The Bison Bulletin
OVCA Middle School Newsletter ~ August 10, 2020
Direct Link to Newsletter: https://www.smore.com/bafn9
A Note from Mrs. Goodridge
Hello, OVCA Middle School Family!
I hope this newsletter finds you enjoying your last days of summer and getting some much needed relaxation in. The Goodridges have been busy sleeping in, going on outdoor treasure hunt adventures, and just starting to venture out to see friends. We're peppering in some good movies and family game nights, too. Getting back into a routine will be good for us.
I would love to officially welcome all of our new families! These past several months have been nothing short of difficult, and I do realize that many of our families are stepping into this new world of "virtual learning" with trepidation, as there are so many of us whose lives have completely changed. Please know that as a staff, we are WITH you, we are COMMITTED to you and your family, and we will do everything within our power to meet your childrens' needs in not only academics, but socially and emotionally as well. We are a family here, and while we may not get to hug necks or look into your eyeballs in person for a while, we are so excited to connect with you and show you what makes OVCA Middle School an amazing place to be.
I would like to introduce our Administrative team to you. This is my first full year as principal. I started with OVCA back in 2014 as the middle school music and art teacher. I fell in love with our school from the very start, and decided to make a larger commitment to our staff and student body by moving into the principal role at the end of this past year. If you catch me humming a tune, or singing to your kids during class connects...you'll know why! :-)
Debbie McWhirt is our new Assistant Principal this year, and has been a key player in our educational and academic planning. She is an invaluable resource to all of us, and puts her heart and soul into our teachers and students. She oversees most of the day-to-day processes and planning for our school, and is always busy making our lives better than the day before!
Nicole Bryson is our Academic Lead Teacher this year, and has previously taught 6th grade English...so many of our returning families know her well! She also happens to be OVCA's Teacher of the Year, and is going for the gusto and applying to be Oklahoma STATE Teacher of the Year! She has stepped into her leadership role and hit the ground running as a support to our teachers so our teachers can then, in turn, support you. We are excited to have her on our team!
You will get to meet all your teachers in the next few weeks. We are incredibly excited to meet you all, get to know you, and make you feel special. We have experienced incredible enrollment growth, so please bear with us as we work through growing pains and new processes to serve our students and families in the very best way possible.
Best wishes for an amazing start to the year. We will "see" you soon!
Sincerely,
Erin Goodridge
OVCA Middle School Principal
Erin Goodridge, Principal
Debbie McWhirt, Assistant Principal
Nicole Bryson, Academic Lead Teacher
Important Upcoming Dates
August 12: First day of 2020/2021 School Year! (session info and times below in newsletter)
August 12-14: All-School Student Orientation Week/Welcome to Online Learning Course Completion Required
August 14: Community Connection Classes Begin, 12:00pm
August 17-20: NWEA MAP Diagnostic Assessments (required for all students)
August 24: Core Classes begin/Course Orientations
Sept 1: Electives Courses and Live Classes begin
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IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR BACK TO SCHOOL!
BISON BOOTCAMP ALL-STUDENT ORIENTATION SESSIONS!
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12
9:00am--Bison Bootcamp Orientation Day 1 (students last names A-L)
11:00am--Bison Bootcamp Orientation Day 1 (students last names M-Z)
1:00pm--Welcome to Online Learning Course Completion Session (required!)
THURSDAY, AUGUST 13
9:00am--Bison Bootcamp Orientation Day 2 (students last names A-L)
11:00am--Bison Bootcamp Orientation Day 2 (students last names M-Z)
1:00pm--Welcome to Online Learning Course Completion Session (required!)
FRIDAY, AUGUST 14
12:00pm--Community Connection Class (required for all students): learning how to access NWEA MAP Login page and prepare for diagnostic testing the week of the 17th.
IMPORTANT REMINDERS FOR NWEA MAP MATH/READING ASSESSMENT READINESS
- All students must have Google Chrome downloaded to their computers. The NWEA site will only work properly with this browser. If you do not have Chrome installed, you can do that here!
- You must enable pop-up blockers for the NWEA Login Page for the assessment. You can go to https://test.mapnwea.org to do that ahead of time! If you're having trouble, teachers will help you during our Community Connection Classes on August 14th.
- Screen resolution MUST be set to 1024x768 or the assessment will not run (yeah, it's super picky like that....). Please be sure your screen resolution on your laptop/desktop is set to that resolution for your testing session, and then you can return it to your preferred or default setting after you are finished with both tests.
- The MAP Diagnostic Assessment is NOT a graded assessment. Students are not permitted to have assistance on the assessment, as we need to have a baseline of what students know/don't know in Math and Reading. This will help us place them in the classes that will help them GROW the MOST as readers and math problem solvers!
- It is recommended that students take no longer than 75 minutes on the test. We need to know what students already know quickly, not what they can figure out after a long period of time. Please prepare your student for this, and remind them that after 3 minutes, they should make their educated guess, and move to the next question.
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RESOURCES FOR STUDENTS & FAMILIES
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K12 NATIONAL NEWS
NEWROW ANNOUNCEMENT FROM K12
We are excited to announce Newrow as our Class Connect collaboration platform for SY20-21. Students and Learning Coaches can look forward to more engaging Class Connect sessions with robust webcam, media, and engagement tools. No downloads or launchers are needed, and you can even attend sessions on your mobile and tablet devices!
The Class Connect scheduler will launch each session directly in Newrow with no need to download an external launcher application prior to accessing any live sessions. Students will be able to interact more regularly on webcam in a more modern interface for a more engaging and collaborative classroom experience.
There is no action needed from you to make this transition. Any classes or office hours on your student’s daily plans will automatically launch into the new platform.
Highlights:
• Use your webcam and see multiple webcams on screen
• No installers or downloads needed – sessions launch directly in your web browser
• Modern and intuitive class connect experience
• Ability to ask questions privately in the Q&A chat channel
• Participate from anywhere you have an internet connection – computer, tablet, or mobile devices