ISY Elementary School Faculty Blog

Assemblies

Mike Simpson

December 10, 2021

I really look forward to our Wednesday assemblies and, judging by the enthusiasm with which they join the Zoom meeting, our students do too. It is great to see everyone’s face in one place and to be reminded how strong and fun our community is. 

Providing students with opportunities to share their work is an important reason for having assemblies. It takes confidence and sometimes courage for many of our students to share their work and ideas with others. Online learning is not perfect but I do think that it has helped some students build the confidence to share their ideas – in an assembly or in class.

When students see others sharing their ideas in a less than perfect situation (and having fun doing it), they realize that they don’t need to be perfect to make a valuable contribution. This very important realization is reinforced by how gracefully and positively you all approach the many and varied challenges of online teaching. It was certainly reinforced for me as I visited classes this week.

 Faculty Meeting

We will meet at 7:15am MMT on Monday to check in before the break and chat about Semester 1 reports. Please accept the calendar invite. 

If you have anything you would me to address, please email me or put it on our ES Collaborative Agenda.

 February MAP Testing

Regardless of whether we are online or in-person, we are planning to run MAP testing for Grade 2 to Grade 5 students in February.

Students will be assessed in Math, Reading, and Language Usage.

Student will be able to opt out of testing is their families feel that it would cause unnecessary stress.

 Quarter 2 Schedule

Here is the link to the ES Quarter 2 Schedule which is also available on the Elementary School Faculty Pages.

 Friday Emails + Quarter 2 Offline Learning

No detailed subject emails next week but we will send out a short email (I will give you a paragraph to use) to send out our Offline Learning Activities PDFs.

In these folders you will find the Offline Learning Activity templates that will be converted to a PDF to be emailed out every Friday. 

We will need to update these offline learning activities to reflect what we are doing in Quarter 2. Please update them by 12pm Thursday MMT.

    ISY Annual Compassion Conference

    Friday, March 4

    This will be organized under the umbrella of ISY Definition of Compassion: The will and understanding to respect and value the identity, culture, perspective, and experience of others in acting to make a positive difference to their lives.

    In addition to a key-note speaker addressing resilience in young people (Jake Bailey) and an ISY student panel presenting on LGBTQ+ issues, we will have Cathy Berger Kaye and 3 of her consultants presenting to us on Documentar, story telling in the curriculum, and the dangers of a single narrative (along the lines of this very popular TED Talk)

    Teacher workshops will be an important part of this conference. 

    Teacher workshops might relate to any of our ISY Inclusive Practices and will be organized under the following strands:

      • Inclusion
      • Service
      • Diversity

    Workshops can focus on anything under these strands and we are particularly interested in workshops on the following:

      • Responsive Classroom Strategies
      • Science of Learning – memory, etc.
      • Teaching Creativity
      • Integrating Technology

    Our TIF team of Ian and Lindsey will be helping us put this day together and will be popping into classes from time to time to get ideas and encourage teachers. Please reach out to them if you have an idea you would like some support with – whether you intend to present it or not on March 4.

        From the Library

        Lindsey and Christian in the library would be very happy to help get books to you that you might want to read to your class or have your students read. These books can be scanned so they can be used online so let them know if you are looking for something.

         Semester 1 (Q1 + Q2) Reports

        Here are some overviews for Semester 1 Report Writing:

        TIMELINE:

        By 12pm on Wednesday, January 12: Subject Comments to be completed. 

        By 12pm on Friday, January 21: Individual Student Comments to be completed. Please share your Google Document directly with Mike as soon as you have completed your comments.

        By 12pm on Tuesday, January 25: Individual Student Comments and Grades to be entered into Powerschool.

        Reports go out on Friday, January 28

        Interdisciplinary Units

        Curriculum Maps and Q2 Scope and Sequence

        Here is where you can find our Curriculum Maps (updated for Q1 using report subject comments).

        Here is where you can find our Q1 Scope and Sequence. Please link your planning to the Scope and Sequence. I have done this for PE and Culture and Communication to give you an example. We want to give you some autonomy as to how you organize your planning and resources but your planning needs to be in an ISY Shared Drive. 

        Here is where you can find our Q2 Scope and Sequence. 

        To fill out this year’s Q2 Scope and Sequence, you might want to refer to the skills you focused on this time last year in these Q2 scope and sequence documents:

        PK-1 Q2 Scope and Sequence 2020-2021

        2-3 Q2 Scope and Sequence 2020-2021

        4-5 Q2 Scope and Sequence 2020-2021

        Please also link your planning to the Scope and Sequence. 

        If you have not already, please check off the standards that you intend to cover in your subject in Quarter 2. Please make sure there is an ‘x’ in the second column of any standard you will cover in these Grade Level Standards Checklists.

        These documents are really taking shape and will be a valuable resource in years to come.

        From our TIFs

        Here are a curated list of helpful links for students and families as we begin the year. These videos can be helpful as you share information with them. 

        Previous Elementary School Posts

        Elementary School Faculty Blog – March 19, 2021

        Elementary School Faculty Blog – March 19, 2021

        Mar 19, 2021 |

        We might not feel like experts but today’s assembly was a chance to remind ourselves that we are now good at many things that we did not know how to do at all just a matter of months or weeks or days ago.

        Elementary School Faculty Blog – March 12, 2021

        Elementary School Faculty Blog – March 12, 2021

        Mar 12, 2021 |

        The reality of the current situation can make finding the bright side difficult. But research shows that in difficult times, it is important for our mental health to allow ourselves to acknowledge that times are difficult and to feel rather than suppress negative emotions.

        Elementary School Faculty Blog – March 5, 2021

        Elementary School Faculty Blog – March 5, 2021

        Mar 5, 2021 |

        We have long term, yearly, quarterly, monthly, and weekly plans but our planning and preparation has now taken more of a day by day focus. It will therefore need to be very fluid as we plan for our students’ safety and wellbeing, connectedness, and learning.