Week of January 7th...
LA Staff News
Week-at-a-Glance
Monday:
Teacher Work Day. Art has gathered a to do list based on informal teacher conversations of what needs to be discussed.
Grades due at 11:00 AM. Please make sure there are NO blank grades (--) in your grade book. This will require a form to be filled out by you for the Registrar for every one of these that shows up.
Tuesday:
Wednesday:
Thursday:
Friday:
To do this week:
-Please schedule a time for the office to meet with the new advisories!
-Please give Justin and Melissa a date and time for our drills this week (20 minutes).
-Please determine a time for the administration of the Panorama (Social-Emotional Learning survey that replaced the Gallup) survey to students
Upcoming dates to note:
1/7-8: Mark and Jared out for a coaching conference
1/11: HOPE Award Nominations due to Foundation
1/22: Panorama Survey Administration Deadline
1/24-25: Mark is gone to the BIST Leadership Conference
1/28: Visible Learning at LA 8-11 (Art, Chad, Summer, Melissa)
1/31: Visible Learning Cohort in PM (Summer and Paul)
2/28: HOPE Awards at HMS
Personal Initiative
· Motivated to do personal best at all times
· Demonstrates perseverance in reaching a goal to improve in a subject area/behavior
· Displays high level of respect for self and others
Courage
· Met a significant challenge during the school year
· Attended school regularly and achieved personal success
· Maintained a positive attitude during a difficult time
Humanitarian
· Demonstrates compassion, care and kindness to others
· Sees the needs of others and tries to meet those needs
· Displays a selfless attitude by putting others before self
Integrity
· Behaves as a positive role model for other students through attitudes and actions
· Concerned for the success of school groups and events rather than personal recognition
· Acts honorably and honestly toward fellow students and staff
Community Service
· Devotes time, leadership and commitment to a community organization
· Actively involved in making the world a better place through service
· Encourages others to participate in community service/charitable organizations
Nominations due ASAP! Can we take a few minutes on Monday to get our names selected?
Liberty Academy Staff Member of the Year
Final Grades Due at 11:00--Instructions from PowerSchool
On or before the date and time grades are scheduled to be Saved by PowerSchool staff, teachers complete the following tasks:
a. Ensure all grades are entered into the gradebook in the correct Reporting Term (S1 or S2) for each student in each section. Save your gradebook often during data entry. When you are done entering grades, recalculate the final grade (Tools Menu) for each section and review the final grade for each student in each section ensuring it is accurate (make changes as errors are found).
b. You are NOT required to “Mark Final Grades Complete” for PowerSchool staff to save your grades.
c. Once you have verified all of your grades are accurate, save your gradebook and exit both the gradebook and PowerTeacher. You must exit 10-minutes prior to the time designated for PowerSchool Staff to save grades to ensure you are not changing a grade that the system has already saved. Do not re-enter your gradebooks until you have been notified the grade saving process is complete.
d. If grading errors are discovered after the grade saving process by teachers, staff, or students/parents, teachers must turn in an official grade change form to the Registrar’s Office for each student impacted. Essentially, if you enter a previous semester’s gradebook and make a change, you must submit a grade change form. Also, if you submit a grade change form you must ensure you fix your gradebook to match as well.
If you have students who have missing work that will impact their final grade please make sure to communicate with them on when the makeup needs to take place/be completed. You have two options on how to handle these students:
1. If the missing work would result in an F—it is recommended you override the grade and give them an I to be adjusted after the fact.
2. If the missing work would result in a lower, but passing grade—it is recommended you give them the grade they earn without the work so they earn the credit. The grade can be adjusted up with the grade change form once the missing work is completed.
Scheduling
Lori will start building the PS schedule, so if you have a preference for your advisory roster make sure it is known on the spreadsheet.
PE, ELA, and Online: Do you want the teacher of record to be the advisory teacher?
Chad: Talk to us about the plan time/attendance debacle now that we don't have the virtual hour...
Math:
Once grades save, Lori will be able to determine the numbers for math.
Consumer Math: We need to have a conversation about how we can utilize this course at LA. Teacher of record must have math certification. They will copy the Liberty Virtual content to that teacher. Then, our teacher can use that content to deliver the course giving us control. This is a great reactive option for seniors who need math as well as a proactive option for freshman to build math skills before algebra, possibly.
Security Update
Cameras: You may or may not notice, but we had some additional security cameras added to the building over break. This was a staff request, and Gary Majors accommodated. I'm not sure we have all the cameras yet that were requested, but we are getting there.
Drills: Please give us a block of time in the first week to run through some drills. Knowing how disruptive these are for our students, and how hard it is to transition them back, the plan will be to run three different types of drills back to back. I have been out of compliance on our drills for a few reasons, and with new kids I think this is the time to run through them.
- Route students and visitors through the front doors at all times. We will now open the front door before school starts and not the cafeteria door.
- We should NEVER be giving keys to students. Please radio for assistance if a space needs to be opened for someone.
- We should NEVER be giving students our badges. If you want a student to enter a door other than the front, radio for assistance with that entry.