Monday Morning Memo: January 2022

As we kick off 2022, it's time to share our "words" for the year. For 2021, mine was BELIEVE. I needed it... A LOT...during 2021.

For 2022, my word is PERSPECTIVE.

Here's a link to other words of the year! You can still share yours--just shoot me an email!

I just wanted to give a shoutout to my amazing teammates (Mo, Emily, Erin, and Misty). These last few weeks have not been easy...but I am forever grateful for your support and willingness to lend a helping hand.

and

Chris Franke, you were an amazing co-teacher! My class is so comfortable with you. Thank you for making it such an easy transition for them.

-From Natalie Molidor

I wanted to give a huge shout out to Erica Barraza for all of her support to the 4th grade team! The team is extremely grateful for you. Thank you so much for all of your help with planning, incorporating new resources in order to close the gaps for our students, and answering all of our questions. We appreciate you so much!

-From Caitlyn Fenton

Thank you to everyone for all the support, hugs, smiles, food , etc. that I have gotten during this difficult time. You don’t know what it has meant to me. It’s gotten me through the toughest of days. I know there is no other place I’d rather be than in this district, and especially Lotus.

-From Cheryl Schuck

Thank you to Misty and Paula for quickly reacting a serious situation regarding a student last week. Your diligence and immediate action kept this student safe.

and

Thank you PAULA for being a superstar when it comes to Skyward and inputting data to PLTW and IAR testing platforms. It is such a pleasure to work with you.

and

Thank you Kim VanHoorelbeke for always collaborating with me and being my sidekick!

-From Victoria Miller

Please send me KUDOS to give shout outs to colleagues! I LOVE to put them in the Monday Memo! 🎉

ROTARY CALCUTTA RAFFLE

If you/a team would like to buy a $100 raffle ticket to support rotary, please let me know! I'll get a you a ticket! See below for details...

SUPPLY MONEY

If you haven't yet spent your supply money for the year, you can still do so through Feb. 1 in case there are things you need once the new furniture is in place over winter break. Please reach out ot Andrea DeMatteo with any questions.

COVID Updates

No Court ruling yet...more info to come when we know more. I'll keep you posted. :)

If you have a family member who would like to participate in weekly surveillance testing, we now have the capacity to send tests home for you to give them! We'll mail them in, and you'll get results back via email.

To participate, your family member(s) must register using this link:

Family/Community Member Consent Form

Please let me know if you have any questions!

Please check out this document for information on how quarantine is calculated under the new guidelines. We worked with all the other local districts to make sure we are all handling this consistently, and especially close contacts that occur at home.

Linked here is the most updated decision-making flow chart, provided by our legal counsel. This is what we are following. If you have questions, please reach out to me.

Current Local COVID Data

1/28/22
Current D114 Daily Data

1/28/22
CDC thresholds and local data for Lake County
Indicator
Low Transmission
Moderate Transmission
Substantial Transmission
High Transmission
Current Status

Incidence Rate:
Total new cases per 100K persons in the last 7 days
0-9
10-49
50-99
100 or greater
1,084.08
7 Day Average Test Positivity Rate
Less than 5%
5.0%-7.9%
8.0%-9.9%
Greater than 10%
10.66%

D114 Local Zip Codes Data from Northwestern University COVID Dashboard--ALL DATA INCLUDES ACTUAL AND PROBABLE CASES!
Indicator
Low Transmission
Moderate Transmission
Substantial Transmission
High Transmission
Current Status

Incidence Rate:
Total new cases per 100K persons in the last 7 days
0-9
10-49
50-99
100 or greater
1943.2

7 Day Average Test Positivity Rate
Less than 5%
5.0%-7.9%
8.0%-9.9%
Greater than 10%
23.05 %

The Winter iReady Diagnostic testing window will CLOSE Wednesday, 2/2/2022!

*Data reports will resume once students have completed their diagnostic.

As students are completing benchmarks:

Take time to check in on their goals and celebrate growth!
If students went down in iReady, check their online paths so they aren’t starting back over and repeating

lessons they’ve already done. This may mean you have to change their paths manually.

As you begin looking at your Diagnostic data:

Understand how your students performed on the Diagnostic, and begin reviewing your data with the

Data Analysis Guide.

As classes complete the Diagnostic, encourage teachers to begin data chats with students.

Share the Student Data Chats Pack for support (General | Grades 6–8).

-Formative Assessment (updated bi-weekly)

Video

Relationships Matter

We all know that exit slips are given at the end of lessons to check for student understanding.

End-of-the-day exit slips, however, are not about academic context. Instead, an end-of-the-day

exit slip is a non-academic question that students must answer before they go home. They

could answer in writing or in person (e.g. tell you their answer as they walk out for dismissal).

Either way, an end-of-the-day exit slip is a great way to bond with your kids after a busy school

day. Some questions you could ask are:

What was your favorite part of the day?
What was the best thing you learned today?
What is one kind thing you did for someone today?
What do you hope to learn about tomorrow?
What was the best thing you did during specials today?

-Community Builder:

No Hands Cup: Stacking Challenge

Decide how many students you want in each group and tie that number

strings to a single rubber band, making one for each group. Each person in the

group holds onto one of the strings attached to the rubber band, and as a

group, they use this device to pick up the cups (by expanding and

contracting the rubber band) and place them on top of each other in order

to build a pyramid.

-Weekly Cheer/Silly Sport/Brain Break:

Keep up to date with what is happening with our local region by reading the Region 49 newsletter. Great information and plenty of opportunities for you!

Four FREE PD Opportunities from the Coalition of Schools Educating Mindfully (COSEM)

Descriptions and Registration Links for the following PD:

Conversation Series on the Intersectionality of Equity, SEL, and Mindfulness - Monday, Jan 24, 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm CT
The Power of Self-Compassion - Wednesday, Feb 16, 7:00-8:00 pm CT
Mindfulness for Healing and Self-Care - Thursday, Feb 17, 12:00-1:00 pm CT
Transforming Trauma into Healing: From Neuroception to Regulation (From Science to Love) - Tuesday, Feb 22, 3:30-5:00 pm CT

The 4^th Annual Educating Mindfully Conference is taking place virtually via Zoom on Feb. 4-6. The nonprofit Coalition of Schools Educating Mindfully has designed it to be a healing-while-learning, retreat-infused event with each day developing adult SEL competencies and diving deep into how students self-regulate and learn, using mindfulness to disrupt bias and increase self-awareness and equity, creating a school culture of compassion and inclusion, trauma-informed ACE healing practices, and educator self-care practices to build stress resiliency and prevent burnout.

· Pay full ticket price of $379 through your school, pay what you can, or attend on full financial aid scholarship.

· Earn 6, 12, 24, or 36 clock hours at no additional cost.

· Attend Saturday, Feb 5 and you can receive IL Administrator Academy credit (#3692). Learn more and register at educatingmindfully.org/emcon2022.

· Along with a wide-variety of asynchronous learning sessions, join these live experiential sessions. All live conference sessions will be recorded.

· Learn more and register at educatingmindfully.org/emcon2022.

Burroughs Education Scholarship – $2,500 for college

Are you the parent of a student heading off to college next year? Learn more about the scholarship, past recipients and apply by Jan. 31. The winner will be announced in March.The NEA Foundation is offering grants and Global Learning Fellowships to educators. Application deadline is March 1.

California Casualty’s $10,000 Staycation Giveaway

California Casualty, the providers of the NEA Auto and Home insurance program, wants to help you escape the everyday with $10,000 to spend your way. Enter to win today! The winner will be randomly selected in October.