Madison Middle School

By barsotti_p 　https://blogs.4j.lane.edu/madisonstaff/2022/03/18/march-18th-2022/

Hi Madison Staff,

If you’re anything like me, in the midst of the incredibly heavy load you’re all carrying everyday, the hard stuff overshadows the growth, progress, and achievements that have happened. I swear I’m not aiming for toxic positivity :). Instead, I just hope you are able to take a moment and see all you’ve accomplished, the connections you’ve made, the student learning you’ve helped make happen, and the growth students have made in your care.  

Here are this week’s updates:

• March 21-25, Spring Break

MADISON INFORMATION                

• Propping Doors open: A note from facilities: Room … has door damage caused by a wedge or block of some sort placed in between the hinge side of the door and the door frame.  It’s also $2,187 just for the door. When done with the repairs its probably in the $2500-3000 range due to our temporary work required in the interim and labor associated with replacement. If you are seeing this elsewhere in Madison, we would love it if you could share a message with staff to not wedge doors open in this fashion. If they ever need to wedge a door, which we don’t recommend, doing so at the floor level is appropriate and prevents damage like this from occurring.
• Covid Updates: We’re shifting in the next phase where Covid becomes part of all the other illnesses we regularly see
  • Masking Required in Health Room: Masks are still required in health care environments, which includes our health room. Students and staff should plan to mask when visiting the health room for illness related needs. Students coming in for meds aren’t required to mask.
         
  • Rapid Tests Available: We can still rapid test kids and adults even though we aren’t contact tracing. Additionally, if you know a family could use tests for home, please let me know. The district has a lot of take-home rapid tests and I can send them home with families in need.
         
  • COVID Flowchart: If you’re interested, linked here is the latest COVID flowchart for when a student tests, positive, shows signs of illness, or is exposed to COVID.
    

DISTRICT INFORMATION                                   

• Claim Your 4J Account: 4J Technology emailed staff a RapidIdentity Quicksheet on how to update your password and account security by April 15. This will ensure your usernames and passwords are consistent across all 4J systems and make it easier for the tech department to integrate new systems. The short version is to go this link and follow the directions.
            
• Repeat: ACE Award Nominations: Nominations for the 2022 ACE Awards opens on Tuesday, March 1. Visit this link to nominate A Champion in Education. Nominations will close March 31 and the award ceremony will be held Tuesday, May 10 at 6pm.

PROFESSIONAL LEARNING AND OTHER INFORMATION       

• Need a Pick Me Up? If you’re needing a little pick me up, students from an elementary school created a pep talk line. Call (707) 998-8410 and choose the number that describes the pep talk you need. You’ll then get a series of recorded pep talks from some elementary students. It’s the best – and if you’re like me, you’ll get a little weepy.
       
• Who’s Doing the Work?: This article from Achieve the Core discusses strategies to step out of kids’ way and let them dig into rigorous work without over-scaffolding or providing support before they’ve even tried. Some examples are included in this table. As the self-proclaimed queen of restating things for kids, the second bullet really hit home for me.
  

Next Week at a Glance:

I hope you have a great week!

Peter and Gina