Weekly Update #34

Inspirational Quote:

“Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.”
                                                                                                            ― Neil Gaiman, Coraline

                                                                 This Week                                                                           

Monday, May 11, 2020                                                              Working from Home 

Tuesday, May 12, 2020                                                              Working From Home                                                                                      

Wednesday, May 13, 2020                                                         Working From Home                       

Thursday, May 14, 2020                                                            Working From Home
                           
Friday, May 15, 2020                                                                 Working From Home       

                                       Things to Be Aware of and Keep in Mind                                                

• Staff Appreciation Raffles - Check in daily to see if you are a winner!
• Special Ed Updates - Please make sure that you ask and have all the information that you need at this Friday's meeting about IEP meetings and Special Ed cases.
• Letters to Support Parent Communication - In support of our parent communication, here are some sample letters with Spanish translation that we created in hopes of targeting some of our hard to reach families, and those that now seem to have disconnected numbers.
• English and Spanish Letters
• Stipend Part Time Positions - Ms. Powers has instructed us to inform you to complete your forms with the following information so that they can be prorated:
• For extra curricular stipends please have teachers note description of work completed in the following manner:
• name of program: Art Club
• the expected number of sessions for the program: 10
• the number of sessions completed: 5
• Exact dates of sessions held: 2/5, 2/12, 2/26, 3/3,3/10
• (Please do not add any other information or it will get denied.)
• If you did not put in any hours for your club, please email Glenda immediately.
• Aesop - Aesop is running.  If you are not available on a work day or plan to take a personal day, please complete the following expectations:
• email the HR department, email payroll, complete Aesop, and email Glenda, Liz, and your CIT.
• Sorry for the extra communication, but payroll is completed a bit differently these days.  You can email our admin team and CC others, so it is all in one email.
• Continue to fill out your class Promotional Meeting Steps for Grouping document. This completed form can be found on SharePoint in the CIT folder/End of Year Procedures/SY 2019-2020/ Grade & class. Please meet with Support staff that are in your room to collaborate after you have completed this document.  These completed documents will be used during our grade-level Promotional Meetings beginning on May 12.
• EBT - Please share this with families:  If anyone receives EBT benefits, they will begin to receive an additional $28 per child.
• Ways to support families with new packets: Do a Zoom Meeting specifically about the new packet, choose one of the activities to do for a Zoom Meeting, Post a sample 
• New Packets -  Available at schools from May 18th-May 20th from 9 am - 12 pm.
• We need volunteers for this round as well. If you are available, please let Glenda and Liz know.  Thank you!
• Parent Communication Document - This document is from the SEL department and is meant to support communication with families having a difficult time with social isolation. 
• Report Cards - Due on Friday, April 24 were the last grades for the year.  Please note that admin will not mail these to families until the end of the year.  Dr. Tutwiler will be sending families and staff a guidance on grades and other end of year expectations, with a clear message to ensure that families understand that engagement in school communication and activities is an expectation.
• Student Materials will be packed and distributed during this time.  We will need volunteers to support desk clean out and material packing.  If anyone is willing to come in to help do material packing for student materials, please let Glenda and Liz know! If this was already done during the classroom closing, also let Glenda and Liz know.
• Class Dojo Expectations - Expectations for Class DoJo have been thoughtfully put together and can be found here. Please read this as there are changes to postings that were recommended to us by admin after a recent School Committee Meeting.
• Zoom - Always have a clear plan for zoom events. Feel free to invite support staff to present a lesson too!  This can be a fun shared experience.
• Team Planning - Please ensure that lessons are going into a 2020-2021 folder.
• Technology - Laptops for special ed students were handed out last week.
• Communication - We have updated the tracker to include students from the meeting that we held Limited Contact Tracker.  Please go back and clean up the tracker with the information below.
• Important Information about Tracker - Please do not add any additional information or unnecessary lines in the document.
• When regular contact is maintained, please highlight the whole line red (see sample in document).
• Notes are allowed under the Contact Made section.
• If you documented something on the log, please update it to meet the expectations in this update.
• Communication Log - Please make sure that you are completing your logs regularly.  
• Liz and Glenda will be checking in with teachers about communication, so that we can support you and our families as best as we can.
• Connery Facebook Page - If you haven't already checked it out, please check out the Connery Elementary Facebook page.  
• District FAQ Sheet - Here is a link to the district FAQ sheet.  This is also locate on the district website.
• MCAS - MCAS is officially postponed.  
• Guided Reading Documents - Here!
• Recess - recess resource 
• Connery School Year Calendar
• Food Pantry Flyer
• LPS CORE VALUES - Inclusiveness, Shared Responsibility, High Expectations, and Inspiring Life Long Learning.

                                                           Looking Ahead                                                                         

School has been officially designated to be remote learning until the end of the year.