Highlights-Best Practices

Each week, the deans highlight great things that members of their teams are doing to generate ideas and best practices amongst colleagues. I know that all of you are doing amazing and creative things and I cannot wait to share them in the upcoming weeks.

Stacey

This week Kindergarten thought it would be fun to do an Egg Drop Challenge with their students!  Please see the video sent out for ideas.   

Robyn

Third grade has been communicating as one on their Weebly site and in weekly emails.  This week they have set up Google Classroom to streamline the communication.  This past week they encouraged participation in a Kahoot Challenge.  The teachers posted the leaders and will announce the winners tomorrow.  The students and teachers really enjoyed this!  

We have a fun Kahoot! Challenge for you and all 3rd grade students to participate in!
This Kahoot! Challenge is all about your memory.

Steps on how to participate:
1. Log into your Clever page and go onto the Kahoot! page
2. The challenge pin number is 0118973
3. Your Kahoot! nickname needs to be first name and last name initial. Example: Lindsay F
4. Play the Kahoot!

Jamie

5^th grade is rocking their Google Classroom! They are working together as a team to post assignments for each subject along with be able to stay connected to their students. The team is providing feedback once assignments are turned in. They have also created fun games for the students to do and Jill is reading stories for the students too!

Brian emailed out to families May Do activities with ideas to keep students moving throughout the day.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1js2Kgn5yeuhkiTtK_E_oepo19difYhnNZP7f--FCzPA/edit?usp=sharing

FAQ

I hope that you had an opportunity to read the FAQ email that I sent out yesterday evening. Although, I didn’t have the answers to all the questions, I wanted to address them so everyone can know where we stand with some of the most frequently asked questions. Below is additional information for staff.

Additional Information

• NWEA

o   NHA is reaching out to authorizers to get their guidance on spring NWEA testing and its impact on charter contracts and goals. NHA got confirmation from CMU and NMU that they are not requiring their schools to administer the spring NWEA test. NHA is still waiting to hear from Bay Mills, our authorizer. I will keep you posted once we get a response.

·      Possible Prolonged Closure

o   According to NHA, "…there are questions about what prolonged closure means to academic progress and even the school calendar. We are thinking through several possible outcomes by continuing to connect with local and state government authorities to develop solutions for potential scenarios."

·      NHA's Daily Meetings

o   NHA conducts a daily meeting at 1:00 p.m. between the Executive Team (CEO, CFO, etc.), DSQs, People Services, Communication, Accounting, Curriculum & Instruction, Facilities, Food Services, etc. to discuss the everchanging educational topics to develop solutions and provide answers that help us better serve our school communities. I will continue to share approved and relevant information with our team in my blog.

Please do not hesitate to speak with your dean during your grade level/PLC meeting this week if you still have lingering questions. They may not have the answers, but we do discuss your concerns as an admin team.

Staff Game Night

Does anyone want to play a game? Please join us on Friday, April 3 at 6:30 p.m. for a Staff Game Night via Zoom. I won’t provide you with the name of the game, just yet, to avoid giving away an unfair advantaged. If you are interested, please sign up below so I can form teams. Once I know how many people will be playing, I will be sending out further communication to those individuals. Let’s get ready for some fun. 

Positivity Challenge

Thanks for all the responses to our Positivity Challenge. We had 52 people respond! Several people told me that they loved receiving the emails and want me to keep it that way instead of finding another platform that you will have to create an account for.

Be on the lookout for the next challenge tomorrow. Thank you for bringing positivity, joy, and support to each other.

Announcements

Spring Break:

·      This is a break! Please "unplug" and do not answer emails or send out any correspondences Monday, April 6-Friday, April 10, 2020.

·      Do not send home any remote learning assignment/task during that week. Please make sure you inform parents of this in an email this week.

Coronavirus:

·      If you think that you might have been exposed, please contact me or your dean privately to avoid causing panic. If someone connected to Keystone does test positive, we will let all stakeholders know while respecting everyone’s privacy.

Happy Belated Birthday

Sarah D-March 21

Megan -March 23

Kayla-March 24

Staff Highlights

Each week, the deans will highlight great things that members of their teams are doing to generate ideas and best practices amongst colleagues.

I know that all of you are doing amazing and creative things and I cannot wait to share them in the upcoming weeks.

Stacey

Kudos to the intervention team for sending a communication to all intervention students.  This communication included activities by grade level for reading and math that don’t need specific materials but will help students’ minds stay fresh.  In addition, they divided all the students up and created a schedule to reach out to each student at least once a week.  Nice work!

Robyn

All of second grade is using Google Classroom for their virtual learning.  The teachers have done a nice job including all content areas!  For Science they post pictures of the growth of plants that they planted prior to the school closure. They are integrating writing daily by providing various journal topics, including cross curricular content.  Moral Focus read alouds are posted with discussion questions to follow.  They have signed their classes up for various academic sites such as Quizizz, Epic, and Prodigy.  I love that they share Good News daily providing that personal connection! I am included in each classroom and can leave messages as well!  So many amazing things to share!

Tracy sends out a weekly newsletter with information about math lessons in Google classroom. She is creating math videos to teach the students how to do the problems. Tracy is also having her students do activities in Magnahigh, prodigy and Dreambox.

Emma created an Art Bingo card for each grade level wing K-2, 3-5 and Middle school. The Bingo card has art ideas the students can do outside or inside. Emma also created a classroom Instagram account were students can send pictures of the art projects they have created.

Staff Communication

Your dean will be reaching out to schedule weekly grade level/PLC meetings. Please make sure you are available because it is the expectation that staff is available during school hours. Thank you for your understanding as we continue to strive to communicate and support you effectively.

Parent Communication

In order to streamline our communication and avoid overwhelming our families, we are asking each grade level to work together to send out ONE ACADEMIC communication per grade level, per week. This should be in the form of a grade level newsletter. Please note that each teacher can make as many personal connections as they want. This one communication per week pertains to academics.

If parents are trying to connect with you, it’s important that we are responding to them in a timely manner. I think establishing ‘office hours’ is super important, so you don’t feel that you are always “on”. Please encourage families to reach out to you with academic questions. Some families are hesitant to do the remote learning because they don’t know how to support their child. I would hate for our students to go a whole month without any academic exposure. Your dean will discuss this further with you during your grade level meeting this week.