Betsy's Bits
April 26, 2020
Catching Up:
Please continue to give your students and families patience and grace as we move into our second week teaching new material, third week since Spring Break, and the seventh week not in the school building. Our main focus continues to be ensuring our children are alright. We want to see them online. If it isn't possible for kids to make Google Meets because of conflicting schedules, reach out and make sure they are alright. We now have the capabilities to call making it look like we are calling from the school number. If you find out they need a laptop, please email me. If you find out they need food, please get them the information on our food hubs. If a family needs anything, please let me know so I can reach out and seek other resources.
If you need anything from your classroom, please contact Evan. He is there on M,W, and F's and will pull what you need and set it outside for you to retrieve.
Here's a reminder of somethings I sent out previously. I know how hard it is to keep up with everything, so I wanted to put it in one place:
- Expectations online for teachers and students. Please make sure student expectations are posted in your online learning platform.
- Teams should send out a "Week at a Glance" for parents and students. Exploratory teachers should also post and send out for your classes, too. According to parents that took the survey, they just need to know what to do without wading through everything to find it. You can highlight updates and important information for the week ahead (kind of like Bits) and send it weekly as a reminder. This is in lieu also of so many emails.
- Google Classroom users must send parent email invitations to join. Canvas teachers need to email directions on how to set up parent access to Canvas. Some parent emails can be obtained through PowerSchool. You also can try posting a Google Form asking for these in your online learning platform, and here are the emails obtained from parents that completed our survey. Marci at Central Office sent a spreadsheet with student emails.
- If you would like to see who has checked out a laptop, click here.
- If you would like to see if a counselor or one of our TA's have reached a family that you cannot reach click here. They are noting the best number to reach in one of the columns.
We collected $1200 in the love offering for the Davis family. I completed the online purchase of three ($500 is the max for each) Visa Gift Cards that are being sent to Robert. The family has shared their appreciation of all the support SLMS has given them during this time. Thank you to Angie Hegwer for taking on Natalie's ELA students and Jen for taking on her Social Studies students a few weeks ago when she was too weak to continue. Thank you to Anna Whalen for pulling together memorials from staff and students for Levi and Robert. Wendi Wicker did a fantastic job articulating what a wonderful teacher, coworker, and friend Natalie was in this week's Sanford Herald article. We are so fortunate to work with such a loving, kind, and giving staff. Today is Natalie's first birthday in heaven. I was told that the family was celebrating with a cookout this afternoon.
We have filled a couple of positions for next year. The language arts position has been accepted and approved by the LCS Board by Haley Yow a hometown girl and former Stallion which will be graduating from Meredith next month. The health and PE position is being filled by KT Staffaroni. KT taught middle school students in SC and has been in a Montessori elementary school in CO. She is originally from PA . I got KT in contact with Heather Hughes to help her family find housing. She hopes to be here in July.
Kim Vaughn has asked to move up to 8th grade social studies after the announcement that Sarah Yoder would be taking on a new roll as an Administrative Intern next year at SanLee. We are still looking for someone to join the custodian team, 7th math and social studies, and 6th grade science. Please let me know if you know of anyone wanting to join our wonderful team and encourage them to apply in Teacher Match online.
Allison Hickman, Yanira Scott, and I met virtually Friday to discuss exploratory sign ups for rising 7th and 8th graders. Our goal is to have everything in place by Monday, May 4. This will be done through our exploratory teachers with their A day classes. More information for all teachers to post online will be coming this week.
I believe I have ClassCreator all set up to send out to Core Teachers. My goal is to get that out by Wednesday. This would be a great task to be completed by teams TOGETHER on Friday's optional workday. After Core classes have made their recommendations, I will open it up for exploratory teachers and counselors to put notes in about issues, separations, and/or needs. We are waiting on word from Gail Smith, LCS AIG Director, as to how to apply the advanced classes rubrics fairly with no EOG and a 3Q school year. Hopefully these questions will be answered before Wednesday....
Coming Up:
Mark Your Calendars:
Virtual Spirit Week! Please participate, post, and share your pics with hashtag #totalLeetogetherapart Sending pics via email is also great!
Monday: Food Hub, Leadership Team Meeting @2, Grades need to be finalized today. See Yanira's email for directions and formWednesday: Look for information on Exploratory sign ups AND ClassCreator.
Thursday: Virtual Happy Hour and Bingo 4pm (click here to fill out the form if interested)
Friday: Optional Workday (from home - we will send out a Google Form for you to let us know if you are working or taking it off).