Weekly Forecast for May 16 - 20

Monday the 16th

Tuesday the 17th

Staff Meeting @ 3:30

Wednesday the 18th

6th Graders @ ODS

Middle School DMSI Cohort Meeting @ 4:30

Thursday the 19th

Leah & Emily @ Virtual Leadership 1:30-4:00

6th Graders @ ODS

5th Grade Open House 6:15-7:45 (actual 6:30-7:30)

Friday the 20th

Lunch Service- Swan, Huff, Manley, Schulze

Last week was busy with several student behavior situations that took extensive documentation, interviews, and follow up. As we head into the final stretch of the school year it becomes acutely clear many of our interventions have been exhausted and things are just plain complicated. Please continue to follow through with your Tier I classroom interventions and provide structure within you classrooms. It does make a difference.

• Katie Newton texted me early Friday morning to let me know they were headed to the hospital. Her daughter arrived around 10:00 in the morning. Welcome Kennedy Mae! Katie's guest teacher, Lara Fitzgerald, will begin tomorrow.
  
  
  
• There have been a few situations recently where staff have blocked doors (standing in the doorway) to keep students within the classroom. This should only be done in cases where the student is a safety threat to themselves, or others. To be more clear they are physically going after someone. I do not take it lightly that this is something that we even have to think about. We will discuss this more at staff meeting. 

• Securly is launching a new user interface next fall, but we may see a new UI button in the upper right of our screen appear within the next few days. The legacy interface will remain the default until we select the new UI, which offers some improvements in how we view our classes. 

Here are some How-to articles and videos on Securly that are worth bookmarking.

Further thoughts on Securly: There are lots of discussions about a shift in mindset around Securly from site blocking (the unending whack-a-mole situation) to site locking that aligns with our daily instruction. We certainly want to keep our blocked site lists current and active, but as we plan lessons and activities, we should consider building collections of sites to lock classes into so they cannot explore the myriad sites of distraction that we have not blocked.  Many IO gaming sites offer multiple URLs and it's nearly impossible to block them all. 

• 6th Graders will be going to Outdoor School this Wednesday and Thursday. They will leave both days from Harrison Park and return for the evening. Elin Wickstrom, Pearson Kunz and Colin Cardwell will be attending with HP students. We have put in for subs to cover other classes they teach, but anticipate we will not get all three. 

• This Wednesday from 4:30-6:30 will be a middle school redesign session. Those attending will be paid extended hours. I have not received an update around this and will share out information as I get it. I did add people to the invite earlier this morning. 

• This Thursday we have our 5th grade Open House. The purpose of this event is to provide incoming 6th grade students and families information about our middle school program. We will be holding a short 10 minute presentation in the auditorium (6:35 & 7:00) and the rest of the time will be for families to explore and tour the building. We do anticipate many of our new Bridger students will  attend. 5th grade teachers and middle school teachers are encouraged to attend. I know we will have people coming in from Outdoor School etc. 

• I will be sending out a Googleform later this evening or tomorrow for people to fill out in regards to what night event they plan on attending in coming weeks. 

• PPS sent out communication to families on Friday in regards to masking. They are strongly suggesting masks. This is not a requirement and we will not be reinforcing it. We will have masks available for students but will not be actively handing them out since this is an option. If you need or want masks please let the office know. I am VERY thankful we did not change any of our lunch protocols!