Thursday Thriller
January 7, 2021
Our Webpage was updated over break. Right now Armida is the person who is putting information on the webpage. You can email us both if you need something loaded. Thank you
Nuts-n-Bolts
1. If you are interested in participating in the book study, Grading for Equity in which you would get the book AND clock hours, please email me. Book study would be outside of school time, one hour a week, plus reading time. Approximately 20 clock hours. Here is the outline for the 20 hours. ALSO if there is another colleague outside of Garrison that would like to participate, they are more than welcome too. They would just have to buy their own book.
2. Grade with Grace -know that you have the opportunity to make professional decisions for individual cases. I'm not asking you to throw every belief, practice, etc out the window. What I am asking is that you set aside your personal biases, which we ALL have. Biases are human, natural and based upon our experiences. Biases do not mean you are 'bad' unless you know they are bad and don't do anything to change them and moving forward is hurtful. Which...can honestly say none of us are in that boat.
Please look through the lens of a pandemic, students not being in school for almost a year and if you have children, nieces/nephews, siblings etc that ARE doing well doesn't mean the students who aren't doing well are giving you the finger (there are some students who we know do give us the finger. What I have learned in 30 years don't take it personally. Behavior is communicating something. :D).
The posts on the Jamboard will be looked over with the GC team so we can take the information and determine a starting point for further discussions as a school.
I'm off my soap box. :D There will always be different view points on grading ESPECIALLY in remote learning. Thank you for reading and keeping an open mind.
3. Thank you for always adhering to safety measures. I truly appreciate not being the mask/social distance police. YOU ROCK!!!!!
4. The next couple of weeks are going to be filled with the planning of bringing students back. Here are some things to be aware of and will come down the pike:
a. Wade has hired an outside COVID Safety Specialist to guide our District as we move forward bringing students back. This specialist along with Mike Kay will be walking through the building and going through safety measures with me so we will be ready.
b. We will identify our 10% with your input.
c. Strict safety measures will be put into place that I will communicate with you via email and in our staff meetings; by the way you are AWESOME at reading your email!! Thank you!!!!
d. Wade keeps the web page up to date please take time to look through the information. WWPS
5. Students in the AM will be here for the 9:00-11:53 times. Students in the PM will be here from 12:15-2:15. The best we can do with bussing. I will adjust para schedules accordingly.
We will do a slow roll out of bringing the 10% of students back. Tentatively the week of January 19th we would start with our AM students. Tentative the week of the 25th we would add our PM students.
6. We are looking at the week of January 25th, not set on the exact date and time, for a 2nd semester materials pick up. So far, we know we will have planners and probably the math consumable workbooks. What other materials would need to be picked up for 2nd semester learning? AS A DEPARTMENT, please email me. Jami, Kara and I will work on a plan.
Something to Ponder
Here is an article from Edutopia on grading. While I am removed from the grading practices within the classroom, there is a part of my job responsibility to 'grade' staff through evaluation. Eval doesn't make teachers better it's the feedback and conversations as part of the process. No, you don't have the time to converse with every single student and give meaningful feedback as the only method of letting a student know how well or not so well they are doing
Furthermore, we are still in a culture where 'grades' mean something to students and families. **I am not against grades. I'm opening Pandora's box so we can have deeper discussions around what your grading practices mean, how they reflect students' progress and knowledge of the key standards and components, and what your convictions are; what are your stakes in the ground with the grades you give?
Quote
Little Humor
The Pandemic in Six-Word Memoirs. What would your six words be?
Every day's a bad hair day. -Leigh Giza,
Home ec: rationing butter, bourbon, sanity -Chritine Triano
Social distancing myself from the fridge -Maria Leooldo
