August 7, 2020
With all the changes and different schedules and the knowing we will have students and staff that may test positive for COVID 19, I don't have the same expectations and you should also not pressure yourself into thinking we need to get to the same point as I have in the past. Our students are coming back to us not from a normal summer break, but the extended summer break they have been on since March 13. We know there will be gaps in what they know. We know not many students did the voluntary lessons from March to May. We know that students coming from low income families don't have the resources or maybe the time to help their children with school and keeping them going. We know that many of our students were called upon to work at the different businesses in town during the closure.
We can't go back and change anything we did, we can only control how we move forward. It is vital to the success of this year to keep an upbeat, positive attitude. Everyone is feeling the extra stress of not knowing. Not knowing how long we could be in the regular education model, not knowing if or when we move to one of the other models. Not knowing how am I going to teach live and with Schoology. The feelings you are experiencing are normal, everyone has a little bit of anxiety this year as we start back with students. We are in this together.
As many of you have gone through the training with Cliff, Jill, and Tracy with Schoology and teaching online, you have now probably come to the realization that yes we are starting regular, but it will be far from regular. You will have a student or students that will be quarantined sometime during this school year. Hopefully, we won't have many, but we need to be prepared. That means that lessons need to be put on Schoology for all courses. I know this is extra work, and talking with our CIA group we are going to front load our extra hour meetings to be the beginning of the year to try and give you more time to get ready. CIA will be sending surveys during the year to see what areas you would like more professional development on. The PD for this year, will be determined a lot by what you need. The initial plan is do some short PD lessons on various topics and then give you the rest of the time to work collaboratively with your department.
So knowing that we have gaps in our students learnings that we will need to be addressed, knowing that sometime during the year students may be gone for an extended amount of time, knowing that you are not going to not get as far as a normal year because of the gaps and only having 180 school days, we, Kyle and I, do not expect this year to be perfect. The only expectation I ever have is to give me your best effort. I will never demand perfection. If you are feeling overly stressed about this year or anytime throughout the year, please talk to one of us. If you don't want to talk to one of us, please talk with one of your peers or use the Plains Area service the school subscribes to.
Thursday, August 20
8:30 - 10:00 am High School Staff in Meeting in Commons
10:00 - Noon Building Work On Your Own
Noon - 1:00 pm Lunch On Your Own
1:00 – 4:00 pm Building Work On Your Own
1:00 - 1:30 pm Meet with New Teachers - Conference Room
2:00 - 2:30 pm CTE Teachers meet in the Library
Friday, August 21
8:00 – Noon Building Work On Your Own
Noon – 1:00 pm Lunch On Your Own
1:00 – 4:00 pm Building Work On Your Own
1:00 - 2:00 pm Music Staff Meet in Mr. Hallberg’s Room
Monday, August 24
8:00 - 9:00 am All HS Activity Coaches/Sponsors meet in MS Auditorium
8:00 - 11:00 am Building Work on your own.
10:00 - 10:30 am Mr. Formanek with aides in library (10:30-12:00 Aides w/
teachers)
10:30-11:00 Teachers with ELL students meet with Mrs. Fober in MS auditorium
11:00-Noon Freshmen Open House
Noon-1:00 pm Lunch On Your Own
1:00-4:00 pm Wellness Activity
Have a great weekend!
Mark
Assistant Principal's Happenings
I hope you all had time to relax and mentally prepare for our upcoming school year. Many of you are already in the building getting ready to get back to as normal as possible. We know and do not expect normal to happen for many years. It will be a process to catch kids up and need to keep this in mind as we plan for this year and future years.
All of you have had different experiences with Covid-19 over the Spring and Summer. We know there are many different opinions even amongst everyone from Students, Teachers, Support Staff, and Administration. For myself, I had a great-uncle who was very close to death but was able to pull through and another uncle who lost 18 pounds in a week due to Covid-19. Please be aware that we have staff and students who have had close relatives pass away from this terrible disease. I'm asking that you keep that in mind when discussing it with others and use empathy because your experience will not be the same as what others have gone through.
One of the best ways we can support everyone is staying positive. We all have struggled at times with staying home and not being able to have the summer we were hoping for and students will have had the same experiences. Please start the year off on a positive note, take time to get build relationships the first couple weeks of school as that will help if we need to shift our instructional plans. We want you all to focus on student learning which may not be as broad as it has been in the past but spend time on topics so they stick with students. Dr. Iverson and I also trust you. We know the hours you put in the Spring for your students and know the many hours you have already and are going to be putting in for this year. We know you will do your best every day and that is all we can ask.
Upcoming Activities
Monday, August 10First day of Fall Sports Practice
Monday, August 17
10:00 am Boys JV/Varsity Golf @ Green Valley Golf Course vs. SBL
Friday, August 21
10:00 am Boys JV/Varsity Golf @ Willow Creek vs SC East and CB AL
Monday, August 24
11:00-Noon Freshmen Open House
Comments
Post a Comment