EAST PAULDING MIDDLE SCHOOL
April 13, 2020
FACULTY AND STAFF NEWSLETTER
UPCOMING EVENTS
4/15 - Faculty Meeting for All Certified Staff Members - 1:00pm
TBD - Awards Day
5/22 - Last Day of School
5/26 - 5/28 - Post Planning
The Continued Message
"Our 'why' hasn't changed; only the 'what' and the 'how'. As we continue to move forward we must be fluid with the ongoing changes; we must have patience; we must show compassion; and we must remain positive."
- Dr. Otott,
I am here to help you however i can. Thank you for all that you are doing to overcome and stand tall for our students!
What can we control?
So the question becomes, "What can we control?"
It can be quite the challenge to remove our personal feelings when students aren't taking advantage and completing the work that we have worked so hard to prepare. The "power" that we have in the classroom has been removed, and we are relying on students to take responsibility for their own learning. We know the challenges that are ahead if they don't, and we know some of those challenges will be there even if they do.
Continue to focus on what you can control. Ultimately, the only things we can control is how we respond, how we act, and how we move forward.
1. Planning and providing digital instruction and resources for all of our students.
2. Pacing our instruction to balance the workload on our students and ourselves.
3. Being consistently available during virtual office hours.
4. Continuing to communicate with parents and students.
5. Supporting the students who continue to show up and do the work.
Updates to Digital Learning - 4/14/20
This has been and will continue to be an evolving process, and I want to encourage you all to be flexible and positive through all of these changes and updates. Below are the some updated guidelines to follow for digital learning and instruction.
Specified Days for Contents
- Beginning Monday, April 20, each content will be assigned specific days for publishing new instruction and/or assignments.
- Mondays and Tuesdays will be reserved for Math, Social Studies, and each student's odd period Connections class (1st, 3rd, or 5th).
- Wednesdays and Thursdays will be reserved for ELA, Science and each student's even period Connections class (2nd, 4th, or 6th).
- Students will still complete a daily PE activity. There is no change for PE.
- All teachers should still be available for 2 virtual hours every day. There is no change to this expectation.
Length of Assignments
- Assignments can be increased length if needed (30-40 minutes maximum).
- However, please continue to keep things simple.
- Consider chunking assignments over the two days to give students an opportunity to complete one piece at a time.
- Students should be able to complete all course work within designated days.
- Rationale: While we are eliminating the daily full course load on our students, we want to avoid overwhelming them and their parents.
Workload and Covering Curriculum
- This is for students and teachers…
- Continue to pace this out.
- The more you assign your students, the more you assign yourself.
Fridays
- No new modules should be published on Fridays.
- Students who have completed all assignments should be encouraged to read freely.
- If they have assignments to complete , this will give them the opportunity to catch up and complete any Missing work.
- Teachers should be available for office hours. There is no change to this requirement.
- This day can also be used for additional conferencing, RTI support, and/or remediation.
Updated Grading
- Each grade level content will continue to grade and enter 1 formative grade into IC each week. This needs to be consistent for each grade level content area.
- Accelerated and HS courses will most likely have a different assignment but grade-level courses should be consistent.
- You can ask students to complete multiple assignments each week for a grade, but you determine which one to enter without “tipping your hand” on which one you will grade. This will keep them “on their toes” and hopefully force them to complete all work
- Beginning the week prior to Spring Break and moving forward: Any assignment not completed will now receive a grade of “M” (Missing) in IC. This will notify the parents that the student has incomplete assignments.
- This should be done for all students unless otherwise instructed by a member of the admin team.
- Please make sure that all grades of “M” are entered by Thursday. (see Friday information above)
- Each assignment should have unlimited opportunities to resubmit. Again, once you open a module/assignment, it remains open.
- Prior to finalizing grades for the end of the year, teachers will need to remove all "M"s from 4th 9 weeks grades to prevent a student's average from being negatively impacted. We will communicate a window of when this should occur.
- Further guidance will be provided regarding finalizing grades for the end of the year during our faculty meeting on 4/15/20.
Work Packets
- Work packets will no longer be provided by the school.
- All instruction and support should be provided digitally.
burning questions
1. When can students clean out their lockers?
2. What about yearbooks?
The easy answer: while we are under a "shelter in place", we will not complete any activity that isn't considered an essential function. But beyond that, here is what I can tell you.
Lockers
Welp...whoever made the decision to require every student to use a locker is really regretting that decision now. LOL...that was me. The good thing is that we aren't the only school who have students with lockers full of personal or school property.
Currently, we are waiting for the district to provide us some guidance on this. We know that many of our students and parents are concerned about this, and it is going to be a large undertaking. It is definitely a process that will need a strategic plan. For now, please make sure that you have your locker assignment list for your homeroom class. That could be a very important piece of documentation.
Yearbooks
Our yearbook has been submitted for print. Our plan is to figure out a plan for distribution once they are printed, but there are a lot of unknowns regarding that right now. We aren’t sure when they will be printed; we aren’t sure how/when they will be shipped; once we know those two questions, we can begin working on our plan. All schools are in this same predicament, so there may be guidance from the district on this as well.
I am sure there are other questions out there, and I know that you all are the ones receiving them from students and parents. Please continue to communicate their questions and concerns with us, and we will do our best to provide some answers. For now, please communicate that we are aware of their questions, and we are working alongside the district to determine the best solution for cleaning out lockers and receiving and distributing yearbooks.
Parent Communication
Because we do not physically see our students as we would in the building, parent communication is more crucial than ever. If you are noticing that you have students who are "absent" from Canvas and/or not completing and submitting assignments, it is important that you are communicating with their parents. Communication is one of our most vital tools, and we cannot allow the fact that we aren't in the building become an obstacle
Continue to utilize email and phone calls to communicate with parents. There are several apps that help you keep your number private, and many of our teachers have used these prior to our extended digital learning. I also encourage you to keep a parent-contact log as well.
Staff "Attendance" During Digital Learning Days
Below are some reminders regarding staff attendance during our Digital Learning Days.
1. Our normal work hours are Monday-Friday, 8am-4pm.
2. Your virtual office hours are scheduled by the district;10am-11am and 2pm-3pm. You should be available to support students digitally during those times. This may occur through email, Canvas, or other virtual avenues.
3. While your virtual location may vary based on the needs of your family, it is important that you are available by phone or email during normal work hours.
4. If there is a time where you will be able to complete the required virtual office hours (2 hours total), please reach out to me.
Please continue to take care of yourself during this season of contagious illnesses. While there is a great focus on COVID-19, we are still in a season of other germs, and for our allergy sufferers, pollen season is upon us.
Digital Learning Days
I am just going to leave this here so that I don't delete it and forget to add it back. March hasn't brought snow (yet), but we are facing are greatest digital learning challenge. As we navigate through this challenge/opportunity, take notes about what worked, what didn't, what can be done better, and save your plans. If we have future events, you may not need to use the exact plans, but having a skeleton to build from will be helpful. This is also a great opportunity to gain feedback from your students as well. They can provide a unique perspective as the "consumer".
Please be prepared for the potential of inclement weather; often referred to as "snow days". While one or two days of enjoying opportunities the "devil's dandruff" provides can be exciting and fun, three or more days begin to add to the stress level of school districts. Because while we are enjoying the rare opportunities to build snow-creatures, sled on garbage can lids, sleep in, or binge on our favorite shows, books, food, and drink, we are losing very important instructional days.
Several years ago, to combat "snow days", the district implemented Digital Learning Days. This provided students an opportunity to continue their learning over an unexpected, extended time off and allowed us to "make up" some of our missed days without losing any planned breaks.
To be prepared, our district is asking teachers to plan 3 days of digital assignments in advance of any potential weather, prepared and ready to be published within Canvas in the event of an unexpected school closure due to inclement weather. Most of you probably already have these prepared and within Canvas somewhere, you will just need to pull them in to your current year's Canvas.
If you do not have these lessons prepared, please move forward with that process and have 3 days of digital lessons planned. These lessons should be housed in Canvas, but not yet published. If you need support with this or if you have questions, please let a member of our admin team know.
Absence Reminders - 2nd Semester Update
I am leaving this here, but please disregard the information below until we have returned to normal operating procedures. Please follow the guidance above.
Below are a couple of reminders regarding reporting absences and requesting time off.
Unplanned Sick Absence
1. As soon as you know that you need to be out, enter the absence into AESOP AND call Mr. Jacobs. His number is 678-779-9541.
2. If you are unable to enter the absence into AESOP, call Mr. Jacobs.
3. After 6am, you are no longer able to enter an absence in AESOP, please call Mr. Jacobs.
3. If a job fails to fill or if the sub cancels, there is a strong possibility that we will have to cover the absence from within that specific department or use other subs when they are on their planning.
Planned Sick Absences
1. As soon as you know that you need to be out, enter the absence into AESOP AND inform Mr. Jacobs and Mrs. Suttles of the upcoming absence.
2. If a job fails to fill or if the sub cancels, there is a strong possibility that we will have to cover the absence from within that specific department or use other subs when they are on their planning.
Personal Absences
1. All personal absences must be requested 5 days in advance. The request must be made to Mr. Alverson.
2. You can speak to Mr. Alverson in person or send him an email.
3. If you request an absence via email, please include Mrs. Suttles.
4. All personal absences will be entered by Mrs. Suttles.
5. If you have already arranged for one of our regular subs to work for you, please provide that information.
6. if a job fails to fill or if the sub cancels, there is a strong possibility that we will have to cover the absence from within that specific department or use other subs when they are on their planning.
It is important to remember that absences designated as sick days cannot be used for personal events or activities. If you have questions, please let me know.
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Contact Information for Tom Alverson
Email: talverson@paulding.k12.ga.us
Website: http://www.paulding.k12.ga.us/Domain/29
Phone: 678-350-8027