Principal's Newsletter
June 16, 2020
Principal's Message
Dear Adelante Selby families,
I hope everyone is healthy and safe. In light of the senseless homicide of George Floyd, and the protests and Black Lives Matter movement across the world, It could not be more clear that our schools and community need to continue to be places of inclusivity and tolerance, along with multicultural and anti-racist perspectives and pedagogy. Our school's mission is primarily around bilingualism and biliteracy, but also to promote the diversity of multicultural perspectives and to develop and affirm identities, create community, to build and foster empathy, and to inspire our future leaders to create a better world. As Frederick Douglass said, " It is easier to build stronger children than to repair broken men." Below is a growing list of resources focused on anti-racism, equity, and inclusion to encourage age appropriate conversations with your family.
Children's Fiction (Picture Books & Middle Grades)
- Skin Again by Bell Hooks
- Black is a Rainbow Color by Angela Joy
- I Am Perfectly Designed by Karamo Brown
- Something Happened in Our Town: A Child’s Story about Racial Injustice by Marianne Celano
- Why Am I Me? by Paige Britt
- I Can Write the World by Joshunda Sanders
- I Am Enough by Grace Byers
- Happy in Our Skin by Fran Manushkin
- A Boy Like You by Frank Murphy
- I Am Loved by Ashley Bryan
- Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut by Derrick Barnes
- Hair Love by Matthew Cherry
- My Hair is a Garden by Cozbi A. Cabrera
- Hands Up! by Brenna McDaniel
- All Are Welcome by Alexandra Penfold
- The Big Umbrella by Amy June Bates
- Can I Touch Your Hair? Poems of Race, Mistakes, and Friendship by Irene Latham and Charles Waters
- Tan to Tamarind: Poems about the Color Brown by Malathi Michelle Iyengar
- I Walk with Vanessa by Kerascoet
- Say Something by Peter Reynolds
- Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes
- A Good Kind of Trouble by Lisa Ramee Moore
- Blended by Sharon Draper
Children's Non-fiction
- Let’s Talk about Race by Julius Lester
- Dictionary for a Better World by Charles Latham
- Woke: A Young Poet’s Call to Justice by Mahogany L. Browne with Elizabeth Acevedo and Olivia Gatwood
- Not My Idea: A Book about Whiteness by Anatassia Higginbotham
- Racism and Intolerance by Louise Spilsbury
- We Rise, We Resist, We Raise Our Voices, edited by Wade Hudson and Cheryl Wells Hudson
- On the Playground: Our First Talk about Prejudice by Dr. Jillian Roberts
- Intersection Allies: We Make Room for All by Chelsea Johnson, LaToya Council, and Carolyn Choi
- The Undefeated by Kwame Alexander and illustrated by Kadir Nelson
- A is for Activist by Innosanto Nagara
- Peaceful Fights for Equal Rights by Rob Sanders
- Let the Children March by Monica Clark-Robinson
- We Are the Change by Harry Belafonte
- Be A King by Carole Boston Weatherford
- Hey Black Child by Useni Eugene Perkins
Additional resources:
- From Project Cornerstone director Ziem Nuebert: Social and Emotional Learning section for books, websites, lessons, and articles addressing race, racism, and more. https://www.ymcasv.org/virtual-resource-center/project-cornerstone-virtual-resources
- https://www.commonsensemedia.org/lists/coretta-scott-king-book-award-winners
- https://www.embracerace.org/resources/where-to-find-diverse-childrens-books
- bit.ly/ANTIRACISMRESOURCES
As you are aware, Superintendent Baker presented the preliminary Reopening of Schools plan to the School Board and has set a goal to finalize the plan by July 15th. The district has set up an informational resource for parents and the community on the district web page called the Roadmap to Reopening of Schools. Additionally, there are Webinars scheduled for this Thursday(in English) and Friday(in Spanish) from 6:00-8:00pm to answer questions from the community. You may submit questions for the Webinars here by tomorrow, Wednesday, June 17th at 4:00pm.
The reopening of schools plan is based on a phased in approach following the CDC and County Health and Office Education guidelines. The guidelines focus on the 4 Pillars for the safe return to school around: Health and Hygiene, Face Coverings, Physical Distancing, and Limited Gatherings. A number of strategies within these 4 pillars must be undertaken to protect staff and students in order to keep everyone safe. These strategies include: the screening of everyone coming in to our school by taking temperatures with thermometers, hand washing protocols, schedules for the deep cleaning and sanitizing of the school, protocols for wearing masks, accommodating the 6 feet of social distancing requirement, and limited gatherings by staggering schedules of students. Three potential schedule options have been discussed: a Full Distance Learning Model, a Hybrid Model that combines a few days a week of both Distance Learning and at school in person learning with approximately half the number of students in each class, and a Combination Model where families would have options for Full Distance Learning or the Hybrid model.
For the Hybrid model, it is looking increasingly likely that the at school teaching and learning schedule will have two different groups of students within each class( half the students at a time to accommodate the social distancing requirement). This smaller class of students is called a "stable cohort" and will need to remain together in the same classroom and will not mix with other classes throughout the day. Group A would go to school Monday and Tuesday and Group B would go to school on Thursday and Friday. Wednesday everyone would be doing Distance Learning at home so that deep cleaning can happen at school. The Distance Learning schedule and expectations for learning are still being worked out by the committee, but it looks like something new that will be included is daily asynchronous, pre-recorded lessons for language arts, math, and English Language Development. There would still be RAZ-kids and Dreambox apps to work on, reading, and Envision Math work as well. This means a much more rigorous and enriched Distance Learning program than we had the last few months of school particularly for the TK-2 grades who were mostly depending on at home learning packets as they did not have access to technology. Fortunately, the district has a grant and will be providing iPads and Hot Spots for WiFi access for TK-2 students to allow for a more robust Distance Learning experience.
I have heard concerns from TK-2nd grade families about Distance Learning and the ability to support learning in Spanish at home when they speak only English. I want to remind everyone and I am proud to say that we are a model Sobrato Early Academic Language school. Our TK-3rd grade teachers are well prepared with the best strategies to teach language thematically and make Spanish vocabulary and content comprehensible for English only students who might be more challenged learning Spanish in a Distance Learning model. An advantage of the asynchronous, pre-recorded lessons during Distance Learning is that they can be played multiple times making it easier to pick up vocabulary and content(much the same way we would play a new song we like over and over until we memorize the lyrics). Another advantage is that the small class size at school will allow the teacher to provide more attention and support for students. The combination or flipping of Distance Learning and at School Learning in the Hybrid Model will also make learning easier as teachers can preview and review important concepts and vocabulary to support what students are doing at home. I also want to remind everyone that content/information transfers between languages. Families can do read alouds or work on math problems in English and the content will transfer and support students learning in Spanish. For example, important reading comprehension strategies like asking questions about the setting, the characteristics of the main characters, how the problem of the story was resolved, is content that transfers from English to Spanish or vice versa. TK-1st families can also listen and have fun with Spanish songs like from Jose Luis Orozco where phonics and repetition make learning of Spanish vocabulary easier. I am optimistic and confident that even though there are challenges with Distance Learning, students will learn in both languages and progress to meeting the goal of becoming bilingual by the 5th grade. To that end, and our goal of promoting bilingualism, I want to remind everyone that, "Our Hearts Beat in 2 Languages!"
Dr. Baker has selected Adelante Selby Spanish Immersion School as the name for our school to be presented for approval by the Redwood City School Board of Education. The Board has received and responded to a number of emails already about the school name, and listened to community speakers and had a discussion of the school name at the last June 10th meeting. The Board will now vote whether they approve of the name permanently at tomorrow's June 17th meeting at 7:00pm(the topic is not first on the agenda as they are also discussing the district school boundaries). I thank you for remaining engaged and participating in this process! A reminder that Board Policy dictates that the committee recommend three names to Dr. Baker who makes the final selection to present to the Board for approval. We are hopeful the name will be approved so we can move on next year with our permanent name.
All students should keep up with reading in both English and Spanish during the summer. Our students should also continue to work online with RAZ kids/EPIC books and Dreambox to keep engaged. I have listed the Summer Learning packet links below:
- TK-K Spanish Summer Learning Packets
- Kinder Site Words in Spanish
- First Grade Summer Learning Packet
- Second Grade Summer Learning Unit
- Second Grade Site Words in Spanish
- Third Grade Summer Learning Unit
- 4th and 5th Grade Summer Math
- 4th and 5th Grade NearPod Activities:students may need to use school log in credentials:
- 1st week Near Pod activities for 4th/5th
- 2nd week Near Pod activities for 4th/5th
- 3rd week NearPod activities for 4th 5th
I want to thank Unidos PTO for the compilation of online resources for your convenience in English: here and Español: aquí which you can access over the Summer as well.
Our wonderful friend and Redwood City librarian, Armando Ramírez, will be reading stories in Spanish via Zoom every Thursday at 10am, through the summer. Here is the information for anyone who would like to join! https://www.redwoodcity.org/Home/Components/Calendar/Event/46957/2638
Join Zoom Meeting
https://redwoodcity.zoom.us/j/91757512203…
Meeting ID: 917 5751 2203
Password: Lovebooks
Yearbooks
Please note that due to COVID-19, yearbook printing and distribution has been delayed. Yearbooks for the 2019-20 school year are available, and will be a tangible way to look back on this challenging time in our children’s lives. It’s not too late to purchase one here, and 2019-20 yearbooks will be distributed in August. We will make sure that our 5th grade students receive their yearbooks.
Please note that the school playgrounds(including play structures and swings) and field are closed. The general public should not be on the school campus.
Please visit our school website , Adelante Selby Facebook Page and our PTO/Unidos webpage and social media accounts: unidospto.org, Facebook and Instagram for more information.
Regards,
Director Warren
June Events
- 6/17 School Board Meeting, 7:00pm
- 6/18 Webinar on Reopening Schools in English 6:00-8:00pm
- 6/19 Webinar on Reopening Schools in Spanish 6:00-8:00pm
- 6/24 School Board Meeting, 7:00pm
- 6/25 Food Distribution, 4:00pm