Important Information!
5.1.2020
Hello,
I hope all is well with you and you enjoyed your PD today. As an update, there have been 603 unique student users in the last six days. Yes, we found one more! Those 603 students viewed Schoology just under 49,000 views this week. While this is a slight decrease from the previous week, those views still resulted in over 3,300 Schoology discussions and over 2,800 assignment submissions. This is a combined increase of 13% from last week.
This along with over 2,600 assessment and quiz submissions has increased the view to submission rate from 16%, last week to 18% this week. If you would like a closer look at these stats just click on the picture in the upper right-hand corner. Thank you for your continued efforts to engage students in this virtual environment.
Please make sure to also review all the info below, and if ever you need to access previous important information emails, please click here. This link will take you to a Google Doc that contains previous weeks' information. Enjoy your day, please wash your hands, take care of each other, and don't forget to exercise.
- From Admin: A big shout out to all of our teachers for hosting NVMS's first "virtual" conferences last night. Your work within the last week to provide our families with a meaningful conferencing experience on such short notice is greatly appreciated. If you have time, please consider providing us with feedback on your experience.
- From NVMS Parent: We have had an amazing experience at NVMS during this transition. Kennedy has never not been able to connect with an NVMS teacher. Your administration and your teachers have got it down. Keep up the great work!
- From Ms. Beardsley: Huge Shout Out to Brenda Roberts! The most amazing Due Process clerk in the world! Truly the best! Thank you for everything you do. You are Amazing in every way!!
- From Ms. Beardsley: Shout Out to Brenda Burdick-Levang! Thank you for taking on so much in the midst of all this craziness. You got this girl! We support you. Welcome to our community!
Do you have a message of congratulation, support, or appreciation that you would like to share? If so send it my way and I will include it in the staff shout out section of the important information email.
Information For All
Monday, May 4th
Monday, May 4th has been designated as a required staff development day by Commissioner Ricker. This staff development day will be held remotely. The plan for professional development activities for all staff has been included below. ESPs are paid for this day and will be included in these learning opportunities.
Non-Licensed Staff Schedule
- ESP Check-in meeting with Ms. Dale (8:00 am - 9:00 am)
- ESP Professional Development Opportunity (9:20- 12:00 pm)
- Duty-free lunch (12:00 pm -12:30 pm)
- Equity Foundational "Digital Checklist" Training* (12:30 pm -2:30 pm)
*Equity Foundational Training specifics will be sent out shortly.
Licensed Staff Schedule
- Grade level meetings (8:00 am - 9:00 am)
- Optional Department & PLT check-in meetings: This would be a time for departments to discuss department related items or for you to connect with PLT facilitators about your end of the year assessment. (9:00 am - 10:00 am)
- Sustaining operations, a.k.a. prep (10:20 am -12:30 pm)
- Duty-free lunch (12:30 pm -1:00 pm)
- Equity Foundational "Digital Checklist" Training* (1:00 pm -3:00 pm)
Room Packing Schedule
Please review the room packing schedule found here. One thing to note is that our timeline has been accelerated because of a first-floor tile replacement project. Items to note about the schedule and room packing are below:
- The schedule is staggered to adhere to social distancing and large gathering restrictions.
- Teachers will be expected to continue to perform their teacher duties for the day. This includes hosting your office hours.
- We have been told by district officials that there will be no time carding of any staff for packing, moving, etc.
- More information about packing specifics will be sent out early shortly by Ann Dale.
If you have any questions about this or need additional time or assistance to complete this task, please reach out to Ms. Bledsdoe as soon as possible and she will assist.
NVMS Distance Learning Links Hub
If you’re like Mr. Berg it is very possible that you have struggled at times to keep the various links, spreadsheets, and docs we are now using on a daily basis organized. As a result, he put together this hub of various links to help you stay organized. If there is something you would like included send it to Mr. Berg, and he will add it.
Reminders For Non Licensed Staff
Virtual Reppin’ Knight Pride Certificates
- The form found here has been created to provide you with an opportunity to positively acknowledge our students who are showing Knight Pride in this distance learning environment. Students who are acknowledged by staff will be sent a certificate, a sweet treat, and will receive a positive phone call home to share this acknowledgment with their family members. Please consider nominating a student next week.
During the closure the following is expected of all NVMS ESPs.
- Complete NVMS Daily Work Summary every day by 2:30 p.m. This will require you to be logged into your Osseo Area Schools apps account.
- Complete online professional development from HR and your union representative. I have included the instructions for Safe Schools Courses and Online Professional Development courses with this email. The instructional guide for accessing materials can be found here.
- Complete your performance evaluation form for your end-of-year meeting. Ms. Dale has sent out a copy.
Reminders For Licensed Staff
Virtual Reppin’ Knight Pride Certificates
- The form found here has been created to provide you with an opportunity to positively acknowledge our students who are showing Knight Pride in this distance learning environment. Students who are acknowledged by staff will be sent a certificate, a sweet treat, and will receive a positive phone call home to share this acknowledgment with their family members. Please consider nominating a student next week.
Student Attendance:
- We are currently using an opt-out process; this means that unless a parent calls in to report his/her child’s absence, we will assume they are in attendance. Mary Anne Maurer will be checking daily attendance calls and recording that information into Synergy. If you know that a student is absent due to illness or for another reason, please forward that information onto Mary Anne Maurer as well.
Teacher Expectation for Attendance Monitoring:
- Per the district's flex learning plan, licensed teachers are expected to be making daily contact with students. This can be done either via phone or through Schoology discussions or a Google Meets class session, etc. This does not have to be one-on-one contact and it does not have to be synchronous to your Google Meets office hours or your duty day. You just need to see students engaging with class materials at some point during the day. If you do not have contact with a student for two days in a row, please attempt to call the student and notify Mary Ann Maurer, your grade level SMS and counselor on the third day.
Reporting Expectations:
- During this time, as long as you report a summary of your daily work using the form found here by 3:50, you will be paid your regular salary or hourly wage according to your regular work schedule. This will require you to be logged into your Osseo Area Schools apps account.
- Licensed staff- your duty day will be from 8 am to 3:10 pm.
Pic of the Week
Resources For Staff
CONSCIOUSNESS DEVELOPMENT
Tech Tidbit: Course Options Menu in Schoology
Your course options give you access to course administration tools, such as View Course As, the Recycle Bin, and Privacy Settings. Knowing how to use these tools can make you a Schoology Boss! Click HERE to access this information.
Flex Learning Resources & Supports
Fitness with Ms. Gross
Important Links
You can manually add the links below to your desktop. If you do not how to do manually add these links to your desktop, please watch the video found here.
Pacific Interpreters
- Interpreting services information can be found here.
If you have questions about:
- Your work responsibilities between now and May 4: contact your direct supervisor.
- Your pay: contact Payroll at payroll@district279.org.
- Your benefits: contact Human Resources at HR@district279.org.
- How to access confidential support during these challenging times: take advantage of our Employee Assistance Program.
Flocabulary Login Link
Click here to access the district Flocabulary account.
BrainPop Password:
The BrainPop user id and password are below and case sensitive.
- User Id: NVMSBRAINPOP
- PW: knights6
Google Nods
If you haven’t already done so you might want to add Google Nod to your list of Chromebook extensions. It provides quick emoji reactions for muted team members during virtual meetings. It is also very helpful to the facilitator because it allows us to gauge real-time feedback as were are speaking. This is just a suggestion, not a requirement.
Professional Development Articles for Staff
If you would like to use this time for professional development consider visit the site found here using the log included below. This site is filled with a variety of information on a wide variety of topics that impact educators.
- User Id: bledsoed@district279.org
- PW: nvms279
Virtual Reppin’ Knight Pride Certificates
The form found here has been created to provide you with an opportunity to positively acknowledge our students who are showing Knight Pride in this distance learning environment. Students who are acknowledged by staff will be sent a certificate, a sweet treat, and will receive a positive phone call home to share this acknowledgment with their family members. Please consider nominating a student next week.
PBIS Distance Learning Incentives
Looking for a way to positively recognize your students during distance learning? If so click here for more than seventy-five incentive ideas.
COVID-19 Resources
I am worried about COVID-19. What resources are available to me?
Here are some of the specific resources included in the HR FAQ (the most updated FAQ is posted on my279).
- District 279 website: https://www.district279.org/covid-19/
- Employee Assistance Program: https://www.district279.org/human-resources/51-services-departments/human-resources/573-employee-benefits?start=7 (24 hour, anonymous employee access for general needs or concerns)
- Tips for dealing with the Coronavirus: https://www.district279.org/human-resources/51-services-departments/human-resources/573-employee-benefits?start=7
- Education MN: Coronavirus resources
- National Education Association: http://neatoday.org/2020/01/06/schools-and-coronavirus/
- National Alliance on Mental Illness: https://www.nami.org/getattachment/Press-Media/Press-Releases/2020/COVID-19-and-Mental-Illness-NAMI-Releases-Importan/COVID-19-Updated-Guide-1.pdf?lang=en-US
- Minnesota Dept. of Health COVID-19 public hotline: 651-201-3920; open 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Mon-Fri.
Our Commitments:
We, the staff at North View Middle School, commit to…
- Providing challenging academic opportunities that are relevant, engaging, culturally responsive, and rigorous.
- Providing a meaningful, encouraging and safe environment that fosters the whole child, and focuses on student strengths.
- Including data driven best practices and instruction that meets the academic and individual needs of our students, improves student achievement, and promotes growth.
- Engaging in continued professional development to ensure that we are aware of our students’ racial perspectives, challenge our biases, and include practices that serve our diverse student population.
- Providing effective collaborative partnerships with the entire school community by ensuring that we encourage multiple opportunities for involvement, communication, and access.
- Modeling and implementing daily engaging multi-level reading and writing strategies within our classrooms.
- Accepting responsibility for each student’s success and celebrate that success with our school community.
Our Mission!
Committed to furthering the lives of each student by using the best practices available.
Email: bledsoed@district279.org
Website: http://schools.district279.org/nvms/
Phone: 763-585-7200
Facebook: www.facebook.com/nvmsknights/
Twitter: @NVMSPrincipal
Report Reminder
- From March 18-27, unless otherwise directed by your supervisor, you will work remotely.
- During this time period, as long as you report a summary of your daily work using the form found here by the end of your duty day, you will be paid your regular salary or hourly wage according to your regular work schedule. This will require you to be logged into your Osseo Area Schools apps account.
- You are required to be available and accessible for either on-site or remote work during your regular work hours. You must be ready to report to work on-site or remotely at any time.