School Board Report April 2020
Old Town Elementary School "Work Hard and Be Kind"
Remote Learning Update At OTES
One area I believe we were well established is the role of communication in this process of REMOTE LEARNING. We have had an ongoing goal over the past two years of improved communication between home and school. This current crisis really sheds light on the importance of those lines of communication and how they can be invaluable to the process of connecting with 600 students remotely. Besides the expectations of regular contact with our families through emails and phone calls, each of our classrooms has a Private Facebook Page that our classrooms join at the beginning of the school year. They are given daily updates about activities, learning goals, and fun experiences to keep families connected to the classrooms. This really served as a perfect tool in the beginning of our remote learning experience and helped the teachers know what the families needed and could respond in a timely manner.
As we have shifted into the REMOTE LEARNING Experience at OTES, teachers in Grades K-2 are using their Private Facebook Page to upload the daily assignments illustrated on their Bingo Boards (see sample below). We have a few teachers using Class Tag or other apps that are generating conversations between home and school. Many of the teachers in Grades 3-5 have already established Google Classrooms in their instructional tools and have used this format to post assignments and to provide feedback to their learnings. Grades 3-5 are also using the Bingo Board format to guide the learning process. Students are required to do one literacy activity, one math activity, and one "chose" activity in order to complete a row on their Bingo Cards. We are finding many of our students are doing all of the activities and beyond the expectations set for Remote Learning---This has been exciting to watch the opportunities remote learning has given students and their families to explore new passions or hobbies.
Attendance: Last week was the first week we started to track attendance for Remote Learning. We asked teachers to take attendance on Friday. If present, this means the parent has communicated with the classroom teacher in some form the work on the Bingo Card has been completed for the week of April 6th. It was fun to watch all the students posting pictures on Facebook of their completed Bingo Cards and demonstrating great pride in what they had accomplished. Our secretaries would backfill all the dates between April 6-10th on our attendance tracker for the 600 students showing completion of the work. In our first week, we were able to hit 94% completion or attendance. All teachers with students or families not showing completion followed up with a call or email to the family to see how they could assist them to complete work. Some of them just needed to schedule a Google Hangout with the teacher once a week to help with motivation with their child. The power of the teacher!
Staff: Staff members are in this together! Grade level teams meet at least once or twice a week to share materials, develop the Bingo Cards, upload materials to a common folder, and just support each other as they develop a new way of instructing their students. We are blessed to have many support systems in place to guide this process. Jon Doty, our Curriculum Coordinator, has been invaluable in the process of connecting with the curriculum in a format that is doable for everyone. Regular meetings (ZOOM) with the Elementary Leadership Team have helped to hear from teachers about what's working, what they need, and how can we support their efforts. Each day, Maggie and I meet to discuss the day's events and try to send out a daily update (see examples below) to both staff members and families to keep everyone in our communication loop. This week we are dropping our daily updates to two updates a week to try to mitigate the fatigue we are all experiencing working in this mode. We have continued to meet with our Literacy and Math Coaches, who are working rather closely with the grade-level teams with planning and professional development.
Connectivity: In all aspects of this process, connectivity (and communication) has been the key. Making sure our students and families had what they needed to be successful has been a driving force behind the scenes. From the meal deliveries to the providing paper copies of our work requirements, we have tried to do our best to provide equal access to all activities in RSU 34. Early on, we sent out a survey to parents to get feedback about their ability to handle remote learning in their residences. Through the survey results and constant communication between parents and teachers, we have been able to provide Chromebooks to students in Grades 3-5 if it was needed. We have used about 50 Chromebooks to students and I believe this has helped to connect the students to the classrooms more effectively and to help with build their independence in learning. Shout to Mike Feero, our IT person, for all his dedication to getting the computers ready to go for our families.
Community Support: It seems every time I turn around, there's someone from the community asking how they can help our students and school. We have had various organizations donate gift cards to families, stock the resource center, donate books, etc.....And, if I ever put out a plead for something our students need, that is answered in a short amount of time. Amazing!
I am sure you are hearing lots of different feedback about Remote Learning in our district. I just want to go on the record in saying I couldn't be more proud of this staff and their efforts to do their jobs even under the most stressful conditions. When faced with a crisis of this magnitude, you look around and hope you have what you need to get through this moment. I looked around and found more than enough and plenty to spare. I am blessed to work with such good-hearted people. RSU 34 is lucky to employ them.
Bingo Card Samples
Attendance for the first week of Remote Learning
OTES Staff Are Amazing
Resource Center Support
Jennifer Goodwin continues to be a great support to our families throughout this pandemic. She has continued to work with Good Shepard Food Bank and develop lists of families in need of continued resource center support. We also have received lots of donations from local organizations and churches to help stock the food pantry at this time. Jennifer will be delivering 18 meals this week to our families we have identified that could use additional resources this month. We are very lucky to have so many support structures in place for our students and community.
Things we are pondering
1. How do I provide closure for my students and our class?
2. What about welcoming new Kindergarteners and families into our school this fall?
3. How do we say goodbye to our 5th graders and send them off to the Middle School ready to learn?
4. How are my students really doing? Those families that just don't share much or we know don't have a lot, are they being taken care of, feed, and given what they need at this crazy time?
Old Town Elementary School
Email: jeanna.tuell@rsu34.org
Website: rsu34.org
Location: 576 Stillwater Avenue, Old Town, ME, USA
Phone: 207-827-1544
Facebook: facebook.com/RSU34OTES