ISY Elementary Blog

The Importance of Being Adaptive

Mike Simpson, Elementary School Principal

February 18, 2022

It has been a busy week of in-person and online learning. Thank you for keeping us informed as your family’s needs change and you need to switch between our in-person and online learning programs. The earlier we get this information the more effective we can be in adapting to meet every student’s needs. The piece below appeared in last week’s blog and it is still relevant as we continue to adapt to do our very best for your children.

At ISY, we pride ourselves on being adaptive. To me, being adaptive means being able to change the way we organize ourselves and do our work to meet the changing needs of our community. This is particularly important as we respond to the challenges of Covid.

Who are we?

Despite all the changes going on around us and the pressure Covid is putting on us, our identity does not change. We are a compassionate community committed to the wellbeing and academic growth of all of our students. It is important to remember this as we keep adapting to meet the needs of our students and our community.

Why are we doing this?

When we are planning to adapt how we do things, we first make sure that there is a good reason behind any possible change. For instance, we want to ensure that teachers of core subjects are not teaching online students and in-person students at the same time in the same class. Why do we want to avoid this? Because this model is disruptive to the learning of younger students – both online and in-person. This is a major ‘why’ behind the design of our hybrid learning program.

Why are we doing this, this way?

This is a very important question that we must ask ourselves everyday when a situation is as changeable as the current Covid challenge. The best way to keep online and in-person students separate when studing core subjects depends on many variables that change daily – most importantly the number of students learning in-person and the number of students who must or whose families have asked for them to learn online.

The changing number of in-person and online students and the current high number of online students will require us to be adaptive in how we match our teaching resources to the changing needs of our students and our community. This will be particularly true in the next couple of weeks and we appreciate your support as we keep adapting for your children.

To help us keep adapting, please email the Elementary School Office (elementaryoffice@isyedu.org) as soon as you know that your child will need to learn online. Our online program is designed for students who will need to learn online for an extended period of time because they are unable to come to campus but are well enough to study. If your child is sick, we expect that they rest as they normally would instead of joining online classes.

It has been great to see students on campus over the last few weeks. We will be putting up more posts on our Facebook page celebrating our return to school so you might want to look out for updates:

Donations can be made at

https://isyedu.org/life-at-isy/online-ordering/

COUNSELOR’S CORNER with Ms. Patty:

The Power of Patience

Last week ISY began the exciting adventure of returning full-time to campus. As I began the challenging task of teaching in-person and online students, I found myself reflecting on patience. Patience has not always had a positive reputation. Some view patience as code for wasting time or an unfair stalling of expectations but I see patience as an active state. Patience is a breathing space to begin thinking about the next step, a place to view what might be and to explore options.

Frustration is really the opposite of patience. Frustration is a feeling of agitation or intolerance when our needs are not met. Covid-19 has presented many frustrating obstacles. It seems, just as we overcome an obstacle, a new covid hurdle appears. If we get frustrated we can become tense, dissatisfied and lose our sense of enjoyment. To avoid these outcomes, we need patience. Patience can grant us and those around us meaningful time to gather thoughts, develop strategies and provide grace to meet our needs.

Warmly, Ms. Patty

Ms. Patty is available to support all ISY families. If you have any questions or concerns please contact her at escounselor@isyedu.org.

Patty Amundson-Geisel

Pre-K to Grade 6 Counselor

Lunches

Students will need to bring a packed lunch and water bottle. Lunches can be dropped off at the front steps between the hours of 9am and 11am only. There will be no food vendors on campus initially and there will be no facilities to heat food.

MAP Testing

February 28 – March 3

From Monday, February 28 until Thursday, March 3, we will be MAP (Measures of Academic Progress) testing in the Elementary School (Grades 2 to 5).

MAP assessments are online adaptive assessments that provide useful data in developing a fair and accurate assessment of a student’s academic achievement and growth.

Grade 2 to 5 students will be tested in Mathematics, Reading, and Language Usage.To ensure a fair and accurate assessment of a student’s academic growth and achievement, teachers combine MAP assessment data with all other student data that they have collected in classes. This combination of data informs teacher instruction in meeting the needs of each child. MAP assessment data is not the basis for a student’s academic grade as reported in Semester Report Cards.

Students will be able to sit their MAP tests in-person or online. This week, teachers will be working with students to make sure the device they are using at home can be used for MAP testing.

We appreciate that in many ways this might be a challenging time for your child to be MAP testing. If you would prefer that your child not participate in MAP testing, please email the Elementary School Office on elementaryoffice@isyedu.org.

Covid At-Home Testing

This message is copied from an email that went out to the community last week from the ISY Communications email account:

As a further measure to keep ISY students safe we have acquired a substantial number of COVID test kids, and are continuing to acquire more. Subject to availability we should have enough kits for every student and staff member to test themselves twice a week for the rest of the school year.

Every Monday, two test kits will be sent home with every student each week. We ask that students be tested every Wednesday and Sunday evening and that you inform the ISY clinic (clinic@isyedu.org) if your child’s test result is positive. If a student is absent on Monday they will be able to get their kits directly from the clinic when they return.

Each kit has instructions on how to perform the test but here is a video from the clinic showing you how to test. Again, if your child tests positive please inform the ISY clinic (clinic@isyedu.org) and keep your child at home. Here is ISY’s ‘Can my child come to school’ graphic.

If a student has a suspected case of Covid-19, the other students and parents in that person’s class will be informed and they should follow ISY’s Health and Safety instructions.

Many thanks in advance to all the members of our community for helping to keep ISY a safe environment to come to school.

COVID Considerations

This message is copied from an email that went out to the community last Thursday from the ISY Communications email account:

In the last two weeks there have been a number of suspected cases of Covid-19 from staff members and students. All contacts of these suspected cases have been informed accordingly. Our Health and Safety Guidelines have been updated to closely reflect the guidance from the US Government agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Three important messages from the guidelines and from our experience so far are as follows:

If your child has cold or flu-like symptoms do not send them to school. They should be kept home and monitored for symptoms for at least 5 days. If after 5 days they are symptom free and are testing negative, they can return to school.
If a member of your household is sick with flu-like symptoms, do not send your children to school even if they have no symptoms. They should be kept home and monitored for symptoms for at least 5 days. If after 5 days they are symptom free and are testing negative, they can return to school.
If your child has been exposed to Covid-19 but has recovered from a case of Covid in the last 90 days AND has no symptoms, they may come to school. Only if they develop symptoms should they be kept home.

Used Book Donations

The elementary service learning group, UWS Partners is seeking gently used English and Myanmar books. Books will be sold at a future book sale and all proceeds will benefit the ISY-UWS partnership. Books can be brought to school throughout February and placed in the donation boxes located on the front steps, near the elementary office and to room 209, Ms. Saunders classroom.