Invitation to Back to School Night
ES Leadership Team Communication
Monday, August 31, 2020
September Tuesday Morning Meeting
Thank you for joining us this morning. Please click on the image above (new feature!) to access the slideshow presentation and links within.
Heikki, Trevor & Riana
Sunday, August 30, 2020
Weekly Updates, Monday, 31 August 2020
Dear Colleagues,
We hope that everyone had the opportunity to take a deep breath and recover from the first full week of school.
This week will be bringing a few new elements to the routines we have been working on so far. Namely, duties,
less faculty at the entries in the morning, Extended Learning, and of course the Back to School Night extravaganza!
We have been successful in establishing the new COVID-19 safety routines by being consistent and resilient when the students might have been forgetting or just wondering whether the rules apply at all times. As the numbers regarding the virus spread are looking a bit scary in many countries hit by the second wave, we want to keep our school open as long as possible by continuing with the vigilance and teaching of the new routines, and continuing our expectations e.g. physical distance with patience and determination. Hence, it is important that we accompany and guide the students when transitioning to and from specialist lessons and when going for snack and lunch (classroom teachers).
This week we will also have the first Tuesday morning monthly faculty briefing where we will look ahead at some dates, have a quick look at the playground expectations, share Extended Learning updates, as well as go through and confirm the logistics of the BTSN one more time. On Wednesday, the collaboration / professional learning time is dedicated to preparing for the BTSN.
Please include your Extended Learning outline and location here by Monday afternoon.
Let’s have a successful week!
Riana, Trevor, and Heikki
COVID-19 Clarifications
Entrances:
ELAC: Nurse and Yoko Hosoda (Temperature screening camera, hand sanitation, and blue card collection and follow-up)
Atrium: Nurse (temperature, blue card follow up), Enoch and Julia (blue card collection + hand sanitation) Kaz / Hiroko (temperature screening camera)
ELAC Morning procedures
PreK/KA: Parents are asked to join their children to the ELAC playground if they arrive early.
KB: Parents will drop off and children will go to the playground by themselves.
Missing Blue Card
A nurse will make a follow-up phone call to the family if the blue card is forgotten or lost by the students/parents.
Late arrivals
Both ELAC/ Main Building receptions will call the Health Office to inform late arrivals. Students need to be checked by the Health Office before entering classrooms. After everything is cleared out, students will receive a note from a nurse which will allow them to enter the ELAC building (PreK-KB) or check-in with Remi in the main building (Gr 1-5).
BTSN - Wednesday Learning presentation
Weekly Duties: Duty List Aug-Dec
This Week's Schedule: Master Schedule 20-21
Professional Learning:
Please note that in order to qualify for Professional Development, you must always apply through the CA PD
application form found on KissFlow. Applications must be submitted no later than 10 days before the registration deadline. For further information on 'How to apply for PD - click here'.
IB PD 19-20: Here is the IB PD booklet. Here is their search to find the workshops.
Check emails from Renee for other online PD opportunities
N.B. All PD information posted on Blogger is by default 'Personal PD' unless otherwise noted.
Wednesday, August 26, 2020
Wednesday Collaboration and Learning #1
Dear Colleagues,
Thank you for this afternoon and for following along with all the things we went through during the session. The slides can be found here.
Few announcements and reminders:
Tomorrow's assembly is postponed. We are not quite ready with content to make it happen yet. We will keep you posted upon the new date and time.
Friday, the specialists are preparing for the activities during period two so the students will be with the classroom teachers in the first two sessions.
Also on Friday, just a friendly reminder to add the links for the remaining listening conferences for the parents.
Let's have a great end of the week!
Riana, Trevor, and Heikki
Monday, August 24, 2020
Tuesday Updates, 25 August 2020
Dear colleagues,
Here comes a somewhat unusual Tuesday update. We would like to highlight some of the positive observations made on Monday and clarify a few currently evident bottlenecks to see if we can be even more successful with the changes we are implementing to the daily routines.
The entrance to the school is very smooth and quick. Children know the routine and move swiftly up the stairs and check-point continuing to their respective classrooms.
Most ELAC parents drop off their children quickly and leave in a timely manner. Naturally, some separation anxieties are noticed, mainly with parents. Thank you for dealing with those with understanding, kindness, and the necessary firmness.
The snack and lunchtimes are both running smoothly. Children seem calm and we are developing more consistency with mask-wearing indoors. During recess time, children are already trying to come up with games and plays that meet the safety expectations instead of having soccer or basketball games for example.
PreK/KA and KB have tried out snacking and eating in the ELAC MPR with dividers and know that they function well when eating outside is not possible and the classroom is getting too crowded.
Additionally, the grade 1 team is willing to test lanyards as a way to keep the masks with the students at all times. We will keep you posted about that.
Please, be reminded, we are only about start day 4 after six months of no school. Stay calm and kind.
Few clarifications:
In the morning, we have supervision from 8:05, so the Gr 1 - 5 students can go outside in the morning after their check-in.
Snack time, we can start releasing students to the playground at 10:27 by using the normal hand signal method so we don’t all leave at the same time and create long lines. As the new routine becomes an actual routine, we can always have one of the classroom teacher staying in the cafeteria with both classes and the other one can e.g. go back to class to sanitize tables, shut doors and windows to cool down the classrooms, prepare for next lesson, and have a personal preparation and refreshment time. We aim to finish the snack by 10:30. However, it is the classroom teacher’s judgment call, and the decision should they allow some children to continue to eat their snacks a bit longer. However, we cannot leave the children in the cafeteria without supervision.
Sanitizing hands vs. washing hands. We have noticed that the children may be confused when after they have washed their hands they are still asked to sanitize their hands. Naturally, we would like this practice to become automatic so that majority of the children will take care of their hands by themselves. Currently, we still need to help the children to remember the new expectations for hygiene. You may ask the children to tell the teacher who is at the hand sanitizer place that they have already washed their hands so they don't need to have the double treatment. Children can choose to wash their hands or sanitize their hands after leaving the cafeteria. As we continue to sanitize or wash at entry and exit we can stop the spreading of germs which provides the necessary added safety particularly when children play outside, PE, or move in the corridors in closer contacts.
Faculty eating. Please, refrain from bringing food to the classroom and particularly consuming snacks or food when the students are in the classroom. By bringing food in the classroom when the students are there or eating in the classroom and not wearing a mask sends a mixed message with regards to the strict routine we are implementing with snacks and lunch with the students.
Again, thank you for making this parallel unit of inquiry “How The World Works Now” an engaging yet challenging learning journey for everyone at the school. Let’s stay resilient and consistent as models and guides to the children and each other in the classroom, corridors, and in the playground. There will be times when the COVID-19 safety rules will be tested either by our students or our colleagues. We want to keep the school open and running, so let’s stick together!
Riana, Trevor, and Heikki
Sunday, August 23, 2020
Weekly Updates, Monday 23 August, 2020
Dear colleagues,
Welcome to the first full week. Once again, we would like to congratulate you all on making the first couple of days of school run smoothly and making learning meaningful in class. What struck us at one point, was that we haven’t really had school in operation for over six months. We may be experiencing a certain level of shock to our system and mind, which is truly understandable. I was able to drop into a few classes during the virtual listening conferences and observed very professional, warm, and positive relationship building. This week starts with day 3 and on Wednesday we will look ahead to plan for Extended Learning and our virtual BTSN.
By the way, the duty roster is still under review and will be announced this week. Hence, we need some help with everyone until further notice.
After receiving many great ideas and questions for clarification, we felt that we could try out many of the suggestions and clarify some practices starting tomorrow, Monday 24 August onwards.
New practices:
Trying the ELAC MPR for snacks and lunch and two additional tables will be placed in the room.
Gr 1 - 5 Switching snack and recess
10:15 Snack- supervised by classroom teachers
10:30 Recess supervised by faculty on duty
Gr 4 will use the west side door for entering the building after recesses and utilize the hand sanitizer at the door.
Lunch/snack containers are left in the grade level baskets by Gr 3, 4, and 5 to avoid going upstairs before recesses. Grades 1 and 2 will maintain their current practice, i.e. bringing their lunch boxes to their bags/classroom
Shoe relief - it is not compulsory for students to change shoes, however, students must have appropriate shoes for PE, and students should be allowed to change shoes if they wish so. Students must have clean shoes when entering classrooms/learning spaces.
Water bottles must be with students at all times as the water fountains can be only used for filling up bottles.
Both teachers and students must wear masks at all times particularly when moving in the cafeteria and when entering the building from recesses. Naturally, when eating and drinking masks can be removed.
Everyone must use hand sanitizers at entry and exit learning spaces, and the playground. Using the hand sanitizers during the lessons/playtime is optional and with teacher discretion.
It has been great to have plenty of extra hands in the mornings, we would imagine that gradually, this week, we can move to the original plan:
Nurse: for Entry Card (blue card) and follow-up temperature checks at each of the entrances
LSI/LSA checking thermometer camera at each of the entrances
ES Leadership Team member at each of the entrances
Students who do not have the Entry Card (blue card), maybe late for class. They will have to wait until 8:30 when the nurse can check their temperature and then make a phone call to a parent to go through the information questioned on the Entry Card.
For later consideration we are looking for further data and guidance:
Grade 5 entry after lunch - depending on the cleaning staff’s schedule
Teaching with mask and giving brief instructions (like phonetic sounds) without a mask (i.e. protected by the acrylic divider and keeping distance)
How to systematically sanitize and recycle material to prevent spreading virus via material
Let’s have a great week!
Riana, Trevor, and Heikki
Duties
This Week's Schedule: Master Schedule 20-21
Professional Learning:
Please note that in order to qualify for Professional Development, you must always apply through the CA PD
application form found on KissFlow. Applications must be submitted no later than 10 days before the registration deadline. For further information on 'How to apply for PD - click here'.
IB PD 19-20: Here is the IB PD booklet. Here is their search to find the workshops.
Check emails from Renee for other online PD opportunities
N.B. All PD information posted on Blogger is by default 'Personal PD' unless otherwise noted.
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