9-23-20

“We all need people who will give us feedback. That’s how we improve.”

-Bill Gates

Good Evening Team and Family –

Today marks the end of our “broken windows” series, and now the real work begins. Your feedback and input around attendance, scheduling, Google Classroom, and systems and procedures have been essential to the success of our “runway” period-thank you so much! I want to emphasize the notion that we hope and expect that feedback continues, and remains open and honest throughout the duration of the school year.

As a friendly reminder, tomorrow during 8th block/period Mr. Albertorio will be hosting “Meet the Principal Virtually”. This means that teachers will have 8th block/period off tomorrow and Friday. Also, we will be meeting as an entire staff on Friday at 4:00pm for “Shout Outs &Good News”. Please refer to the big rocks below to help guide you through the rest of the week:

1. Attendance – As stated by many staff members, “today had the largest number of students in classrooms across the board”. This is a complete reflection of the work that teachers are doing in their classrooms, and beyond. We continue to experience high attendance volume, and we want to keep this trend going-excellent work everyone! On another note, please continue to track students who are “no shows”, and document your outreach attempts. If you are noticing trends with “no show” students, please share this information with the Admin Team-thanks!

2. Google Classroom – It appears as though more and more updates are being added to Google Meets, and this is a good thing. We need to continue to flag any questionable student behaviors and misuse of systems and procedures. Thank you Ms. Antonellis for your feedback regarding the students who were creating separate Google Meets.

3. Systems & Procedures – Shout out to Ms. Randall for asking about extending our “Human Help Desk” system. Mr. Albertorio has already started brainstorming ideas about extending technical help after the “runway” period. Please be on the lookout for more details around that soon. Finally, I also wanted to mention that we are beginning to design systems and procedures of support for students who speak languages other than English and Spanish. If anyone would like to suggest any ideas for how we can support these students, please feel free to send them our way.

Tomorrow, we will continue visiting more classrooms and providing support as needed. As we have messaged all throughout the week, we have now entered a phase in our observation and feedback cycle where “real-time coaching” has begun. We will need to provide feedback to ensure that we are ready to take off from our “runway” schedule. Please continue to send admin any feedback or thoughts regarding ways that we can best support you. As always, thank you for everything that you do for our students and one another!

Next Steps & Things to Keep in Mind:

1. STEAM classes will not happen for the first 2 weeks. STEAM teachers place this info in your classroom, and teachers be sure to inform your students

2. Update roster from PowerSchool

3. Students who need assistance with accessing their SLPREP student emails should be directed here

4. SLPREP student emails & phone numbers are located here

5. Add any missing students directly into your Google Classroom by clicking on ‘People”.

6. Students will be able to view any teacher-invitation directly in their Google Classroom

7. Check links, codes, and folders for accuracy before assigning work to students. Direct students who are still having trouble with links to this process

8. Provide language support, and help teachers who might need an extra person (when possible)

9. When conducting parent outreach, please make sure to complete our outreach log here

10. Refer to this document when helping students with questions

11. Teachers, please use this resource to help students navigate the days on their schedule that are synchronous vs asynchronous (add this to your Google Classrooms)

12. Here are some scripted answers that you can use in the event you need to begin responding to parent questions about technology Scripted Answers

13. Rebekah Zayas will provide additional support to Mr. Rodriguez (period 1) and Mr. Follis (periods 6 & 7) for the remainder of the “runway” period

14. Create a Google Classroom for your breakout/small group sections. Please use this document to send invites to your students

Finally, I conclude by reminding our staff and school community that NWEA MAP testing is quickly approaching (the testing window opens up on Monday 9/28/20). The Admin Team will be sharing logistical plans to ELA and math teachers in the coming days. These plans/logistics will spell out in detail what next week will look like during specific synchronous instructional blocks. As a preview, and heads up, ELA and math teachers will proceed with their regularly planned lessons for next week, however, they will also weave in opportunities for students to practice accessing software and login procedures for MAP. Links to student & parent toolkits and teacher pre-test checklists will be shared soon. Thank you Spartan staff for always showing grace, attentiveness, and compassion for one another! #LEVEL-UP

Respectfully,

Dexter Miller