ISY Elementary School Faculty Blog

A Bumpy Week

Mike Simpson

February 18, 2022

Bumpy, messy, crazy, $@#! – these are all words that have been used by us when describing this week (and last week and probably next week…).

I wonder how the students would describe the weeks at the moment? I don’t think they would use the same words. Judging from my interactions with students, they seem for the most part very settled and happy. That’s because you’ve smoothed out the bumps and hidden away the mess for them. Through continuing to teach online when you can’t make it to campus and by covering classes, duties and ASAs when you can make it, our students are still getting what they need.

Here is a link to a letter addressed to teachers from a 12th grader. Patty sent this out earlier today. It is worth a read.

We all know we are doing our best…. even when we are not at our best!

Check in. How am I? What do I need? How are they? What do they need from me?

Ask for help and be helpful.

Be present and patient. Take time to fully understand others and allow time for others to understand you. Pausing, Paraphrasing and Posing Questions promotes our common understanding.

Share your ideas and be open to the ideas of others. Once shared, they become our ideas and anything could happen!

KEY COVID CONSIDERATIONS

  • All information regarding COVID cases should go through the clinic.  If a parent or students reports a case to you, please ask them to email the clinic and the clinic will follow up.
  • Everyone on campus (all students and teachers) must wear a mask at all times
  • Students are to wipe their desks with a disinfectant wipe when they leave the room (e.g. leaving a specialist class, on the way to lunch, end of the day)
  • Class doors and windows to be open while teaching with air conditioners turned on (unless air quality is an issue – you will be notified by email).
  • Everyone encouraged to wash hands at every opportunity.
Covid Update (from last Thursday’s email to faculty from Dr. Hedger)
You might have noticed from the Thursday Notices email that we are making some changes to our health and Safety Guidelines regarding Covid.  These are largely following the latest CDC guidelines updated in the last couple of weeks.
The key changes are the following.
  • If you come into close contact with a suspected case (i.e. a partner, your child or household member) we want you to stay home for at least 5 days, monitor for symptoms and test using the rapid test kits.  The only exception to this rule is if you have recovered from a case of Covid in the last 90 days yourself.  Then you can come to school but should  be monitoring for symptoms carefully.
  • If you test positive then you should be at home for a minimum of 5 days.  If after 5 days you have no symptoms and test negative you can return to school on Day 6.  
  • The maximum time away should be 10 days.  Sometimes you can still get a positive result after 10 days but the research tells us that people are not contagious at this point.
These are the main points for now but may change as the situation changes.  

SEMESTER 2 SCHEDULE

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

Note: The schedule has no transition times between periods. Please make sure that students are ready to start their next class on time and start recess and lunch on time.

 

SUPERVISION SCHEDULE

Here is the Supervision Schedule that we will use for Semester 2.

This week:

10:00 – 10:20 Grade 2-5 Recess Locations

  • Front Steps End of Field / Front Steps Playground: Grades 2/3
  • SAS Building End of Field / A Building Playground: Grades 4/5

8:00 – 8:20 Before School Play Duty

Here is the Before School Play Duty Schedule that we will use for Semester 2.

People on duty this week:

  • Monday: John
  • Tuesday: Dan
  • Wednesday: Kristi
  • Thursday: Laura
  • Friday: Jono

ZOOM LINKS (Semester 2)

Here is a link to the Zoom Links that we will use for Semester 2.

Semester 2 Teaching Teams

Here is the link to the ES Semester 2 Teaching Teams document which is also available on the Elementary School Faculty Pages.

When thinking about these teaching teams, we just need to bear in mind that we might all need to cover for or assist colleagues who are unable to work from school. 

On this document (at the top) you will see links to Grade Level (PK-KG, G1, G2/3, and G4/5) Organization Summaries – as things pop up, please add them to the bottom of the document so we can address them.

ADAPTIVE HYBRID PROGRAM FOR COVID SPIKE

Effective from Monday, February 14

    Why are we doing this? 

    In light of current Covid cases (teachers and students), our current hybrid model is unsustainable in the short term. The online classes for PK-1, 2/3, and 4/5 were bigger than any in-person class this week. This may be the case for the next few  weeks. We need to be able to position teachers where we need them to meet the different and often unpredictable needs of each day and so we can keep the school open.

    Click here for the full Adaptive Hybrid Program for COVID Spike

    MAP Testing (February 28 – March 3)

    It has been awhile! Grades 2/3 and 4/5 students will sit MAP tests from Monday, February 28 to Thursday, March 3.

    Here is the ES MAP Testing Schedule.

    We can have make up test sessions for those students who do not finish (or are absent).  However, to avoid the need for scheduling too many make up tests, please let students keep testing into the next period if they are near finishing. Specialists, this might mean students are late or miss your classes during this period.

    The students will sit the following tests:

    • Reading
    • Language Usage
    • Math

    Here are the slides that we used to provide an Overview of MAP Testing in the Elementary School.

     

    Interdisciplinary Units

    Curriculum Maps and Scope and Sequences

    Here is where you can find our Curriculum Maps These will be updated up to Quarter 2 using our Subject Blurbs from Semester 1 reports.

    Here is where you can find our Q3 Scope and Sequence. 

    To fill out this year’s Q3 Scope and Sequence, you might want to refer to the skills you focused on this time last year in this Q3 Scope and Sequence 2020-2021.

    Please link your planning to the Scope and Sequence as you did for our Q2 Scope and Sequence. 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. 

    Please also check off the standards that you intend to cover in your subject in Quarter 3. Please make sure there is an ‘x’ in the second column of any standard you will cover in these Grade Level Standards Checklists.

     Reading Levels – January 2022

    It is time to reassess our students’ reading levels. This is important data to be recorded on this Elementary Reading Levels (2021-2022) Spreadsheet. There are obvious challenges to doing this quickly online so please focus first on those students who you might require additional support in the second half of the year.

    From our TIFs

    Both Ian and Lindsey have new teaching responsibilities for Semester 2. This might mean one of the another are unavailable to immediately help with an issue. 

    If you have a technology issue that is not urgent, email tifs@isyedu.org. 

    If you have an urgent technology issue, the best thing to do is send a Google Hangout message to Lindsey, Ian, and Anshu. That way you have 3 chances that someone is available when you need them. 

    – – – –

    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. 

    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.

    This is the ISY Compassion Conference 2022 Google Site that we will use to organize ourselves and post information.

    More information will be added to this site, including the Zoom link we will use, how we will organize ourselves into groups, and how lunch will work. All information should be up-to-date by next Friday.

    We have decided to hold our own ISY teacher workshops for a separate event to be held later in the year. This event will be organized around our ISY Inclusive Practices.

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