Panther Press
New Prospect Elementary School Newsletter
January 12, 2021
Happy 2021!
Hello Panther Families!
Happy 2021! I am sad that we have started the new year remotely. I am sincerely hoping that things get back to as "normal" as possible soon. I have 100% confidence that your children are learning and learning at a high level, even virtually. We just looked at iReady data for the school and there is not a significant difference between growth of virtual students versus face-to-face students. With that said, learning virtually is not ideal for your children, or for you, or for the teachers.
Speaking of simultaneous instruction, recently we had the following public comment brought up at our School Governance Council Meeting: “Is F2F and online teaching simultaneously working for the teachers? While I appreciate the flexibility as a parent, I am concerned for our teacher’s capacity. I don’t know if the simultaneous teaching is worth it if is sacrifices constructive feedback needed for learning. This is not meant to be a criticism of the teachers, just making sure teachers are given capacity so they can actually teach.”
I agree with this very valid concern and want to address it. We as a staff have investigated other options because teaching simultaneously is HARD, but there are lots of factors that make it the best choice for our school. These are as follows:
Class size-we have promised families that we will allow as much social distancing in school as possible to prevent the spread of COVID. If we move to having a remote teacher on each grade level, the overall class size for in person students will go up considerably, thereby reducing our ability to social distance. Additionally, the remote teacher could end up having significantly more students than those who are teaching in person. We would also need one teacher on each grade level to give up having in person instruction.
Consistency-we have worked hard to keep students together with their homerooms and to limit movement of students between classes. Doing this significantly lowers the number of students who are at high risk of infection when a student in our building gets COVID. It also reduces the number of students who are required to quarantine when a classmate becomes ill.
Flexibility-because families have the flexibility to attend class online when the child or a family member becomes sick, we have had a lot of parents keep their kids home when they are unsure whether “not feeling well” is anything to worry about. This flexibility has prevented several students from coming to school while they were infectious. For example, in several cases, students were kept home because a parent or sibling was not feeling well. The child themselves was fine and would have come to school, but because the parent knew the child could continue learning at home, they kept them home while they waited to see if the illness was cause for concern. In at least 3 instances, the children ultimately tested positive for COVID, but there was no impact on the school because the child was not here.
Quarantines-If we move to a model where teachers are not teaching simultaneously, what happens when a child is required to quarantine? Note: sometimes only 1-2 students from a class are required to quarantine due to exposure on the bus, in afterschool or from an event outside of school. These students need a consistent teacher if this happened so learning is not disrupted even more.
“As a teacher, simultaneous instruction took some adjustments and creativity, but it is going well. I feel it provides flexibility with changing circumstances and the ability to maintain relationships with all of our students, and they are receiving great instruction. The instruction aspect of simultaneous teaching is going really well.” Ms. Sarah McCarthy, NPE 3rd Grade Teacher
Our teachers are amazing at NPE and no doubt they are working hard, but they are doing ok!
Giving all students the feedback they need is still something we are working on as a staff. In many cases, feedback is given, but families do not know about it because it happened orally in a small group lesson. Regardless this needs to be transparent and we as a staff will continue to work on making things transparent as well as the management of feedback across face to face and virtual environments.
Please let me know if simultaneous instruction is not working for your child, although I cannot fix the circumstances, there are things I can do to help if I am aware of the situation. Hope this communication cleared some things up.
Thanks for your never-ending support!
Amy Lemons
Principal
Upcoming Dates-Please Note
Monday January 18th- NO School-MLK Day
Tuesday January 19th- First Day Back to Face to Face Learning
District COVID Guidance
Q: Some parents have asked about the opening matrix that allowed F2F to start and that the
COVID rates are as high as before school started. They are wanting to know what allows
continued F2F now when we did not before, and are we still following this matrix. They want
communication about this please.
Here is Fulton County's response:
A: We continue to review the data with our Emergency Task Force and the Fulton
Department of Health. We have made some changes to the calendar to start with
remote learning days. Here is the change to calendar from November 19, 2020 Board
Meeting: http://go.boarddocs.com/ga/fcss/Board.nsf/goto?open&id=BVGLGS565038
We are using the closing matrix to determine the closure of individual schools. The
opening matrix was used when we decided to open school back in September and
included levels of community spread as opening criteria. We are no longer using
community spread to determine if we close a school, but will review each school’s
situation and continue to consult with the Fulton County Board of Health. It is based on
the amount of cases and situation at each school. The decision to close a school is
nuanced and involves lots of moving parts.
Please click below if you are interested in the other Questions & Answers from the Meeting.
Teacher and Professional of the Year Nominations
We hope you agree that New Prospect is a wonderful school with lots of amazing staff members. Through all the craziness of the past year, our teachers have worked hard to stay positive and to continue helping your children no matter what challenges get in the way. We are so proud of each one of our team members who show up daily to love our students and to support them as they learn and grow. Each year one teacher is selected to represent our school as our Teacher of the Year and one non-teaching staff member is selected to be our Professional of the Year. If you are looking for a way to show a teacher or staff member how much you appreciate them, please complete the form linked below to nominate them for Teacher or Professional of the Year. All nominations are due by noon on January 19. Late submissions will not be considered. Thank you!
Inauguration
Brain Building Lessons
We did do our January Brain Building Lessons virtually last week since all students were remote. Please look below to see what your kids learned during these lessons!
Guidance
In Brain Building Counseling lessons this month, students learned the DEBUG steps to deal with behaviors that “BUG” them. Ignore, move away, ask nicely, tell firmly, & get an adult to help.
Media Center
In the Media Center grades K,1, and 2 had storytime. Kindergarten heard The Mitten by Jan Brett and learned about hedgehogs. First grade listened for clues in a mystery called The Case of the Missing Carrot Cake. Second grade heard The Couch Potato and shared things they like to do when they are not being couch potatoes. Grades 3-5 learned about online research databases in MackinVia, including our new FCS database World Book Encyclopedia online. Students had a scavenger hunt inside the databases to practice finding information online.
Diversity
In our Diversity lessons, students learned that there are different ways to support people when others are being unkind. Sometimes the right thing to do is stand up and say something, and other times it is just as appropriate to quietly show the person you care by being there for them, noticing good things about them and finding ways to just be kind. This lesson also focused on when joking has gone too far. Students learned that we never joke around about another person’s race, religion, culture, physical appearance or other things they can’t control.
COVID Reminders
Parents and guardians,
You are our first line of defense against COVID in our schools. If you, or someone within your household is sick with COVID symptoms, please don't just assume it is something else. The safest thing to do, is assume that what you have is communicable until you know differently and keep your child home. They can participate in class online, they may just miss their small group instruction until the teacher is able to work them into an online group. Thank you to those of you who are already doing this. It is making a huge difference!
If you suspect that your student has had any interaction with a person who may be positive for COVID, or if your child has been given a COVID test, please report that to the portal . Your child should not attend school while waiting for COVID test results.
This information helps our school nurses accurately communicate with the Board of Health and makes sure we are giving the appropriate people all the information they need to make the best decisions they can.
All of the information needed to make a report is HERE or on the front page of the District website at www.fultonschools.org .