March 27, 2020

Hear Ye, Hear Ye

• Kindergarten students excited to share their journal writing on BlueJeans.  

• Teachers navigating BlueJeans like they have taught with it for years instead of days.  The way teachers are talking students through the process and the engaging lessons they are getting through BlueJeans is very exciting.

• Students are sharing with many of us how much they want to be back at school with us!

• Staff volunteering to help out with students in a number of ways; emailing them specifically, phoning parents, making deliveries, etc.  What an amazing team we are!  When we all work collectively together, we feel supported and can accomplish great things!

What's Happening at Dodgeland?

• Monday, March 30
• Parody group meeting on BlueJeans (901415692) at 11:15
• Tuesday, March 31
• 11-1pm Optional Tech support on BlueJeans (675198037)
• Wednesday, April 1
• 11am - Virtual Staff Meeting
• Thursday, April 2
• 11-1pm Optional Tech support on BlueJeans (675198037)
• Optional: Power of Positive Summit begins online (https://www.powerofpositivesummit.com/)

Nitty-Gritty

• Email Best Practice
• Now that we are communicating so much through virtual/digital means, I wanted to remind us all of a best practice procedure for sending emails.  If you are using email to communicate to multiple families/students, use the bcc option so that families' contact information remains confidential to other families. 

• BlueJeans/Content of Lessons
• If you have any questions about your planning for lessons, activities, etc or anything really, please reach out to me.  I want to make sure that you are all doing well too.  If I can relieve stress or clear up confusion, I definitely want to do that.  

• Telling our Story
• Don't forget to share video clips, photos, etc of your experiences with providing learning for our students.  How can we share with our community the amazing ways that we continue to connect with our students and provide learning opportunities for them?  I have seen a number of wonderful things to highlight.  Everyone has multiple things they can share.  Please help make the video Christina is creating tell our story with lots of awesome details.  I have seen science experiments, read alouds, art projects, math games, students reading their writing aloud, and I could go on and on and on.  All submissions should be put in the Google Folder by Monday.  See below for a copy of her email.

In order to share our story, I am in need of photos or videos of all the great things you are currently doing by Monday 30th. This could include part of a lesson or video you already made and shared with students, a video of delivering lunches or supplies to families, or a video of you answering or talking about one of these ideas: 

• • What ideas or topics are you reviewing with your students?
  • What future plans or lessons do you have planned?
  • What have you been surprised about during this process? 
  • What tools have you used and how have they helped you teach virtually?
  • How are you maintaining relationships with students?
  • What is one thing you want to share with Dodgeland students, families, and the community during this time of uncertainty? 
  • Share a great moment you’ve had with students during this virtual learning experience. 
  There are no secret superhero teachers here, so share all that you’ve got no matter how “small” you think the idea or video may be. What does math, reading, art, science, or physical education look like online? Our goal is to help the general public understand “Our doors may be closed, but Dodgeland is still open” and to tell our story in the midst of this global crisis. I can even just use your voice if you would prefer not changing out of your flannel pajamas!
  
  
  How to submit this amazing work:
  Please drop your photos or videos to this Google Folder by Monday 30th. If you would like to answer one of the above questions, please film your response on your district iPad. This will help keep the video quality consistent. Let me know via email if you have any specific requests for your video: perhaps it is a lesson shared with students but minute 7 is the really good stuff or perhaps it is “Please don’t use my face, just the audio.” 
  
  
  The final product will be shown on the local cable access channel, our district website, and our social media. Thank you so much in advance for taking time to help with this special project!
  
  
  We are Dodgeland!

PD Spotlight

• If you are like me, it may be getting difficult to keep one day from running right into another lately.  It is a conscious effort to focus on positive parts of this situation.  This is why Jessica's email about the Positivity Summit is of interest to me.  It starts this next week.  Click here if you'd like to sign up too.

Friday Funny

This week's Friday Funny fits in one of two categories; either it's the "One should always listen to their Mom" or "Procrastination does NOT pay off"

These two pictures are about a year apart.   Now a-days, Mason spends much of his day complaining about his hair and flipping it out of his face.  This makes me laugh out loud now because I believe I tried to warn this was going to happen!