Time alone at home, especially during the holidays, can be especially challenging for people. While the leadership team and your colleagues are great listening ears and are always there when you need to chat, we are not trained medical professionals who can support long term mental health support. NHA has great FREE resources available to our employees who may need support. Read about the resources available to you in the event you may need them in the weeks and months to come.
Admin Observations
This week we will continue focusing on workshop for our admin collaborative observations. These observations provide us an opportunity to support you in achieving our second 100 Day Sprint (school goal)-“To increase the overall number of students proficient from Interims 1 to 2 by 5% in all subjects through personalized instruction (workshop).” Let’s continue to use our Data Dig process to structure our approach to personalize instruction. More time will be spent on this process in our January DDI meetings.
20-21 Keystone Sprint 2 by embryjd on Scribd
Best Practice Share Out
Thank you for your
active participation in our staff meeting on Tuesday. Click on the Jamboard that we created for virtual engagement and collaboration ideas from your colleagues.
Shout Out
Keystone Staff for
allowing me to be silent observer in your PLCs this week. I love how
intentional you were with sharing your resources, best practices, and
discussing planning and data.
Sarah Z for making
a special delivery to give me a Christmas gift. WOW! You made my day!
Stacey, Robyn, and
Jamie for going above and beyond to get the Commitment to Excellence forms
turned in.
Ashley and Stephanie
for your
relentless pursuit to make sure we could have some holiday fun.
Stacey, Tully, Andria, and Mandy
for sending
the most High Fives on your team in November.
Tracy, Angel, and Sarah
Z for sharing
best practices with your colleagues.
Cindy Conti for
providing our students with advanced learning opportunities (MathCon).
Jeanne for ensuring
that our playground equipment was saved. I love how you “saw a need, filled a
need.”
This Week
Monday, December 14:
·
Jen D’s Birthday
Wednesday, December 16:
·
Winter Wonderland Day: Wear All White
·
Mingle & Jingle Staff Event 4-5 PM
Thursday, December 17:
·
Holiday Colors Day
Friday, December 18:
·
Holiday Vacation Day
·
Retention Candidates Sent to Jorvonna
Admin Observations
This week for our admin
collaborative observations, we will be focusing on workshop. We cannot wait to
see how you have used assessment data to provide personalized instruction to
your students.
Staff Meeting
We have a staff meeting on
Tuesday at 4:00 PM. Please use the
Google Meet link in the calendar invite.
December 8 Staff Meeting Agenda
1.
Icebreaker
2. Good News
4. Best Practice Share Out
5. New NHA Retention Guidelines
6. Winter NWEA Testing
7. Classroom Holiday Parties
8. Remote Attendance Reminders
9. Q & A
10. Launch
School Goals
One
of our school goals is to implement our enhanced school initiatives (dress
code, Level 2 Behavior reports, Keystone Cash, etc.) consistently. Please
continue to uphold your high behavioral expectations with students, even as
they are learning remotely. If students receive a Level 2 behavior report,
please make sure to include the essential components that we discussed during
August PD.
· Show the
essential components of a level 2 write up
o
Ensure the following: professional tone, sentence
structure, and spelling
o Check
the “Include in Parent Email at the End of the Day” box when entering in a
behavior. This will automatically email
the student’s parent the behavior report at 5 PM.
o All
behaviors must be entered the day it happened prior to 4:30 PM. Those behavior reports provide valuable
information when determining the best way to support our students.
o Explain
what strategies you implemented before issuing the level 2 report (time out,
reminder of expectations, etc.).
o Explain
what happened with only facts, omit opinions.
o Please
provide the student’s statement as to “why” the student did the behavior.
o Lastly,
please state the consequence for students who receive a
behavior write-up.
Professional Development Opportunity
NHA
is offering Professional Development for NHA Teachers, Leadership and
Staff titled, Google Certification Cohort hosted by Lissa Brunan.
Sarah
Davenport stated, “it’s a wonderful training, but it’s a little different
from our traditional PD in that it covers all aspects of Google Suite (Docs,
Slides, Sheets, Site, Draw, etc.), not just the teaching components.”
We
can cover the cost for 5 teachers to attend Level 1 training. Please email me
your name if you are interested. If we have more than 5 people interested, I will
draw names. Everyone else is able to attend at your own cost.
See
below for information provided by NHA.
Intro & Tour Video - Level 1 Pre-Cohort and Level 1
Cohort Classrooms
Cohort begins in January (or get an early start in December if you want)
Certification
Costs
·
Level 1 - $150.00
·
Level 2 - $250.00 (need to complete
Level 1 certification to take level 2)
Link to Cohort Registration
Deadline to sign up December 18, 2020.
·
GVSU will cover costs for Level 1 and
Level 2 for the first 50 people to sign up that are either GVSU
students/staff/alumni or educators from their charter schools.
·
You will receive a certificate of
completion after each Level.
o Michigan teachers will receive SCECH credits with added cost to MOECS for $10.00.
Shout Outs
Ashley, Jen, Deb, and Stephanie
for my
beautiful Christmas gift. All I can say is great minds…
Sarah for providing
timely and needed technology communication to our staff during our first week
of remote learning.
Jen D for always
promoting a positive school culture.
Robyn and
Stacey for volunteering to do recall at dismissal. You saw a need and filled a
need without being asked.
Megan, Sarah M, Sarah P, Christina,
Monique, Mechelle, Julianne, Steve, Jena, Sloane, Tully, Tracy, Kari, Ellen,
Andria, Cindy Conti, Sarah Z, Jen D, Angel, Stacey, and
Jamie for your engagement, contribution and support during our virtual
collaboration meeting. All of you continue to amaze me with your ideas,
resources, and strategies as you navigate virtual learning.
This Week
Monday, December 7:
· Holiday Bingo Begins
Tuesday, December 8:
·
Jen’s Birthday
· Ugly Sweater Day for Staff and Students
·
Staff Meeting 4-5 PM
Wednesday, December 9:
· Staff Ugly Sweater Submissions Due to Robyn
Friday, December 11:
·
Due: Morning Assembly
Presentation-Turner
(New Year Goals)
Admin Observations
The admin team is looking
forward to doing collaborative observations; all of
us observing teachers together, again during our remote learning days. Please remember the purpose of
these observations is to provide consistency with our
expectations and further our development as leaders.
Please know that we will try to notify you in advance if the entire
admin team will be joining your synchronous sessions, but it may not always be
possible.
Taking a Day Off
If you are
taking any time/days off during remote learning, you will need to get approval
from your dean first and then submit your time/days in Lawson.
We will not
be having any snow days during remote learning, so any teachers who will be
working in the building, will need to make sure you take your computer home
every night in case the roads become too bad to drive into work.
Gratitude Challenge
We had 21 staff members participate in the Gratitude Challenge last week. If you
are participating in our final week (November 22-28 AND 29 & 30) of the Gratitude
Challenge, please email me your list by Monday, December1. Thank you to everyone who
participated this month! I hope you were able to reap some of the benefits of
expressing gratitude with your emotions, personality, social
dynamics, career success, and/or most of all your health.
Possible Retention Candidates
Per our retention guidelines, forms need to be filled out for each student recommended for retention and submitted to administration by December 18 for Stage 1.
If
you discussed retention at conferences, please make sure that you send me your
list by the deadline so those students’ names can be entered into MyNHA as
possible retention candidates. Thank you to the 8th grade team for
already submitting your names.
Shout Outs
Tricia and
Jen D for my Christmas gifts! I was totally impressed that you
were that organized because I am still working on getting gifts for everyone.
Stephanie and
Jen H for cleaning up the staff room after conference lunches and emptying the
fridge before break. It’s not often that someone takes it upon themselves to
clean up without being asked.
Robyn and
Jamie for figuring out extra recess and creating a schedule with coverage.
Ashley H for volunteering
to do recall at dismissal. You saw a need and filled a need without being
asked.
Lisa for taking down the cultural awareness bulletin board.
Laura D for subbing in second grade.
This Week
Monday, November 30:
·
Remote Learning Begins
Tuesday, December 1:
·
Gratitude Challenge-Week 4 (November
22-28 AND 29 & 30)
Friday, December 4:
·
Due: Morning Assembly
Presentation-Fletcher
(National Human Rights Month)
Birthdays
There is a special gift
in the mailboxes of all the people who celebrate their birthdays in December
and January.
Important Dates
Please view the right side of the blog for important dates in December and January!
*If you have an event to add or something has been forgotten, please
let me know!
School Store Voucher
The
admin team would like to gift one free school store voucher to each staff member. You can pick one of the following to
wear on Monday: dress down, pajama, crazy hair,
sweater/sweatshirt, sneaker, hat, and/or crazy socks. I’m almost positive that
I know which voucher 90% of the staff will choose. 😊
Additional Staff
We are excited to announce that we have been approved to hire another dean for a total of 4 deans! This position will be posted soon, and we plan for the new hire to start mid-January. We will keep you posted once we have selected our newest staff member and we have figured out new dean assignments.
Social Emotional Support-The Power of 'I AM'
I wanted to share something personal that I hope will help some of you. This past summer was extremely difficult for me professionally and personally. The deans and I spent the entire summer preparing and planning for the upcoming school year. We would meet for 8 or more hours every day and as soon as we finished a meeting feeling like we made “some” progress, we would receive communication that would change everything that we just did. Can any of you relate? 😊
This didn’t just happen
once or twice, but multiple times throughout the summer. It led me to
constantly feel frustrated, overwhelmed, and disheartened. I would go home and
tell Jason, “I am so overwhelmed because…” or “I am frustrated because….” Since
I was so consumed with my negative emotions, it made being a wife and mother
difficult. I KNOW the importance of sharing how you truly feel and not
suppressing emotions. You all know I believe in being transparent and honest about
how I feel (good, bad, and ugly), but I also believe there should be a balance,
so we don’t magnify the negative.
Reading the article
below helped me to process my range of emotions and find balance when dealing
with difficult situations which helped me to become a better mother and wife.
The article captures a conversation between Oprah and Pastor Joel Osteen that
speaks about the principal of ‘I AM.’ It states that whatever follows the
sentence starter, “I am,” will be invited into your life. I love how he states,
“It feels like when you understand that whatever follows “I am” is going to
eventually find you…” This principle makes me more intentional about finding
the good in any situation. This does not mean my positivity is toxic.
It’s my positivity that is keeping me from becoming toxic as I continue to
manage and oversee all the change that we are experiencing this school year.
Please note that although this conversation
mentions God, my desire in sharing this is not connected to religion, instead I
hope it inspires or helps someone with the message of I AM.
You can watch the entire 30 minute interview by clicking on the YouTube video at the top of this post, but the first four minutes of the conversation are scribed in the document below with my highlighted notes.
The Power of I AM by embryjd on Scribd
Preparing for Remote Learning
Just a few reminders as we prepare to launch into remote instruction…
1. All students should
have their cameras
on for
the entire synchronous session. We need to know that they are present and
engaged in learning. If you have concerns about the background or the living
situation of the child, you can have them blur out their backgrounds.
2.
Although
we are running a schedule similar to a regular school day, some parents may
have to make arrangements for childcare that will not permit consistent virtual
participation within the school day. Not all our families are
fortunate enough to have a family member at home and, in some cases, children
will be placed into daycare or with an elderly family member. If you notice a
student is not attending regularly, please reach out to the family to offer
assistance. Furthermore, you should plan to record your lessons to allow ALL students
access to instruction.
3.
Morning assembly will continue on its normal schedule.
Please continue to submit your presentations to Robyn.
4.
Please
be sure to communicate your office hours to parents and explain the purpose of
office hours.
5.
While
we are teaching remotely, engaging our students can be challenging. A
group of principals were brainstorming ways to engage learners from home and we
came up with the following list of ways you can engage your students and check
for understanding without just one to one calling on students to respond to
questions / provide answers.
·
Use
dry erase boards or a piece of paper inside a plastic sleeve and have your
scholars write out their answer and show you.
·
Use
hand gestures to physically engage your students (thumbs up, etc.).
·
Use
manipulatives they can find around the house ... crackers or noodles make great
counters, small toys/blocks, etc.
·
Take
brain breaks! Who doesn't love a "Go Noodle" dance video?!?
·
For
phonics and the alphabet with younger students - have them do a scavenger hunt
and search for something with the proper sound/letter.
·
For
older students, use online resources like Kahoot to engage your students in
meaningful review.
Gratitude Challenge-Week 3
We had 30 staff members participate in the Gratitude Challenge last week. Some of the submission last week had me laughing. If you are participating in our final week-Week 4 (November 22-28 AND November 29-30) of the Gratitude Challenge, please make sure to turn in your gratitude jar to me on Tuesday, December 1. Since we are remote, you can email me your list.
This week I was grateful for…
· November 15: Family Movie Night. Jingle
Jangle was a great movie.
· November 16: Deb for just being someone that
I know I can always count on to help me solve problems.
· November 17: Liz, Amelia, and Morgan for being
so understanding and flexible.
· November 18: Seeing our K-6 teachers preparing
our students for remote learning.
·
November 19: Deans who allow me to be vulnerable and REAL. Not everyone could handle
me being as real as I am with all of you. Thank you for being my safe haven.
· November 20: Not having to finish the blog or
phone cast today because I did it on Thursday!
·
November 21: Putting up our Christmas decorations a week earlier than normal.
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