December 18 Update

Happy Friday, McKinley!

I hope you had a great week of learning and relationships!  

Return Date - January 11:

As you saw from Superintendent Elstad's email yesterday, we are returning students to McKinley on January 11.  Many of our leadership teams have been brainstorming what a re-entry plan would look like - more information will come out on this!  Please know that there is a lot of time, energy, and collaboration going into this process.  Staff will be wearing masks and shields - shields are being ordered and will be available to you.  

I will continue to update you as I know more information.   

Transition Days:

We will still do a student transition day at on January 4 - when students return virtually.  The options and activities for that day may be used that week, instead.  We have students on January 4, 5, and 6.  

School is closed Thursday, Jan 7 and Friday, Jan 8 for staff to transition back into the new learning model.  More will come on this.

When students return on January 11 to in-person, we will have another transition process for students.  

So, basically, we have a lot of transition coming :)

Building Weekly Newsletter:
Click here to access the building weekly newsletter

Click here to access the Jan 4 - 8 building weekly newsletter

There will be no blog next week.

Have a great weekend!
Justin

December 11 Update

Happy Friday, McKinley!
I hope you've had another great week of learning and relationships! 

A huge thank you to Steph and Selena for doing the material pick up on Wednesday.  We handed out materials for both McKinley and Distance Learners - over 600 items.  A huge thank you for doing this!  

Reporting COVID Symptoms:

If you have COVID or are a close contact, please continue to report this to Judy.  This is critical - honestly, this data will help get us back into "in person learning" at McKinley.  This is for both a positive test as well as if you are a close contact.  Please, please, please remember to report this - even as you are teaching virtually.  

Transition Day - Jan 4:

We are working on some activities for a January 4 Virtual Transition Day.  More information will come out on this.  Just a reminder - these days are to help get us back into the routines and relationships of school!  

Return to School Plan:

We are beginning to look at our return to school in January - and what this will look like for both students and staff.  I am working with Building Leadership, Reading Leadership, and our Equity & Inclusion Team on what questions, supports, and other things we need to consider and implement before students come back.  If you have questions or feedback, please let a member of one of these teams know.  We will share this plan as it becomes final.  

Building Weekly Newsletter:

Click here to access the building weekly newsletter

Have a great weekend, everyone!

-Justin

December 4 Update

Happy Friday, McKinley!
I hope you had a great week back with students.  I've been in and out of classrooms this week - WOW.  Your compassion, flexibility, and knowledge of students is easily observed through everything you do.  I appreciate our team so much.  

How to be an Anti-Racist:

Below is a link to an article on "How to be an Anti-Racist" (Educational Leadership).  Our job, as educators, is to move to the level of an "anti-racist".  Ibram X Kendi says, "The opposite of racist isn't no racist.  It is anti-racist".   This article gives us some concrete ways we can move to stopping racism -  please take some time to read.  

Article - http://www.ascd.org/publications/newsletters/education-update/oct19/vol61/num10/How-to-Be-an-Antiracist-Educator.aspx

Absences & COVID:

We are starting to see more staff out with COVID.  I wanted to remind you of the plan for this type of absence.  First, if you are positive or a close contact, please let Judy and Steph know.  We need to track this information.

If you are able to teach, you can do so.  If you are not able to teach, we have a few options - 

• Pre-record your lesson(s) and post in Google Classroom. Please let students know you are out.  
• Have your co-teacher teach.  
• Have students attend a teammmate's Google Meet.

If those options are all exhausted, we can try and find a sub for you.  Bringing a sub in for distance learning is hard, as they need to be added to your classroom, kids won't know them, and you need to write sub plans.  It's not impossible, just way harder.  

Feel free to reach out to me if you run into a situation and just need to brainstorm your options.  I'm here to support.  Also, you may want to run this by your team for a proactive plan - what would you do if one of you goes out sick?  

SeeSaw- from Mike Halverson:

Great news, if you are already using the free version of Seesaw account, we've converted it to the premium paid version of Seesaw for Schools over the weekend.  With the Seesaw for School paid version, there are many features available to you such as unlimited activities and the ability to schedule activities (click here for a full comparison of versions and features).

I know many of you are already familiar with Seesaw, but for those that would like a refresher or are new to Seesaw, please watch this quick video.  There is also additional "beyond the basics" PD located here that will help you master your Seesaw skillset to support students & families.

From a personal, parent perspective, I wish we would've been using Seesaw long ago as I know more about what is happening with my son's education than I ever have before thanks to Mr. Langlois and Seesaw. Many parents I've had the opportunity to talk with over the last couple of months are saying the same things so keep up the awesome work all of you are doing.

If you have any questions or concerns, please submit a technology ticket and someone will assist as soon as they are able.

Learning Material Pick-Up: 

We are offering a learning material pick-up on Wednesday, December 9.  Please remind families this is a curbside pick up (they should call the office and we will bring it out) between 7:15-4:30pm.  Also, if you have materials to distribute, please have them individually bagged up with the student's name.  We will be offering another one in early January.  I've had a grade level ask about your Volume 2 Math Journal.  Please talk to your team and decide - should the math journal go home now or wait until early January?  Please let Ann or I know if you need assistance.  

Distance Learning - Manipulatives:

Here is a site I have come across with some free manipulatives - http://toytheater.com/category/teacher-tools/virtual-manipulatives/

Building Weekly Newsletter:

Click here to access the building weekly newsletter

Have a great weekend, everyone!  

-Justin