Gryphon Post
Week of August 17-21
WE ARE DOING IT!
I have said over and over again, to look for the "good" in everything. Well this week we encountered a different, not ever seen before, start of a new school year. However, can I share some of the highlights in our building this week:
- PARENT CONFERENCES: Our parents and scholars are getting one on one time with their teacher,
- parents are getting clear understanding of the expectations for their scholar and
- Parents are getting personalized teacher touch points and information to better equip them to support their scholars
- Teachers are getting updated contact information for ALL parents, at the BOY, before a need arises
- Whole school strong BOY half day planning meetings without the rush
- Support staff assisting in parent contacts for teams
- support staff digging into half day planning meetings and assistance of instructional delivery
- Time to stretch out PD and teacher time to implement expectations for a strong start
- Amazing step by step informational video creation for scholars from different grade levels
- The support for our family and scholar that is in great need right now
AND I CAN KEEP GOING....I don't know about you, but to know these things are happening already, does my heart, mind and body well! Thank you for ALL that you do and let's continue to LOOK for the good and then MAKE it happen! Have a refreshing weekend!
Shout Outs!
Shout out to the ENTIRE KINDERGARTEN TEAM!!!!!!! You guys are outrageously amazing and I could not get through this innovative time without you! I have truly established a bond with you guys and it’s only going to get stronger!!
Alex
Shout to Jessica for being my awesome staff support! You balance me out already! I can’t wait to tackle this year together!
Alex
Shout out to Lucy for translating my conferences! You have always been my rock and I am where I am today because of your support!
Alex
Shout out to Emily, oh Emily I love you so much! You are the BEST co team lead anyone could ever ask for! Thank you for ALWAYS being willing to help me when I need it, no matter the situation.
Alex
Shout out to Tammy for bringing the JOY and laughter to our team! Omg! You are what we need! We could not function without you!!
Alex
SHOUT OUT TO KARIS aka our tech coordinator, for making the entire virtual learning process easy for parents, scholars and especially our team!!! Thank you for being so patient and READY to teach us everything about everything!!
Alex
Shout out to Tijera and Melissa for putting together the amazing video for Leetha, I loved it!!
Alex
Shout out to Leetha for EVERYTHING you do!!! I really appreciate how graceful you handled the upsetting news we received last Friday. You are a gem! ❤️
Alex
Shout out to kinder team! They have been working so hard on getting ready for the scholars! I am so glad that I am part of your team again!-Carmen
Shout out to all the translators it has been a week!-Carmen
Shout out to Ms. Kendall for allowing me to work with her this year I’m so happy that I’m back in Kinder!-Carmen
Shout out to Ms. Salazar for teaching the Kinder team Spanish! We will be fluent one day!!!! -The Kinder Team
Shout out to the Kinder Team!!! You are all very hard workers and have your own individual talents. It makes my job as a teacher easier! Love you Alex, Emily, and Karis!!! - Tammy
Shout out to Ms. Juarez for knowing exactly what to do before I even ask. I am looking forward to working more with you this year!!! - Tammy
Shout out to 3rd Grade for an incredibly thorough SLA schedule! Great Planning = Success! Also, for the AMAZING how-to videos they made for their scholars and for other teachers on things like how to submit assignments on Schoology and a how-to for parents to sign up for Schoology! So helpful! - Leadership
I want to shout out Tayler Farrington, my amazing collaborating teacher, for co-leading our parent conversations this week and new ideas generated to engage our scholars with resources in the local community. - Kevin
I would like to” Shout Out “to All Peak Family! As a new staff member I am in all in how you acknowledge your scholars. To caring and loving them not only in school but outside. I am Blessed and excited to have joined Peak Family! - Jessica Morales
Shout out to Melissa and Tijera for doing an amazing job with intellectually preparing yourselves to lead all your coaching teams. You both are a strong model of excellence! -Leetha
Shout out to Zoe for being so willing to jump in and help out SO MUCH! I thought our team was great before, but you already make us so much better! -Kemp
Shout out to Priscilla for having such a positive, can-do attitude. I can’t imagine starting my first year with all of this craziness going on, but you are handling it like a champ (even if you might not always feel like it!) I’m so so happy you’re on our team! -Kemp
Shout out to Erica for creating and sending out the translator sign up over the weekend for me!! - Melissa
Instructional Observation Focus
Observation Focus
- Scholar engagement
- 100% of scholars are participating in daily synchronous and asynchronous learning
- Classroom Culture
- 100% of scholars are following Virtual Learning Expectations
- Teachers utilize system of rewards and consequences
- Teacher Intellectual Planning
- 100% of teachers are ready for instruction Week 1 and LPs for Week 2 are complete
- Community
- 100% of parents have access to Schoology and have connected with their homeroom teacher
Parent Communication Expectation
- Call all parents whose scholars were not present after 1 absence. Document calls in the template
Criteria for Success
Check-In Sign-Up:
Please sign up for your bi-weekly check in here. Your manager will send you a calendar invite. These are check-in slots for the first 3 weeks.
Instructional Materials for Support Staff
Please ensure that support staff has all needed instructional materials for the first week of academic content (Novels, Read Alouds, Diagnostic Materials, ETC.).
PD Schedule
STEM PD
Thank you for your authentic engagement and for your commitment to enhance your knowledge of intergrating STEM in a PYP classroom. Remember this is just the beginning.
Attendance monitoring in the upcoming Weeks
No Parent Contact... What Next?
Summer Packets... DO We Grade them or NAH?
Stemscopes Update from CMO:
We will be updating all teacher and scholar accounts over the next week or so. I will let you know as soon as the accounts are created and will give you the login information.
Afternoon Asynchronous Work Next Week?
SPED Presentation
Please view the presentation and look out for more information regarding make-up meeting dates.
Panaroma Survey: Updated Information sent out By Melissa
Hi 3-5 teachers and support staff!
I apologize for just getting you this information, but we are sharing it as soon as we got it ourselves! We will be administering the Panorama Survey to all 3-5 scholars during these first few weeks in order to get some good data on their social and emotional health especially during this time. This will be a great resource to help us be culturally responsive and trauma informed in our teaching.
For those of you who are new, we have administered this Panorama survey in previous years to action plan around how to better build relationships with our scholars and help them grow in their emotional intelligence.
What do you need to do?
- Read through the instructions for administering the survey virtually with scholars from August 18th-August 31st. Make sure to leave time for makeups! Your support staff members would be a great resource to use if scholars are absent when you administer the survey. Scholars can be pulled into a breakout room to take the survey on another day when they return.
- Gather your scholar IDs from Powerschool and give them to scholars. They will need their ID to take the survey. Click here to find your roster with student ID numbers.
- Administer the Survey! (all responses due by August 31st)
*All the team leads know all about this survey and how to administer it, so if you have questions, feel free to reach out to them!
How It Works:
Students navigate to surveys.panoramaed.com/uplift on any web-based device with access to an internet browser and enter their Student ID number as access code. The student access code is their PowerSchool Student ID, which can be located in PowerSchool and needs to be given to scholars prior to the administration.
Once the Student ID has been entered, students will see two surveys 1) their name and 2) school name and have the option to take the survey in English or Spanish. Once ready, they’ll select Start Survey.
Once finished, students select the blue Submit button at the bottom of the survey. Once they submit one survey, then they will be brought to the second survey. Once they submit both surveys, they should receive a Thank You message, confirming submission.
Instructions for Teacher administrators:
Teacher letter (contains links to proctor instructions, a survey slide deck for scholars, and primary mini vocab lesson).
Teacher Coordinator Toolkit with User Videos
Thank you all and reach out if you need anything!
MAP TESTING
This year, all K-5 scholars will take the fall administration of the MAP test remotely during the week of August 31st. Testing will take place during their Independent Work time.
More details are coming soon, but we wanted to provide some information now.
Affirm Webinar
What to learn a brief overview of Affirm®, the digital assessment, and practice tool for Eureka Math? Watch this short webinar explaining the ease of using this tool and data it will provide so you can make timely instructional adjustments.
Together Teacher Check-in: Consistency is Key! How was your Check-in with yourself, How are you managing YOU!
Wellness Wednesdays
The Wellness Wednesday dates for the 2020-2021 school year are below:
- August 12, 2020
- September 9, 2020
- October 14, 2020
- February 10, 2021
- April 14, 2021
- May 12, 2021
- June 9, 2021
- July 14, 2021
What's filling your mind, eyes and ears these days?
Free Schoology Training's
Here are a series of webinars hosted by PowerSchool/Schoology this month, targeted at folks new to the platform (but anyone is welcome!). Here is the info:
Aug 19, 2020: Using Schoology with Google and/or Microsoft
3:00 PM (Register Here)
Aug 26, 2020: Using Schoology's Communication Tools
3:00 PM EST (Register Here)
Sep 2, 2020: Course Assessments in Schoology
3:00 PM EST (Register Here)
SAFETY VIDEO FROM YASMIN
Welcome to our new Uplift teachers! I hope you had a great first week. For all of our campus staff who will begin returning to campus over the next few weeks for various reason, I wanted to make sure you had this short (less than 5 minute) video on what our safety protocols look like for staff on entering our building and keeping everyone safe while in our buildings. A much longer safety video is coming and of course, details are in our “Return to School” field
guide on Uplink that I sent out earlier this week. Again, please take 5 minutes and watch the below video.
Safety video: https://youtu.be/9OEnjcHaBEA
With gratitude,
Yasmin
Information on uplink
Staff Testing for COVID-19
See email from Yasmin. To recap, if you, as an Uplift staff member, have been tested or if you have tested positive for COVID-19, please email hr@uplifteducation.org so that the network can provide support. Uplift will not release your personal information to the Uplift community.