Blytheville Elementary School
April 20
Chickasaw P.R.I.D.E.
Personal Responsibility, Respect, Integrity, Disciplined,
Engaged
VISION: Engage Everyone Everyday
MISSION: BES will educate the whole child through an engaging curriculum preparing them for the next level in their journey.
BES Faculty and Staff Handbook 2019-20
Website: https://www.blythevilleschools.com/o/bes
Location: 216 East Moultrie Drive, Blytheville, AR, United States
Phone: (870) 763 - 5924
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BlythevilleElementary/
April 22: Administrative Professionals Day
April 23: Collaboration
April 24: Assignments for next set of AMI packets is due
Staff Spotlight
AMI Packets
Link to AMI Packets- https://www.smore.com/qdu3x
Building Access for Staff
Please sign up for the time you would like to work in your classroom. Be mindful that if you have had a fever of 100.4 or higher, to wait until you have been fever free for at least 24 hours. Also be mindful of everyone’s personal space and utilize appropriate hygiene measures to reduce the transmission of germs.
This time should be used to take things down in your room and to clean up and pack. You can also use this time to make phone calls from the phone in your room to check on your students. For Math and Literacy teachers, once your rooms are clean, you will need to check in with your Instructional Facilitator to schedule a time to check out regarding designated items on the checklist. Special area teachers can check out with Mrs. Walker or Ms. Adelowo. All classrooms must be packed by the end of the day on May 1, 2020.
PD Transcripts
Extra Duty Time Sheets
Contracts
Arkansas Professional Pathway to Educator Licensure
This is for any Novice teachers seeking licensure:
The summer sessions will be delivered online and/or face-to-face. The Arkansas Professional Pathway to Educator Licensure (APPEL) is an alternate route to teacher licensure administered by the Division of Elementary and Secondary Education.
APPEL Introductory Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnGsnYj9xQM&feature=youtu.be
R.I.S.E. 3-6 Morphology Lessons
These are morphology lessons shared by Wendy Green that were taken from the resources that were discussed on day 3. You are welcome to use them with your students during future lessons.
End of Year Expectations
2020 END OF THE SCHOOL YEAR CHECKLIST - Must be completed before May 15, 2020. All documents are in view only. Please make a copy to fill in your personal information.
All curriculum and supplements must be left in order and easily located. You will have to check out all curriculum items with an IF. Closets must be organized and neat for incoming teachers.
DO NOT MOVE FURNITURE OUT OF CLASSROOMS NOR TRADE FURNITURE WITHOUT AN ADMINISTRATOR'S CONSENT!
Sg360, our Custodial Services will start summer cleaning soon. They will start off by pulling furniture from classrooms to the hallway to begin the preparation for stripping and waxing the floors. Please make sure rooms are packed and personal items put away. Do not move furniture around. Leave it in its present location. The cleaning company will start in the 5th grade building and work their way inside and through the main building. I will send out an email to staff once floors are complete.
CURRICULUM GUIDES, CONNECTION MATERIALS, & TEACHER MANUALS
Remain in Classroom. (Tell where the manual is located in your room.)
ROOM INVENTORY (Available on the end of year checklist)
Should be completed and a copy maintained for your files.
EMERGENCY BACKPACKS (GRAY BACKPACKS)
All emergency kits are to remain in the room in a prominent location. If you do not have one or need more red and green cards, please note it on paper and bring it to the check-out point.
AIR CONDITIONER
If you work in your classroom this summer keep the temp. 72 or above.
MAINTENANCE NEEDS
If you have anything in the room that needs to be fixed or repaired please list on sheet of paper and turn in to the office.
GENERAL CLEAN-UP
Please have room packed up and labeled by room number. DO NOT put names on furniture. Rooms should be left as clean and tidy as possible. If you remove items from the wall, please remove in such a way paint is not removed at the same time. You may leave bulletin boards up if you wish. DO remember, if not attached firmly, things may fall off the walls when temperature changes occur. The school cannot be responsible for items that fall and get misplaced. Take home personal items if they cannot be locked up. Classroom refrigerators must be clean, defrosted and unplugged. All food items must be discarded.
Classroom Placement
Your assistance will be needed regarding student placement for next year. You will be asked to provide information related to student behavior, academics, and regarding friends who students should not be placed in the classroom with. This will be emailed out to you.
Teacher Laptops & Student Chromebooks
All student Chromebooks should be in the Chromebook cart and charging. Please ensure the power cords are organized and not tangled as technology will be updating some of the Chromebooks over the summer. The carts should remain locked in your classroom.
You do NOT need to disconnect any of your technology equipment. The technology department will take care of that for you :)
Staff that are leaving BES, please make sure you turn in laptops, bags, and chargers to the office by noon on May 29, 2020.
TECHNOLOGY INVENTORY
Place smart board pens and erasers in zip lock bags and place in the computer desk that locks. It is very important that the inventories are accurate. The office has your inventory list. Please make sure you update and add any item(s) you have received this year including any AV equipment and/or materials.
TECHNOLOGY REPAIRS (AV REPAIRS)
If you have any malfunctioning technology equipment, it is your responsibility to do a work order, print out a copy of submission ticket and turn in at check out.
Best Practice Tips for Using Zoom
Video and Audio
First, let’s talk about your video and audio.
Unless your appearance or background is very inappropriate or distracting, turn ON your video. Video is crucial in building trust and engagement in virtual communications. Don’t skip this step just because you don’t love the way your hair looks today.
Test your video and audio before your meeting at zoom.us/test.
Look at the camera. This takes a bit of getting used to since you want to look at the other participants faces (and, let’s be honest, your own face), but try to look at the camera when you’re talking. This tactic will mimic the in-person feeling of eye contact. It’s important to gauge reactions by looking at the screen, but alternating that with looking at the camera makes the audience feel like you’re really talking to them.
Adjust your camera if it is too low or high. Only your barber wants to stare at the top of your head. Your camera should be at eye level.
If you can, connect to the internet via an ethernet cable. Zoom works well on wireless all the way down to 3G, but the quality is best on a solid wired internet connection, so wire in when you can. Otherwise, just make sure you have serviceable Wi-Fi.
Meeting Etiquette
There are some general rules of courtesy for virtual (and in person) business meetings.
If you can, hold off on eating full meals during your meeting. Imagine how unappealing it would be to watch someone up close slurping a plate of spaghetti on a big screen. If you can, chow down when your meeting is over.
Even though it’s tempting, try not to multitask too much. And if you’re going to, at least mute yourself.
You don’t have to be overly prepared for a meeting you’re not hosting, but try to be on time, having glanced at the agenda.
Refrain from private behaviour – i.e. scratching your armpits, picking your nose. We can see you!
Consider Your Environment
Your surroundings say a lot about you. Let’s make sure that they say the right things.
Dirty clothes in a pile, an unmade bed, and so forth give the impression that you’re not a professional to be trusted with serious work. Clean up and have a simple background (a plain wall, a potted plant, or a bookshelf works perfectly). Zoom also provides virtual backgrounds to help you disguise even the most recklessly cluttered environments.
Lights, camera, action! Note, the first item here is LIGHTS. Position yourself so that most of the light is coming from in front of you (behind your monitor), instead of behind you. If you have a window behind you, shut the blinds. Otherwise, you will be backlit.
Barking dogs and slamming doors are not just annoying in person, they are also annoying via Zoom! Find a quiet space to meet, shut the door, and mute yourself as necessary.
Hone Your Presentation Skills
Zoom spoke with co-founder and principal of BoldEcho and virtual presentation expert, Matt Abrahams, to learn some top tips for presenting over Zoom. Here’s what he had to say…
Use engagement tools! There is nothing worse than someone droning on for an hour, maybe sharing a dense slide or two. Make full use of everything Zoom has to offer. Screen share, annotate shared content, send out a quick poll, solicit feedback in chat, split your attendees up into video breakout rooms, send attendees to a website and have them fill out a Google Doc. Do whatever it takes to keep your audience actively engaged. By the way, you can tell your audience is engaged during screen sharing by using the Zoom attendee attention tracking feature.
If feasible, stand up! This keeps you dynamic and energetic. You can do this during your virtual meeting by using a standing desk. If you do stand, try a slide advancer instead of clicking next on your keyboard for a more natural experience.
Don’t get too close. Position yourself so the camera is seeing you from the chest or waist up, instead of just seeing your face. This is more natural for the viewer (after all, in an in-person meeting you’re usually seeing more of a person than just their face). This is especially beneficial if you tend to gesture a lot.
Your best teacher is yourself. Record yourself and watch the playback with a critical eye. Did you talk too quickly? Too many ums and ers? Even send the recording to a friend who you know will give you candid feedback.
Just for Laughs
A Word of Encouragement
The second said, “I am making $17.50 an hour.”
When a third bricklayer was asked, he replied, “I am building a wall."
But the fourth one said “I’m building the most beautiful cathedral in town. Years from now people will be able to come together here and worship.”
The same could be asked of administrators and teachers. It'd be interesting to hear the answers if some of them were being honest.
At any point during your day working with staff and students, what would you say? What would your staff say? Ultimately, what are you trying to accomplish? Why did you choose to be an educator and are you living that out daily?
When people ask educators what they do, the answers are usually "Superintendent", "Principal", "Teacher", "Coach", "Counselor", or "Secretary". But those are just job titles. What you really do is you provide direction, guidance, and encouragement in order to help take a young person from where they are to where they need to be. You help people reach their potential and maximize their success. You build up and develop the future husbands, wives, mothers, fathers, business people, and leaders in your community.
I want to encourage you today - yes, even during these unprecedented times - to constantly remember why it is that you got into education. Furthermore, I encourage you to lift up, inspire, and support your students, your staff if you're an administrator to remember their why and continue to build something special and lasting.
Thank you for all you do in the lives of your students and staff!