KUDOS!!!
What can I say... YOU. ARE. AMAZING.
Now... I have read the messages and have seen the posts relating to how having admin say you are doing a good job is not helping. It is hard to know, then, what to say. What I do know is that I see you - We see you. I see how tired you are. I see how flexible and accommodating you are with and for students. I see everyone leaning on everyone else - collaboration in truest form. I see your work teaching the whole child - how hard it was to have to tell our students we are going virtual. To have students upset with the unknown - with saying we are coming back and the feeling that they don't trust you.
I see you working to create an online learning environment that is as normal as it can be - your unwavering professionalism through it all. Then there are moments when we are reminded of what we are gaining through all of this - the silverlining. Ellen Murphy and I were talking and she said a positive in this is seeing the development of students when it comes to their organization, improved academic technology skills, and resilience. Seeing Briana Harris co-teaching with Scott Staude virtually - Scott explaining the skill while Bri was doing the explaining on a white board so students would see Staude but see the work because of Bri. To see Mike Jones and Stacey Stoughton taking one for the team to play around with what technology makes the most sense moving forward so that what everyone else tries truly are components staff would use. To walk past your rooms wanting to check-in but seeing how engaged you are with students online - smiling and making the best of it! Having our entire special education team re-invent and re-work support needs within a day for our kiddos. To see Bella Longoria engage all of our support staff with some PD behind Google Meets, ensuring everyone feels comfortable. Our technology department's responsiveness on getting chromebooks in the hands of all of our support staff so they can engage in Google Meets.
It can be hard to see the good sometimes but one thing I do know about THIS staff is though things might be tough at times you do an unbelievable job staying positive. You focus on the good. The relationships with students. I am proud of all of you - WE are proud of you. I hope you are proud of yourself too.
Instead of an article or video this week, I thought I would share a song - one I sometimes have on repeat that my girls sing along to...
Information/Reminders
- Congrats to Michele Pulera as she has accepted the library aide position for Karcher Middle School! Michele will continue as the second staff member in 5th grade along with utilizing the extra hours for the position to learn and train with Suzanne Dunbar. Congrats Michele!!!
- Monday, November 16 - Inventory of Furniture
- Due to being virtual we have decided to capitalize on this time to have some of our support staff assist with inventorying all of our furniture K-8 as we will be moving items K-8 due to the new building and redistricting. Just an FYI that we are working on this behind the scenes.
- Monday, November 16 - Elective Course Descriptions for 6-8
- Annie and I will be meeting briefly to go over needs for our elective areas for the 6-8 course selections. Our desire is to involve all elective staff in each content area district wide to assist with the scope and sequence of courses K-12. The following groups of staff will be meeting on Monday:
- Instrumental Staff
- Physical Education Staff
- Art Staff
- Spanish Staff
- Tuesday, November 17 - Elective Course Descriptions for 6-8
- The following elective groups will be meeting on Tuesday:
- Choir Staff
- Music Staff
- **STEM will be meeting at another time - you are not forgotten :)
- Wednesday, November 18 - Emmons Furniture Design with THESE teams from 8:30 - 2:00.
- Therefore, use building level time to collaborate and plan with each other!
- Monday, November 23 - District Essential Skills Committee Meeting via Zoom
- This meeting time was shifted from November 9th so that on the 9th everyone could focus their time on going virtual.
- Tuesday, November 24 - Pilot Classroom Selections
- As of right now our plan is for all academic teachers, and any other staff who would be teaching within core content areas of the building will have the ability to physically see everything within the new 6-8 building. I will be sharing out a time schedule sometime this week!
- Any staff who have already had planning meetings with Emmons will also have a chance to get over to the building to select teacher desk/chair.
