Madison Middle School

By barsotti_p 　https://blogs.4j.lane.edu/madisonstaff/2021/03/05/march-5-2021/

Hi Madison Staff,

This year it seems the only thing we can count on is change.

Here’s what’s happening this week:

This Week’s Schedule:

Quick Links: Please make sure you’re signed into your 4J Google Account to access many of these links.

• SPED/Gen Ed Collaboration Log – Complete the full log at the beginning of each unit. Complete the last 2 questions weekly for students on IEPs who are not engaging or are not on track.
• COVID Protocol Suggestion Box – Please add any suggestions or concerns here.
     

MADISON INFORMATION     

• Weekly Check In: Don’t forget that the weekly check in includes a space to celebrate each other. Linked here is the staff weekly check-in. I’d like to know how you’re doing and be able to offer support for those who need it. Here are the shout-outs from last week:
• FOCUS Slides: 
  • Monday: Please Announce Wednesday’s Talent Show Assembly! Also, this week, there’s a special Canvas check reflection in order to FOCUS kids on one or two particular classes in which they need to improve before end of term. 
  • Tuesday: Discussion question – What was your favorite childhood toy, and why? and 
  • Wednesday: FLEX DAY – 1:00 Talent Show Assembly Zoom Link
  • Thursday: SEL Lesson – Video-based Leadership Quiz
  • Friday Fun: Scattergories and “Pass the Object”

DISTRICT INFORMATION

• Superintendent’s Update: Linked here is the email that was sent to families last Friday with updated information about elementary, middle, and high school’s return to onsite learning.
• Safety Protocols for Hybrid: Here is an informational video put together by district leadership. It’s about 20 minutes long, so please don’t feel the need to watch it now. We’ll be viewing it together as a staff during our next staff meeting, but we wanted you to have the link, in case you’d like to preview it and generate questions ahead of time, or reference it at a later date.  
• Child Care Resources: Below is from Cydney’s email on Friday afternoon:
  If you need childcare for when you return to working on-site for the hybrid model, now is the time to make those arrangements. Thanks to staff who responded to the district survey in January, we know this is a challenge for some of our team. Full-day childcare will not be available at school sites. However, before- and after-school care options with community providers are being arranged at elementary school sites; check with your school if this is a need for your children. For other local childcare options including full-day care, we’ve compiled some options in this Google doc. The Employment-Related Day Care program (ERDC) helps eligible families pay for childcare while they are working. We are also actively developing a program to provide partial subsidies for certified childcare costs for 4J staff using federal funds, and will share more information if this becomes available to help our team members with school-age children.  
      

PROFESSIONAL LEARNING AND OTHER INFORMATION  

• It’s Time to Talk About Dr. Seuss: If we had been in-person this week, many schools would’ve been celebrating Dr. Seuss’ birthday in conjunction with Read Across America. In this article from Teaching for Justice (formerly Teaching Tolerance), author Gabriel Smith discusses a study done 2 years ago that analyzed Dr Seuss’s writing from an anti-racist lens. The findings highlighted a number of concerns in Dr Seuss’s work, especially in how people of color are depicted. The author does not suggest abandoning Seuss’s work entirely, although there have been serious calls in the last few years to pull Seuss back from the relative idol status he currently holds in education.  The author instead recommends we closely analyze the materials we provide students to determine if a) it should be presented at all given the students’ age and b) if it is presented, what kind of critical conversation students should engage in around the text.
      
• Anti-Racism Over “Tradition”: Alternatives to Dr. Seuss and Racism: This article from Kaitlin Kamalei Brandon at Colorful Pages elevates anti-racist texts that fill the same needs people have when they turn to Dr Seuss books – namely rhyming patterns, ease of reading, and illustrations. Included are texts like Ada Twist, Scientist and No Kimchi for Me along with many more suggestions.

What’s Coming Next Week: 

We’ll get through this together. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have questions, concerns, or just need someone to listen. We’re here for you.

Gina and Peter