OSP Connected
December 2020-Office for School Performance-Volume 44
Message from Dayle
Sometimes, we find ourselves on auto pilot and a screeching of the breaks to reevaluate is a good thing. It also good for us as educators. After the newness of pass plans, technology access, "turning off your screens" and working from home, I have personally been challenged to reevalate what it means to me to be an educator in 2020. I offer you these three ah-has:
1. Social and emotional health is essential. Students who are upset due to the absence of basic needs being met, or are depressed or anxious or fearful can't learn. Investing the time and resources to support them is important. Relationships matter!
2. Some students need us more. I have always known this but in brick and mortar what we need to do to support student learning now requires steroids. My daughter, and others like her, are just fine. They have quiet work spaces and resources and adults to tutor them; that's a privledge. We have to work in radically new ways to help students without such resources. All our students can still reach levels of rigorous learning. We just need to support them differently.
3. Being educated and learning is being redefined. With tech at their finger tips, students don't need teachers to teach the low level DOK 1- "the what" of content. Teacher roles are turning to helping our students be wise consumers of the plethora of information they see, to propose new perspectives, and help students apply their learning to real problems. The lessons of the past don't meet the needs of present day.
The pandemic is hard and I know we all miss school, each other and the freedom to be in the world like we used to be. But it also offers a pause. A breath. A time to reevalute the busyness of life and help us all think about what we do and why we do it as people and educators. Since we are all experiencing this same opportunity, let's seize the moment to reprioritize and redefine.
HSD Focus 2020-2021
INSTRUCTION: Assessments, Feedback, & Grading in CDL
Assessments, one of the 5 Dimensions of HSD’s instructional framework, helps teachers to reflect on the type of assessments they utilize and how they are used to improve academic achievement. In module 8 of The Distance Learning Playbook, Fisher and Frey demonstrate the importance of feedback in CDL, the relationships between feedback and formative assessments and competency based grading. A few helpful tips in the book to help us be more purposeful with our instruction are as follows:
For each lesson, be clear with your students regarding what they are learning, why they are learning it and how they can demonstrate that they learned it.
Use asynchronous work to provide students with practice to deepen the skills taught in the synchronous lesson and for you to provide feedback so that they can improve their learning.
Graded assignments/assessments should be for the purpose of showing evidence of learning not for compliance or practice. These could be short and done during synchronous learning.
Ask yourself what you are doing to help students have ownership of their learning and how you are collecting that evidence in order to provide them with feedback. Here are some other resources that you may find helpful:
Assessment Videos from Distance Learning Playbook
Virtual Formative Assessment, TeachFlix Inservice Session
Examples of Online Demonstrations of Learning
CLIMATE AND CULTURE:
As we move into a holiday season that looks and feels very different to us, our students, and our families, we are compelled to embrace the gift of today. We may feel a loss due to the absence of a tradition or the hug of a favorite person and unsure of what the future holds. Uncertainty manifests in many ways and surfaces various emotions. Taking care of oneself is one of the most effective ways to take care of others.
Consider these reflective questions as we propel into the last month of the 2020 year:
When you were a child, did you see the adults around you taking care of themselves? What did that look like?
Where do you think your beliefs and values about self-care come from? Which experiences have informed these values?
Are there any beliefs about self-care that you inherited from your family or that you’ve absorbed over the years that you want to give up? Which ones?
Selfcare, strong focus on Social-Emotional Learning (SEL), and maintaining predictability are key components for staff, student, and family support during this time of transitions and unexpected changes. For example, to maintain the essence of morning meetings and advisory spaces for students over the Winter Break, consider sharing your routines with families to replicate in the home, encourage your students to “teach” another in their home a meaningful breathing technique, or promote responsible decision-making through a “shout-out” forum or a posting in social media. The relationships and routines established are foundational for continued momentum and smooth transition after the break. Let’s center on this well known quote, “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift, that’s why we call it the present.” Continue to be a gift to yourself, to your students and their families, and to your loved ones.
“The opportunity for resilience originates in how we make sense of the things that happen, because interpretation dictates actions.”
- Elena Aguilar
Onward: Cultivating Emotional Resilience in Educators
Additional Resources HERECAREER & COLLEGE READY: Scholarships & Financial Aid
Naviance is a web based resource for middle and high school staff, students, and families that encourages and supports post high school career and college planning. Naviance has resources such as college match search tools, a comprehensive career video archive through Roadtrip Nation and a large extensive list of local, state and national scholarships. Students have access to their Naviance account starting the second semester of 6th grade. Also staff can have accounts at any time, please contact Brooke Nova if you are interested.
For students to access Naviance they must be logged on using their HSD student account and go to their school’s Naviance site specific account (see below) or they can go to www.naviance.com to find their building site. Naviance uses SSO (single sign on). Students click on SSO and it will sign them onto their student account. Staff can share information with students using their account or through using the Student Demo feature.
There are scholarships for students to explore as early as 5th grade on the Naviance site! When students or staff enter the site, they will click on the College tab, then click on Scholarships and Money. There students and staff will find four different ways to look for scholarships, including a national site developed by Naviance and the Sallie Mae Foundation. Also by clicking on Scholarship List students will find an HSD developed list of local and state scholarships with hyperlinks that will take them to their direct scholarship site. December is the time to start researching and applying for scholarships. Naviance is a great way to organize and get started!
Your School's Naviance Website is Available NOW for Exploration!
(log-in details here)
Leading Change in HSD: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Many have asked - what does culturally responsive teaching have to do with equity and student achievement? The answer to that is complex and yet simple. It has so much to do with the work we are doing as a district when we think about knowing our students by name, strength and need while taking action on those bits of information.
Culturally responsive teaching is not a strategy. It’s more of a mindset for teaching that embraces, values, and incorporates culture into daily instruction in order for learning to connect with students. With culturally responsive teaching, students feel valued, respected when it is linked with instruction. In order to embrace an asset-based mindset, culturally responsive teachers need to understand that being bilingual is a true asset for the student both socially and globally. Growing the bilingual brain is of utmost importance. Teachers who embrace culturally responsive teaching build a classroom community that embraces languages and literacy of all types. Literacy in the native language is valued and encouraged. It is not uncommon to hear students talking and sharing in languages other than English in a classroom that is culturally responsive.Our challenge to you this month is to offer students the opportunity to share their languages with you and the class. This can be done simply in morning meeting or advisory but also through the text you interact with. Students will not only feel welcomed, valued and appreciated, they will know that their language is an asset in affirming their culture and value in our community.
Coffee Conversations: 504 Plans
This month's Coffee Conversation features a new format created by Support Specialist Adrienne Smith. Click to see multiple videos and links to help staff and students understand IEPs, eligibilities, and educational supports.
We also want to share some great news that took a whole district effort. This year's data from ODE shows an increase in the percentage of students accessing general education - to a level above the state average!! WOW! Keep up the great work; every student deserves to access quality general education curriculum and peers.
AG Video Series for 2020-21 - Two Minutes about TAG for Teachers - New this year from K-12 TAG:
These are a series of short, 2 minute videos sharing about TAG and related topics for teachers! It provided a quick way to see and hear tips and info about TAG students - identified and those not yet identified in classrooms. The goal is to provide teachers with more resources on knowing their students by Name, Strength and Need. If you have any suggested topics please let Deb Luther, TAG TOSA know at lutherd@hsd.k12.or.us.
Tech Teach Grow
Our Purpose
This digital magazine is intended to support educators with technology integration in the classroom. Our hope is to provide HSD staff with tech integration ideas, info and updates via quick digital media easily accessible at your convenience. Everything we share works with current HSD tech.
Want a different result? Try something new!
Learn What’s Next…
Follow this link to a new (2.4) #TechForward>> digital magazine focused on the Jamboard Google Meet integration and features.
Elementary Language Arts Adoption
Wonders and Maravillas Language Arts Website: The red button in the Elementary Teaching and Learning site takes you to this website. Here you will find up to date information on the implementation.
New Attendance Call Messages
Based on feedback and input from educators at both elementary and secondary, HSD has updated the attendance voice message that goes to families when a student is recorded as absent. Here is the script for the voice messages:
Elementary:
"Hello, this is [SCHOOL_NAME], as required by Oregon law, we are letting you know that your student [STUDENT_NAME] has not yet been recorded as participating in Comprehensive Distance Learning on [ATTEND_DATE]. If at any point your student engages in online learning this evening, they will be counted as attending for today. If they do not, they will be counted as absent for today. For the most up to date attendance information please login to your ParentVue account. For further questions contact your student’s teacher. Thank you!"
Secondary:
"Hello, this is [SCHOOL_NAME], as required by Oregon law, we are letting you know that your student [STUDENT_NAME] has not yet been recorded in Comprehensive Distance Learning with [ATTEND_SUMMARY] on [ATTEND_DATE]. If at any point your student engages in online learning this evening, they will be counted as attending for today. If they do not they will be counted as absent for today. For the most up to date attendance information please login to your ParentVue account or your student can login to their StudentVue account. For further questions please contact the specific class period teacher that has marked your student absent. Thank you!"