The Dragon’s Tale Weekly School Newsletter October 6, 2020 Volume 7, Issue 8

139 S. Monroe Avenue Green Bay, Wisconsin 920-448-2135

Google Meet with Principal Van Dyke Today

Parent/guardians are welcome to join a Google Meet with Principal Van Dyke. The topic of this Google Meet will be helping students be successful da Vinci virtual learners. Meet 1 10:00—11:00 AM Meet 2 6:00—7:00 PM Link included in email.

A Note from Principal Tammy Van Dyke

What do staff members at da Vinci School do on Wednesdays? Is this a day off for teachers? I want to take a few minutes of your time to dispel any rumors in the community that educators are taking the day off on Wednesdays. Let me provide some clarification. Teachers prepare and post learning materials for students to complete independently on Wednesdays because that is the schedule that was established by the district office administrative team and the School Board. Wednesday was set up to be the “deep cleaning” day between cohorts when students were at school. In order to keep the transition between the two learning models (virtual and blended) as seamless as possible, we were asked to make sure schedules aligned. Wednesday was set up as a completely virtual day in both learn-ing models. Here is what da Vinci staff members do on Wednesdays: • Base team teachers hold live sessions each Wednesday to connect with students. • Teachers schedule small group and one to one Google Meets with students to connect or reteach material as needed. • Teachers offer academic labs for students who would like to ask questions or further clarify learning. • All staff members take part in a 30—60 minute staff meeting. • Academic staff participate in a 90 minute Collaborative Learning Team meeting, called a CLT. At CLT meetings the teachers meet in

smaller teams to look at student learning needs, social/emotional needs and engagement challenges. The school social worker, counselor, GT Resource teacher and principal take part in these meetings to discuss challenges and work together to develop solu-tions. Believe it or not, even at da Vinci School, we have students who are not taking responsibility for their learning. We have stu-dents who are not logging into class and not participating in class. Some students keep their cameras off and play video games dur-ing class. Some log into class and leave.

• Learning Support Team meetings are held with parents to place students on attendance/engagement plans and academic success plans.

• Staff members work together to create and revise academic units. • Staff members learn new and better ways to structure virtual learning. My team is doing their very best to meet your child’s learning needs during a time that is anything but ideal. We understand that virtual learning is not what many of you wanted nor what works best for your child. We patiently wait for things to improve so we can be face to face again. With hope,

Tammy Van Dyke

There will be no virtual school the

following days in October:

Friday, October 16th

Friday, October 30th

OCTOBER

11 6:00 PM Conference scheduling window closes 13 6:30 PM PTO Virtual Meeting 15 3:00-6:45 PM Google Meet conferences held 16 NO VIRTUAL LEARNING—NO SCHOOL 12:00-2:45 PM Google Meet conferences held 20 3:00-6:45 PM Google Meet conferences held 30 NO VIRTUAL LEARNING—NO SCHOOL

NOVEMBER

26 NO VIRTUAL LEARNING—NO SCHOOL Happy Thanksgiving! 27 NO VIRTUAL LEARNING—NO SCHOOL

Calendar Notes

Our Mission:

Educating world leaders… one child at a time.

Our Vision: Leonardo da Vinci School for Gifted Learners provides the appropriate level of challenge for academically gifted students in a rigorous, student-centered and diverse learning environment that prepares them to be world leaders. We are learners. We are leaders.

L E A R N E R S Excel—We excel academically.

Altruistic—We are altruistic; we give back to our community.

Determined—We are determined to accomplish our goals.

Engaged—We are engaged in all that we do.

Respectful—We are respectful of our learning, our school community

and ourselves.

Safe—We put safety first.

The PTO will hold its annual meeting virtually on October 13th at 6:30 PM. Information regarding the meeting can be found on the PTO website. Included with today’s handouts you will also find information about joining PTO Connect. This is a very helpful tool for setting up play dates and birthday parties.

Link to PTO website

Virtual Parent-Student-Teacher Conference Scheduling Window Open Until 10/11/2020

If you wish to schedule a conference with your child’s teacher please use the link below. You are able to schedule conferences until October 11th at 6:00 PM. Parents will be able to set up a 10 minute conference with staff members as follows: K-5 Base Team/ELA (English Language Arts) instructors* 6-8 All course instructors ** Teachers will need to end each conference after ten minutes, close the Google Meet and open the meet for the next conference. Your patience with this new process is greatly appreciated. *K-5 Music, Art, Physical Education and Spanish conferences will not be held this conference round. **Please note that conference times will not be available for Chinese 2/3 or Geometry as both courses are taught by guest instruc-

Conference Link