Emerson Cheetah Check-In!
Emerson Parent Newsletter: August 7th, 2020
Vision
Mission
We are a relationship-centered school:
students are known, valued and celebrated.
We support all students:
academic and social emotional programs meet students where they are and accelerate them forward.
We are committed to equity:
we eliminate racial, socioeconomic and gender inequities through culturally relevant learning experiences.
We are a learning community:
with a learning stance, we use inquiry and reflection to improve our practice.
Food Distribution Changes!
Hello Emerson Families!
Welcome back! We are so excited to welcome you to this school year. Our community at Emerson is inspired, mobilized and committed to taking action in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. We are a school that is and has been committed to eliminating racial inequities, building student-centered learning environments, and building community always. We are more centered now in this Vision than ever, as a result of the social uprising this summer, and the Movement for Black Lives.
Here's what to know and expect from us as educators:
- We are talking about what it means to be anti-racist in our professional learning gatherings. We are considering the implications for our children, and our classrooms, and adjusting teaching accordingly.
- We will continue to talk together with families, to build community.
- We will be talking about race regularly in our community spaces, while building intentional within and across race spaces for open and honest dialogue to learn and better ourselves.
We look forward to learning together with you!
This Year!
We have never seen a start to the school year like this one. We are beginning school in our homes, via our computers instead of in person welcoming each other with hugs and high fives. I'm sure like me, this is not anyone's preference, and yet I know that WE are collectively working to make the absolute best of a truly hard situation. Simultaneously our unions are vigorously working to insure strong working conditions for our educators. Please know that our team is doing everything we can to insure a strong foundation for the year. We know the information from us and OUSD is sometimes not as fast as you may like. We are working to get our systems strong, for the duration of the year, so that they last, they serve us and you, and we can best reach and support our students/families academic, and social-emotional needs.
Some of the information in the Newsletter below is repeated (from last week), to insure new families have access to information. Some information has been revised.
COMMUNICATION
Talking Points
We will be using “Talking Points,” as our main communication to our families. This will be used both school wide and for individual classes. You can download the free Talking Points app or use it through your text messages. Your child's teachers will be contacting you via Talking Points! Talking Points will also be used to share "Cheetah Check-In Newsletter."
Note: If you'd like to add a parent/guardian to Talking Points Communications, just respond to a TP message with the guardians, name & number, and we will add them. ALSO - many of you reached out already about adding a contact, thank you!... but when the Talking Points system reset for the new class lists, we lost all that info! Apologies. You will need to communicate with us, about adding additional contacts again.
School Messenger
School Messenger is an email based system that will be used to send school-wide communication, like "Cheetah Check-In Newsletter" as well.
Google Classroom
3rd-5th grade classes will be using google classroom to organize their work for students, post announcements, and receive student work and take daily attendance. Google Classroom will be accessible through Clever. Your child’s teacher will reach out through Talking Points to help get your student connected to their new online classroom.
SeeSaw
TK-2nd grade classes will be using the platform SeeSaw for students to access their work. SeeSaw will allow students to send their teachers work in a format that is accessible for younger students. Your child’s teacher will reach out through Talking Points to help get your student connected to their new online classroom.
FIRST TWO WEEKS OF SCHOOL
The first two weeks will be focused on supporting our students and families to get adjusted to distance learning.
Attendance
This year teachers will be taking daily attendance to track student’s engagement in distance learning. This is required for all California students, per state law (AB 77 / SB 98). Examples of “engaging/participating in distance learning” are logging into a live on-line class, logging into google classroom, platforms or apps, responding to an email, text (to the teacher of record), or completing an assignment for the day.
Home Visits
Teachers will be making one-on-one contact with each family from their classroom during the first two weeks of school, for a virtual home visit! This will be an opportunity to discuss your student’s strengths, challenges during distance learning and your concerns/questions around distance learning. Teachers will also provide a checklist with expectations for their students and parents can use this as a way to support your child during the school day.
Morning Meetings
Starting on Monday, August 10, teachers will be hosting morning meetings, immediately following our whole school Welcome Back Kick-Off! These morning meetings will be a space where students can get to know their new teacher and peers, teachers can set norms around distance learning, and start to create daily routines around the first two weeks of school. We hope all of our students will participate in these meetings especially since it will be our way of creating community for our students and class.
Academics
During the first two weeks of school, student work will be posted on Clever, for all Emerson students. Teachers will be sharing with you and your child the information for how to access Clever. Assignments will have a variety of work students can do at home, independently, while teachers and families work together creating systems for successful distance learning.
Materials
In the first two weeks of school, teachers will be in contact with parents regarding plans to pick up materials (notebooks, books, instructional materials, etc).
Please reach out with questions.
Much appreciation,
Heather Palin
Principal @ Emerson
Cheetah Scholar Challenge!
We invite all Emerson students to our Cheetah Scholar Challenge!
Students can take a picture or a video doing the dance that Ms. Kemp-Sellers is doing!
The challenge will be in effect from August 10th-September 1st!
We are asking that students upload a picture or the dance on Instagram tagging our:
- Emerson's Cheetah Squad Instagram @emersoncheetahsquad and
- hashtagging #emersonscholarchallenge
If students can't upload picture or video to Instagram - they should send it to their teachers!
Coffee Chat with the Principal
Bring your coffee for a virtual chat with Principal Palin.
Friday, Aug 14, 2020, 09:00 AM
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RSVPs are enabled for this event.
Registration Shout-Out!
If you have not yet completed registration, we will be reaching out to you individually to support.
Emerson Elementary School
Email: heather.palin@ousd.org
Website: https://www.ousd.org/emerson
Location: 4803 Lawton Avenue, Oakland, CA, USA
Phone: 510-654-7373