Here is an overview of the key activities we worked on in relation to teaching and learning this during August and early September.
Staff development days: We had six very productive days before school started to work with our staff on preparing for the upcoming school year. Our time included the traditional Nuts and Bolts meeting, but we also spent time on school safety, and our special services department (ELL, SPED and the counseling department) did a wonderful job of educating us on our students and better ways to support their special needs. We also spent time working on our new 1:1 Chromebook initiative to ensure that all staff members were working on the EEE (Enhance, Engage and Extend) framework. This has been exciting and fun work and members of the staff have really been pleased with how smoothly the new Chromebooks are working this year. A special kudos to Steve Rippl and his team for all the work to get them ready for distribution and for building up the capacity of our staff to use them regularly.
Other information: Our first-ever “Beaver Camp” went quite well as we welcomed roughly 85% of our incoming 9th graders into school for four hours on Thursday, August 22nd. It was well organized and our 9th graders were reporting positive feedback in regards to helping them feel ready for school. Our new staff members are feeling very supported after a solid NET week and I couldn’t be more pleased with the additions of Maleah Cooper (Art), Carlotta Propersi (ELL) and Catherine Pulliam (Counseling). We have welcomed six new exchange students to our student body and they all seem to be adjusting quite well. We will add a seventh student, but only for the 2nd semester.
Overall, it has been a really smooth first few weeks of school and we all feel very fortunate to have such a wonderful staff that makes starting up school so easy and fluid for our students to each year.