Weekly Update
Monday, May 5-Regular School Day
1st PRISM leadership team meeting at 3:45pm on zoom with DESE/TNTP
1st Anti-Bullying Taskforce meeting at 3:45pm in Kristen's office
Tuesday, May 6-Regular School Day
Wednesday, May 7-Regular School Day
Thursday, May 8-Regular School Day
Friday, May 9-Wear jeans and your Gator Gear!
Opportunity to begin Orton Gillingham journey
We are excited to offer this training opportunity for educators who have not had any formal Orton Gillingham training and are looking to start the process to advance towards professional certification with Orton-Gilingham. Member districts of the the W. MA Sped Directors Association have secured Laurie Cousseau, from the Green River Literacy Center in the Berkshires, to facilitate this offering. Laurie is an Accredited Training Fellow with 35 years of experience and has trained several GRSD educators in the past.
For Ideal candidates with no prior Orton-Gillingham experience, the district will fully fund an introductory one-week workshop this Summer at the JFK Middle school in Northampton, June 17-20. The Training will be condensed into 4 days for 30 total hours of instruction and provide the necessary coursework for participants working towards the Classroom Educator Level I certification . Participants will receive a Certificate of Coursework and have the necessary foundational training to move towards certification but only after a supervised practicum (that is not included in this offering). Depending on interest and availability of funds in the future, we hope to support educators moving towards (Classroom Educator Certification) but at this time, the introductory training is the only opportunity available to us.
Participants will receive a $500 stipend upon the successful completion of the course and are responsible for their own travel and meals.
Interested candidates please submit a letter of interest to Kurt Garivaltis, Director of Pupil Services.
Annual Town Meetings Begin!
If you live in the Gateway District, please consider attending your annual town meeting. This is an important meeting to vote on a number of town related matters, including the school budget! I personally love to see democracy at it's finest. Everyone gets a vote and every voice is heard!
I expect this is when they will be, but check with your town directly to be sure:
Blandford-Monday, June 2 @ Blandford School Building 7:00pm
Chester-Monday, June 9 @ Chester Town Hall 7:00pm
Huntington-Monday, June 2 @ Stanton Hall 7:00pm
Middlefield-Saturday, May 3 @ Town Hall 1:30pm--BUDGET APPROVED!
Montgomery-Monday, May 19 @ Montgomery Town Hall 7:00pm
Russell-Monday, June 9 @Russell Elementary Building 7:00pm
Multifactor Authentication : Please Complete by Friday!
Starting next school year, google will require the use of multifactor authentication to sign in to your district assigned google account. This will either require the use of a personal cell phone to confirm your identity while logging in to your school email OR the use of a fob to plug into your computer to proceed. The district has received key fobs for this use. If you are interested in starting to use your key fob this year for multifactor authentication, please fill out this google form and someone from the technology team will connect with you for about 10 minutes to set this up on your device.
The district is not directing any staff to use their personal device to proceed, but individual employees my select this option if it is preferred. If you'd like to proceed using your own device, then please indicate that on the form above and the technology team will record that information so a fob will not be assigned.
Recommendations from the Tech Department
As we approach the end of the school year, it is important to perform some preventive maintenance on your laptops to help extend their use cycle:
1. Hard Drive Disk Space: It is important that everyone utilizes Google Drive for storage of all teaching materials. Disk space on laptops is limited to 128 GB and the amount of storage you use does affect performance. Please schedule some time to transfer all documents/pictures/videos etc off your laptop and into Google Drive. Typical locations to look are desktop, downloads, and documents. Follow these directions to upload desired files into Google Drive:
- Go to drive.google.com: Open the Google Drive web page in your browser.
- Click "New": Locate the "New" button in the top-left corner and click it.
- Choose "File upload" or "Folder upload": Select the option based on whether you want to upload individual files or entire folders.
- Select files/folders: Navigate to the files or folders you want to upload on your Mac and select them.
- Click "Open" or "Upload": A file selection window will open where you can choose the files, and then click "Open" or "Upload".
- Monitor progress: You'll see a progress bar while the files upload.
Please move any unwanted files into your trash bin. Once they are in the trash bin, you do need to 'empty the trash'
- Locate the Trash icon: Find the Trash icon, which resembles a trash can, in the Dock.
- Empty the Trash:
- Method 1: Using the Dock: Click the Trash icon. A window will appear. Click the "Empty Trash" button.
- Method 2: Using the Finder: Click on the Finder icon in the Dock, then choose "Finder > Empty Trash
It is important to remember that your Google Drive is online storage and can be recovered on any device simply by logging in to your account. If your hard drive goes bad, in most cases your data (desktop, documents, downloads etc) will be lost, or unrecoverable. Utilizing Google Drive and the features associated with your account is an easy way to help prevent data loss if managed properly. Additionally, free space on your hard drive is a necessity for us to provide operating system and security updates to your laptop.
If you need clarification on any of the following procedures, please submit a help desk ticket and we will contact you to set up a time.
April/May Instructional Vision Challenge!
We will continue into April and May with the last opportunity to share how YOU are implementing a part of our instructional vision.
This month's focus are the fifth two bullets in the instructional vision are:
Students will know what they are learning and why they are learning it.
Staff will empower students to know what and why they are learning.
Staff are invited to fill out a brief (2-3 sentences!) summary of how you are implementing this part of our vision. It can be specific or general, and it should clearly describe how your actions are moving this part of our instructional vision forward.
Here is the link to share!
https://padlet.com/ksmidy1/april-may-instructional-vision-challenge-t8m7i9h8aot0argp
To add to the board, click the plus sign in the bottom right corner and write in your submission. Finally, hit Publish and voila! You're done!
Staff who share how they are implementing or supporting implementation of the last focus area of the instructional vision by May 31 will be entered to win a $50 gift card to one of the following locations: Carms, Common Table, Moltenbreys, Amazon, Big Y, Dunkin or at a place of your choice that I can get a gift card with relative ease 😂
GEF Funds for Learning Summer Mini-Grants!
Gateway Education Foundation is running another round of applications for our Funds for Learning Grants!
Do you have a project idea that will take place this summer?
Complete this application to make that idea a reality!
Deadline for our summer applications is May 9th.
