Principal's Newsletter
March 1, 2021
Principal's Message
Dear Adelante Selby Spanish Immersion families,
I hope everyone is well and staying safe. The exciting news is that a number of staff(including myself)received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine last week. Staff that are working with in-person students on campus were prioritized to receive the vaccine first as "1B" eligible. In the coming weeks, all staff that want the COVID -19 vaccine will receive it. Honestly, it was a challenge navigating the site to secure an appointment, but the refresh button was effective for me after 7 attempts! Anyway, with teachers getting vaccinated, I do expect a number of them to return to teach in-person after the Spring Break on April 5th. An important step in this process is that we will need to survey parents again to determine which families want to send their child(ren) back to in-person instruction at school. The Hybrid schedule will then be determined based on the numbers of in-person and the numbers of distance learners. Currently, the in-person classes run in the AM from 8:00-11:30 or 8:00-11:45 and the Distance Learning happens in the PM from 12:30-3:00. The current in-person teachers have also been experimenting with teaching both groups simultaneously for different times in the AM. A great example of teaching both In-Person and Distance Learner students at the same time is this short video from Maestra Suzy's class. In the video, you can see she is leading both groups of students in a SEAL Chant on Landforms(part of the Geography and Economy SEAL Unit in 3rd grade) where you can see the Distance Learning students on the television screen participating along with the in-person students in the classroom. Again, I am always impressed with the rigorous vocabulary the students use/learn with the SEAL chants! Once we have a clear idea which teachers will be returning to teach in-person, we will survey that teacher's classroom parents. Furthermore, all families should be aware that at last Wednesday's School Board meeting, the Superintendent said that all immersion students will need to be in-person next school year(starting school in August 2021). If families do not want their child(ren) to return in-person in August, they have the option of having their child(ren) attend an English-only, Virtual/DistanceLearning Academy.
Our Second Trimester is quickly coming to an end on March 10th. We will be sending home the report cards on March 12th via the US mail. The Parent-Teacher conferences will happen during the week of March 15-19th in the afternoon. For that reason, synchronous instruction will end at 11:45am all week so that teachers can get lunch and then begin their first conference by 12:30. Teachers will be scheduling the conference times and providing the meeting links for you during these next 2 weeks. Also, we already mailed out the i-Ready progress reports for Math and Reading for grades 2nd-5th. We encourage all students to complete the i-Ready lessons via CLEVER that have been assigned based on the assessment results. Maestra Maribel provided this easy to follow and clear instructional video for her students to show them how to access the i-Ready lessons via CLEVER. i-Ready recommends that students complete 45 minutes for the Math lessons and 45 minutes for the Reading lessons weekly in order to improve levels for both subjects.
I would like to spotlight and thank Maestra Elanor who has been working diligently with our Student Council. I want to congratulate and thank all the students that have been participating in the bimonthly meetings. The results of the Student Council Election are as follows:
- President: Lucia Bellver Eymann
- Vice President: Madeline Virella
- Treasurer: Yaritza Velasquez
- Secretary: Oden Grosser
The students will establish two spirit dress-up themes monthly. They are also brainstorming ideas for safe socializing events as students really miss social interactions with their friends. They have already established a subcommittee that will be working in partnership with the School Site Council on voting for our new school mascot. A subcommittee of the Site Council will be meeting on March 9th to establish the process, but we envision it will involve generating mascot suggestions(Student Council has already started this) and then sending out voting ballots a number of times to the community to narrow down and establish a winner. Our goal is to finalize a new school mascot by the end of April.
Ursula Jorgensen, MFT, and Tracy Lyons, Director from Acknowledge Alliance , hosted a Parent Meeting on "Coping with COVID(with Compassion)". The video recording of the meeting gives some great and practical tips and reminders of handling our daily stress. Coping Skill #9 particularly resonates with me as I (like many of you I am sure)tend to focus and stress out on "To Do" items and rarely celebrate "Ta Das!" things I have accomplished. Ursula just recently finished SEL curriculum with our 4th graders and has begun with our 3rd grade classes. Many of the students learn these same strategies or skills reviewed in the video like giving gratitude and breathing exercises. Additionally, Unidos recently approved YMCA Project Cornerstone's virtual ABC video lessons for families to view(the read alouds of the books) and do the activities together. Normally, parent volunteers would do the read alouds and activities in the classroom. Your family can watch these three videos on Empathy: intro video , the video narrative of the book, and the activity your family can do together. Project Cornerstone will also be offering three consecutive parent meetings from 6:00-7:00pm: March 11th: Support category - positive family communication with activity on active listening; March 18th: Empowerment category – how to help kids feel valued and why that’s important; what Shared Power looks like; ways to empower kids, and March 25th: Boundaries and Expectations category – the concept of how the word “discipline” means “to teach” not to punish; the importance of consistency, and how to set up rules in your household with an activity to practice in class.
The School Photos Day with LifeTouch has been rescheduled for March 17th and March 24th as the COVID-19 cases count has dropped significantly and San Mateo County is no longer in the Purple COVID-19 category. We have set up two Wednesdays for the school photos as there are no synchronous classes happening on Wednesdays. We are trying to limit the number of cars coming through at the same time on those days by scheduling by grade level. We understand it might be difficult for some families to come during the time allotted for your last name and that is OK. It is also fine to come at the same time if you have multiple children at our school.The process for photos will be:
- Enter/drive through the front parking lot off of Selby Lane.
- Stop and Park by the cafeteria and wait for staff to help you.
- Your child will go inside the cafeteria for the photo(escorted by staff)
- You(Parent) will drive along the side of cafeteria towards the playground
- Your child will exit the playground side of the cafeteria and get back in your car(escorted by staff)
- You will exit crossing the playground via the Himmel parking lot exit.
Read- Alouds and Good Stuff!:
“Todo saldrá bien” is a beautiful story about COVID-19, family, sadness, happiness, and hope by Albert Espinoza in Spanish.
Diversity and Inclusion Read-Alouds
Lunar New Year Celebrations
As we wrap up our Lunar New Year (Year of the Ox!) celebrations that began in February and extended for 15 days, we wanted to share a few great resources that teachers have loved using with their students. The new moon calendar dates do not correlate with a traditional Gregorian calendar - instead the changing dates always fall some time between 21 January and 20 February. Lunar New Year is celebrated in diverse ways across many Asian countries.
Videos, quizzes, online activities
NewsELA Article: Lunar New Year Comes with Pain and Resiliency
Variable reading level, Includes comprehension
Scholastic: Lunar New Year Activities & Teaching Resources
STEM: Architecture. Design a Pagoda from household materials
Grades K–2
Wellness Wednesdays is a seven-week asynchronous learning program focused on health and wellness for K-5th grade students.
Wellness Wednesday lessons for children in grades K-2 are approximately 10 minutes long. The structure and learning tools are the same each week:
Step 1:
Students watch a fun interactive video with a different topic each week facilitated by nutrition experts.
Step 2:
Students engage through online games and activities to enhance learning.
Week 2: Nutrition & Health Lessons
Kindergarten - 2nd Grade Lessons - Breakfast
3rd Grade Lessons - Nutrient Power!
4th Grade Lessons - Nutrient Power!
5th Grade Lessons - Balance Brigade
A reminder that the district has set up an informational resource for parents and the community on the district web page called the Roadmap to Reopening of Schools.The district has also included a Parent's Guide to Distance Learning and in Spanish: Guía de Aprendizaje a Distancia para Padres to help support families.
Student breakfast and lunch drive through pickup here is now on Wednesdays 3:30-4:30, or at Roosevelt, Henry Ford or Taft from 3:30-4:30 Learn more here
Office Hours
Our new school office is open to the public on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays from 8:00am-4:00pm. Parents, please note that teachers are still leaving packets and learning materials in front of the "old office" . Please call to make an appointment if you need help. All staff and visitors to campus must:
- wear a mask
- use hand disinfectant when entering the office
- have your temperature taken in the office at the kiosk so we can screen you
- complete the visitor Wellness Screening From using the QR code in the office
- keep 6 feet of social distancing at all times
Please note that the school playgrounds(including play structures and swings) and field are closed. The general public should not be on the school campus.
Please send me an email of a photo of your child learning at home or a screen shot of their project and I will try to include it in upcoming newsletters.
Please visit our school website , Adelante Selby Facebook Page and our PTO/Unidos webpage and social media accounts: unidospto.org, Facebook and Instagram for more information.
Regards,
Director Warren
3rd grade Black History Virtual Field Trip/National Geographic: Clases de Maestra Maribel
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr
Mae C. Jemison First Female Black Astronaut
Katherine Johnson NASA Mathematician
Adelante Selby Spanish Immersion Masks!
New masks!
1st grade HUB students
REACH Coordinator: Scott Rodriguez
"Coping with COVID": Acknowledge Alliance Parent Workshop
Breathe, Acknowledge, Listen, Laugh
Resilience
Human Relationships are the Heart of Schooling
4th Grade Seismograph Projects de Maestra Yesenia
Pajama Read-Aloud Storytime
Relief Maps/Geography SEAL Unit: Maestra Antonelli's class ( In-Person Hybrid students)
Antepasados/Ancestors SEAL Unit: Maestro Albert's class(In-Person Hybrid students)
Antepasados/Ancestors SEAL Unit via SeeSaw
Linea de Tiempo/Timeline project
More Lineas de Tiempo
Important March Dates
- March 2: Read Across America ; Read Aloud with Warren 6:00-7:00pm
- March 2: Unidos PTO Parent Meeting 7:00pm
- March 3: Library Book Distribution 8:30-11:30-12:30-3:00pm use Library drive through
- March 5/12/19/26: New Parent(TK or Kinder) Orientation Meeting, 10:00am
- March 11: Second Harvest Food Distribution 3:30-5:00pm
- March 11: Project Cornerstone Parent Workshop on Support from 6:00-7:00pm
- March 15-19: Parent Teacher Conferences ; 11:45 "dismissal"( Students work asynchronously in PM) Teachers will set up appointments with parents in PM.
- March 17: Picture/School Photo Day 8:00-3:00(see schedule attached)
- March 18th: Project Cornerstone Parent Workshop on Empowerment from 6:00-7:00pm
- March 22: ELAC meeting 4:00pm
- March 23: Super Minimum Day 11:45 AM "dismissal"( Students work asynchronously in PM)
- March 23: Project Cornerstone Parent Workshop on Boundaries/Expectations at 6:30pm
- March 24: Picture School Photo Day 8:00-3:00(see attached schedule)
- March 24: Library Book Distribution 8:30-11:30-12:30-3:00pm use Library drive through
- March 24: Site Council meeting 3:00pm
- March 25: Project Cornerstone Parent Workshop on Boundaries/Expectations 6:00-7:00pm
- March 29- April 2 : Spring Break: No classes for Students
- March 25: Second Harvest Food Distribution: 3:30-5:00pm