Kindergarten students enjoying outside classroom space last week.
Daisy Staff,
Thanks to all for your incredible work in switching to Remote Learning literally overnight in order to be ready for last Friday!
All of our staff members were absolutely on board and worked so hard to make it work for our students and families. Amazingly, only one family showed up on Friday morning thinking there was school and I haven't heard lots of concerns from families about childcare, so they made the switch as well. As we well know, this is a huge commitment from families, just as it is for staff.
As we move into this week of Remote Learning, our 12th week of school, right now teachers and paraprofessionals have the flexibility to deliver remote instruction from school or home, especially if you have young children who are now out of school working remotely as well. As you know, all COVID safety precautions remain in place at school and are more important than ever. Please don't let your guard down when working with other in colleagues in the building. It isn't possible for staff members to bring their own children in the building, due to safety concerns. We do expect to bring in some of our high-need students for in-person learning, probably starting on Tuesday. These decisions have been made jointly with our Special Education staff and Madeline Illinger on a case-by-case basis.
Many families stopped by on Friday to pick up instructional materials for their children. We will continue to push out materials, daily, from 8 am - 4 pm. Please let families know when you have materials ready for them and I'd rather that we continue doing this daily rather than just on Friday (as in the past with Remote Learners) so there isn't a huge convergence of people at the door at once. If families need to come later in the evening, they should call the office for an appointment as I'm usually here later. Please check from time-to-time to see if materials have been picked up by your families as they might need a reminder. We have tables set up in the main hallways near the lobby and we will continue to receive and push out materials daily as needed.
Dr. Pat Charles making special deliveries of instructional supplies to families on Friday.
Here is our remote learning schedule, which I distributed earlier, for your convenience:
Remote Learning Schedules Updated Nov 2020
Also, please remember that we will now revert back to our Monday through Friday Specials Schedule, so that students won't have the same special for 10 days. We did this while in school to reduce the amount of adults that students were working with (and vice versa) but this changes with Remote Learning. Therefore, Rotation 1 becomes Monday; Rotation 2 becomes Tuesday; and so forth. If we have a holiday (such as Thanksgiving), we will continue to follow the daily schedule, rather than rotating.
We will continue with Grade-Level Meetings; 504 Meetings; PPTs; PLCs; Faculty Meetings; etc., as scheduled and, of course they will continue to be virtual. Links will be in our Daisy Staff Google Calendar, so please add this to your personal calendar, if you haven't already.
Please consult our Daisy Staff Google Calendar for all of these meetings and more, at:
Please also remember that there is another opportunity for staff to join a "Meet and Greet" with new Superintendent Dr. Kristina Martineau on Thursday, from 3:45-4:15 pm. It's in our Daisy Calendar and I also shared an invitation via email to this virtual meeting.
As Dr. Charles stated in her letter, our district will continue to consult the metrics and make decisions week by week regarding our learning format.
Just remember, we have all learned so much about Remote Learning since last March--students, families and staff--and this was so evident on Friday. I am so impressed with everyone's efforts and appreciate your hard work so much. We will keep improving our craft day-by-day and I look forward to when we can welcome our students back with us in school, but this is what we must do now.
If you receive concerns from parents, please let me know so that we can work through these together.
We will be pushing out "Grab & Go" lunches for students during this time of Remote Learning. Of course, if a student qualified for Free/Reduced Lunch or pays full-price, this continues during this time. Families are asked to email Mary Conway (or they can call the school) if they would like lunch for their child (either daily or weekly) so there's no need to take lunch counts with your students each morning.
New staff member, Dilma, and Jan in the kitchen in their patriotic
red, white and blue on Veterans Day.
Some Sweet Updates from Staff:
- Laura Esposito celebrated a pretty special birthday recently (70!!!) and the display of affection that everyone contributed to for her in the staff lunch room was so sweet!
- Emilia Kowalski made her entrance into the world on Wednesday, Nov. 11, weighing in at 5 lbs. 13 oz., and 19 inches long. Baby and Mom Jen are doing well and hearty congratulations go out to the Kowalski family!!!
- Jordyn Suraci has joined us an a new paraprofessional at Daisy. She has been shadowing teachers and students and we're so happy to have her with us.
- Tovah Vincent has taken over the responsibilities as long-term subsitute for General Music, while Jen Kowalski is on maternity leave. She has been working with us as a Kelly substitute since the beginning of the year and is excited to join us as our music teacher, now teaching remotely.
Above all, please remember that we're all in this together. Please let me know what you need to be as successful as possible.....and above all, please be kind to YOURSELF!!!
With much appreciation,
Ruth
