Northwoods News
A Message from Principal Nixon--Week of September 21, 2020
Dear Northwoods Families,
I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. Hopefully you had the opportunity to spend time with loved ones and enjoy the beautiful weather. Please know that our students and families are in our hearts and minds daily and we appreciate and value your continued partnerships.
As a gentle reminder, please review the short list of best practices for promoting online learning etiquette from the home setting. These simple tips will help ensure a safe, school-appropriate environment for all of our students while they engage with their peers in online learning:
- Using headphones are a great way to keep your child engaged and prevents background noise from your home environment.
- Students should find a suitable quiet environment from which they can participate each day.
- Students should be dressed appropriately at all times (shirts and pants are a must).
- Students should not participate in online learning activities while in the restroom.
- Do not take photos, screenshot, or record parts of the lesson.
- Always behave (parents included) as if the camera and microphone are on.
- TV and other distractions (YouTube, video games, etc.) should be off during online instruction.
- Ask an adult for help when needed! We want all of our students to be successful.
Please take a few minutes to read through the updates and reminders below.
Respectfully,
Joe Nixon
Principal
Hi Northwoods Families!
We have created a NEW family needs assessment. Please fill out the form below so we can support you!
Our school is committed to the academic achievement and behavioral health of all students and has established a process to build a partnership between the family and the school in order to best support individual students. We offer individual or small group sessions to support students as needed.
During remote learning, we obtain parent/guardian permission to hold google meet sessions for individual and groups of students. The purpose of these meets is to support academic and social emotional well being of students in school.
Activities will include:
- The use of telehealth: The use of two-way real-time interactive audio and video to provide services virtually when participants are in two different physical locations. Telehealth services represent services that are provided in educational settings; not just health care or medical settings. These services are inclusive of direct services to students and families which could include: classroom/small group and individual skill building.
- Addressing non-confidential issues with students, such as organization skills, managing stress, managing their time effectively, making good decisions when engaging in screen time, maintaining physical activity and making sure their basic needs are met.
You can choose to decline for your child to receive individual or group counseling via email or calling us by phone.
Email: nhelton@wcpss.net or jhenderson2@wcpss.net
Phone: (919)460-3491 ext. 26938
Thank you!
The Counseling Team
Important School Information
Important School Reopening Information--Last Thursday, Governor Cooper announced that, based on current health metrics, school districts may now begin to reopen schools using Plan A (100% face-to-face instruction), Plan B (blended learning), or Plan C (100% online learning). However, it is important to know that the WCPSS Board of Education has not voted on a specific reopening plan. The BOE will be discussing reopening plans, among other items, this week. Please stay tuned for more information.
Parent Requests for Plan B
Over the last week, many families have reached out to express interest in moving their student(s) from Virtual Academy to Plan B. While I completely understand and respect the unique circumstances that lead to these requests, I am unable to make any decisions regarding programming changes for students at this time.
It's important to remember that parents who applied for Virtual Academy did so with the understanding that placement within the VA requires a semester-long commitment. Our ability to make changes is dependent upon availability of staffing, current class sizes, and social distancing occupancy limits in our classrooms and other common areas of the school building. Families that requested a program change will be notified of our decision via email once the WCPSS BOE has voted on a reopening plan and we have had time to evaluate the feasibility of honoring such requests.
Curbside Library Book Check-Out
Curbside book check-out is cancelled for the next two weeks. We will notify you when we are ready to resume.
Istation Reading Screener:
Many of your students have started taking the Istation ISIP Reading Assessment. Students will need approximately 45 minutes to complete all portions of the assessment and that time will be provided during asynchronous instructional blocks between now and September 30th.
It is imperative that you do not assist your student in any way other than with the login process. The results of the assessment will guide your student’s teacher in planning appropriate, individualized, instruction to meet his/her needs. You will be receiving more information about your child's results of the Diagnostic Formative Assessment once the assessment window closes, stay tuned.
DreamBox Online Math Learning Program:
During the 20-21 school year, all students should be completing 4-6 lessons in DreamBox per week. DreamBox is driven by Intelligent Adaptive Learning™ technology, which means, it adjusts to students’ actions, meeting them at the right level–with personalized instruction that promotes student decision making and strategy development in real-time. It immediately adjusts the lesson and the level of difficulty, scaffolding, sequencing, number of hints, and pacing as appropriate. This allows students, whether struggling, at grade level, or advanced, to progress at a pace that best benefits them and deepen conceptual understanding. You can learn more about DreamBox with the following guides, Home Learning With Dreambox and Dreambox at Home. You can also watch these video's in both English and Spanish.
If you have any questions , please reach out to our Instructional Facilitator, Lorrie Sardiello, at lsardiello@wcpss.net.
September 28th Teacher Workday
As a friendly reminder, September 28th is a Teacher Workday. As such, teachers will not be providing instruction or school work for students that day. We encourage our students to spend the day doing device-free activities!
PTA Information
General PTA Meeting
Please join us for the next General PTA meeting on October 1st at 6:30pm. The meeting will take place via Google Meet (link is below). The PTA Board will be reviewing many different items including the proposed 2020-21 PTA budget.
- Meeting Link: https://meet.google.com/otk-dokc-mdb
PTA Business Sponsorships
Each year, our PTA sells business sponsorships to help fund t-shirts for ALL of our students and staff at Northwoods. The shirts have become a wonderful tradition at Northwoods, helping to foster a sense of community and school spirit…not to mention helping teachers easily identify Northwoods students during field trips! With so many of our events and traditions on hold or cancelled, we felt that the shirts would be especially important this year as a symbol of community and spirit as we work from home. If you or someone you know would like to be a business sponsor, head over to our MemberHub store. You can take a look at our smaller sponsorships levels (starting at just $50 this year) or become a PTA member for the year all in one spot!