The Bear Necessities
April 2, 2020
Pace yourself, this is a marathon, not a sprint
Give yourself permission to slow it down and take this as it comes. Seriously, no judgement, give yourself permission to have a little cry, go for a long walk, do yoga on the patio. Give yourself permission to know that this is not the same as doing your job at school, it's different, it's weird, it's hard and there is no "right way".
In reading your survey from last week and speaking to you about a lot of things, here is what we know today:
Time in front of kids: Kids should not be online more than 20-30 minutes with you generally...that is a LONG TIME....keep it short and simple. You are modeling for parents that it isn't appropriate to have that much screen time. If a therapist is seeing them one day, maybe you should do an opposite day. If kids run away from screen, talk to parent about ideas briefly. If you made a verbal agreement with parents, but it is too much, revisit the length of time/number of goals your working on....document it and let it go. Did I mention there is no one right way....
You are not responsible for filling every moment of their day at home with ideas. It is overwhelming for you and parents. We are in this for a long time, pace your sharing and unearthing of creative activities....they are great, but if you are spending very much time on this, cut back. Use the shared resource folder in the Level 3 or PAT files we have going and share one or two a day, keep it simple.
If a family is struggling, do not own all that struggle on your own....we have amazing resources and you must tap into them. You have to share the burden of a needy family with others, it's always been best practice and it still is!! If you are losing sleep over a family and no one else is helping you with this family....it's time to reach out. MaryBeth Panek and Tiffany Nay are great resources. As are Elly Shcierbeck, Alicia Stremick, Lisa Gard and your admin team....seriously, do not let that family be on your mind constantly, reach out for perspective and help.
Newsletters should not need to be doubled in size, they should be shorter, because you don't have any pictures...although I bet if you threw in some old pics, they would love that!!
Home visits should not be longer than normal, they should be same as usual or shorter.
What else are you over doing it on? In what ways can you simplify, what family should you reach out to and shorten their sessions?
Our "thoughts/concerns/celebrations and questions from last weeks survey: it's long, we're a big family
My team has been extremely helpful, including special programs teachers and paras.
Hope you and Jeanie are doing something for yourselves too, while you take care of us!! :o)
n/a
Celebrated two children's birthday in our home by surprising them with cousins, aunts, uncles grandparents sing happy birthday to them as we lit the candles via google hangout!
I am a little concerned some therapists are doing TOO much online with each family which may be overwhelming to themselves! or other staff/or the parents. I am taking the rewind and connect approach and working on connecting and then finding out what parents have at home so we can make a plan for them to be successful instead of assigning big chunks of time for therapist and child to sit and do long sessions EEK. I think it may take a week for some to say... oops too much and hopefully step back on expectations and the times they are locking into. CROSSING FINGERS :)
Celebration- we bought a house.. so that was fun and stressful!
Happy Liz got married at the beginning of March!! Wishing to be at school with my little peeps!
It said All Staff for everyone above...I took it as meaning para's when I saw All. Is this right? if not I made an oops! I had to put something in the above question/answer space for this to submit. I wasn't trying to sassy. Miss you all so very much! Nicki
ANSWER: YES WE WANT EVERYONE TO CONNECT HERE ON THIS SURVEY!!
We truly are first responders in these kids education. Connect, connect, connect
I think teachers are doing great job with online school. My 14 y/o loves it!!
"Good People Bring Out the Good in People"
I'm just so thankful that we are able to maintain connections with our families. They need all the support they can get right now. This is a crazy time!
My son is potty-trained thanks to being at home 24/7!
I hit my 10,000 steps for the past 3 days!!!
It's great to have dedicated support! As much as we look forward to time off, we still love our kiddos!
I didn't know anyone who had been exposed to or had the Coronavirus. Then from one day to the next knowing 9 that have been exposed to it! Crazy!! You never know what tomorrow will bring. Stay healthy and safe!
I HAVE to get back to my workouts.................not that it has anything to do with work. BUT REALLY, I need to!
The only major thing that came up was the Schoology question. When talking to a couple other people, we were thinking that if parents had Schoology accounts, it may be easier for them to video conference (since some parents do not have Google accounts) and would be more consistent. Also, teachers could each have a page that they can share/post information for parents instead of having to email out. NOT SURE THIS IS POSSIBLE...we are still learning a lot!!
ANSWER: SO, I AM READING DAILY EMAILS FROM PRINCIPALS REGARDING THE FRUSTRATION LEVEL OF USING SCHOOLOGY. IT APPARENTLY GOES DOWN MULTIPLE TIMES DAILY AND IS REALLY STRUGGLING WITH THE LOAD...SO I HAD THOUGHT THE SAME THING, BUT NOT SURE IT IS REALLY OUR BEST TOOL RIGHT NOW.
Just really praying we get to return on April 27!!
The first week is over!!!!!! Only 5 more left!!!! Also it's SUNNNNNNNYYYYYY AND HOT TODAY!!!!
Thankful that we have a way to connect with our families during this time!
none at this time
It's been a great (but very busy) week. Looking forward to the weekend
We just have the best working family! So grateful for our leaders and colleagues!
Having a blast with virtual home visits and so are families.
I am going to be putting in my newsletter a visual schedule the children can use during the week. Since at school we have them and at home it might be a beneficial resource.
Not right now.
I want to be available also for all of PAT. Please feel free to give my name to them as well.
Our school rocks!!!
Thanks for all you’re doing to guide us in this new transition!
:)
Blessings are all around! Thankful as they come along!
Thanks for all of the support! And being on screen daily has been a big incentive to follow my nightly skin routine and to keep well hydrated.
Very wonderful having all of my children home!
Feeling pretty good...the hardest part has been keeping my own 2 and 5 yr old kids happy and entertained while working ;)
Celebration - my son coordinated and surprised me with a virtual family happy hour! We all grabbed a snack and beverage and had some quality time together! Concern - Please keep Stephanie and Alex in your thoughts and prayers. Alex's father passed very unexpectedly Thursday evening.
I'm so appreciative of everyone's willingness to share resources!
We've Got This!! Thank you for your support and grace!! :)
I've been cooking more home cooked meals than I have in a long time.! Glad we have the GBC cookbook to try new recipes!!
We have had good and bad days this week juggling our jobs and keeping the kids busy. I was so thankful for the sunshine. I feel like next week will go smoother now that we are figuring out what works :)
We all made it and grew from this past week! Yay! Thank you for all of your hard work!!
I wish everyone would just stay home so we could be done with this. I feel to many people are still going out when it is not Essential!!! Also, really Enjoy my daily dose of Dierks and the Nay Family,LOL
I just want to say that this whole virtual thing is going great so far!! The parents are loving it and so are the kids!! I'm so happy we get to do these visits virtually!!
The virtual visits are going really well! I am enjoying seeing my families!
I miss you all and I LOVE my job!
Feeling very blessed to have you and Jeanie as my leaders and role models! Stifling my tears of joy!!!!
Celebrate the day......this too shall pass!!!
I am thankful my family is all healthy & am enjoying getting to be self-directed as I work from home! :)
I was going to say ---Day 4 and I made it through another virtual teaching day without day drinking but having read the Bear Necessities it's not so funny anymore. Maybe just tell me it's enough. I don't include you on my families emails and maybe I should, but it's a lot. They have gotten TONS of things from me and I only hear from like 3 or 4 out of 23. I know they are getting the emails because of the little boy that popped up in today's live. But is it enough... am I doing enough? What am I missing or am I over thinking.
ANSWER: CONNECTION AND ROUTINE IS ENOUGH...YOU ARE DOING ENOUGH, FAMILIES ARE ALL IN DIFFERENT PLACES AND WE OFFER OUR SUPPORT AND THEY DETERMINE IF THEY WANT TO TAKE PART. STAY CONNECTED WITH FAMILIES AND SLOW DOWN THE tons OF THINGS AND MAKE IT BITE SIZE AND DIGESTIBLE FOR FAMILIES....THEY BELIEVE WE ARE THE EXPERTS, IF WE SEND THEM A TON OF STUFF TO DO, THEY MAY INTERPRET THAT AS ALL VERY IMPORTANT AND THAT THEY ARE NOT A GOOD PARENT UNLESS THEY DO IT ALL....LET THEM KNOW THERE IS NO RIGHT WAY, THEY NEED TO CONNECT WITH THEIR KIDS...PERIOD
Celebrate - My Paras and I have come together and all are taking parts in our virtual circle time. Concerns - My families (are they all okay)? Thank you for everything!
Proud of our team, both ECC and PAT have really stepped up to the plate and I love seeing the willingness of everyone to share, collaborate and support.
I got to talk with both my sons and my mom several times this week. I miss all of them a lot. I miss my school family so very much!!!
we have seen the sun for two days now....woohoo!!!
Two days of no contract in April
Staff Attendance: ECC and PAT
NEW: If you are ill or are caring for someone else who is ill, please let Kim Fischer (EEC) or Andrea Gallo (PAT) know. You will still mark your attendance, but we are trying to keep track of who is unable to work so that we can possibly cover your shifts with our current staff. We will also want to know of any diagnosis you or the person you are caring for has. Please copy Jeanie and I on your communication.
Thanks for keeping us in the loop, we want to support you in your work, but it's hard to know who is ill if you don't tell us at this point.
Student Attendance Question:
Your notes on students who have not been in contact with you should include all attempts. We will be sending a document out this week to collect that information in order to begin to tackle how to connect with families who've not been connected with yet.
What are Jeanie and Kerry up to you ask?
Locations for next year: working to figure this out, we have two classrooms sharing one space, we would like to NOT do that again next year....
Inviting kids to school for next year
Planning for enrollment/PowerSchool updates
Planning for transportation updates from current students (usually done at P/T conferences, how can we get this info...we have a few ideas)
P/T conference planning
Calendar planning for 20-21
PD Planning for 20-21
Screening info for PAT for now and posting screening appointment online for future
and a few other fun things....something we are forgetting? Shoot us an email!!