March 24, 2020

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE take time for YOU this week! 

Today's Updates: 

Grab and Go

We will keep serving Grab and Go meals during Spring Break--now from 7:30-10:00 AM daily at Stanton ONLY with the "3 for Me" option every day to limit how many times you have to come pick up. You can also pick up school supplies, a book to read, frozen foods to use for dinner, cleaning supplies, or a Chromebook to borrow if you need a device at home. 

Starting Monday 3/30, we'll distribute on Monday and Thursday mornings ONLY from 7:30-10:00 at Stanton. You can grab "3 for Me" and everything else you need but we also limit how many staff members need to come in and how often we are asking families to come to school. Social distancing is KEY to us getting back to normal! 

Remote Learning

Melissa and I are collaborating to get everyone more info on what expectations we'll have on what Remote Learning will look like after Spring Break the closer we get...and remember that we DO NOT expect kids to be completing work on the Remote Learning plan at this point since it's Spring Break. But....LOTS of them are. I appreciate your outreach and connections to kids and families more than you know!

Cyber Read Alouds

If you'd like to do a virtual read aloud that I can send out via the Daily Family Update, please sign up on this log. Directions are included. Thanks, Barraza, for setting this up. Please send in your recording the day BEFORE your sign up date so I have it in time to upload and post for the Daily Update. THANK YOU!!!!! 

Today's Kudos...
A huge shout out to Walter Nickles for going above and beyond in finding a way for a student to take an AR test
 from home.  
-From Betty Cwiak

D114 Staff Expectations Document

D114 Remote Learning Page

D114 COVID-19 Update Page

D114 Daily Family Update Page

 Family Tools and Ideas for Remote Learning

D114 Team Plans

Lake Zurich eLearning Page

Palatine 15 Distance Learning Page

How to Zoom!

LOOM VIDEO TUTORIAL

Cyber Read Aloud Sign Up

What do you hope your students remember most about you?

Wanna play a game? See below and email me your point totals!!!! 

March 23, 2020

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE take time for YOU this week! 

Today's Updates: 

Staying Connected with Your Kiddos

Thanks to David Roat and Lynn Smolen for finding another resource for you to use to connect with kids and others!

LOOM is easy to use and another way to connect. Here's an easy to use video by our own David Roat if you want to learn more...

LOOM VIDEO TUTORIAL

Also, if Lotus students have difficulty logging onto a Chromebook/their account, here are directions from Mike Szotek on how to help them. 

The username is the firstname.lastname@foxlake114.org  

On the chromebook, the "@foxlake114.org" portion is preset, so the student will only need to type in the firstname.lastname.

They will also need a password.  I have the Kindergarten students setup, but logins were not passed out to the teachers, since students were not using these accounts in school.

For this particular student, please provide me with their name as it is in Skyward, and I will pass on the username and password to you.  

You can then forward it onto the parent.  

If there are other requests, the teacher can send me an email, and I will pass on the student username and password to them to forward to the parent as needed. Please note to the parent that during the first login by the student, there is an agreement screen that they say yes to.  It won't pop-up on subsequent logins.

Reminders: 

Grab and Go Meals

We'll continue Grab and Go daily from 7:30-10:00 AM daily, now ONLY at Stanton. 

We'll continue "3 for Me" which will families to grab 3 days' worth of meals at a time.  We also have school supplies, books, and Chromebooks available for anyone who needs them. 

D114 Staff Expectations Document

D114 Remote Learning Page

D114 COVID-19 Update Page

D114 Daily Family Update Page

 Family Tools and Ideas for Remote Learning

D114 Team Plans

Lake Zurich eLearning Page

Palatine 15 Distance Learning Page

How to Zoom!

What are the BEST things about your life? 

March 20, 2020

Today's Updates: 

Keeping Our Students Learning

Sharing you all on what we've whipped together....

I know this is likely not the quality you all would make, but it will get our kids (and families) through this next little bit. 

PreK and Kinder

Grades 1-2

Grades 3-5

Grades 6-8

Thanks, Erica Barraza and Katy Gardner, for jumping into this with me!!!

Thanks to Michele Burgess, Ellen Stirrat, Joan Kantenwein, Katie Jalove, Liz Andersen, Matt Peters, Jeff Sefcik, and Mary Taylor for getting these copied, folded, stuffed, stamped, and delivered to the Post Office. 

I have literally NO IDEA what I'd do without the amazing people in the D114 family! 

Kudos

Thank you to each and every person who has moved mountains to do what's right for our kids and families. YOU ARE APPRECIATED!
A special thanks to our custodial team for giving 110% all the time to keep our buildings clean and do what needs to be done. 

Send me your Kudos when you have them to share...we all need our buckets filled a little right now!

Reminders: 

Grab and Go Meals

We'll continue Grab and Go daily from 7:30-10:00 AM daily, now ONLY at Stanton. 

We'll continue "3 for Me" which will families to grab 3 days' worth of meals at a time.  We also have school supplies, books, and Chromebooks available for anyone who needs them. 

D114 Staff Expectations Document

D114 Remote Learning Page

D114 COVID-19 Update Page

D114 Daily Family Update Page

 Family Tools and Ideas for Remote Learning

D114 Team Plans

Lake Zurich eLearning Page

Palatine 15 Distance Learning Page

How will you stay calm in this storm? What are you doing to keep your mind in a healthy place?

See below for ideas...

March 19, 2020

Today's Updates:

Quarter 3 Grades

A bunch of us discussed this today. Here's my expectation for Q3 reporting:

I am absolutely not concerned about grades (or IEP goal updates) right now. I don't want incomplete/unclear grades going out--I want families to focus on keeping it together for now. When we know more about the length of this closure, we'll all work together to figure out...

1. How any student completed work will "count", knowing that the ONLY work that can "count" must only improve a student's grades. 

2. How/if we report on Q3. 

3. How we'll report for the rest of the year. 

We just don't have enough info at this point. 

I'll share this info with families tomorrow, but--as always--wanted you to see it first. Please send any questions my way. THANK YOU for thinking of this and for being so committed! 

Keeping Our Students Learning

Many families are sharing that their students have completed their packets. YAY!!!! I decided to keep posting just one idea per day in the Tip of the Day section of the family daily post, but also have now linked the Family Tools and Ideas for Remote Learning to the Tip section, and it's added to the D114 Remote Learning Page as well. 

What do I need from you?

Please start thinking as teams about how to continue to provide learning structures, opportunities, and resources so our students can KEEP learning. You've done great work in the D114 Team Plans page, so please keep adding to it. 

Erica Barraza will be sending out a Distance Learning Guide in just a bit. This is a one-stop tool kit of resources for you to use as you collaborate for kids' future learning. Erica is happy to help in any way at all. THANK YOU, Barraza, for putting this together! 

There are other district sources to consider (added links below for Palatine 15 and Lake Zurich 95--great examples) as well. The best thing for our students and families is to have continuity and as much structure as possible in their lives. Please let me know what questions your teams have, how I can help support you, or what you need. 

There will more updates coming and NOTHING is decided at all...but I believe it's smart to be thinking past 3/30 at this point. 

In Case You're Interested...

Colleen Robinson shared this with me in case you are interested. She knows the person who is leading this conversation. 

Kudos

Thank you to each and every person (most importantly our Kitchen Staff) who is making sure our kids have food each day. You have NO idea how many emails and calls I'm getting to say "Thank you!" for this. 

Thanks to Jeff Sefcik, Matt Peters, and Emily Armbrecht for letting me share out your daily videos in the Family Update! 

Thanks to Kim VanHoorelbeke and Joan Kantenwein for making sure our kids have new books in their hands. 

To the 4th grade team for meeting (albeit virtually) CTT at 1:00 on Wednesday! 

Thank you to Natalie Udstuen and Michelle Magness for coming up with a brilliant PreK home bag idea. Every single student has what they need to plant flowers...and are getting a new book too. Thanks to Natalie and Matt Peters for dropping these bags off at PreK students' houses to make sure they get them.

Send me your Kudos when you have them to share...we all need our buckets filled a little right now!

Reminders: 

Grab and Go Meals

We'll continue Grab and Go daily at Lotus and Stanton from 7:30-9:00 AM daily. 

Starting FRIDAY, we'll start "3 for Me" which will families to grab 3 days' worth of meals at a time. We will have still Grab and Go open during Spring Break to make sure our kids' needs are met. If you are willing/able to donate your time to help assemble or hand out bags during the closure, please let me know and we'll add  you to our Volunteer List. My only request is that we observe social distancing through all of it in order to keep everyone healthy! :)

Family in Need of a Chromebook?
We've had families reach out to ask to borrow devices for home because they have no way to work electronically--still have some available for pick up at Stanton. 

D114 Staff Expectations Document

D114 Remote Learning Page

D114 COVID-19 Update Page

D114 Daily Family Update Page

 Family Tools and Ideas for Remote Learning

D114 Team Plans

Lake Zurich eLearning Page

Palatine 15 Distance Learning Page

How can I keep myself energized?

My kids made me a referendum cake last night...we were short one "e", but it sure made my heart smile. Hoping it makes you smile, too. Couldn't have done it without my D114 family!

March 18, 2020

Today's Updates:

Take a look at the final unofficial counts by vote type...

This tells us:

*We had WAY more people vote that is typical.

*We had a lot bigger spread between YES and NO than usual (although I was very much sweating for awhile).

*We would have been very, very close if we'd only had early/mail in votes. The walk in votes yesterday won this for us...and that means...

*The calls you made to families and community members to get out and vote were a key part of us passing this. 

THANK YOU for that effort--which I know was probably a little uncomfortable--and for every single thing you did to help us win. This is amazing!!! One Team...All In!

Just FYI, I'll be moving the Daily Family Update to send out in the mornings starting TOMORROW. This will let me push out Jeff's morning message in the morning and give everyone fresh ideas for their day. 

Reminders: 

Grab and Go Meals

We'll continue Grab and Go daily at Lotus and Stanton from 7:30-9:00 AM daily. 

Starting FRIDAY, we'll start "3 for Me" which will families to grab 3 days' worth of meals at a time. We will have still Grab and Go open during Spring Break to make sure our kids' needs are met. If you are willing/able to donate your time to help assemble or hand out bags during the closure, please let me know and we'll add  you to our Volunteer List. My only request is that we observe social distancing through all of it in order to keep everyone healthy! :)

Family in Need of a Chromebook?
We've had families reach out to ask to borrow devices for home because they have no way to work electronically. We have a limited number of Chromebooks that we are happy to loan out to families who have no computer, iPad, Chromebook, or device at home. These will be handed out first come, first served and only one per household. They'll be handed out at STANTON during the Grab and Go window...we'll keep handing them out until we have none left. 

D114 Staff Expectations Document

D114 Remote Learning Page

D114 COVID-19 Update Page

D114 Daily Family Update Page

 Family Tools and Ideas for Remote Learning

D114 Team Plans

How have you lived your "2020 word"?

If you haven't picked a word or started yet, maybe now is the time!

Happy to report that Baby Owen Gumm is HOME!!!! 

So happy for you, Kristine and Chris! He's adorable!

March 17, 2020

Today's Updates:

Grab and Go Meals

We'll continue Grab and Go daily at Lotus and Stanton from 7:30-9:00 AM daily. 

Starting FRIDAY, we'll start "3 for Me" which will families to grab 3 days' worth of meals at a time. We will have still Grab and Go open during Spring Break to make sure our kids' needs are met. If you are willing/able to donate your time to help assemble or hand out bags during the closure, please let me know and we'll add  you to our Volunteer List. My only request is that we observe social distancing through all of it in order to keep everyone healthy! :)

Family in Need of a Chromebook?
We've had families reach out to ask to borrow devices for home because they have no way to work electronically. We have a limited number of Chromebooks that we are happy to loan out to families who have no computer, iPad, Chromebook, or device at home. These will be handed out first come, first served and only one per household. They'll be handed out at STANTON during the Grab and Go window...we'll keep handing them out until we have none left. 

BOE Meeting Time Change

FYI, tonight's Board meeting time has been changed to 5:30 PM. I'd ask that you NOT attend simply to help us live the social distancing rules. The agenda is linked here so you can see what's happening. We're planning to work as quickly as we can, and we'll be dialing in 2 members who are ill/choose not to attend face to face.

D114 Staff Expectations Document

D114 Remote Learning Page

D114 COVID-19 Update Page

D114 Daily Family Update Page

 Family Tools and Ideas for Remote Learning

D114 Team Plans

Who and what are you lucky to have in your life?

Learning at home with a smile...

March 16, 2020

Today's Updates:

I'm so proud of (but not surprised by!) the collaboration, sharing, and care I saw at work by EVERYONE today. THANK YOU! 💜

Thanks to teams who have shared their communication/plans with me. I'm putting this in the Team Plans for Closure document, and all can view. If your team would like to add info, please send to Matt/Jeff and me, and we'll add it in. 

Given today's press conferences by the President and Governor and to keep you and other safe, I'm now asking that you NOT come to the buildings unless you absolutely need to do so or are part of a District effort (like making/distributing Grab and Go bags, cleaning the buildings, etc.).  Please contact Matt/Jeff or me if you have a request. 

Families in Need

If families reach out for help/you know they'll need assistance, here's our first go to resource:

 United Way 211 is available for the community who are looking for any resources such as paying for rent, bills, food, baby formula and more.

Ways to access:

Call 211 from any phone.

Text your zip code to 898211

Access the database via web at https://211lakecounty.org/

I've added a Need Help? area to the Daily Family Update and will keep adding resources as we find them. 

We're working on a plan for meals on wheels/at locations as well as Chromebooks for check out for families in need of devices. More to come on those ideas...

D114 Staff Expectations Document

D114 Remote Learning Page

D114 COVID-19 Update Page

D114 Daily Family Update Page

 Family Tools and Ideas for Remote Learning

D114 Team Plans

How do the relationships that I have with my students help them learn? 

How can I sustain those relationships through these crazy circumstances?

Learning at home with a smile...

 

Please share pictures you get from families...these are real bucket fillers!