Planning for Your Upcoming Week
October 14-October 18
Mission and Vision
IDVA Mission: Building a community of engaged learners.
IDVA Vision: Empowering every student to learn at high levels.
At IDVA, we accept responsibility to ensure that every student succeeds.
Team Norms and Collective Commitments
Special Education Team Norms and Collective Commitments
Team Norms
We will honor meeting start and end times.
We will be committed to the Special Education Team and the work.
We will actively participate and be present.
We will be honest and share items, thoughts, and feelings with respect to others.
We will commit to a decision with a positive attitude.
We will encourage one another and be willing to share and help others.
We will clearly communicate needs and expectations.
Collective Commitments
We will be open-minded, respectful, and willing to share ideas.
We will ALL be active participants.
We will follow through on what we have agreed to do.
We will come to meetings prepared.
We will stay positive and do what is best for kids.Celebrations!
- In an essay from a student:
Amy Jonas is sweet, funny, kind, honest, and focused. She is always there when we need help from her. Her kindness and honesty makes her the best IDVA teacher ever!
MONDAY
- Teach
- Meetings
- Building Relationships (calls, emails)
- Staff Call at 1:00 PT/2:00 MT
TUESDAY
- Teach
- Meetings
- Building Relationships (calls, emails)
WEDNESDAY
- Teach
- Meetings
- Building Relationships (calls, emails)
THURSDAY
- Teach
- Meetings
- Building Relationships (calls, emails)
FRIDAY
- Teach
- Meetings
- Building Relationships (calls, emails)
Team Members Out of the Office This Week
Becky is out on Monday.
Kaela is out M, T, Th.
Erika has jury duty and may be out.
Amanda out on Thursday afternoon for a Medicaid meeting and Friday morning for a regional Director's meeting.
Reminders
- It is EXTREMELY important that you check each document sent to Jenny to be uploaded into Intact to ensure that it is not password protected.
- Make sure any documents uploaded to EDPlan do not contain a password.
- Formal observations start this week.
Ready, Set, Grow!
Ready, Set, Grow!
Goal: EVERY student enrolled in our school shall achieve at least one year’s academic growth each school year.
Academic Goal
1. Belief in the potential of ALL students
2. Data-driven instruction
3. Targeted small-group instruction
4. Develop a relationship with each and every studentQuarterly Progress Reports
IMPORTANT-Note Taking Accommodations
Please read if you work with students in grades 6-12!
Note-taking for IEP & 504 Students
Concerns
- Accommodation for providing notes for the student—does not seem possible for our teachers to fulfill
- If student receives notes from teacher, what value is the student getting out of them? (Passive learning?)
Questions
- What are the ways note-taking can be done by students with a variety of needs?
- What do notes include?
- Key vocab
- Highlights from lessons and CCs
- Evidence of review and connections being made between notes and content
- How does student take notes?
- Snips
- Voice commands in Word or Google
- Strategic Note-Taking Form for CCs
- Student Guide when available in course
A big thank you to Amber and Andrea W. for brainstorming and offering another option for students struggling to keep up with the new requirement for taking notes.
In both articles it describes a method of note-taking called strategic note-taking. We created a template based on the model in the articles and would like to suggest that this could be used by the special education teachers as part of their accommodations for students who struggle with coming up with a format on their own or with using formats provided by their content teachers.
This form could be modified so that students can input typed text, snips or screenshots, or voice to text. We’d like to create short videos to include with the note-taking document which explain how to use each of these features. Of course, the special education teacher would determine which inputs a given student was allowed to use for this accommodation; not all students would be able to use screenshots or voice-to-text as this would be based on their specific needs. At a minimum, however, students who are identified as needing a modified note-taking accommodation would use this form in place of any other provided or required by teachers in their courses, and course teachers would be made aware of this.
Strategic note taking form SAMPLE
Instructions for setting up Voice Recognition in Windows-Great Accommodation for Students!
- Windows start button
- Control Panel
- Ease of access
- Speech recognition
- Set up voice recognition and can use speech to text in Word
Withdrawal Procedure
The first teacher / advisor / counselor / admin to be notified of a student withdrawal will complete the withdrawal.
Step 1: Verify WD with Parent/Guardian or Adult Student (18+)
· Phone or in person (if you receive the info by email, please call to verify)
• If not possible, then email
Step 2: Ask the family for the reason for the withdrawal
· Depending on the reason, discuss potential opportunities to help the family.
• Example: if the family notes they are withdrawing due to needing socialization, have they been attending (and are they aware of) the monthly outings?
• Example: if the family notes the pace is too slow/too fast, are there modifications that could be made to help meet the student’s expectation?
Step 3: If the family still wants to withdraw, ask where the student will be attending next. Crucial for high school student withdrawals.
Step 4: Note withdrawal in TVS, including the reason and the next school.
· HS only: if the student’s ‘next school’ will be homeschooling or self-study, send the family the “Homeschool/Self-Study” form (send this link: http://tinyurl.com/HS-SS-Form032017 or found in Sharepoint 6-12 tab withdrawal information folder).
Step 5: Inform parent or adult student that they will receive a parent withdrawal survey from you and that they must fill it out to complete the WD process. Please email this right away. http://tinyurl.com/Parent-Withdrawal-052516
Step 6: Teacher, Counselor, Advisor, or Admin fills out the Withdrawal Survey
· https://k12inc.sharepoint.com/sites/WR/IDVA/SitePages/Home.aspx (scroll down to 6-12 Withdrawals link) or find the survey link on Sharepoint Home under links on the main page.
· Mark the last day of attendance on the withdrawal survey as the actual last day the student attended, not necessarily the day we are notified of the withdrawal.
Step 7: While viewing the student in TVS, please go to the Courses & Classrooms tab, scroll to the bottom, and send an email to all staff listed for the student indicating his/her WD. This is ESSENTIAL for course teachers so that they can edit and update their Small Group Class Connect sessions.
NOTE: If a family wishes to transfer to another K12 school, please contact Andrea Hampton ahampton@k12.com.
K5 homeroom teachers will complete a progress report to be sent.
Flexible Attendance Plan
As we move to Advisors and tracking of daily attendance, we are going to be offering a Flexible Attendance Plan to students who are eligible. If you are working with any families that are not schooling daily and who meet the eligibility requirements below, please email Amanda.
Flexible Attendance Plan:
As part of our partnership with you, it is important that your student:
• Follows IDVA’s late policy and completes all work by the assigned deadline
• Reserves the grace period for emergencies
• Maintains a GPA of 3.0/Maintains a B or higher in all courses
• Watches all recordings by Friday of each week
• Participates in all required state and school assessments
By completing this form electronically, you understand that it is the responsibility of the student and parent/legal guardian to meet the requirements above in order to continue with the IDVA Flexible Attendance Plan. Students who do not comply with requirements will be exited from the IDVA Flexible Attendance Plan and will be required to follow IDVA’s Attendance Policy.
Communications with Heidi Arrate/Advisors
Confidential Student Issue Records
At times our staff learns of confidential student issues. Oftentimes, these issues will affect a student’s learning, and it is important for involved staff to be made aware. Our process in these cases will be for the administrator or staff member to obtain parent permission to share with involved staff. The administrator will then send an email to or hold a brief phone conference with involved staff members to inform them of the situation.
We are obligated to ensure student privacy and follow all FERPA regulations, so it is not permissible to enter details regarding these situations in Total View notes where present and future involved staff can view them. Sometimes it may be beneficial to the student for involved staff to be made aware of an issue that occurred in the past. To accommodate this need, our process will be for the administrator to document the issue in a Word document and add an administrative password. The document will be attached to a TVS note titled “Confidential Student Issue” and will include text stating, “Confidential student issue – contact Head of School if you think you may need further information.” If you find one of your students is experiencing an issue, you can search TVS notes for possible past issues. If you find a note like this, contact the Head of School and describe your concerns. The HOS will review the documentation and determine if the information is relevant and should be shared.
This is our procedure.
- If the issue could affect student learning and/or attendance, Administrator asks the parent for permission to share with involved staff.
- If the parent gives permission, Administrator provides brief, high-level information to involved staff via email.
- The administrator documents issue in a Word document, adds the admin password, creates a note in TVS titled “Confidential Student Issue”, attaches the password-protected document, and enters text into the body of the note stating, “Confidential student issue – contact Head of School if you think you may need further information.”
- If staff member contacts HOS to inquire about a student, HOS listens to the reason the staff member may need to review past issues, reads the confidential student issue document in the student’s TVS notes, and determines what should be shared, if anything.