Monday, August 26, 2019 PD Day
We are looking forward to welcoming everyone back for the 2019-2020 school year next week. Due to our district transition with our Student Information System from iPass to Powerschool, and based on your feedback through the PD Committee we have swapped our PD day to August 26th and our opening day to August 27th. Therefore, Monday is the PD day for our faculty members and Tuesday is the typical opening day for all of our faculty and staff.
In addition to getting everyone up and running with Powerschool, this year we are focusing on our mission, “We empower all learners to thrive.” In order for us to support our students thriving, we as a school community need to focus on how we can thrive as educators, exhibit resilience, and apply these practices within our classrooms. Therefore, on Monday, in addition to Powerschool training, we will have workshops offered in topics such as mindfulness in the classroom, stressbusters, introduction to mindfulness, compassion fatigue, and moving from survival mode to learning mode.
Schedule Information
You can access the schedule for the day at: https://thrive1920.sched.com/. You will need to log into Sched and then click into the session to read the descriptions and then you can choose to add it to your schedule. A couple of the workshops have a limited number of seats because they are in classrooms, so capacity is 20 for some and 30 for others. Therefore, it is important that everyone registers for the sessions in Sched so we can keep track of numbers for rooms.
We are looking forward to welcoming everyone back for the 2019-2020 school year next week. Due to our district transition with our Student Information System from iPass to Powerschool, and based on your feedback through the PD Committee we have swapped our PD day to August 26th and our opening day to August 27th. Therefore, Monday is the PD day for our faculty members and Tuesday is the typical opening day for all of our faculty and staff.
In addition to getting everyone up and running with Powerschool, this year we are focusing on our mission, “We empower all learners to thrive.” In order for us to support our students thriving, we as a school community need to focus on how we can thrive as educators, exhibit resilience, and apply these practices within our classrooms. Therefore, on Monday, in addition to Powerschool training, we will have workshops offered in topics such as mindfulness in the classroom, stressbusters, introduction to mindfulness, compassion fatigue, and moving from survival mode to learning mode.
Schedule Information
You can access the schedule for the day at: https://thrive1920.sched.com/. You will need to log into Sched and then click into the session to read the descriptions and then you can choose to add it to your schedule. A couple of the workshops have a limited number of seats because they are in classrooms, so capacity is 20 for some and 30 for others. Therefore, it is important that everyone registers for the sessions in Sched so we can keep track of numbers for rooms.
- Opening. We will begin with a welcome and opening session for all in the auditorium from 8-9. The opening session will provide an overview of the day as well as have us reflect upon ways we can take care of ourselves and one another. You will walk away with tangible strategies you can use right away to help find balance and to cultivate resilience as educators. Please make your way into the auditorium as soon as you can so we can start on time.
- Powerschool. Everyone is required to attend the Powerschool Training identified for your school. You will need to bring your laptop and have logged into Powerschool prior to attending. Middle School and High School teachers should bring their course expectations with grading categories with them to the training. More information can be found under the full Powerschool section update.
- Wonders Pilot. Teachers who are participating in the Wonders Pilot need to bring bring the Teacher’s Edition Volume 1, a Reading Writing Companion Volume 1, and a Digital device. If your grade level training is scheduled for a time that is the same as your school’s Powerschool training, just join the other elementary school’s time slot for Powerschool training as they are exactly the same content.
- ABA Techs. ABA techs should attend the opening session in the auditorium and then will go back to work on program implementation planning.
- Nurses. Nurses will be working on the SNAP system for all of the sessions.
- Music Dept. Simon will reach out to you to identify a block for the department to meet and welcome the new members.
- PE Dept. Members of PE department from MS/HS will be meeting for a webinar on an app they use in classes in the AM.
- Lunch. We will be providing bagged lunches as we have in the past with sandwiches and cookies, chips, apples. We will have some salads set aside for those who are gluten free. If you have special dietary restrictions you are welcome to bring your own lunch or go out to get something during the lunch block.
- Mandated Training. You can choose to work on our new mandated training system during one of the choice blocks (when you are not in Powerschool training). To access - log into TeachPoint, click on the graduation cap icon (left side). You will see under the My Activities tab a list of online courses you are enrolled in. Choose the training you want to complete. You’ll have until October 11 to complete everything. You may log in and out multiple times to work through the training at your own pace. You will want to have headphones to listen to the modules. Since this is the first time for the training we are providing you with time on this day and extending the day through the Oct 11 PD day for completion. Further clarification and directions will be added to the following webpage: http://mursdpd.weebly.com/teachpoint.html over the weekend. The benefits of this new training is that it is more detailed and comprehensive than what we have provided in the past, which will offer everyone a refresher of important policies and procedures that help to create a safe and supportive environment. Additionally, with the integration with Teachpoint, it will keep track of your earned PDP hours within the PD Tracking system.
- We have excellent presenters on mindfulness, brainfit, and compassion fatigue. Please take advantage of the opportunity to participate in those sessions!