Harwood Staff Blog update, April 16, 2021

April 16, 2021

Team Harwood; 

Thank you for your dedication and work towards our opening to all of our excellent and honourable students on April 26th.  We appreciate the "stretching", flexibility and energy that has gone into making this year's landing the best yet!

Here are some things that we will continue - 

• Greeting students at the door matters - it immediately shows them that 1.) we see them and 2.) they matter.
• Checking in to assess how our students are feeling and what they need - allows us to be responsive and create space that reflects to them that they are heard and understood.  
• Slowing down and a less is more approach is actually MORE effective.
• Providing space and breaks outside foster deeper connection and more effective “on task” time.
• Clear expectations and routines provide structure and clarity.

So when we come back on 4/26 continue doing what you’re doing AND deliberately narrate it and the why.

Gratitudes & Shoutouts

• Eric, Lissa, Tedin, Ellen, Becky and Alex for your advocacy of student voice and ensuring clarity of the survey’s intention to both ensure and honor student voice now and in the future.
• Jon Potts, Kate, Jen, Chelsea and Kristie for their awesome work on the Science & ELA hiring committees 
• Alex for leaning in and offering your time and energy to support the Harwood in creative ways that bring joy and wellness 
• Rick, Cullen, Bean and Ray for all their tireless efforts to facilitate and physically move furniture to ready for 4/26.  
• Chelsea, Jess Deane, Lisa Therrien for their feedback on the Q&A and teachers daily checklist.
• For Eric being right about the wall that does not exist.  
• For Ray and Rick for losing their jobs after telling Duane that a wall did exist, but it didn’t. (jk) 

In deep gratitude and ongoing partnership,

Laurie, Duane and Meg

Curious  

Topics	Information/Links	Tasks/Point people
A Strong and Healthy Year Update	E.C.H.O. (everyday COVID operations)  NEED to ensure ECHO is followed… ECHO (teacher version) :  E.C.H.O. Please find a one page daily teacher reminder list on pg. 4! ECHO (student version) : E.C.H.O. student facing  Please read this updated Q and A Doc  Return to Learn April 26, 2021	Tracy,  Amanda and Duane
Allocation of Recovery funds	Due to Federal funding for recovery next year we will be posting for the following positions at Harwood to provide additional support in the 2021-2022 school year. Social Worker/Home school coordinator (already posted on School Spring) NEW TITLE/DESCRIPTION - MTSS Coordinator (posting going out Friday 4/16) Innovation teacher (posting going out Friday 4/16)	Laurie, Meg and Duane
2021-2022 DRAFT schedule	Please find the framing and draft schedule for 2021-2022 here.   As we continue to finalize the schedule we invite you to complete the following survey in order to ensure our collective efforts and your questions are answered.	Laurie, Meg, Lisa, Sally and Erin
SBAC Reminders	SBAC update Please note we will participating in the Smarter Balanced Assessments (SBAC) this spring.   Our schedule for testing students will begin on May 3 and end May 21.  Assessment results will not be utile for accountable measures this school year.  There is no opt out option for families.
Hiring Update	This week we had: Offers extended to: MS English Teacher HS English Teacher Science teacher  Reading interventionist   After break: Final steps with Director of Student Support Initial hiring committee meetings and interviews  Social Worker  Innovative Teacher MTSS coordinator	Meg and Laurie

Topics 

Information/Links

Tasks/Point people 

A Strong and Healthy Year Update

E.C.H.O. (everyday COVID operations) 

NEED to ensure ECHO is followed…

• ECHO (teacher version) :  E.C.H.O. Please find a one page daily teacher reminder list on pg. 4!

• ECHO (student version) : E.C.H.O. student facing 

Please read this updated Q and A Doc 

• Return to Learn April 26, 2021  

Tracy,  Amanda and Duane  

Allocation of Recovery funds

Due to Federal funding for recovery next year we will be posting for the following positions at Harwood to provide additional support in the 2021-2022 school year.

• Social Worker/Home school coordinator (already posted on School Spring)

• NEW TITLE/DESCRIPTION - MTSS Coordinator (posting going out Friday 4/16)

• Innovation teacher (posting going out Friday 4/16)

Laurie, Meg and Duane 

2021-2022 DRAFT schedule 

Please find the framing and draft schedule for 2021-2022 here.

 

As we continue to finalize the schedule we invite you to complete the following survey in order to ensure our collective efforts and your questions are answered.

Laurie, Meg, Lisa, Sally and Erin

SBAC Reminders

SBAC update

Please note we will participating in the Smarter Balanced Assessments (SBAC) this spring.   Our schedule for testing students will begin on May 3 and end May 21.  Assessment results will not be utile for accountable measures this school year.  There is no opt out option for families. 

Hiring Update

This week we had:

• Offers extended to:

• MS English Teacher

• HS English Teacher

• Science teacher 

• Reading interventionist

 

After break:

• Final steps with Director of Student Support

• Initial hiring committee meetings and interviews 

• Social Worker 

• Innovative Teacher

• MTSS coordinator 

Meg and Laurie 

Caring 

Topics	Information/Links	Tasks/Point people
Resources and Scripts for our return on 4/26	10 Universal classroom strategies for student wellness. Team Building & Icebreaker Resource Bank This is a staff generated list and you can continue to add ideas and resources to share with each other. Please note:  All HS teaching staff have been provided with a small Wellness Center procedures poster in their mailboxes to post in classrooms and as a reminder of how to access the space. This poster also includes the Wellness Center's direct extension should you need it. Please reach out to Jen D if you have any questions.
Reminders from the Nurses’ office	Call the nurses office BEFORE sending student’s unless it is an emergency, AND send the student with a pass. To reach us, push the nurse button on your phone or call 8151. This call allows us to maintain student and staff safety and minimize possible exposure to illness. The nurse's office will provide premade kits with extra masks and bandaids for your classrooms. These items will be available by mid-day Friday 4/16, and placed in the front office by the mail boxes. Contact Rick if you need hand sanitizer.  Review powerschool for important student health alerts and update your sub binders as needed. Call the nurses office with questions. IMPORTANT-many of our families have not provided their student’s annual health form, emergency action plans or emergency medications. Please assist us in keeping students safe by following our current protocols when going outside.
HHB reminders	As we will have a full study body back at Harwood beginning April 26 please remember to log any discipline challenges into powerschool  that rise above what a classroom teacher would typically handle.   It is very important that challenges/conflicts that are not handle within your classroom are investigated and handled by the student support specialists and admin.  Please do not classify challenges as bullying or harassment as this is a formal claim that must be made through clearly outlined process.   Thank you!	Student Support Specialist team
Teacher Advisory	With the move to 4 days in person, questions of the week will now be adapted to include ideas for CASEL’s 3 signature Practices Playbook: Welcoming/Inclusion Activities Engaging Strategies Optimistic Closing Welcoming/Inclusion Strategies: The best part of April Break was… The best part of being back in school for 4 days is… Something I need this week is... Engaging Strategies: Acting Out  Read a paragraph or page of a book, and every time an action verb comes up, the students have to act it out. Predictions  Instruction: Teacher will explain a task to students, and students will record their prediction on a sheet of paper. Students will then perform the task. Record the results on the paper next to their prediction to see how close they came!  Examples:  1. How long will it take you to walk the length of the soccer field?  2. How many steps will it take you to walk the length of the soccer field?  3. How many steps are there between the gym and our classroom?  4. How long will it take our class to walk around the school building? Optimistic Closing: Provide 1 minute to think and 2 minutes for responses to the guiding closing prompts: One thing I plan to accomplish today is… One thing I am grateful for today is... End of Year Reflection (EOYR) We are continuing the process of engaging in the reflection with our students. Here is a link to the slideshow from our staff meeting should you need the questions. These questions are intended to support your work with your TA groups and you are encouraged to adapt your process to meet your students’ needs.  As a reminder of a way to personalize this reflection process here is the  link to the document Alex shared with me.  The dates for the conferences are May 25 and 27th. As we did in November, please send a letter (by email unless the family does not have access to digital communication) to your TA students’ parents/caregivers by May 7th to schedule a time to meet. This letter has been created to facilitate the scheduling process. Feel free to personalize it. Please create a google doc (sample doc if you would like to copy) for parents/caregivers to sign up for a meeting time with you. If a family does not sign up by May 14th please follow up with an email or phone call to ensure that a time is scheduled for all of your students.  Timeline: Week of May 3-7 Email or mail letters home Week of May 10-14  Monitor sign ups Week of May 17-21 Follow up with any families who have not scheduled their conference May 25 and 27th Student led conferences	Ellen Berrings
Community Discussion Announcement		Kathy Cadwell and Jonah Ibson

Topics 

Information/Links

Tasks/Point people 

Resources and Scripts for our return on 4/26

10 Universal classroom strategies for student wellness.

Team Building & Icebreaker Resource Bank

This is a staff generated list and you can continue to add ideas and resources to share with each other.

Please note:  All HS teaching staff have been provided with a small Wellness Center procedures poster in their mailboxes to post in classrooms and as a reminder of how to access the space. This poster also includes the Wellness Center's direct extension should you need it.

Please reach out to Jen D if you have any questions.

Reminders from the Nurses’ office

• Call the nurses office BEFORE sending student’s unless it is an emergency, AND send the student with a pass. To reach us, push the nurse button on your phone or call 8151. This call allows us to maintain student and staff safety and minimize possible exposure to illness.

• The nurse's office will provide premade kits with extra masks and bandaids for your classrooms. These items will be available by mid-day Friday 4/16, and placed in the front office by the mail boxes.

• Contact Rick if you need hand sanitizer. 

• Review powerschool for important student health alerts and update your sub binders as needed. Call the nurses office with questions.

• IMPORTANT-many of our families have not provided their student’s annual health form, emergency action plans or emergency medications. Please assist us in keeping students safe by following our current protocols when going outside. 

HHB reminders

As we will have a full study body back at Harwood beginning April 26 please remember to log any discipline challenges into powerschool  that rise above what a classroom teacher would typically handle.  

It is very important that challenges/conflicts that are not handle within your classroom are investigated and handled by the student support specialists and admin.  Please do not classify challenges as bullying or harassment as this is a formal claim that must be made through clearly outlined process.   Thank you!  

Student Support Specialist team 

Teacher Advisory

With the move to 4 days in person, questions of the week will now be adapted to include ideas for CASEL’s 3 signature Practices Playbook:

1. Welcoming/Inclusion Activities

2. Engaging Strategies

3. Optimistic Closing

Welcoming/Inclusion Strategies:

• The best part of April Break was…

• The best part of being back in school for 4 days is…

• Something I need this week is...

Engaging Strategies:

Acting Out 

Read a paragraph or page of a book, and every time an action verb comes up, the students have to act it out.

Predictions 

Instruction: Teacher will explain a task to students, and students will record their prediction on a sheet of paper. Students will then perform the task. Record the results on the paper next to their prediction to see how close they came! 

Examples: 

1. How long will it take you to walk the length of the soccer field? 

2. How many steps will it take you to walk the length of the soccer field? 

3. How many steps are there between the gym and our classroom? 

4. How long will it take our class to walk around the school building?

Optimistic Closing:

Provide 1 minute to think and 2 minutes for responses to the guiding closing prompts:

1. One thing I plan to accomplish today is…

2. One thing I am grateful for today is...

End of Year Reflection (EOYR)

We are continuing the process of engaging in the reflection with our students. Here is a link to the slideshow from our staff meeting should you need the questions. These questions are intended to support your work with your TA groups and you are encouraged to adapt your process to meet your students’ needs. 

As a reminder of a way to personalize this reflection process here is the  link to the document Alex shared with me. 

The dates for the conferences are May 25 and 27th. As we did in November, please send a letter (by email unless the family does not have access to digital communication) to your TA students’ parents/caregivers by May 7th to schedule a time to meet. This letter has been created to facilitate the scheduling process. Feel free to personalize it. Please create a google doc (sample doc if you would like to copy) for parents/caregivers to sign up for a meeting time with you. If a family does not sign up by May 14th please follow up with an email or phone call to ensure that a time is scheduled for all of your students. 

Timeline:

Week of May 3-7	Email or mail letters home
Week of May 10-14	Monitor sign ups
Week of May 17-21	Follow up with any families who have not scheduled their conference
May 25 and 27th	Student led conferences

Week of May 3-7

Email or mail letters home

Week of May 10-14 

Monitor sign ups

Week of May 17-21

Follow up with any families who have not scheduled their conference

May 25 and 27th

Student led conferences

Ellen Berrings 

Community Discussion Announcement 

Kathy Cadwell and Jonah Ibson

Connected 

Topics	Information/Links	Tasks/Point people
May conference details	Harwood Unions family conferences will be held May 25 nd 27
Q4 lunch schedule	There are only a few adjustments for Q4 lunches based on a change in quarter classes.  This begins on Monday, April 12.  Make sure you click to the Quarter 4 tab on this spreadsheet.   Please note that there may be additional room changes / updates when changes to student days onsite are made.	Duane
Student Support Team Update	Bernadette, John, Eric, Melody, Laurie, Meg, Duane Highlights from The Week: We had another fantastic restorative dialogue, this week between a student and staff. RP is a research-based, effective approach to working through conflict or challenges that arise. Our student support team (John, Bernadette, Melody) are available at any time to support and facilitate. Please don’t hesitate to reach out.  Attendance: Important Reminders For Staff If a student is tardy or not present in your class within the first 10 minutes (unexcused) and was noted as being present earlier in the day, please immediately call Nancy (who will connect with student support) Please mark all students - either P (present) or UX (absent). This will allow us to ensure accountability of all students in the building Nancy will be running attendance after each block.  If a student leaves your class without permission (Class cut), please immediately call Nancy If a student is out for an unusual amount of time, please immediately call Nancy Log Entries For Class Cut or Behavior: Please complete a log entry for any:  Class cuts (leaving after class has begun, without permission; or absent for an unacceptable amount of time) Behaviors Student Support will connect with students, and with staff. If appropriate, teachers should follow up with parent/caregiver Melody will be setting up a time when we return from break for any new or returning staff to review how to complete a log entry on PowerSchool Log Entries are our documentation and allows the Support team to make sure we are closing the follow up loop with students and teachers. Accountability and Safety We recognize it takes time to create Log Entries and calls to Nancy can interrupt class flow. Thank you for taking the time to do this!!  These are important because they enable us to respond immediately, account for the safety of all our students, and allow us to hold students accountable.  We will be communicating with Chris L. (AD) regarding students in Co-Curriculars to continue to hold them accountable for their attendance, academic engagement, and behavior. This is a team effort! **If you have not received follow up from a Log Entry or call to Nancy, please let a member of the Student Support team know. We are working hard to follow up on all student support needs as they arise.	Melody
Upcoming Dates	4/19 - 4/23 - April Vacation - NO School 4/26 - All Harwood students return to school Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday 05/24 & 5/27 - Parent/TA conferences  06/07 - 06/11 - Spirit week 06/04 - All Summatives for S2/Q4 need to be complete  06/11 - Last day of school 06/12 - Harwood Graduation *details forthcoming Staff Meeting Calendar	Duane and Laurie, Meg
4/28 Staff meeting 3-4 p.m.	Ally, Co-Conspirator, or Disruptor?  Goals include getting concrete about our roles in anti-racism work, exploring our social positionality, and examining where we’re complicit. Participants will draw upon the concepts of assimilation and abolition to frame this exploration of how we ‘show up’ when we’re needed most.   Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83306091783?pwd=L3k1cXp3Z1VIZkNDdGUyRzcxSXNYUT09   YouTube Live https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-1JIQ0-fvOg-aYvRJvUi-g/live	Laurie
Tech Updates	The IT techs need to take a physical inventory of all students devices by getting the barcode on the bottom of their devices. We have a list of the students in each TA and will be stopping by to confirm it with the students. It will be a s easy as asking Billy - what does your barcode say? This will be a 5 minute or less process but is a necessary one. Thank you for your cooperation with this task.	Taggert and Justin

Topics 

Information/Links

Tasks/Point people 

May conference details 

 

Harwood Unions family conferences will be held May 25 nd 27 

Q4 lunch schedule

There are only a few adjustments for Q4 lunches based on a change in quarter classes.  This begins on Monday, April 12.  Make sure you click to the Quarter 4 tab on this spreadsheet.

 

Please note that there may be additional room changes / updates when changes to student days onsite are made.

Duane

Student Support Team Update

Bernadette, John, Eric, Melody, Laurie, Meg, Duane

Highlights from The Week: We had another fantastic restorative dialogue, this week between a student and staff. RP is a research-based, effective approach to working through conflict or challenges that arise. Our student support team (John, Bernadette, Melody) are available at any time to support and facilitate. Please don’t hesitate to reach out. 

Attendance: Important Reminders For Staff

1. If a student is tardy or not present in your class within the first 10 minutes (unexcused) and was noted as being present earlier in the day, please immediately call Nancy (who will connect with student support)

2. Please mark all students - either P (present) or UX (absent). This will allow us to ensure accountability of all students in the building

1. Nancy will be running attendance after each block. 

3. If a student leaves your class without permission (Class cut), please immediately call Nancy

4. If a student is out for an unusual amount of time, please immediately call Nancy

Log Entries For Class Cut or Behavior:

1. Please complete a log entry for any: 

1. Class cuts (leaving after class has begun, without permission; or absent for an unacceptable amount of time)

2. Behaviors

2. Student Support will connect with students, and with staff. If appropriate, teachers should follow up with parent/caregiver

3. Melody will be setting up a time when we return from break for any new or returning staff to review how to complete a log entry on PowerSchool

1. Log Entries are our documentation and allows the Support team to make sure we are closing the follow up loop with students and teachers.

Accountability and Safety

• We recognize it takes time to create Log Entries and calls to Nancy can interrupt class flow. Thank you for taking the time to do this!! 

• These are important because they enable us to respond immediately, account for the safety of all our students, and allow us to hold students accountable. 

• We will be communicating with Chris L. (AD) regarding students in Co-Curriculars to continue to hold them accountable for their attendance, academic engagement, and behavior.

This is a team effort!

**If you have not received follow up from a Log Entry or call to Nancy, please let a member of the Student Support team know. We are working hard to follow up on all student support needs as they arise.

Melody

Upcoming Dates 

• 4/19 - 4/23 - April Vacation - NO School

• 4/26 - All Harwood students return to school Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday

• 05/24 & 5/27 - Parent/TA conferences 

• 06/07 - 06/11 - Spirit week

• 06/04 - All Summatives for S2/Q4 need to be complete 

• 06/11 - Last day of school

• 06/12 - Harwood Graduation *details forthcoming

Staff Meeting Calendar

Duane and Laurie, Meg

4/28 Staff meeting 3-4 p.m.

Ally, Co-Conspirator, or Disruptor? 

Goals include getting concrete about our roles in anti-racism work, exploring our social positionality, and examining where we’re complicit. Participants will draw upon the concepts of assimilation and abolition to frame this exploration of how we ‘show up’ when we’re needed most.

 

Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83306091783?pwd=L3k1cXp3Z1VIZkNDdGUyRzcxSXNYUT09

 

YouTube Live https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-1JIQ0-fvOg-aYvRJvUi-g/live

Laurie

Tech Updates

The IT techs need to take a physical inventory of all students devices by getting the barcode on the bottom of their devices. We have a list of the students in each TA and will be stopping by to confirm it with the students.

It will be a s easy as asking Billy - what does your barcode say?

This will be a 5 minute or less process but is a necessary one.

Thank you for your cooperation with this task.

Taggert and Justin