The Triton Tribune
Be Kind ~ Be Awesome ~ Make The Right Choices
Volume 3 ~ Issue 1 ~ July 19, 2021
Wonderful Triton Staff,
"Unexpected kindness is the most powerful, least costly and most underrated of human change." Bob Kerrey
Welcome to the 2020-2021 school year! I hope that you have enjoyed your much-deserved summer break! I am so excited to have students back on campus. This is my 30th year in education and I am as passionate as ever being in this space to effect change in our world by educating our children.
It was so amazing to see so many students participate in student orientation and parents at parent orientation. Thank you to Mr. Almero and his students for planning the orientation on such short notice. A special thanks goes to Ms. Ugarte, Mr. Barr, Mr. Moreno, Ms. Velazquez, Ms. Lopez, Ms. Leslie, Ms. Moreno, Ms. Quinn, Ms. Marquez, Mr. Rapp and Mr. Uribe for helping out. A special shout out to Elias, our temporary POS, and his custodial crew. Having three orientations each day for two days would not have been possible without their tireless efforts. I have had so many emails from students and parents thanking me for making these orientations possible.
Our year ended with the loss of our beloved Scotty, our POS. It was a shock to all of us when we received the notice. When we celebrated his life, many of you came out to speak on his goodness and how he did his job well. We cried and we laughed at the stories. But knowing Scotty, he would not want us to mourn. He is in a better place. In honor of him, Fran has been working on creating a sticker that many of us will be able to put on flasks and laptops, etc. Once it is ready, we will give each of you one. I think that having a tangible reminder of Scotty will help all of us to move forward. That is what he would have wanted. Ride On, Scotty!
As we start the year, I hope that each of you understands the significance recreating our paradigm of teaching and learning. This year is all about learning how to take the old and new practices and how do we take the best practices from each in order to revamp what we do in the classroom for the 2021-2022 year. We truly have an opportunity to look at our mission statement critically, "The ELM community will provide a positive and safe culture so that EACH student grows emotionally and develop academically leading to resiliency and life-long skills." What does that look like post pandemic? I hope that it does not mean we resort back to pre-pandemic classrooms. Instead, each of us needs to ask if our classrooms offer positive and safe spaces conducive to students becoming what we promised they would become. We will be talking a lot about that on Tuesday.
For the months of July/August, our Triton Trait is Kindness. We start each year with this important trait because we want every Triton to start from a place of kindness. The power of kindness is underrated, free yet life-changing. And it does not take a lot of effort to be kind but to the person who receives your gesture, it means a lot. Below is a video of a young lady who decided to show kindness in 20 ways as a means to usher in her 20th birthday. It was evident that the joy she brought to those whom she showed favor were so grateful. As you go about this week, have a conversation with your students about the importance of kindness. What acts of kindness can you do every day this month?
Remember that the first three days will be minimum days (Schedule F). This means that students will see all six teachers and they will be out by 12:51pm. Below are images of our bell schedules and rotation calendar.
Also, First Day Procedures are coming. It is still being finalized. Dean will go over the procedures on Tuesday so that everyone is clear on the expectations for Wednesday.
Finally, please read the newsletter in its entirety as there are many pertinent information regarding the first week of school.
Here is the link to the parent newsletter.
Let's have an amazing first week!
Mrs. Finley
ELM Staff Welcome Letter (sent out on Friday)
ELM Staff Development Rotation Schedule and Grouping
**A modification on the rotation. Nurse Flood will not be here to present so Group 8 will be dissolved and dispersed into the remaining groups. Thank you for your flexibility.
On Friday, July 16, 2021, Dr. Reyes sent out a memo regarding the use of face coverings.
There is one mandate: Staff and students will wear face coverings in the presence of each other.
The essence of the memo is this: in certain conditions, you may choose to not have a face covering in the presence of adult staff members as long as you provide documentation that you have received your vaccination and have completed the Vaccination Certification Form. We will be discussing this memo on Monday during one of the rotations.
- Notice to Employees Regarding Assembly Bill 1432: Mandated Child Abuse Reporting for School Employees - Training Deadline is August 27, 2021
- Sexual Harrassment Training Signature Page Deadline is December 17, 2021
- Schedule A typically occurs Mondays and Wednesday where students go to Periods 1, 2 & 3, which starts at 8:15am and ends at 3:15pm.
- Schedule B typically occurs on Tuesdays and Thursdays where students go to Periods 4, 5 & 6, which starts at 8:15am and ends at 3:15pm.
- Schedule F typically occurs on Fridays and are minimum days, which starts at 8:15 and and ends at 12:51pm.
The other schedules, C - H, are used on occasions. We have created a rotation calendar that shows you when these bell schedules occur. Please look at the two images below so that you are aware of bell schedule changes throughout the year.
Eastlake Middle School
Email: easter.finley@sweetwaterschools.org
Website: elm.sweetwaterschools.org
Location: 900 Duncan Ranch Road, Chula Vista, CA, USA
Phone: 619.591.4000
Twitter: @erfinleysd