The Faculty Family BobChat
April 19, 2020
What Are We "Stressing" about E-Learning?
Was this the picture at your house this week? We have just concluded our fourth week of E-Learning. There is no question that this process can be stressful. As I've listened to teachers and parents over the past few weeks, we are learning from each other so we can best teach our kids. Here's some guiding thoughts for all of us to help keep perspective. 1. Keep expectations high but realistic. As parents and teachers, we want our kids to learn as much as they possibly can during this time. (Yes, they really can learn lots right now.) But, we are also juggling the realities of financial stress, isolation, self-care, and appropriate health care (among 1000 other things.) We must all figure out what's the right balance between what's enough and what's too much for remote learning. Each family has unique situations and needs and challenges. What is too much instruction for some is not enough for others. We are all trying to balance that tension of doing what's doable. 2. Let us know how it's going. We are realizing as teachers that our roles have shifted from "direct to support." Two months ago, we were on the front lines and we needed your backup. Now, you are on the front lines and we are the backup. Just as we have always worked to tailor our instruction to the individual needs of kids, we want to extend that effort to you as our partner teacher. Whatever the problem is, we can work with you to help your child be successful. If you're unsure what's most important, let us know. If you don't know how to send in work, let us know. If your child just isn't "getting it," let us know. If you are hitting the wall and are stressed to the max, let us know. I've said it countless times that we can't respond to what we don't know. Our staff wants to know the issue or concern so we can provide the support you and your child need. 3. Focus on best effort not perfect work. Work turned in doesn't have to have everything spelled correctly in kindergarten. We don't expect dissertations for fifth grade. We simply want to see your child's best effort. Honestly, we know where they left off with us. If you're spending tons of time getting the work "just right" before we see it, we appreciate that effort but that may not be helpful to your child (or to you) or to us so we can know what we really need to support. Picking one or two teaching points for improvement are much better than making a 100 on the assignment. During this time, we have the luxury of focusing less on the grades and more on the learning. What is that next best step in your child's reading, writing and problem solving? If you don't know, just ask us. (Just like we expect best effort from your child, your best effort in teaching your child is good enough. No need for guilt trips.) We want you to hear our cheers for you. You have always been (and always will be) your child's first and best teacher. Now, that role is a little different than it was a month ago. We appreciate all you do and know that we stand with you during this time. Hear our applause for your effort. More than ever, we are "One Team on One Mission for One Rock Hill." Blessings and strength to you.
Mr. Maness, Principal
Family Matters (For Our Staff Only)
2. Support Staff of the Year Nominations Are Due Monday, April 20--Employees who have less than two years of experience in the area of nomination should not be nominated nor should employees who plan to retire during the year in which they would represent their school. Employees should have at least two years in the district in the position they would represent. All applicants must be district employees and not employed through a district vendor. Click on this link to nominate: https://forms.gle/tL5TuVwsE3oyKUzJ9
2. Presenting at our Fall 2020 Professional Learning Conference--I would encourage all of you to consider presenting at the conference in the fall. So many of you have such good strategies and ideas. Read on. We are asking all school and district level coaches, principals and assistant principals to strongly consider submitting a proposal to present at the 2020 Professional Learning Conference. Please see the information below. This link allows access to a document that outlines focus areas for the conference sessions. Presenters may select presentation topics that address any of the focus areas outlined in the overview. Proposal Submission Form--Click Here
2. Remote Working and Grading Guidelines--Are posted in the tabs below. I sent them in email but wanted to make sure you had them. Please review them if you haven't already.
3. Weekly Grade Level PLC Meetings Via Zoom--See below for schedule. Grade chairs, please send an invite to Kendyl, Susan and me to join. We will participate as often as we can. Resource/Support Teachers (Kristina, Martha, Vicki, Heather and Susan), let's set up a weekly time to meet with you as well. Know that your meetings don't have to be long. The purpose is to have a weekly time to connect and help each other with instruction. If you're wondering what a good agenda might be, here's what I would suggest:
1. Personal Check In--Any high's or low's from this past week personally?
2. Instruction--What are you finding that's working well for you? What problems can we work together to solve? Are there resource or staff development needs?
3. A Look Ahead--What are we teaching in the next week and how are we planning to do that?
4. Questions for Administration
As always, you choose what works best for your agenda but we still want to stay focused on our 4 PLC Questions: 1. What do students need to know? 2. How will we know if they know it? 3. What will we do for those who didn't learn it? 4. What will we do for those who already learned it?
Group Meetings By Days of the Week
Mondays--9:30 Office Staff; 12:00 Fifth Grade; 2:00 Third Grade
Tuesdays--9:00 Related Arts; 3:00 Faculty Meeting
Wednesdays--8:00 Kindergarten; 1:00 Fourth Grade; 2:00 Second Grade
Thursdays--11:15 First Grade
Fridays--9:00 Resource/Support
Group Meetings By Grade Level
Kindergarten--Wednesdays at 8:00
First Grade--Thursdays at 11:15
Second Grade--Wednesdays at 2:00
Third Grade--Mondays at 2:00
Fourth Grade--Wednesdays at 1:00
Fifth Grade--Mondays at 12:00 (Please note the change!!)
Related Arts--Tuesdays at 9:00
Resource/Support--Friday's at 9:00
Office Staff--Monday's at 9:30
6. Birthdays
May 2--Emily Anderson
May 7--Arianna Barbaran
May 9--Molly Garrard
May 12--Mandy Riley
(If your birthday is not listed this month, please let Mr. Maness know.)
7. Terrific Kid Recognition Video Process--Heather Rollings and I are working on this to get it out. Thanks for sending in your video. We are also working to clean up having easier access to our shared drives in Google so you can more easily know where to put things as needed.
8. Teacher Appreciation Week--Was scheduled for next week for CPES by out PTO. Normally (and nationally), it is the first week in May but that is a bad week for us due to testing. Most likely, we will reschedule it for later when/if we get back to school. Just wanted you to know we didn't miss it and we certainly appreciate all you are doing right now. We will celebrate it no matter what sometime in May.
School News
1. Grading Guidelines for Fourth Nine Weeks--Click on the button below for a video concerning how students K-12th grades will be graded this nine weeks. Please do all you can to have your child (or help your child) to regularly turn in their work so we can assess them appropriately.
2. Notification for School of Choice--Should happen this week. For all rising kindergarten students who receive a spot, know that your acceptance is not complete until you do your online registration. Click on the button below in order to register your rising kindergarten student.
3. Need Help? If you need assistance, please contact the district at helpme@rhmail.org or call our dedicated phone support hotline, 803-980-2016 between the hours of 8:30 a.m. – 3 p.m. on weekdays. You can also access resources on our District webpage: https://www.rock-hill.k12.sc.us/ (Please see below if you need technology assistance.)
5. Spring Pictures Refunds--We have decided to cancel Spring Pictures. If you have already paid online with Lifetouch, they will refund your credit or debit card. If you wrote a check, we will give your check back to you.
6. Refunds for Field Trips that Will Not Be Rescheduled---Know that once we are back in school, we will let you know of the process to request refunds for any field trips that could not be rescheduled. We are not able to process those requests at this time.
7. Opportunity to Help--This is from Mary Ann Kennedy, one of our CPES parents: "I don’t know about all of you, but I’ve felt helpless in this time of crisis trying to figure out how to help. My family is collecting individually wrapped snacks to make snack bags for healthcare workers. We all probably know someone that works at a hospital or a senior living place, and it is a difficult time for them. Let’s show them a little love and appreciation for what they do. If you would like to provide snacks or drinks, there is a plastic tub outside of our church on the porch of the office- Northside Baptist- 1140 Curtis st. off of Dave Lyle Blvd. I’m going to pick it up everyday between 3-4. If you can’t get there, but would like to help please send me a private message- tigerunner2000@gmail.com."
Update Your Contact Info
Remote Learning
Staff Email Addresses and Office Hours--Can be found in the links below.
Technology Assistance--For technical issues such as logging into Canvas and Launchpad, connecting to wifi, resetting passwords, device troubleshooting, etc., the Rock Hill Schools Technology Department staff will be on-call from 8:00am - 8:00pm and can be reached via email at helpdesk@rhmail.org or via phone at (803) 985-3531. Technology help tutorials will be published at: https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.rock-hill.k12.sc.us%2Felearning&data=02%7C01%7CPMANESS%40rhmail.org%7C10c38360cc8d442c802808d7cdca73c5%7C57b835c11a6c40088e2fb2a16e5f738a%7C0%7C0%7C637204141727260450&sdata=YuZ8uNvg%2BLbNyY%2FZF9ppuTRY2C1dJRTrYoa2JBVDLSw%3D&reserved=0. Click on the Parents & Students button in the left-side menu for access.
Or your child's teacher can submit a tech request as they normally would. Each school tech is still monitoring tech requests as usual.
French and Spanish Resources--Click on the button below for some helpful resources to support your child in continuing to learn a second language.
Need Wifi Access? See below flyer from Comporium about how to access free Wifi for 60 days.
PTO and SIC Information
Parent Teacher Organization and School Improvement Council Update
The PTO serves to raise funds, coordinate volunteers and encourage teachers through appreciation activities. Click on the PTO Newsletter button below if you wish to receive the PTO Newsletter: PTO and SIC are tentatively planning to meet on the second Monday of each month next year. School Improvement Council meets at 5:30 (in the Fish Bowl) and our Parent Teacher Organization meets at 6:30 (in the Media Center.) Elections were held in the spring for these organizations but all parents are welcome to attend to help provide input and volunteer. Meetings will be held on March 9, April 13, and May 11 (if needed.)
Calendar of Events
All school events before, during and after school have been canceled until May 1.
May 21--Kindergarten, First and Second Grade Field Day (in AM)
June 1--9:00 AM Fifth Grade Graduation (Sullivan Auditorium)
June 2--Third, Fourth and Fifth Field Day (All Day)