- What a week! Thank you for all of your hard work engaging all of our students virtually! The teamwork is AMAZING to see!!!
- Thank you to our support staff who have been doing such an UNBELIEVABLE job assisting with necessary tasks when looking ahead at the transitions that are upon us! From boxing up items, organizing spaces, inventorying furniture across multiple buildings, taking all the locks off of the lockers in current Karcher and then making sure the combinations work and all have tags (as we will be using these locks in the new building), cross checking student files, weeding the library, packing up Karcher Theatre, collaborating to determine where and what we all have when it comes to PE equipment and clubs, etc. The list goes on and on! Thank you all for stepping up as we work to take advantage of the current situation to put us in a better place in months to come!
- With this... just an FYI that we have been working to inventory the books we have in the ELA storage room along with getting rid of some text that we know we no longer need. Connie Zinnen and I went through the space to determine what curriculum items are obsolete, etc. Once the text is all inventoried I will be working with staff to determine if the number of copies of text we have is what is needed, etc.
- We also are removing some furniture items that we know are district owned that are old, broken, etc.
- Please do not panic... anything that we believe is not district owned we are not touching and will be consulting with staff about those items! Curricular wise... don't worry either... things we (Connie and I) were unsure of the use we kept and I will be talking with teams about the use, etc.
- This is an important process as we have accumulated a LOT of materials over the years as it is easy to keep things when there is excess space. Moving forward, space will be limited (or right-sided) so we do need to be very thoughtful about keeping what we use and parting ways with items we do not use/need.
A Pandemic Thanksgiving: Gratitude For What We Do Have
Thanksgiving is supposed to be fun and for many of us a sacred time to count our blessings. If we allow the pandemic to steal our joy, it can compromise our mental health and turn the season into a sad and scary time. This has been a stressful year, most of us quarantined and working from home during the pandemic. We’ve faced ups-and-downs in the economy and the unease of political and racial unrest. Pandemic stress has led to a rise in anxiety and depression, and many working from home feel isolated, unappreciated and unrecognized for their contributions at work.
A SWNS research study found that remote workers say they aren’t feeling the appreciation from higher-ups as they toil from home, especially with the struggles of 2020. The study of 2,000 Americans conducted by OnePoll on behalf of Motivosity revealed over half of employed respondents working from home said they haven't felt much gratitude from their job since they stopped commuting. It seems the lack of appreciation has added to an already strained workforce as 70% are working harder than ever before. Two-thirds (68%) of those working from home say they feel unmotivated to work since everything they do seems to go unnoticed.
Doubling Down
No matter how dire the circumstances, it’s still possible to find blessings in the disappointments and celebrate a stress-free, grateful Thanksgiving. So what are American employees grateful for this holiday? On October 30, 2020, Monster conducted a poll of 1,700 members of the nation’s workforce to shed light on what workers are most thankful for this season. Not surprisingly, their findings showed most of all people (70%) are thankful for their health. And the majority (94%) said they were motivated by gratitude from managers. Other key grateful findings were:
More than one third of workers are thankful for having a job (35%) right now and a quarter of workers (25%) thankful to work remotely.
The overwhelming majority of workers believe both that expressing gratitude at work helps ease stress and anxiety (97%) and receiving gratitude motivates their daily work (94%).
The majority of workers (91%) agree that they express gratitude at their workplace, though sadly under half (46%) of workers do not feel that they are recognized for their contributions at work.
An Attitude Of Gratitude
His Holiness the Dalai Lama says there are two ways to reach contentment. One is to acquire everything we want and desire: an expensive house, sporty car, fashionable wardrobe, gourmet foods, perfect mate, exotic trips a perfectly toned body. The list is endless. The problem with this approach is that this type of wanting is a bottomless pit and never leads to contentment. Sooner or later there will be something we want but can’t have or make happen. The second and more reliable approach to contentment is to want and feel grateful for what we already possess. When we have a strong sense of contentment, it doesn’t matter whether we obtain the object of our desire or not. We are content either way. When we focus on abundance, we have more of it.
Studies show that when we express gratitude, it raises our happiness by 25%. It’s simple science; whatever we focus on expands. When we express gratitude to the people we work with (for who they are and what they do), not only does it lift us up, it lifts them up, too. Consider making a gratitude list of the many things you’re grateful for—the coworkers, your career and other people and things, even pets—that make your life rich and full. After you’ve made your list, contemplate your appreciation for each item, especially anything you’ve taken for granted that would leave your life empty if you didn’t have it. Then share your gratitude through a card, email, Zoom or text to colleagues in the workplace.
Studies show that most employees put gratitude from their managers at the top of their list. For every worker who is thankful for having a job, others are not. In the SWNS study, 75% of remote workers said their mental health would likely improve if they had more appreciation and recognition. And seven in 10 admitted that appreciation meant the most from a manager or executive. Many managers do express gratitude in the workplace. But if you’re one of the many employees who feels shortchanged, one consideration is to let him or her know how important recognition and gratitude are for your engagement, motivation and job performance.
If that approach doesn’t seem feasible, a second option is initiating gratitude first, instead of waiting for it to come to you. That requires a shift from a grievance to heartfelt gratitude—something you appreciate about your manager. We can gain enormous happiness when we’re faced with a challenging situation and are able to take the higher road, anyway. Even if you have to do a deep dive, everybody has something of redeeming value. Practicing an attitude of gratitude, regardless of what you’re getting in return, can keep you from losing heart and feeling defeated. It can restore motivation, reboot your productivity and propel you forward in your career.
If you’re a manager, Scott Johnson Founder and CEO of Motivosity offers sage advice on what you can do this Thanksgiving season: “If you’re trying to improve your company culture, focus on gratitude and appreciation. Enable teams and individuals to be appreciative of each other. That’s the kind of culture that improves eNPS scores, keeps customers happy and wins 'Best Places to Work' awards!
- In-person instruction will resume on Monday, November 30 as that has always been our intention. As you know, somethings things have to change on a dime based on information shared with BASD but plan on being in-person on the 30th!
- iReady Winter Diagnostic
- As you saw, Connie Zinnen sent out an email to all K-8 staff. Our goal and need from all K-8 staff is to ensure we start to winter diagnostic in-person when we return. Please do not put this off for either subject as the data is much more accurate when taking in-person when talking with iReady after the Fall Diagnostic.
- Therefore, please make sure you have discussed with your team how you will administer the diagnostic so that we complete the assessment in-person.
- As you know, we had some inappropriate engagements within Google Meets this past week. Thank you for all of your professionalism and help when it comes to these situations as we work to identify those involved to address the issues as a school and district.
- A few reminders for Google Meets:
- Always remember to be the last one to log off in the Google Meet.
- How to reset your Google Meet links.
- This is really important because if you reset the link after everyone is off it will deactivate the meet for future use.
- Remove students at the end of the Meet versus allowing them to log off. When you remove a student they no longer have access to that Google Meet.
- BASD work around Equity
- Thank you to Kurt Rummler for his work with our SHARE Club! Some of our SHARE students will be joining our district team that has been meeting frequently with the NEP (National Equity Project) in order to further our discovery of needs within the district.
- THIS information was shared with the media to explain what BASD has been doing when it comes to equity in our system.
- K-12 Skyward will be down starting Monday, November 23 at 6:00pm.
- Annie will be sharing a spreadsheet with you for Tuesdays attendance!
- Monday/Wednesday, November 23/25 - Meal pick up for students
- Monday - Breakfast and Lunch for Tuesday and Wednesday.
- Wednesday - Breakfast & Lunch for Thursday through Sunday.
- 4:00-5:00pm at Burlington High School & Waller Elementary for meal pick up for any students under the age of 18.
- Monday/Tuesday - November 23/24 - 2021-2022 Staffing
- HERE is the known K-8 staffing locations for the 2021-2022 school year. If you have any questions or would like to talk about anything relating to staffing please reach out! Happy to talk!
- Monday, November 23 - BLT Meeting in the library at 2:40-3:30.
- Monday, November 23 - District Essential Skill (Grading Practices) Committee Meeting from 3:45-5:15 via Zoom.
- Tuesday, November 24 - 6-8 Middle School furniture selection time with Emmons.
- Click HERE to see the time slots for each staff area. Remember, don't stress about showing up right at the start of your timeframe. We just would like you to show up within your timeframe at some point! Give yourself about 20-30 minutes to view the options through the lens of student engagement, instruction, and flexibility!
- Wednesday, November 25 - District Comp Day!
- Monday, November 30 - Resume instruction!!!
- Monday, November 30 - K-5 Essential Skills Committee (Subgroup)
- Meeting in the Karcher library from 3:45-5:15 to continue our work around Science and begin looking at Social Studies if time allows.
- Monday, November 30 - Remember... make sure we have the Winter Diagnostic in our plans to complete right when students return... so in the week of November 30th!
