Old Adobe Educator Weekly Round-Up
Monday 12/14 - Friday 12/18
MESSAGE FROM SUPERINTENDENT LOWERY
Dear Educators,
Happy Winter Break and Happy New Year to all!
Whether you celebrate Winter Solice, Christmas, Kwanza, Hanukka, Chinese New Year, Las Posadas, Boxing Day, Omisoka, 3 Kings Day, or no celebration at all; We hope you get the chance to rejuvenate and spend time with loved ones.
Please click here to watch this Old Adobe Leadership Team Powtoon and allow us to say thanks for all you do each day!
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Waking up from winter break can be a challenge. As we look forward to 2021, I am excited for another year as I get to work with awesome adults to inspire our students. One of the best ways to re-engage as educators to motivate students after break is to focus on culture building. Here are a few strategies to reinvigorate the learning environment:
Aim to inspire: A little feel-good inspiration is needed as we aspire to accomplish new goals in the year ahead.
Reinforce expectations: Getting back to routines set at the beginning of the year is an important post-break culture builder.
Practice praise and positivity : We all want to feel safe sharing our ideas. Creating a positive and open environment for adults and students to express themselves is key to a strong learning culture.
Encourage self-led learning: Provide plenty of chances for educators and students to explore their own educational aims.
Set short term goals: It's easy for educators and students to get discouraged when we only focus on long distance annual goals . Both short- and long-term goals are necessary to improve performance over time. Long-term goals provide a sense of direction; they can provide something to aim for in the future. But short-term goals are also important because they provide feedback concerning progress towards a long- term goal.
To help our school communities refocus energy on high quality learning, it’s up to all of us to help educators and students remember or find additional reasons to stay excited and motivated.
Do you have any strategies to re-engage educators and students after winter break? Please share your strategies HERE, we would love to hear what works for your staff and students.
#eachandeverystudent
#OldAdobeStrong
Superintendent Lowery
Business
Household Income Forms - Due Dec 15th
Please help to remind families to complete the Household Income Form and Return by December 15. Did you know that household income levels of students' families is part of the revenue formula calculation under the Local Control Funding Formula for public education in California? Ensuring that we have an accurate accounting is critical to our revenues.
CHILD DEVLOPMENT
Weekly Update
Bright Futures Preschool has reached full enrollment at 24 students! Yay!
**Spotlight on Rebecca Hachmyer, Director of Child Development**
(Picture: Director Rebecca Hachmyer and son, Daschle, 7)
Rebecca Hachmyer joined the Child Development Department team in August 2020, working with Director Gail Ralls until the latter retired at the start of September. Rebecca holds a multiple subject teaching credential from UC Davis, a masters in Children’s Literature from Simmons College, and is a doctoral candidate in UC Berkeley’s graduate school of education. She has taught preschool, middle school, after school, and has worked with education students at Sonoma State, UC Berkeley, and SJSU. She is passionate about furthering equity and social justice in schools, fostering student motivation and parent and family self-efficacy, and ensuring that all students are supported in feeling like learners. Rebecca was born and raised in Sebastopol and has lived in Petaluma since 2009. She is the parent of a first grader and is a regular contributor to Rad Child Podcast, where she recommends-- and critiques!-- books for kids.
COVID-19 NEWS
Getting Ready for Red Video
Dr. Mase, head of county health, noted with the current infection rates across the state and country, it is doubtful that we will be moving to the red tier in January. The reality is that we may move to the red tier sometime in February. Feel free to share this video with members of the community and staff: Preparing for When Schools Can Reopen (The Spanish translation will be available soon.)
California’s Vaccine Plan outlines what categories of individuals will receive vaccines and in what order. Under this plan, front-line medical workers will receive the first round of vaccines. The second round will include other essential workers, including school staff. The county is focused on preparing for this first round of vaccines currently and therefore does not yet have information to share about how school employees will be vaccinated. SCOE will continue to work closely with the health department to support this process and communicate updates.
Here is the letter sent to the entire community last week in response to the Sonoma County Stay at Home Order that begins tonight at 12:01 AM December 12, 2020. As the order does not modify existing state guidance regarding K-12 schools, there will be no changes to the essential functions of district services or operations. The letter highlighted the specific actions and practices that will continue for us here in Old Adobe.
CURRICULUM AND PROFESSIONAL LEARNING DEPARTMENT
Just a reminder, the STAR window opens up on Monday, December 14, for the week for progress monitoring. This is an optional screener window.
CPM Teacher Tips: 6th grade teachers, are you getting the CPM teacher tips via email? If not, let me know, and we will make sure you are! Access Teacher Tip #14 HERE.
The EdTech Team offers a number of free trainings. See more below about the latest offerings - titles are hyperlinked to the recorded sessions.
How to Accurately Assess Blended Learners
How do you assess your blended students in the age of Google? Where do you even start when it comes to assessment? Emma Pass is answering these questions and giving you her top tips to create accurate blended assessments.
How to Support Math Instruction with Primary Learners
What does effective early math and numeracy instruction look like in a remote or blended classroom? Susan is diving into her top tips to help you create engaging lessons and activities around early math as well as how to assess your little learners.
Meaningful Assessments for Remote Learners
What does assessment look like in a remote learning environment? Knikole is diving into how you can meaningfully assess your remote learners as the year comes.
Supporting English Learners
Have you heard of Immersive Reader? It is a great tool we learned about in the ELL Collaborative that helps students to read by:
Dictating speech
Blocking out everything but one line to help students focus
Identifying parts of speech on the screen
Spacing fonts and lines to avoid “visual crowding”
Breaking words into syllables
Translating text into other languages (written and read aloud)
Changing the color, size and font of text to make it more legible
Using the picture dictionary to see visual definitions
Here is a video tutorial on how to set up and use Immersive Reader: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5OZmXbIUgA
FACILITIES
New Air Purifiers
Through a grant from the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria they have established the FIGR- COVID 19 Safe Classroom Clean Air Program to help facilitate the return to in person instruction by supporting the acquisition of air purifiers in classrooms serving low income students.
Each of our schools will receive form 4 to 13 of these air purifier units, depending on the of each site. These air purifiers can filter out up to 99.97% of airborne contaminants as little as 0.3 microns.
Our maintenance team will be delivering and installing them this week. We are grateful to the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria for this generous grant. This will be an added layer of protection to keep us healthy and safe.
Food Pantry Volunteers Needed
Sign Up Today:-)
We need more volunteers to ensure that we can continue this service and provide this much needed resource.
Please sign up by clicking the button below.
HUMAN RESOURCES
Did you know that as school employees, you can contribute to a 403b plan? Your contributions can also be taken pre-tax, if you wish. It is never too early or too late to start saving for your future!
STUDENT SERVICES
Are you familiar with the Matrix Parent Network?
Who They Are:
Matrix Parent Network and Resource Center is a parent-founded, parent-operated nonprofit organization founded in 1983 supporting parents of children with disabilities.
They are parent-operated by intention and design. More than 50% of the Board of Directors are parents of children with diverse abilities and needs. Additionally, most of the staff at Matrix have children with special needs; they have a deep understanding of what families are experiencing. All of their services are free, supported through grants, contracts, donations, and fundraising activities.
Matrix provides both direct services to families and technical support services to other federally-funded parent centers.
Read more about their history and beginnings here.
Matrix Parent Network Mission, Vision, and Values:
Mission
Empowering families of children with special needs to successfully understand and access the systems that serve them.
Vision
Families full of hope and confidence as their children with special needs flourish and grow toward fulfilling adulthoods.
Values
Respect. We believe that every person, regardless of ability or circumstance, shall have their values, opinions and situation treated with respect. This involves maintaining confidentiality and valuing the uniqueness of each individual. Resolving conflicts at the level at which they occur instills respect among the individuals involved.
Collaboration/Network. We believe that no one individual can move forward alone and challenges are best met by working together to find solutions.
Hope. We believe this is the foundation for optimism.
Courage. All who work with or care for children with special needs have a voice that should be heard on behalf of those children. Speaking out and advocating for one’s child and on behalf of children collectively requires courage to find one’s voice in a manner that reaches hearts and minds.
Compassion. Each individual does the best they can. Compassion for where the individual is engenders self-worth, the basis for future growth and change.
Life-long learners. Each individual, no matter what age, is engaged in learning, growing and developing as they journey through all stages of life. Resources, information, initiatives, and policies change so quickly and can be vast and complex. Staying current and making information clear and accessible is critical.
Matrix Parent Network and Resource Center
94 Galli Drive, Suite C, Novato, CA 94949
General Information: (415) 884-3535
Fax: (415) 884-3555
Helpline: (800) 578-2592
Email: info@matrixparents.org
OAUSD EVENTS SCHEDULED THIS WEEK:
December 14, 2020 - December 18, 2020
Monday, 12/14
Old Adobe School PTO Meeting @ 6:00 PM
Tuesday, 12/15
La Tercera LCAP Committee Meeting
Miwok Round Table Dine & Donate
Wednesday, 12/16
La Tercera Spirit Assembly 8:45PM
Miwok Valley Weekly Assembly @ 8:30 AM - 8:45 AM
Old Adobe Community Meeting @ 8:30 AM - 8:45 AM
Sonoma Mtn School Community Gathering @ 8:30 AM - 9:00 AM
Old Adobe School Fireside Virtual Story Night with Mrs. Clark and Mrs. Hinton 6:30PM
Miwok Valley Spirit Day
Thursday, 12/17
Board of Trustees Annual Organization Meeting 6:00PM
Board of Trustees Regular Meeting 7:00PM
Friday, 12/18
Loma Vista Spirit Day- Pajama Day
Minimum Day Release 12:00PM
Old Adobe Union School District
Website: https://www.oldadobe.org/
Location: 845 Crinella Dr, Petaluma, CA 94954, USA
Phone: 707-765-4321
Twitter: @OAUSD_Super