Newsletter
Volume 16 | Issue 3 | March 2021
Watch for upcoming summer professional learning opportunities!
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Cultural Competency
Thank you all for joining us on MLK Day for our Being Culturally Self-Aware session. This session was part of Millard Public Schools' ongoing process and dialogue on cultural competency. As a follow-up here is a link to our Building Cultural Competency & Culturally Responsive Teaching website which contains curated resources. This site also contains a video of the January 18 MLK Day session. Thank you for your conversations, feedback, and engagement on this topic. We look forward to sharing future plans with you soon.
Concurrent Remote Learning Resources
What’s ENGAGEMENT?
We know that engagement is more than students simply handing in assignments or having a camera on during a remote lesson. Engagement is difficult to quantify. Fisher, Frey and Hattie in the book, The Distance Learning Playbook, provide a continuum of engagement as developed by Amy Berry (2020):
Make your planning purposeful, your instruction infallible, and your assessment appropriate. Choose if you want to read Jennifer Gonzalez's 4 Laws of Learning, hear about Quizlet live and other formative assessment strategies, or dig into new tech tools.
Check out the choice board to the left for ideas and resources.
Technology for Concurrent Learning
Try some new Tech Tools
Click on the flashing plus signs to read more about each tool. Then click the button to go directly to that tool.
Image below created with Canva (Free for educators) and Thinglink (Free option). Click here to see examples of how teachers use Thinglink, and click here for examples of student projects with Thinklink.Google Can Do it!
Have you seen this little box in the corner of your text boxes in Google Slides?
Now, Google lets you resize the text font more easily to either shrink the text size when it is overflowing or resize the shape of the textbox to fit the text.
You can also set what you would like it to default to under tools and preferences.
Self Care
Other Professional Learning Resources
Search and Listen to Podcasts on Google
Go to your waffle and scroll down to Podcasts.
For 2021, I want to have a single-minded focus on the destination ahead. A train can’t go in multiple directions at once.So, what is my mission? My contribution? What is the thing I can be doing right now in the world to make it a better place? I want to decide that and get on board the train.
Dr. Boogren challenges the Self-Care Squad to strengthen our relationships and our bodies. As always, this simple challenge can reap brilliant rewards.
Elena shares the word that she hopes will encapsulate her hopes, vision and values for 2021, and the mantra that she’ll use to guide her behavior. She also shares what her 2020 word was and how she wrestled with it.
The yearly roundup of tools includes an audio feedback tool, sites to combat racism and media bias, and an app that lets you Google things in mid-air.
Scholarship Opportunities
Millard teachers who are working toward additional certification or continuing education may choose to apply. Summer 2021 applications are being accepted. The form is submitted electronically. Deadline for Summer 2021 applications is April 21st. Click here to review scholarship options. Limited funds may be available for summer courses. Please review the application carefully to determine eligibility and be sure to submit the required documentation.
While our scholarships may support both graduate and undergraduate courses as needed, only approved, graduate level courses will qualify for salary advancement in the Millard Public Schools. Please make sure you complete an “Application for Graduate Credit Approval” prior to the beginning of the course if you plan to seek salary advancement. The application form is available on the Human Resources Website and then by selecting Application for Graduate Course Approval.
