Stingray Sentinel - Home Edition
News for the Families of Duval Charter School at Southside
April 13th, 2020
Reminders for Remote Learning
- Log in Daily to Edmodo - Students need to login to Edmodo through the Clever portal to find out about daily expectations and assignments. Your child’s teacher(s) will be posting assignments for the day by 8a.m. and your child will be expected to complete daily assignments. Some of these assignments will be physical assignments that they do with paper/pencil, and some will be virtual with online assignments.
- Attendance: When your child submits a daily assignment, or attends a live zoom class, to show they are "at school" and working, the teacher amends the attendance to show "present" - For middle school, just like at the physical school, attendance is taken each period. If a child is only doing their math assignments as that might be their favorite subject, then they will only be shown as "present" for math class.
*Teachers will amend attendance up to one week to accommodate families sharing devices, working in the evenings or weekends to complete assignments because they are with a caregiver without internet during the day.
- Grading: Check Powerschool grades weekly be ensure that your child is submitting their work to their teacher. There will be practice grades, and mastery assessments grades. It is important to allow your child to complete assigned work independently. This will allow us to truly assess your student’s level of mastery of each standard.
- Instruction: Teachers have been conducting whole class lessons and pre-recorded lessons in which students can self pace. Some students may have small group zoom sessions for remediation as well as differentiating the assignments to meet your child academically where they are and ensure they continue to grow.
- Communication: Let’s continue to ensure that we are all on the same page as advocates for your child’s academic success by keeping communication strong and positive. Please reach out if your child needs any extra support. Your child’s teacher(s) will have daily office hours for student questions/assistance and parent conferencing on Zoom. Office hours should be posted in Edmodo. If you are unable to reach a teacher, or have not received a response within the expected 24 hour turnaround, please call the help desk and we will get the teacher to reach back out to you.
- Help Desk: The front office phones are routed to help desk lines for you from 8am-3pm.
Report Cards Ready to View
Step 1: Log on to https://csusa-fl.powerschool.com/public/home.html
Step 2: Log into your account. If you have never created an account, please email bmerryman@southsidecharter.org to email the form to create an account.
Step 3: Once you have logged into your account, on the left-hand side click on the Grade History. In Grades History, you can review the final grades of the first and second quarters and semester.
This Week
Monday 4/13:
B Day for MS Electives
Resource: K & 1 Technology, 2nd Spanish, 3rd PE/Health, 4th Art, 5th Music
*keeping the same M-F structure we have been using - just skipped Friday resources*
Tuesday 4/14:
A Day for MS Electives
Resource: K& 1 Music, 2nd Technology, 3rd Spanish 4th PE/Health 5th Art
Wednesday 4/15:
B Day for MS Electives
Resource: K & 1 Art, 2nd Music, 3rd Technology, 4th Spanish, 5th PE/Health
Thursday, 4/16
A Day for Middle School
Resource: K& 1 PE/Health 2nd Art, 3rd Music, 4th Technology, 5th Spanish
Friday 4/17:
Spirit Day - Wear your DCSS uniform, colors, spirit shirt!
B Day for Middle School
K & 1 Spanish, 2nd PE/Health, 3rd Art, 4th Music, 5th Technology
Coming Soon:
4/21 Kahoot Trivia Night Grades K-2 7:00-7:30pm
4/23 Kahoot Trivia Night Grades 3-5 7:00-8:00pm
4/28 Kahoot Trivia Night Middle School 7:00-8:00pm
Open to DCSS students and families! Kahoot Code and Zoom codes for the first two will be in next Monday's newsletter!
Cancelled
- All remaining field trips
- State Testing
BIKES!!! for essential workers
Specialized (a bike company) where they are giving away bicycles to essential workers based on a first-come, first-served basis if needed for transpiration. Here's the link to apply or refer someone:
https://www.specialized.com/us/en/essential-transportation
They're using the same classification for essential as the government, but provided this for examples of who is eligible:
Examples include, but are not limited to:
- Nurses and healthcare professionals
- Grocery store and food service employees
- Packers, packagers, and delivery personnel
- Reporters and photographers
- First responders and emergency personnel
-Mental health and social welfare professionals
New Stingray Shout out!
Entries will be used to lift up staff members, pass along a kind word, brag about our teachers, etc.
Help Desk
Calendar
- The planning day on Friday, March 27th was a regular school day .
- There are no more early release days.
- Friday, April 10th was a "no school" holiday
Pledge
Spring Pictures & Yearbooks
Yearbooks: Order Form Attached!
Arts
Artist of the Week: 7th Grader Grace Tellez
Dancing Alone Together
Dance Classes!
Every day there is some kind of dance class all over the world that is being live-streamed while most of America is on lock-down. This is a treasure trove of online classes every day of the week (many of them free) from Beginner Hip Hop to Ballet—more than 13 forms of dance. Platforms range from Instagram Live to Zoom. FMI: dancingalonetogether.org/classes
Art Museums and More - Travel with your kids and explore
These 12 Famous Museums Offer Virtual Tours You Can Take on Your Couch (Video)
Art Museum at the Lovre / Paris, France: https://www.louvre.fr/en/visites-en-ligne
Sciences
Fun Science Vocab Review for 4th & 5th graders
Reading Resources
Dav Pilkey at home
Kid favorite author of Dog Man...
Drawing, reading, and more!
New Book Club
The book I will launching our new book club with is "I survived the American Revolution, 1776" - I am sending that out, so that if you want to buy it on Amazon or download it for kindle, get it for e-book through public library or find it on Audible you will have time. Mine arrived from Amazon in 2-3 days still and it was $3.90
Book Club through Edmodo with Zoom read alouds, etc. will start Tuesday the 14th. https://edmo.do/j/pdn4he - Edmodo group code 682amr - Must use student name to join - JOIN with the Edmodo code to get more info!
The battlefield was soaked in blood. Screams of injured soldiers rang through the air.
Eleven-year-old Nathaniel Knox knelt behind a rock, his gun clutched in his shaking hands. Nate had been heading to New York City to find his father. But now he was trapped in a terrible gunfight between American and British troops. This Revolutionary War had started as a thrilling fight for freedom. The 13 American colonies were breaking apart from England, away from King George III. The colonies would band together to become a brand-new country: The United States of America! But King George was like a snake with America gripped in his fangs - and he didn't want to let go. So now it was war - brutal, bloody war. And America was being crushed by the mighty British army. Thousands of American troops were either dead or dying in filthy British prison ships. General George Washington's army was in tatters. All Nate wanted was to find his father...and to get out of here alive.
Join me (Mrs. Sauer) for book club this week! You don't have to have a copy to join. I can post pages in the group as well only during Covid-19 closure.
Join a Read Aloud
With in-person school and story time both closed for now, many of us are tired of our kids watching YouTube or TikTok. Do you need a break, but still want to keep your kids entertained in a way that makes you feel like a good parent? Try NEI’s daily, online book readings. Kids can follow along with some of our staff’s favorite books on FlipGrip and you can get that much needed 15-minute break. Each reading is followed by a brief Q&A and collaboration is encouraged.
Public Library E-Books
DCSS Familes - charter school students do have DCPS student numbers. It is the Focus account student number that starts with an "S" - we have begun to assist many of you in getting your Parent Focus Account portals set up. In the meantime, if you need your child's focus ID number, email bmerryman@southsidecharter.org. She can call you on our verified contact numbers and then provide you, your child's Focus/DCPS student number.
See below from Jacksonville Public Library
While you, your kids, your students, your friends are keeping your distance from others, don't forget that all DCPS students have access to tons of digital books, movies, tv shows, graphic novels, comics, videos and more with your Focus - Student ID.
Just use your DCPS Student ID number (without the S) as your library card number and PIN for any Jacksonville Public Library digital service.
If you have any trouble, email us at jplpromotions@coj.net and our team will get you fixed right up.
But I'm not a DCPS student! What can I do? (adult, college, private school, etc.)
The library offers e-cards that can be used to access digital content for anyone who doesn't already have a library card. If you already have a library card from Jacksonville Public Library, you're all set!
If not, go to www.jaxpubliclibrary.org/get-library-card to fill out an e-card application and in less than one business day you'll receive your card number and PIN in your email.
Enrichment Game
Sticky Note Wall Bop:
Attach twenty-six sticky notes to the back of a door and write a different letter on each one (in random order). Make a “start” line a few feet away from the door (more if you have older kids), and have your child stand behind it with a soft ball, bean bag, stuffed animal, or pair of rolled-up socks. Now instruct them to throw their object to try and hit the “A” or the “T.” Players with more advanced aim and spelling skills can try and hit all the letters in specific words (to make it even tougher, if they miss one of the letters, have them start all over again!). Alternatively, write different point values on each sticky and give your child ten throws. For each target they hit, mark down the number of points. At the end of the round, tally up to crown a winner (or if playing solo, have them try and beat their previous score). (Editor’s note: make sure your kids are retrieving their throwing object themselves. Running and bending down to pick it up over and over again is all part of the exercise!) ○
Materials Needed: Sticky notes, soft-tossing object, paper and pencil for keeping score
Variations - sight words on sticky notes and child finds them with a fly swatter when parent calls them out
Free Audible Audio Books for Kids - Amazon
“For as long as schools are closed, we’re open,” Audible said on its website. “Kids everywhere can instantly stream an incredible collection of stories.”
The free stories can be streamed on desktops, laptops, tablets or desktop, Audible said. Stories will be divided into six categories: Littlest Listeners, Elementary, Tween, Teen, Literary Classics and Folk & Fairy Tales for All, the website said.
D.C.S.S. Students and Families Giving Back
Make your own face masks, or even more to donate!
https://www.mybluprint.com/article/diy-face-masks
If you family makes some to donate, take a picture for us! We love seeing our stingrays give back!
Make headbands to save healthcare workers ears!
Cards of Encouragement to Virus Heroes!
One of my friends works at Mayo, and this is from the Mayo Clinic Florida CAO who is allowing us to share. If you want to have your kids draw pictures, notes, they will share with our front line medical staff and others. ❤️❤️
Dear Colleagues and Friends,
I just got the ok from our infection experts so am asking that you send in letters of support, resilience and appreciation to our incredible employees who are working to keep our patients and community safe. In the past few weeks, I have witnessed courage, humility and selflessness by many. We should all be incredibly proud of our Mayo Clinic in Florida team!
You can have your kids draw pictures, have your parents write stories, have your neighbor write poems or you can send in any written positive wishes to our teams. We have physicians, nurses, techs, therapists, administrators, APPs, desk staff, assistants, housekeepers, researchers, schedulers, educators, food service workers and many others all here making a difference.
Please address your works of art to my attention:
Christina Zorn
Mayo Clinic Administration
4500 San Pablo Rd
Jacksonville, FL 32224
I will make sure that these notes of support are distributed throughout MCF so our frontline teams know they are supported. Please share and thank you so much in advance for your help!
Please all take care of yourselves, stay home if you can and be kind to each other (even if your place is feeling much smaller than it used to.)
We are all in this together. We are Mayo Clinic.
Our Elderly Neighbors at Southside
Deerwood Place Assisted Living
8700 A C Skinner Pkwy, Jacksonville, FL 32256
Staying Healthy!
Corornavirus (COVID-19) Information:
FLDOE has closed Florida schools through at least May 1st.
For school re-opening (date TBD) We have revised the clinic area for a sick/well separate areas, and our building was deep cleaned over break, including use of the Clorox air ionization system.
Staff will be monitoring absence rates, and also communicating with families on the second day of sequential absence.
Wellness... take care of yourself Stingray Family!
Mindfulness App: The Inner Explorer team has developed a daily mindfulness app for families, which is an extension of the program used in more than 30,000 classrooms. Families can download the app at NO COST — thanks to the generosity of their partners, including LG Electronics and the Allstate Foundation.
Booster - Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/choosebooster/
Our wonderful Boosterthon team not only has made all the character ed video series open for families through your boosterhon account - password ONLINE, but they have daily storytime at 9am, fitness breaks at noon and an exercise program at 3pm!
Kid Friendly Workouts: https://www.getclassfit.com/videos
They host live workouts at 1:30 each day, but those are through Facebook which you would need to use a phone or personal device for, but the above link has some of the video workouts posted for anytime use!
Hardship Resources
We have moved the long list of resources over to a separate link: https://www.smore.com/71a3z
Educational Apps/Software utilized at DCSS
We have moved our comprehensive list of programs, apps and softwared used at D.C.S.S. to a seperate page - https://www.smore.com/dxqct
Click to learn more about powerschool, clever, edmodo, school mint, Lexia, and more!
Need Volunteer Hours?
Log your volunteer hours on a computer in your Powerschool account (option does not appear on the App)
1 hr: Leave a positive review on Facebook, Yelp, or Great Schools - let shopping families know what you LOVE about Duval Charter at Southside. This helps our marketing team!
Complete your Online Volunteer Training while at Home!
Teacher Appreciation Week
Teacher Appreciation Week starts the week of May 4th.
Stay tuned next week for our launch of the #StringrayStrong Shout out tool, where you can send a special thank you message or give them a shoutout for something amazing that they are doing!
Ways to Support DCSS Online !!
Coke Rewards
Boxtops
SchoolStore.com
Previous Newsletter
Duval Charter School at Southside
Website: https://www.southsidecharter.org/
Location: 8680 A C Skinner Parkway, Jacksonville, FL, USA
Phone: 904-4235348
Facebook: facebook.com/DuvalSouthside
Twitter: @DCSSouthside
