Final Quarter, Final Push!

 Final quarter, final push of 2020/2021! 

Together, we rise.  Together, we finish strong!

Last year, I did not get to welcome you all back from Spring Break.  In fact, it wasn't until July 28, 2020 that the blog was resumed.  There is so much to process during this past year.  I took much time to reflect during spring break.  I am incredibly proud of us!  We never stopped working for our students.  We never stopped planning for their return to school.  We never gave up hope.  We continued to persevere.  We continued to support our students and each other to the best of our abilities.  We grew, tremendously.  We were more than enough.  We did this.  We all did this.  Now here we are, 1 year later, in our final quarter.  It will still be filled with assessments, final project completions, and seeing our students really achieve the greatness we are pushing hard for!  It will just take a little time to adjust to our new normal of the concurrent model, six lunches, and new Covid-19 mitigation strategies enforced throughout the constant changes in CDC guidelines.  This is our final push in preparing all of our students for their next grade level, and for some, our last chance in preparing them for middle school success!  Your students will never forget the teacher they had during the 2020/21 world-wide pandemic!  And I will never forget what you accomplished.  I am honored to work alongside you!

While I spent much of my spring break reflecting on all we have accomplished (wow, have we been busy), I spent most of my spring break resting and relaxing in preparation for the energy this final quarter will require.  I hope you too are rested and ready for our final push, together!

Wellness Committee Blog

March 22, 2021 

We hope everyone had as smooth of a transition as they could last week. Thank you for all of your effort and time that you give to our students! We hope that you were able to invest in yourself over this break and gain some rest. 

WELLNESS RESOURCES: 

• Edutopia has some amazing articles and resources for teachers if you have the time to look through them. 

•  https://www.edutopia.org/topic/teacher-wellness 

• Teach.com has many free resources and articles

• https://teach.com/resources/mental-health-resources-teachers-school-staff/ 

• Take some time to remind yourself how proud you are of all that you have accomplished. 

• Enjoy some time outdoors if you can and give yourself space to breathe. 

Padlet updates for March 22nd

• Weekly Affirmation to repeat on your own and with your students!

• This week is “I AM READY FOR A CHALLENGE”

• Weekly Challenges

• This week is  “RUN IN PLACE FOR 2 MINUTES A DAY” STAFF: https://padlet.com/jolynnevoorhees/5k9o0mbrrjwncvx 

2. **We have had a high number of student input on our Student Wellness Wall! Thank you for encouraging our students to participate, it has shown a heartwarming sense of community among our students. 

***PLEASE CONTINUE TO ENCOURAGE STUDENTS TO ADD TO THE WALL AS RETURN TO SCHOOL, WE HAVE ADDED A COLUMN THAT ALLOWS THEM TO WRITE THEIR FEELINGS ON RETURNING OR STAYING HOME. 

STUDENT: https://padlet.com/jolynnevoorhees/ujzpbum12yj60ij6

SHOUT OUTS  (<--click) 

Please help us all see what is happening behind the scenes! 

Thank you: Mrs. Bianca Fahy for your coordination of Marshall's Scholastic Book Fair!

Food Service Updates

Grab and Go Meals 
Grab and Go meal pick up service will transition to buses that will be parked outside of the 10 elementary schools. The buses will be parked there from 9-10am every Monday and Thursday.  They will pass breakfast, lunch and supper for multiple days. On Monday they will pass out meals for Monday-Wednesday and on Thursday they will pass out meals for Thursday-Sunday. They will be continuing with the other current bus pick up locations (expect the 4th street location) with the new times listed on their website. 

Breakfast/Lunch
Breakfast and Lunch are FREE to all children 18 years or younger. FUSD will continue to run the SFSP (Summer Food Service Program) for the remainder of this school year. This mean that students do not need to have ID’s and we will not be using our POS (Point of Service) machines during meal service. 

Snacks
Because of current USDA waivers and the cooperation of  FACTS teams, we will be able to offer healthy snacks to our students for FREE. FUSD will roll this out beginning 3/29/2021 at all elementary schools.  These snacks will meet USDA guideline for healthy snacks. We will have to have a roster sheet given to the food service staff each day indicating who has received it!  This is EXCITING!

Supper
FUSD has currently been handing out suppers to over 80% of the families that pick-up breakfast and lunch for their students and would like to continue to offer this service. FUSD's current proposed method would be to have carts with supper available for students to grab as they exit the building. They would like to begin the supper program on 4/5/2021 at the very latest. 

Weekend Meals
Weekend meals will only be available on the buses in front of the elementary schools on Thursday at the designated times.

I want to share what I learned in a webinar and ask you too to relect.

Read through each statement below and give yourself a ranking from 1-5.
1-'Hardly ever' to 5-'Crushing it!'
Rank each of the 5 Daily Commitments. Then, any that you ranked a 1, 2 or 3...write those down and post them somewhere.  Make the decision today to get the 1, 2 or 3 up to a 4, 5 in the next few weeks. Just set the intention that you will pay more attention to those that weren't up to a 4 or 5.

We are life long learners and are determined to bring the best of us to our work, every day, because that is what our Marshall students deserve from us. 

1. Commit every day to deepen a relationship with at least one student. That means making a conscious decision to smile, take an interest, do a favor, give a compliment, inquire about what a person likes, wants or feels.

2. Commit every day to make it easy for your students to connect with you by smiling often, having open body language, positive non-threatening facial expressions and tone of voice, initiating contact, greeting them as they come into your room, etc.

3. Commit every day to take responsibility for your successes and failures. That means avoid blaming state policy, the principal, the parents, the student, the home life of students, etc.

4. Commit every day to revisit and remind yourself of your philosophies for life and for education. Why do you believe what you believe? Are your philosophies and actions aligned?

5. Commit every day to read something positive and to speak something positive. What we read influences our thoughts. What we speak influences our actions and those of others.

As Peggy Milan says: 'We never touch another so lightly that we do not leave a trace.'

Return to in-person schedules

Master Schedule (making a few adjustments for kinder to be updated on Mon.)

Playground Schedule

Thank you all for your input and problem solving mindset!  

Mitigation Plans for reference

FUSD District Playbook 

District Safely Forward Plan 

FUSD COVID-19 Mitigation Plan Revised 2/16/2021 
FUSD's Return to In-Person Webinar

Marshall's Return to In-Person School Plan for families

Marshall's Return to In-Person School Plan-Detailed for staff

Handwashing Video for students
Proper mask wearing Video for students

Coming Up

No RTI this week as we have all cleared our schedules as much as possible to be available to support each other.  Please contact the front office so we can coordinate any assistance you may need during this awesome week of transition! 

Monday, March 22
~Welcome back to our In-Person Learners!  We can't wait!!!  4th quarter strong!

Tuesday, March 23
~Reach out to the front office staff with your needs!

Wednesday, March 24
~New Refrigerator installed in teacher lounge/work room!

~9:30am-11:30am Reasor in Elementary Admin

Thursday, March 25

~How can we improve concurrent teaching?  

Friday, March 26
~Optional FBA/BIP (Functional Behavior Assessment & Behavior Improvement Plan)  training from 1-3pm in the Science Lab (this was scheduled prior to duty-free lunch schedule).  All paraprofessionals invited too.  Wish to know more as a Gen Ed teacher?  Please contact Denise Hauer for more into.  

March 30 - Gov. Board Mtg

AZM2 testing schedule:

Monday, April 12th Third-Fifth grade writing
Tuesday, April 20th Third-Fifth grade ELA 1 & 2
Wednesday April 21st, Third-Fifth grade math 1 & 2
Thursday April 22nd, Fifth grade Science 

April 23 - No School Spring Holiday (9mo only)

April 30 - Final CAST PD 1:30-3:30pm

May 11 - Gov. Board Mtg

May 21 - Apple Classroom PD 1:30-3:00pm

May 25- Gov. Board Mtg

May 27 - Elem Early Release for grade book

May 31 - No School Memorial Day

June 3 - Last day with Students

June 4 - Last day with Teachers

Reminder of FUSD calendar changes

 April 26th and April 27th- ADE denied the district's request to waive these dates as instructional days due to Covid-19.  Mark them on your calendar as instruction days.

May 6th and May 7th - We had two snow days on Jan 25 & 26.  This means we will have regular instruction days scheduled to make them up.

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