Great Things We Noticed:
- Hillery staying consistent with her data collection and monitoring student growth!
- Brianna forging strong partnerships with her families and completing a VERY LONG IEP!
- Finished progress reports!
Nuts and Bolts:
- It's time for Teacher of the Year Nominations - All Teachers Virutal and In Person
- We are partnering with Big Brothers/Big Sisters to connect our students with mentors in the community! If you have a student (grades 1-6) that is disconnected, unmotivated, lonely or depressed send me or Angelica their names and we will place the referral.
- Check out the ILE site RUSD Engage for some great tips from fellow teachers on engagement! http://bit.ly/rusdengage
- Lunch Distribution will no longer be happening at our site. Our families can go to Arlington High School for their lunches.
- Updated Staff/Team/Leadership meeting dates HERE
- We will be holding "Data Meetings" for you students the week of January 25th.
- 30 minute sessions/individual - Bring the Data that works for you
- Monday 1/25-1/29
- Calendy Link for sign up
- 3-5 students - Academic, Engagement, and/or Emotional Concerns
- We want this time to be and opportunity for us to connect and talk about the students you are most concerned about.
- This is for ALL teachers Virtual and IP
- Girls Who Code Summer Immersion Program: Girls Who Code is looking for incoming 10-12th grade girls and non-binary students. This program teaches students computer science skills they need to make an impact in their community while preparing for a career in tech. Participants will get exposure to tech jobs, and join a supportive sisterhood of girls in tech. The Summer Immersion Program is a FREE 2 week virtual program this summer. To learn more and apply, visit https://girlswhocode.com/
programs/summer-immersion- program.
- If you need resources for discussing stressful and/or important topics in the coming weeks please let us know.
- You can also find resources with these articles
- Check out Gen-Z Media for the short podcasts Kristi is using for listening comprehension practice... and the stories are GREAT!
- Toyota Dream Car Art ContestThe Toyota Dream Car USA Art Contest is designed to inspire creativity in youth, ages 4-15, and help them imagine the future of mobility. Cash prizes for winners. Submissions due Jan. 31. More info
- Together JournalOpen to all RUSD students, staff, and families, the RUSD Arts and Wellness departments invite you to participate in the RUSD Together Journal, an online districtwide arts journal to share thoughts and experiences. The theme for Nov. 30 - Jan. 22 is “Family and Friends from a Distance.” Submissions are welcome in any art form: visual art, music, spoken word, dance, poetry, creative writing, theater, or mixed media, and a new theme will be announced every two months. Select submissions will be shared at bit.ly/rusdarts and other RUSD platforms. Submissions due for this theme on Jan. 22. More info: bit.ly/togetherjournal
Distribution
The next distribution will be the week of January 19. This will be distribution of only teacher items. Families can pick up Monday-Friday form 8-3.- Check out the latest RUSD Arts Newsletter with lots of opportunities and resources. More Info.
- Riverside Arts Academy Online Afterschool & Saturday ProgramsThe Riverside Arts Academy in partnership with RUSD are pleased to offer free online afterschool and Saturday music classes to ALL RUSD 3rd through 6th grade students January - May 2021. Classes provide music instruction, mentoring, live online teaching with RAA teaching artists, and social emotional learning. Enroll by Wed. Jan. 20. More info. | Flyer
- Elementary Newsletter
- Personlized Learning Ideas:
Dr. Hansen's Call To Action:
Common RUSD Goal:
To create inclusive and equitable learning environments for all
Our Call to Action:
Continue to reflect on your own mindset regarding race and privilege.
Begin to dismantle inequities for all students and staff (policies, practices, procedures).
Listen to the voices of students, families, and employees (what are their stories?).
Go out and ACT NOW!
A note on current events:
When major events happen, workplace spillover is inevitable. I know I felt scared and overwhelmed while watching the news on January 6. While many are unsure about how to discuss current events that elicit strong emotions and opinions and may say nothing or make only a passing comment, I want to provide some guidelines to help focus our discussions at the workplace.
Here are some things to keep in mind when having these conversations with colleagues:
1. Political views may vary, but there is no tolerance for anything that is not in line up with the RUSD Core Values. Find the Mission and Values Here, take note that Equity is a Core Value of RUSD.
2. Remember that each person's context is unique. For example, based on past experiences during protests or with Law Enforcement people may have different emotional reaction to what happened at the Capitol.
I want you to know that you are always on my mind and the most difficult part of distance learning for me is not being able to "check the pulse" of our school community and see how everyone is doing. I want you to be able to bring your whole-self to work and not ignore the things that impact you outside of the workplace. Remember we have resources available if you should need it and we are here to support you in any way we can.
SHATTERING INEQUITIES:
Shattering Inequities Book Study with Leadership!
The Hawthorne Grade Level Leadership Team will be diving into Shattering Inequities over the remainder of the year. If you are interested in joining in on the conversation come to the February 9th meeting at 3:00.
This month we are reading the introduction and Chapter 1 (about 20 pages)
Our guiding question this month is:
Reflect on your beliefs as an equity leader. How do you demonstrate your beliefs to your staff, students, and/or school community?
Upcoming Events:
1/18 - No School - Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
1/19 - RUSD Employee Check in 8:00 and 3:30
1/19 - School Site Council 3:10
1/20 - Hawthorne Staff Meeting - 3:00-4:00 - Trauma Informed Practices
1/20 - RUSD Employee Wellness - Vision Casting with Janet Sewell and Josue Reyna - 3:30
1/21 - RUSD Employee Wellness - Chasing the Impossible... Making Big Dreams Reality
1/22 - 6th Grade IAB Math Deadline
1/22 - Check in with Carrie and Longi - Optional Office Hour 11:30-12:30
1/22 - Steps Challenge Meeting - 21 Day Steps Challenge with Trisha Tran (Let's DO THIS!) - Informational meetings at 8:00 and 3:30
Birthdays:
1/22 - Patrick Wible - 5th Grade
Some historical perspective on past events relative to now. Or as the 19th century French writer Jean Baptiste Alphonse Karr wrote, "The more things change the more they stay the same." The human condition has not changed, whether we are talking now or thousands of years ago.
ReplyDeleteViolence in the Capital building?
Between 1830 and 1860, more than 80 violent incidents occurred in the Capital building, all related to the national division over slavery. In the two most notorious a House Rep from the South attacked a Northern senator with a cane and nearly beat him to death on the Senate floor. In the second, a Southern senator pulled a loaded gun on a Northern senator and threatened to kill him on the Senate floor during a the debate of a pending bill. Thankfully, saner heads prevailed.
Crass Presidential behavior?
John Adams hated his fellow Founder Thomas Jefferson so much that he refused to his attend his inauguration. A sad showing for two men who helped craft one of the greatest statements of man's right to be free.
His son, John Quincy Adams, refused to attend the inauguration of his successor, Andrew Jackson, whom he considered a thug and a panderer to the most base instincts of his followers. In a side note, both Adams and Jackson used the growing powers of newspapers to print vile and often unproven accusations against each other. The death of Jackson's beloved wife Rachel has been linked by some historians to the awful depictions made of her in the press as a bigamist.
Andrew Johnson, who was nearly impeached in 1867, refused to attend the inauguration of Ulysses S. Grant. Grant who was Commander In Chief of the Army under Johnson had refused to use the federal army to take sides in the impeachment proceedings. Edwin Stanton, Johnson's Secretary of War, and another supporter of impeachment, was fired by Johnson when he refused to use his position to support the administration. Stanton retaliated by camping out in his office in the War Department and locking out his successor for several weeks.
Riots?
In 1849 a riot in a theater in New York's Astor Place over the correct interpretation of MacBeth left 22 dead. The New York State Militia had to be called in. The riot was the result of growing class tension within the United States in the wake of an economic downturn that exposed the increasing income deficiencies developing in Industrial Era America.
The July 1863 Draft Riots in New York City began as a protest against an uneven application of the military draft in the Civil War and quickly degenerated into a race riot and class warfare. Local gangs used it as an opportunity to loot, murder and burn, events that Martin Scorcese depicted in his film Gangs of New York. Local law enforcement was quickly overwhelmed and it was only the dispatch of armed federal troops from the battlefield at Gettysburg with shoot to kill orders that the riot was put down. Over 2,000 New Yorkers were injured. Over 100 of them lost their lives.
Illness?
The 1918 pandemic, wrought by an avian virus that had mutated to the point that it was a perfect killing machine, infected 1/3 of the world's population in four successive waves from the spring of 1917 until the winter of 1921. It killed an estimated 60 million people worldwide, including 650,000 Americans. Many more suffered long term health effects. President Woodrow Wilson contracted it while travelling to France to help in the writing of the Versailles Treaty that ended World War I. It was believed to have contributed to the stroke he suffered less than a year later effectively ended his presidency. No vaccine was developed and the virus's genetic sequence wasn't effectively replicated by virologists until 2005. One positive development was creation of a federal Health Service with an operational center to study infectious diseases. This would eventually became the CDC.
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