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Wildcat News

April 27th-May 1st

“Never lose hope. Storms make people stronger and never last forever.”
-Roy T. Bennett

 

Principal Corner

I am saddened by the fact we can’t return this year to embrace our students and to finish off the year face to face, but I totally understand the decision by the governor as he looks out for the safety and well being of all students and staff. As we have done over the past six weeks of planning and preparing for distance learning for students, we will finish off the year with tremendous effort and energy to give our students the conclusion they deserve for the 2019-20 school year. Don’t lose hope during this trying time, stay positive, and know you are appreciated everyday by parents, students, and me! Thank you for your commitment and dedication to our students at Westwood! I appreciate your collaboration and teamwork each day, you amaze me…Keep up the outstanding work. Stay positive, this storm will soon pass!


 

 


Grade Level/Content Orders 2020-21
Currently we are on hold with ordering materials for next year.  We will soon get the go ahead to make orders for the 2020-21 school. All orders will be handled through Abby and she is starting to gather the paperwork and forms for teams. Please connect with your grade level members to begin the discussion process of what will need to be ordered for the next year.
For the grade levels that had remaining money in their budgets for this year, it will be in the carry over fund for the 2020-21 school year. Abby will keep track of the money that is remaining in each account to make sure that it is put into the correct accounts nest year.

 

Admin Intern Report
Thank you all for all you do for our students and families each day. I know it can feel at times like we aren’t doing enough, but please know you are! You are putting out amazing lessons, continuing to foster relationships, and fulfilling all of your professional duties that sometimes seem overwhelming. We see this and we are in awe!
 
Just an update on attendance. This is the latest from the district:
At this time we have decided that students that login to e-learning should be marked present even if they don't complete the work assigned. 
***We ask that if you have coded a student with an attendance type of "C" due to no work completion, but they did login to e-learning... that you mark the student present.***

Please continue to monitor  attendance in this way. If you feel a student or family is in need of some extra support please let me know. I am always happy to reach out. Take care of yourselves and enjoy the weekend!

 

Professional Development Days- May 1st & 4th
Please let your parents know, but it was also sent out by Superintendent Jett yesterday in his communication to parents and staff that students will not have school on May 1st or the 4th with these days being designated as Professional Development days for staff as issued by the Governor. More details on what we plan to accomplish on those days in upcoming information that will be shared out. I have a meeting this afternoon to address these days next week. I will also send out the information to parents in the family newsletter.
 
 
Achievement Article-COVID-19
This is an article we looked at during our weekly principal meeting. I found some of the details to be quite interesting. I am attaching it for you to look at when you have a free moment. It looks at some of the facts with achievement declines with students during the COVID-19 outbreak and going through distance learning for the final three months of the school. The biggest question it ponders within the article is, how do we start school and catch students up from missing 3 months of school and then the additional time in the summer? These are thoughts we need to start to discuss as we plan for the 2020-21 school year at Westwood.https://www.the74million.org/article/researchers-urgent-message-for-schools-start-planning-now-for-a-precipitous-covid-slide-next-year/
 

Academic Coach & Media Specialist Corner

 

This Week’s Tutorials: 

Google Meets for Staff and Students
Google Meets Set-Up for Teachers/Staff:
https://screencast-o-matic.com/watch/cYf0DcAZfr

Google Meets “How to for Parents:
https://screencast-o-matic.com/watch/cYf0DCAZzi


“Go Find Activity”
This is a great suggestion for an activity to “warm your class up” with Goggle Meets platform. Ask students to go find _______and return to their screen for a show and tell. Items could be of a certain color, first letter, geometric shapes, certain syllables...you can get creative with ways to incorporate academics. 

How to combine the morning message slide desk with Brain Break Slides
https://screencast-o-matic.com/watch/cYf03qAuhQ


Saving in Screencast-o-matic so it can LINK in Seesaw
The best way to save a video in Screencast-o-matic is to upload to your library. This will create a link that you can paste into Seesaw. We are finding some glitches if you select to download the video and then try to upload it as a file. For some reason the image
goes away.
Here are the steps:

 

Create your video. When finished select done. Select Upload to Screencast-O-Matic. THIS IS CRITICAL! This will save your video to the library, create a link, and make your video retrievable time and time again.

Create a title for your video

Select Publish

Give video time to upload

Find your video in your video library (icon found on left-hand side)

Hover over video, until Video Details appears

Select “Copy Link”

In your Seesaw activity/journal/etc. Multimedia options select “Link”

Use commandV (together) to paste your link address into the url bar

Finish creating your activity

 


From the Desk of Lori Eckert
McGraw Hill is offering some learning opportunities that you may want to take advantage of as you continue working with our curriculum resources in elementary reading and math.
 

 

April 22 from 3-4 EST

Using My Math K-5 in the Remote Classroom

Register

 

 

April 23 from 1-2 EST

Using Glencoe Math and AGA in the Remote Classroom

Register

 

 

April 24 from 10-11 EST

Using Wonders in the Remote Classroom

Register

 

 

 

 

April 24 from 4:30 to 5:30 EST

Using Wonders in the Remote Classroom

Register

 

 

 

 

April 28 from 10 -11 EST

Using Glencoe Math and AGA in the Remote Classroom

Register

April 28 from 3-4 EST

Using , iScience 6-8 Glencoe HS Science in the Remote Classroom

Register

April 29 from 10-11 EST

Using My Math K-5 in the Remote Classroom

Register

April 29 from 3-4 EST

Using Networks Social Studies 6-12 in the Remote Classroom

Register

 

 

April 30 from 3-4 EST

Using Wonders / Maravillas in the Remote Classroom

Register

 

Week Ahead

Monday, April 27th
9:30 4th Grade Google Meet
9:30 Elementary Attendance Meeting (Derek/Camille)
11:30 5th Grade Google Meet
1:00 Admin Meeting (Derek/Camille)
 
Tuesday April 28th
8:30 1st Grade Google Meet
9:00 Leadership Meeting
10:00 Kindergarten Google Meet
10:30 2nd Grade Google Meet
11:00 Specialists Google Meet
 
Wednesday, April 29th
2:00 MTSS Google Meet
 
Thursday, April 30th
8:00 Principal Check In (Derek/Camille)
9:00 SPED Google Meet
11:00 Elementary Principal Google Meet (Derek/Camille)
 
Friday, May 1st
Professional Development Day
No School for students

Our mailing address is:
5800 Ridgewood Road
St. Cloud, MN 56303
 
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Westwood Elementary · 5800 Ridgewood Road · St Cloud, Mn 56303 · USA

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