Dodgeland Middle School News
October 11, 2020
Message from Principal Johnson
The beautiful colors on the leaves at this time of the year remind me of one thing that is constant in life: change. While change is inevitable, I recognize that the change we have been facing during the pandemic has not been easy. School is different than it has ever been before with precautions in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19. While no one likes to wear a face covering or remain spaced apart from friends, colleagues or family members, they are new practices we have had to learn. Most of our students follow these practices well and I believe that is why we have been able to remain in school in person for so long. Students have remained home when they felt symptomatic or believed they had been in contact with someone who was positive for COVID-19 and we thank you SO much for taking these precautions to ensure the health of others!
We have been so lucky to continue to provide our students with learning activities in the classroom to keep them engaged in ways that are so different than from home. In addition, we have been able to have a modified sports season. All of these activities that we know many students across the state have been unable to have. Our continued precautions help us to be able to continue to provide them.
As we had our first positive cases within the building that required us to conduct contact tracing and inform families of students that needed to be quarantined for 14 days is when precautions became more difficult. We know that teenagers are social and it is SO hard to be away from friends. However, if one student has been notified of the need to quarantine, they may be an asymptomtic carrier of COVID-19 and possibly spread it to others. We have students who have chosen blended or virtual learning out of precaution and we also have students at home due to needing to quarantine. We want to make you aware of the possibility that if students gather socially outside of school, you may not be aware of students who have been directed to quarantine and potentially put your child at risk. While we know how hard it is to maintain social distancing (trust me-we remind students all day in the school building), we encourage you to continue to support this message with your children.
Keeping Kids Safe Month
Mrs. Lori Henthorne receives University of Chicago Outstanding Educator Award
Lori Henthorne, an art educator at Dodgeland School District in Juneau, Wisconsin received the University of Chicago Outstanding Educator Award. An Outstanding Educator shapes young minds in meaningful ways—thoughtfully approaching instruction, sharing an infectious love for learning, and caring for students both inside and outside of the classroom. Each year, newly admitted University of Chicago students have the opportunity to reflect on their time in school and nominate an educator who played a significant role in their education, made a positive impact in their lives, and whose influence has brought them to where they are today.
Ms. Henthorne was nominated for the Outstanding Educator Award because of her passion for excellence that is evidenced in her art classes as well as coaching Dodgeland’s highly successful Academic Decathlon teams to the multiple state competitions. Having taught for the Dodgeland School District for 33 years, her positive impact has been a gift that generations of Dodgeland students have experienced.
The University of Chicago is honored to recognize excellence in teaching and sincerely congratulates this year’s Outstanding Educator Award winners, who are exceptional in their field and role models for all students. The University deeply appreciates the lively minds who thirst for knowledge that these educators have nurtured and inspired. We thank them for going above and beyond the call of duty every day and leaving an impression that will be carried over a lifetime. Please join us in congratulating Mrs. Henthorne!
What's been happening at DMS...
MS Football
MS Volleyball
Hands on science solving for velocity
Students working on foot building foot orthosis prototypes in PLTW.
School Calendar Change - P/T Conferences
Student Absences/Logging in for Live Instruction
We ask that students continue to complete this daily self-check each morning: https://bit.ly/DSDscreener We want students to remain home if they have possible symptoms of COVID-19, however, we want learning to continue. The BlueJeans platform for blended learning is for students to continue learning while sick or quarantined. ALL students have been taught how to login to BlueJeans and how to find the code for each teacher. In order for us to mark a student’s attendance as present, the student must follow their daily schedule by virtually attending each class in BlueJeans. This is a new attendance process that we are continually working on, so we appreciate your patience. Some notes for parents to know about our attendance process, with changes from last week’s newsletter highlighted in bold for you to see the difference:
We still need you to call the office in the morning (or email attendance@dodgeland.k12.wi.us) to notify us that your child is staying home and for what reason.
The office will keep track of this list each day. Teachers will check BlueJeans during each class period to see if students are in virtual attendance and mark it appropriately.
If a student does not login to BlueJeans, they will be marked absent (if there has been no parent contact). The office will enter the absence in PowerSchool if a parent calls so it is excused (and so parents don't receive the attendance call) and then teachers are informing the office of students being online so the office can change it to present online. If a student doesn’t sign into BlueJeans and gets marked absent and we receive get a parent contact regarding the absence, the attendance call will go out.
If a student does not login to BlueJeans, they will be marked absent.
A student does not need to login to BlueJeans for a Study Hall, they should just use this time for school work.
If a student has tech issues during a class, the student should email the teacher to inform them of their attempts to get into class. However, please know teachers will not see this during class, but can follow-up with the student later about how to catch up.
Need Technology Help?
Contact Dodgeland Technology Department through the Help Desk Ticket: http://bit.ly/DSDHelpDesk.
About Dodgeland Middle School
Email: johnsonj@dodgeland.k12.wi.us
Website: http://ms.dodgeland.k12.wi.us/
Location: 401 S. Western Ave. Juneau, WI 53039
Phone: 920-386-4404
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DodgelandSchool/