Madison Middle School

We have a feeling we’ll never take a “regular” start to school for granted again. What you all accomplished these last two weeks is nothing short of incredible. We know you gave up entirely too much of your own time to make this happen. We hope you are able to rest this weekend and spend some time doing things you love. 

Reflection for the Week: This work is incredibly hard, the reinvention of how we provide an education has been darn near impossible, and the constant changes have been infuriating at times. We don’t want to offer meaningless platitudes. Just know we see how hard you all are working, what you’re sacrificing for this work, and how you’re doing the near impossible. We see you giving yourselves and each other grace. We see you trying really hard to laugh through the frustrating times and helping each other get through this first week. This village we’ve built is part of the reason we believe we’re all willing to show up each day. Continue to be there for one another, borrow strength and ideas from each other, and take each step forward together.

Applied Learning:  Students complete this work on their own schedule. While we cannot call it homework (it won’t count as minutes for ODE if we say it’s homework), it’s similar to what we might assign for homework. 

• Please remind students that they need to be interacting with Canvas or Zoom EVERY DAY for EVERY CLASS; Zoom for after noon classes, and Canvas in the morning for “yesterday’s” classes. 

Open House: For Tuesday evening (6:30-7:30), please put some though into what you’d like to present to families. Connect with your team to determine if you’d like to submit a couple of slides to your GL host (Peter -6, Gina-7, Anne-8) to be included in the slide deck. The host will take care of screen sharing, etc. Each teacher will have 5-6 to introduce yourself, share broad strokes of content and curriculum, and 

Supply & Materials Distribution: We will be distributing class materials on Friday 10/9, using the assistance of several EAs. Teams, please compile any and all materials that you want your student to have into a ziplock or paper grocery bag. Bags will need to be labeled with the student name and grade. If you would like the office to print labels for you, let Queenie know by Tuesday afternoon at the latest. 

COVID Reminders: Some of our 4J buildings are beginning to see positive COVID cases and cases in our area are increasing. Please remember a few key things to help keep yourself and others safe:

• Entrance: Only use the front office entrance, OR the back custodial hallway entrance, and sign in/out every day you’re in the building. 
• Visitors: We haven’t had an issue, but please remember we cannot have visitors or volunteers in the building. 
• Safety Protocols: Wear your mask in your work space when you cannot maintain 6′ (and preferable 10′) of space between colleagues, when walking around the room, and when out of your work space. Wipe down your workspace regularly and any shared spaces you use. 
• Report Illness: Please let us know if you are being tested for COVID or if you have symptoms that are concerning. Your privacy is incredibly important, and we also have to ensure everyone’s safety. Staff can transition to telework while waiting the results of COVID tests.

Building Usage: Beginning in a week or so, one or both of the gyms will be used by child care programs for elementary aged kids. They will be using a separate entrance and will be entirely confined to the gym and gym restrooms. Additionally, 4J is working to create internet hubs for students who cannot get/maintain a consistent wi-fi connection or for our McKinney-Vento students who need a quiet workspace. These hubs are only allowed to operate for two hours per day at a site.  Madison is not designated as an internet hub, but if you have a student who might benefit from an internet hub, please let Peter know. The hubs will be limited to 5-10 students and 1-2 EAs to supervise. 

Ready to Learn Infographics: These graphics can be shared with families or with students during instruction. Spanish versions are on their way. 5 Tips for Creating A Home Workspace 7 Tips for Creating Good Home Study Habits Ready To Zoom It’s a good idea to include a message that says something to the effect of “If these work for your family.” We’ve heard from some families who are having a hard time providing quiet, separate work spaces for students. Reminding families that having students sit with their backs to the walls prevents others from unintentionally ending up on screen and leaving the room for phone calls means we won’t all be listening in 🙂

Meal Deliveries Start October 12: Families that indicated they need help with food can sign up to have meals delivered if they aren’t able to access our daily lunch pick up. Priority will be given to current 4J families and food will not be delivered outside of the 4J boundaries. Families can visit this link for more information about the program and complete the form here to sign up for deliveries. The district wants to target families who are not close to food distribution sites or who cannot get to distribution sites due between 10:45 and 2pm for lunch pick up.

Master Resource List: Here is a link to a master list of all our community resources. There is a ton of information here for staff as well as some pieces that could be helpful for families. While we are not sharing this link with families, you can pull particular links to forward to families if they need them. The district has hired a social worker, Maria Covernali, who will help coordinate our district wrap around supports.

SPED Referrals during CDL: Here is a quick reference sheet from SSD about considerations we should think about if talk of a SPED evaluation arises for a student. Please loop Peter and Gina in on any conversations families might be having with you around requesting a SPED evaluation.

New Process for 504 Requests – 4J is seeing an uptick in the amount of parents requesting 504 evaluations. In response to this, all requests for NEW 504 evaluations will be routed through the District 504 Coordinator. If you receive a call from a parent for a NEW 504 evaluation, explain to the parent we are centralizing the referral process and ask them to call SSD (541-790-7800). If you receive the request in an email, forward it to thomas_de@4j.lane.edu and indicate “New 504 Request” in the subject line. Please also let Anne know so she can follow up if needed. SSD staff have been trained on the procedures to complete child-find obligations and will work with the District 504 coordinator to that end. In addition, district-initiated referrals are also being routed through the District 504 coordinator. The linked Centralizing New 504 Request Process Document articulates the process for both parent-initiated and district-initiated 504 requests.

Talent Ed – We put this way down here because we know no one wants to think about this right now. We’ll work to carve out some PLC or staff meeting time to work on goal setting, but in all your free time (note the sarcasm), if you could complete your self-assessments in TalentEd,(if you have not already done it) that would help get things started. All certified staff will be evaluated this year using the new Instructional Framework tool. Also, rather than use the very confusing Year 1/Year 2 designation, they’ve switched to Formative (informal evaluations only) and Summative (informal and formal evaluations) to describe how certified staff will be evaluated. You shift from one to the other on a rotation each year. We’ll send out more information and begin scheduling meetings as soon as we’ve wrapped our head around how this will all go down this year.

Distance Learning Activities for Zoom –  This quick blog post from Lindsay, The Not So Wimpy Teacher, shares some quick and easy games to play with kids. These are great for short breaks during online learning time as well. 

P.S. Zoom put out an update that allows you to upload a slide deck as the background of your video. Linked here is a video tutorial of how to drop the pages of your read aloud into a slide deck, upload it to Zoom, and then present it. It’ll pop up in the corner of your screen and you’re inside the book! You can do the same with the slide deck you’re using to teach if you want. 

Schedule of Upcoming Events: 

October 2 (F)
Custodian Appreciation Day! We treated Jim and Curtis to a small sweet treat, to let them know how much we all appreciate them.

October 5 (M)
A Day

October 6 (T)
B Day
Open House Zoom 6:30-7:30

October 7 (W)
A Day
7:00, School Board Meeting

October 8 (Th)
B Day

October 9 (F)
No School, State In-Service Day (non-contract day)

We hope everyone has a restful weekend.

Peter and Gina