EAST PAULDING MIDDLE SCHOOL
March 16, 2020
FACULTY AND STAFF NEWSLETTER
UPCOMING EVENTS
Events Still Scheduled
3/19/20 - All Grades, Work Habits, and Conduct Posted by 4pm
3/20/20 - All 3rd 9-Weeks Grades, Work Habits, and Conduct Finalized
3/24/20 - EPMS Talent Show - 6-8pm - Gym
3/27/20 - House Celebration - 1 Hour Early Release Schedule
3/30 - 4/3/20 - Sources of Strength Week
4/2/20 - Faculty Meeting - Time TBD
4/2/20 - 5th Grade Visits & 5th Grade Parent Night
4/3/20 - Leadership Team Meeting - Media Center - 7:30am
4/6 - 4/10/20 - Spring Break
TBD Events
EPMS Talent Show
House Celebration
May Events
5/2 - 8th Grade Formal
5/5 - Spring Band Concert and PTSA Meeting
5/11 - Spring Chorus Concert
5/18 - 8th Grade Olympic Day and Picnic
5/19 - 7th Grade Olympic Day
5/19 - 8th Grade Field Trip
5/20 - 6th Grade Olympic Day
5/21 - Awards Day
5/22 - Last Day of School - 2-Hour Early Release
Calendar Updates
As we all follow the updated, daily (sometimes hourly) reports from the media regarding COVID-19, we will read and hear a variety of information regarding a recommended length of time away from large social interactions, gatherings, and events. Many people will begin to formalize their own opinion and thoughts and often share those as if it were fact. At this time, we will continue to operate as if we will return on March 30th. If changes are made by our school district, we will adjust based on those.
Please note that the Career Fair has been cancelled. This decision was made prior to the end of last week. We will look for opportunities to reschedule our Talent Show and our final House Celebration.
Providing Focus for Digital Learning
We will be operating on a huge learning curve, and a large part of that will be managing all of the communication that we are receiving and sending. Our admin team will do our best to provide you with daily communication along with an opportunity for you to provide feedback. We will share more of what that will look like tomorrow. For now, I want you to have an opportunity to get your feet on the digital ground.
Below are some important reminders and some guidance for digital learning:
- By now, you should have created one module on your Canvas for all Digital Learning Days lessons, and it should be clearly titled to designate it as Digital Learning Days.
- Within that module, you will publish your 20-30 minute assignment by 9:00am for each school day on that specific day. You may have already created multiple days of assignments, and that is okay. However, please don't publish all assignments at the same time.
- Also, please remember that we are not providing students with a packet of review work for two weeks. Therefore, you may want to review what you have planned.
- I want to encourage you to meet as a collaborative team at least 2 times each week. You can do that trough Microsoft Teams, FaceTime, OneNote, and other avenues such as Zoom. Meeting together is an important step to providing consistency within your grade level departments.
- It is important that we provide students with enough new content to continue the learning mindset. We don't want to overload them, dump it all on them at once, or expect them to be ready for assessments when they return. However, we don't want them to go through the motions of "re-learning" what they may have already learned.
- Our minimum expectation is that you ask students for some kind of submission 2 to 3 times each week.. This can include assessments.
- Teachers must provide feedback for each submission, and this can include automatically scored assignments.
- Grading: I would caution against entering grades for newly covered content into Infinite Campus. Before you report grades through IC, we want to make sure that students have had some face-to-face instruction with more traditional opportunities to seek support.
- However: It is okay to allow Canvas to enter grades in the Canvas grade book. This will allow you to track student progress and make planning decisions as we continue through our digital instruction and prepare to return to the building. Just be clear in your communication to parents/students how those grades are being used.
- Provide due dates for assignments for the sake of pacing. Please don't make everything due on the final day of digital learning or on the day we return.
- Do not limit access to assignments; allow for late submissions with no penalties, and once you publish an assignment, leave it open.
- If students report that they are having login issues, report those concerns to Mr. Jacobs via email.
- If you are using your phone to contact parents, but you are concerned about sharing your number, there are apps available that provide you a private number, and us Gen Xer's grew up with *67.
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 unavailable during work hours (for whatever reason), please communicate this via email to Mrs. Suttles and Mr. Alverson.
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.
Spring Parent Teacher Conferences
On the flip side, if a student will finish with either a failing grade or anything less than 'Satisfactory" within Work Habits and/or Conduct, please contact those parents this week. But just because you have to provide some not-so-pleasant information, it doesn't mean that you can't share something positive. End the conversation by sharing something awesome about that student as well. Parents of students who struggle or those who hear from us often need to hear something good as well.
End of 3rd 9-Weeks
Don't forget that this past Friday was the final day of the 3rd 9-weeks. Any additional grades entered for the 3rd 9-weeks must be from assignments that were assigned within that quarter. All virtual assignments must be entered under the 4th 9-weeks.
Also, please do not forget to finalize and post all 3rd 9-weeks grades by this Thursday at 4pm. By doing this, Mrs. Raley will have some time on Friday to make sure that everything is complete. She will reach out to you individually on Friday if she notices anything missing.
Milestones Update (EOG, GAA, and EOC)
With that being said, many of you have probably read that State Superintendent Woods has suspended the "state assessment window/administration (including Georgia Milestones EOGs and EOCs, the Georgia Alternate Assessment/GAA 2.0, and all other required testing) until further notice."
I am certain that there will be more information to come, and once a final decision is made, our district will share and provide some guidance. Until then, we should focus on things within our own control and work to be our best version of virtual teachers.
5th Grade Tour and Parent Night
I anticipate a schedule change, but I do not want to take this off of the calendar yet.
Leadership Team Meeting
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