUPPLY & MATERIALS PICK UP
Your teacher will inform you if you have anything extra to pick up each week. If you are a choice student, you may pick up supplies at the school on Wednesday, Nov 4th or 18th from 9 a.m.-3 p.m
Non-Discrimination Statement:
Federal Way Public Schools does not discriminate in any programs or activities on the basis of race, color, national origin or ethnicity, religion, creed, sex or gender, sexual orientation, gender expression or identity, age, marital or family status, veteran or military status, disability, or the use of a trained dog guide or service animal. The district provides equal access to the Boy Scouts of America and other designated youth groups.
If you have questions or complaints regarding alleged discrimination please email one of the coordinators listed below, or call the district office at 253-945-2000 and ask for one of the coordinators listed below.
Civil Rights Compliance Officer, Dan Dizon, compliance@fwps.org
Title IX Compliance Coordinator, Dan Dizon, titleix@fwps.org
504 Compliance Coordinator, Dr. Jennifer Westover, 504@fwps.org
ADA Compliance Coordinator, Janet Hodson, ADA@fwps.org
Totem Middle School
Email: mnelsen@fwps.org
Website: https://www.fwps.org/totem
Location: 26630 40th Avenue South, Kent, WA, USA
Phone: 253.945.5100
Facebook: facebook.com/TotemFWPS/