RMS Staff Wildcat Weekly
Staff Newsletter 8.31.20
Welcome to the 2020-2021 School Year!
We are one week away from our first day of school, and we are gearing up for a great opening! I know this week of professional development and preparation will bring many questions, challenges, and opportunities. I am so grateful for the teamwork and collaboration of so many members of our RMS community who have been working behind the scenes to help us prepare.
RMS Custodial Staff- thank you for working so hard to clean our campus and to help keep us safe with the many extra duties you have taken on!
RMS Office Staff- thank you for reaching out to HUNDREDS of families in the last few weeks to help them with registration and to answer all their questions. Thank you also for organizing our drive-up registration for this week!
RMS CNS Staff- thank you to all of you who have been working so hard to ensure our students are receiving the nutritional support they need so much!
RMS ILT- thank you for your thoughtful and dedicated collaboration time this summer to help us prepare our direction for this year and to ensure that your teams and departments are well represented!
RMS Library Queen Deanna Bennet- thank you for putting in so many hours to ensure our Chromebooks, textbooks, and technology are ready to go for registration and for the start of the year!
RMS Office Manager Erin Rogers- thank you for being the masterful organizational force behind the enormous amounts of ordering, payroll, finance, registration details, and everything else that is required to get us up and running smoothly! And thank you for spending the weekend helping to get our Wildcat Pride Packs ready for distribution! This would not have happened without your impressive efforts!
RMS Assistant Principals David Sosa and Sochie Schmitz- thank you for working so hard on our site re-opening plan and health and safety measures and on managing the many details that are involved in launching the year!
RMS Counselors Nancy Licona and Cory Way- thank you for so willingly taking on the challenges of re-building an incredibly complicated master schedule and for helping to make sure that all perspectives are honored in this difficult process!
RMS Canvas Trainers Kat Bartolome, Heather Birst, Cindy Fowles, Kurdy Turner, and Jennifer Waite- thank you for devoting HOURS AND HOURS of time to developing awesome training and resources to support our entire RMS staff in transitioning to our new learning management system! We are so fortunate to have you leading the way!
To everyone else- all the staff members attending Canvas Early Bird Training, IAs and campus supervisors coming in early to prepare for registration, and everyone who is working to ready yourselves to welcome our Wildcats next week- thank you for your commitment!
IMPORTANT REMINDER! PLEASE CONTRIBUTE!
One tradition I would love to continue is the sharing of our Summertime Fun and Experiences with each other! I have created a Google Drive folder Summertime Experiences 2020 for us to send our pictures to. PLEASE ADD PICTURES that you would like to share into the folder Summertime Experiences 2020 so that I can create a fun slideshow for us all to enjoy!
I look forward to "seeing" you all soon!
With gratitude,
Heather
Important Dates: Professional Development and Preparation
All Certificated and Classified Staff should have received calendar invitations to professional development for this week. Please email Sochie, David, or Erin if you have any questions.
Monday, August 31- Wednesday, September 2: Certificated Staff Professional Development: Time: 8:00am-3:30pm (Link to agenda)
Thursday, September 3: Certificated Prep Time: Time: 8:00am-3:30pm
Friday, September 4: Certificated Prep Time: Time: 8:00am-3:30pm (except for 90 minute staff meeting, 8:30-10:00 am)
Tuesday, September 8: First Day of School!
All professional development will be held virtually.
Tips from our Canvas Team- Getting Ready for PD this Week!
Our first PD day is approaching quickly, and we are very excited to help you learn our new LMS, CANVAS. Your site CANVAS team has a few recommendations to help you be successful.
1. If you can, hop on the Growing with Canvas tutorials sent by VUSD. The tutorials will help you familiarize yourself with the new platform before we begin on Monday.
2. If possible have 2 screens set up for our CANVAS ZOOM meeting on Monday, or know how to work with at least 2 tabs open.
3. Also if you are going to work from school on Monday, get there a little bit early to plug in your computer equipment.
Hope this helps,
If you have any questions do not hesitate to email me.
Jenn
Dual Screens Tutorial
Here is a short video to show you how to change your settings so you can use you laptop and monitor as dual screens. During our training this week we are going to be showing you how to set up your Canvas classroom and it would be so much easier if you had a screen to watch and another to work on! Here is the link. Let me know if you have any questions.
Heather Birst
PLEASE COMPLETE BEFORE TUESDAY 9/1!
Wildcat Pride Packs
Zoom Training and Protocol Questions:
If you missed the Zoom training in the spring, please complete the training and steps on this Zoom Training Info document.
Questions about Protocol:
Can I Zoom 1:1 with a student?
--Yes. See the employee handbook for these guidelines.
Can I assign students to breakout rooms during a live session?
--Yes. Make sure that you have covered Zoom expectations with your students and that they know they can ask questions and ask for help whenever needed. Make it a practice to randomly pop in on breakout rooms to monitor progress and to check in on students.
Can I ask an Instructional Assistant to work with students in a Zoom breakout room?
--Yes, as long as they are not working 1:1 in a breakout room with the student.
Telecommuting Agreements- Certificated Staff Clarifications
1. If you have submitted a telecommuting agreement and safety checklist, then I have signed them electronically and submitted them to HR. You should be receiving notifications of approval directly from HR. I returned a few of them that were not completed and signed properly on the fillable PDFs. Please submit those ASAP so that I can sign and submit to HR.
2. If you have completed a telecommuting agreement, then the expectation is that you are teaching from home for the duration of time that the district is fully in distance learning. If you would like to change your selection, please let administration know. There were some questions regarding whether or not you could come and go as you desired to work from both campus and from home; however, this presents a large challenge to staff who need to monitor who is on campus and for our custodial staff who need to disinfect daily all the areas where staff is on campus. You may need a few days to gather all the items you need to telecommute, and then after that, please maintain the same schedule/working location. If a situation arises and you need to come to campus, please fill out the both the screening form and the information on the spreadsheet.
We appreciate your understanding as we strive to ensure the safest and cleanest conditions on campus. Let me know if you have any questions or if you have a special situation to discuss.
If you have not completed a Telecommuting Agreement (with completed Safety Checklist and photo of workspace) then the expectation is that you will be working from campus as of August 31, 2020.
Teachers On Campus This Week
You will fill out the pre-screening form any day you come to campus and fill in the requested information on this form. Also, please see the clarifications regarding Telecommuting Agreements below. Thank you!
Roosevelt Middle School Virtual Schedule
Please review the Daily Student Schedule that all students will be following in distance learning. All students will start the year with distance learning for the first six weeks. When health orders allow us to return to in-person learning, Vista Classic students will return to campus and will have the same classes and teachers. Vista Virtual students will continue distance learning with the same classes and teachers.
Click here for the single page document: Roosevelt Middle School Daily Student Schedule
Counseling Corner!
Follow us on our new Instagram @rooseveltcounseling for updates!
REMINDER: To make an appointment with your counselor fill out our form at bit.ly/rmscheckin, DM us on Instagram, or send us an email. Use the PSST tool at THIS LINK to report something anonymously.