Ericson Sea King Weekly Review
Summer Updates June 29-July 3
Summer Break Update
Congratulations to Melissa Stephenson! She was promoted last week to Vice Principal at Ericson. I am looking forward to working together with her next year!
In August,we will review all structures and procedures for reopening and families will be updated on the plans that will be put into place at Ericson for physical distancing when students return to school.
I am including some summer reading articles and resources to assist you in your planning for August. We will begin the year with 4 main areas of focus:
1. Safety structures and protocols
2. Continued work on our Regional focus on K-2 Foundational Skills and 3-6 Writing
3. SEL Strategies in self awareness and self management
4. Utilizing culturally responsive teaching strategies to ensure equity in the classroom
Our first official day back for full time certificated staff is on August 5th. Meeting agendas will be sent out on Monday August 3rd. We will be on campus, but all of our professional learning will be virtual.
If you would like to come onto campus to work in your classroom you may come in M-F between 6:30-2:15 while our custodians are on site. Campus is closed on Friday July 3rd for the holiday weekend. You may park in the front parking lot or outside campus on the south end of school. You are not yet able to drive on campus and it may be difficult to wheel carts across the front entrance dirt areas that are still being worked on. The staff room will remain closed to all teachers at this time. This is currently being used by our custodial staff as a break room to allow for social distancing. Now, would be a great time to begin cleaning and organizing your classrooms for August. If you have furniture that you need removed for storage please label and send Nhia an email letting him know, and our custodial staff will remove from your classroom. Rooms 33 and 34 are not accessible at this time. For health and safety purposes, for when we return in the fall, we’re asking teachers to remove their personal belongings. We’re trying to reduce the number of items in classrooms that will require daily sanitizing as well as create additional space for social distancing. Understanding this is not our normal practice, this global pandemic has us doing things differently as we focus on student safety when we return in August. Prior to coming on campus please complete the COVID-19 screening tool and do not come on campus if you are not feeling well, or have been exposed to a possible case of COVID-19. Wear a mask and practice physical distancing from other employees on campus.
Classified Staff will return to work on Friday August 14th. We will start the day with a whole staff virtual meeting. Please make sure that you know your FUSD user name and password prior to attending this meeting. Classified staff will be required to utilize FUSD Email and technology for communication and updates. IF you need your username and password please call 457-2600 prior to to August 14th.
Our office staff is now on their summer break, and will return on August 3rd, so if you have students or parents contact you for assistance they may call the COVID Hotline at 457-3395 or the Technology Hotline at 457-3939.
Have a great week everyone!
Tina
* Professional Learning will be done online
Q1 Essential Planning Documents
Student Achievement Partners and the Council of the Great City Schools just released the following companion documents laying out a blueprint for schools across the country to get the nation’s schoolchildren back on track academically after a disrupted school year.
Here is the document link: 2020–21 Priority Instructional Content in English Language Arts/literacy and Mathematics
(www.achievethecore.org/2020-21_PriorityInstructionalContent)
Supporting Documents for Planning Q1 Learning
Our vision remains the same, but we must adapt our approach for school year 20-21 to ensure that we can deliver on our vision for students. During school closures, teachers have been working hard to connect with students and families and adapt to a new instructional reality. At the same time, the district’s Curriculum and Instruction Team has been working to develop guidance and resources to support teachers through this time of uncertainty and change. Specifically, the Quarter 1 Guidance Documents are intended to:
1. Identify the core knowledge and skills from 4th Quarter that are pre-requisite to content addressed during 1st Quarter. See Essential 4th Q Learning ELA, Essential 4th Q Learning Math for an overview of all essential unfinished learning from Q4.
2. Recommend curricula aligned assessment strategies, instructional strategies, and instructional pacing to build those pre-requisite skills while maintaining a focus on grade level content.
3. Provide easy access to curricular resources for addressing pre-requisite knowledge and skills.
These guidance documents are part of a larger and evolving effort to prepare for the return to school. While we are still developing what school will look like come fall, we do know that it will be mission-critical to ensure all students have daily access to the most essential grade level content. In addition to guidance for addressing unfinished learning from Q4, the Curriculum and Instruction Team is working on guidance focused on prioritizing the most essential grade level content within a new instructional model. Additional training and support related to these guidance documents and how they connect to the district’s overarching instructional approach for fall will be shared prior to the start of school.
SUPPORTING SCHOOL-WIDE CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE PRACTICES
Teaching in a Culturally Diverse World
- Through verbal and nonverbal communication, students receive messages about their value and worth on a minute-to-minute basis throughout the school day. And biased messages, delivered frequently over time, have a profound effect on students. Learn more here about how to be an Anti-Racist
- Unlocking Us Podcast: Brene Brown talks with Ibram X. Kendi, New York Times bestselling author of How to Be an Antiracist and the Director of the Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University. We talk about racial disparities, policy, and equality, but we really focus on How to Be an Antiracist, which is a groundbreaking approach to understanding uprooting racism and inequality in our society and in ourselves.
- Also on Unlocking Us Podcast, Brene talks to Laverne Cox: artist, advocate, executive producer, about her new, groundbreaking documentary, Disclosure: Trans Lives on Screen, the importance of policy protection for the trans community, and the seismic shifts in the world today.
Mental Health And Wellness
Trauma-Responsive Teaching Tools for the Work Ahead
Educators can co-create a healing-centered learning environment with students where wounds become the wisdom needed to go forward.
Instructional Programs
Video: Boosting Student Interaction and Collaboration When Teaching Remotely
How to use Zoom, Webex, and Flipgrid to boost student interaction and collaboration in both synchronous and asynchronous learning environments
Reopening Models
View the 6/17/20 Board Presentation.
- We are reopening schools on 8/17/20.
- Staff and Board returns 7/17/20 to consider any changing conditions or new health recommendations.
- Parents will have the options of in person instruction or online eLearn Academy.