Bobcat Bulletin
September 14, 2020
This Week's Events
Monday, September 14
Tuesday, September 15
Wednesday, September 16
Thursday, September 17
- Send our Curriculum Night Video Today by 7:00 pm
Friday, September 18
Next Week's Events
Monday, September 21
- Kindergarten Meet the Teacher
Tuesday, September 22
- Kindergarten In-person start
Wednesday, September 23
- Virtual PTA Meeting - 7:00 pm
Thursday, September 24
Friday, September 25
Looking Ahead
Monday, September 28
- 1st and 2nd grade in-person start
Wednesday, September 30
- Extended Time
Monday, October 5
- 3rd - 5th grade in-person start
Week one Successes
- A major team effort from all fronts- paras, teachers, Shannan, Devon, Fritzy... to get the materials organized in the gym for distribution! It's taken many hands, but things are looking good.
- Managed to teach a few lessons on ZOOM using assignments on Schoology! All kids are logged on to Classlink and Schoology!
- When starting our Number Corner time on Zoom some of my students shouted "Yay Number Corner". It made me happy that they were so excited for it. :)
- Completed my first IEP!
- Despite all the new technology changes that took place this year, still made nice connections with students.
- Amongst all this week had to offer, I still fed my sourdough starter every day. Looking forward to making bread this weekend.
- Aside from wearing actual pants every day, which seems like a feat in of itself, I did not let myself get overwhelmed (huge!) or upset with the things that I can not control. (:
- Laughing with the kids and working through each Zoom issue with them.
- Getting to know my kiddos...and their parents.
- My students were willing to go along and help test, troubleshoot, and fix issues that we faced using our new tools. We were all willing to say "don't know if this will work, let's see what happens and adjust." They were flexible and patient! I was incredibly grateful to our group.
- Technology! Setting up my Schoology page in a fun and easy way for students. I actually enjoyed sprucing up my bitmoji classroom (:
- I am proud of scheduling my first zoom meeting!
- Figuring out how to link MiStar in Class Link
- All the planners got delivered to teachers
I think I actually made it home by 7:30 pm one night
Supply Pick-Up
K-2 teachers, since you are back in session so early, this may not apply to you. If you DO NOT have materials for them to pick-up (besides an EduKit) please let them know this.
Asynchronous Curriculum Night
You will also create a "Curriculum Night" presentation that families can watch on their own time. Please include the following:
daily schedule
content/units covered
behavior expectations
purpose of productive struggle
strategies to help with reading
standards based report cards
grading policies
how to contact you
These need to go out on Thursday, September 17th, no later than 7:00 pm. My apologies for the wrong date prior!
There were a couple of questions about the Report Card slide. Katie Booth at Silver Springs created a slide that you can use or copy/paste from to add to your presentation. You can use the slide that I created or you can create one of your choice. I simply wanted to help with what information to share at this point regarding the report card.
Here is a link to copy the slide: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1atlnrK2R31IAOpr6dPRgcWXYss_8D70bihmJ8chZYHg/copy
If you don't want parents to see a percentage - Video
Quick Updates
- Foss Science Kits are being delivered Tuesday
- Please remember to Record your zoom lessons and place the link back in schoology.
- NEWSELA has been purchased for the district. The link for NEWSELA can be found in Schoology (not Classlink). You will find it on the left hand side side of your Schoology page.
- The Office of Instruction Newsletter is constantly being updated with new information. You may want to bookmark the link to check it out periodically. 2020-21 Instructional Newsletter
Great new Screener from Bridges!!
Bridges assessment screeners now available online. Follow these steps:
- Log into your Bridges account,
- Click on Resources and Support 2020-21,
- Click on the overview grade level that you would like,
- Scroll down to unit 1 in your grade and click on Screener, English (Google Form).
- It also appears to auto-correct and grade it for you!
You might try using this as the pre-assessment this year! For fully Virtual teachers, you might use this as the unit pre-assessment, and the unit pre-assessment as the summative assessment at the end of the unit.
Google Assignments
It has come to our attention that there is an issue with sharing Google Assignments among colleagues and classes. Unfortunately, if a Google Assignment with an attachment is created by a teacher and then shared to resources or copied to another course/section, the attachments are not shared. All of the directions, and any grading information/rubrics will be shared, just not the document. Teachers will need to add their own Google documents to the Google Assignment that was shared/copied. If a Google Assignment is created with linked sections, the Google document will be attached to all sections. If you are sharing resources with colleagues, you may want to create a common Google Drive folder to share Google docs and slides.
If your sections are not linked and you try to copy the assignment to your other sections, the attachment will fall off and you will need to re-add it in each of those unlinked sections.
For this reason, we recommend that you link sections where possible for ease of workflow. If you are concerned about assessment timing and windows for section access, that can be handled by using the “assessments” feature and customizing the availability times for each section, or by using different passwords for each section.
LC CORNER - CURRICULUM, LITERACY & LEARNING...OH MY!
Online Literacy Resources
There have been tons of new and different things coming our way this year, so just in case you missed it, here is a collection of the online resources you have at your fingertips (pun intended) to share books and other forms of text with your students.
All of these sites/programs/apps should be accessible to you and your students through Classlink. If students needed to be rostered, to my knowledge, the District has preloaded class lists for you. If you are having trouble accessing any of these resources through Classlink or linking assignments to Schoology, reach out to the EdTech helpdesk. They should be able to help you troubleshoot, walk you through things, and provide answers. There is a lot of new for everyone and these supports are here for you. Use them. Here’s the helpdesk #(248) 344-3680
NEWSELA
Great site for non-fiction text with articles published daily in content areas that support instruction for ELA, Social Studies, Science, and even Social-Emotional Learning. DIFFERENTIATION is a big part of this resource with the same article being written at 5 different lexile levels. There are also assessments connected to each reading.
RAZ-KIDS
The District has acquired this product for all classrooms K-5. In the latest update to the Instructional Newsletter, Ed Tech is still working out some kinks and it should be ready to go September 15th through Classlink and Schoology. RAZ-KIDS is a product of Learning A-Z, so the log-ins for teachers and students are different, but should both be accessible through Classlink next week. You will be able to assign books, eQuizzes, and more to your students. Great opportunity for a digital book club with multiple kids reading the same title. There are even series of books to assign. Their selection of online books includes over 400 leveled items that you can assign to students and you can follow your students’ progression and activity online. The District has purchased the digital license and you won’t be able to print materials or books. For PD support click the Learning A-Z Professional Learning webpage !
Tumblebooks
The Northville Public Library still offers Tumblebooks. https://www.tumblebooklibrary.com/Home.aspx?categoryID=77 You can add this as an app link to Classlink using the add your own app route, want to know how, just ask LaManna. The TumbleBookLibrary Premium has over 1100 titles for grades K-6. They are animated and work well for shared reading experiences or even interactive read alouds.
F&P - Online Resources
Because F&P does not hold the copyright for the collection of books in the BookClub or Interactive Read Aloud Series, we do not have the ability to screen share those texts. We can share the Guided Reading books in real time during a small group lesson. Remember you can access all the Fountas & Pinnell Resources via the following:
User email: northville.temp.access@heinemann.com
Password: Welcome.nvsd
FYI for some reason you cannot copy/paste this. You will need to retype it in. https://resources.fountasandpinnell.com/login (make sure you are logging into the Online Resources section of the website). This can be added to Classlink for ease of access.
MobyMax
There is also MobyMax that has reading activities for independent practice, but it does not lend itself to assigning reading passages that you could then use as part of a group discussion, extension activities, or even book club.
Freckle
For many years, our upper elementary teachers and students have benefited from the PTAs funding of Freckle. Last year the cost was over $6,300 just and the price keeps going up each year. With the cancellation of last year’s Bobcat Bash and all the uncertainty of this year’s budget and the influx of new online resources, Freckle may not be renewed in January. Just something to think about has you choose which resources to start your students with this year.
NPS Assessment Windows & Intervention Cycles
You can download and print your own copy here: NPS Assessment & Intervention Dates
NEWSLETTERS/WEEKLY COMMUNICATION
As a reminder from last year, please send me a copy of your weekly newsletters. I know this is a habit for many of you. But, it never a bad thing to give a friendly reminder. This helps me know what you are communicating in case a parent has a question. That way we are both on the same page. Since your newsletters will go through Schoology, you may need to send me a seperate email.
Random Useless Facts
More people are killed annually by donkeys than airplane crashes.
- The escape the grip of a crocodile’s jaws, push your thumbs into its eyeballs – it will let you go instantly.
- Reindeer like to eat bananas.
- Most American car horns honk in the key of F
- A spider has transparent blood.
- Barbie’s full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts
- The average person falls asleep in seven minutes.
- The grain required to fill a 25-gallon SUV gas tank with ethanol will feed one person for a year.
- Baboons cannot throw overhand.
Mindful Moment
“Putting your needs first means respecting your students enough to give them the best version of yourself: a teacher with the energy and stamina to keep up with the demands of one of the hardest professions there is.” ~We Are Teachers