12.20.24 Staff Blog

 As always, wishing you a peaceful and fulfilling break.  Please make sure to “power down” your room  and your laptop before you leave for the winter break.  

1.). Do not charge microphones over the long weekend.  Either leave them out of the charging base or unplug the base itself (see attached).

2.). SHUTDOWN your computer.  This means clicking on the Apple icon in the upper left corner and selecting "Shutdown" (not closing the lid, selecting "Lock", "Sleep", "Logoff" or "Restart").

Quick Look: 

Monday December 23-Friday January 3	Winter Break- No School
Friday January 10	TSA Movie Night 6:00-8:30
Friday January 17	End of 1st Semester (grading window 1.17.25-1.30.25)
Monday January 20	No School- Martin Luther King Day Observed
Tuesday January 21	No School- Staff Work Day
Wednesday January 22	Martin Luther King Jr. Assembly (3:00-3:30 in the cafeteria) Please have students pack up for dismissal before the assembly. 8th Grade students come to the cafeteria starting at 2:55 followed by 6th and 7th students. 4th and 5th Grade come to the cafeteria after Journey has passed your classroom (probably just a couple minutes before 3:00) 2nd and 3rd Grade come to the cafeteria after 4th and 5th Grade pass your room. K and 1st, follow 2nd and 3rd Grade.
Friday January 31	Report cards sent out
Thursday February 6	S.T.E.A.M Night (6:00-8:00 at Cascade)
LOOKING AHEAD
Sunday March 2- Friday March 7	8th Grade Camp
Monday March 3-Friday March 7	Spring Conferences (11:55 Dismissal)
Friday March 14	Class Photos (in the morning) and Electives (afternoon)
Saturday March 29	Auction Fundraiser at Shoreline Community College- The theme is Wolves in Wonderland
Wednesday April 2-Friday April 5	State Competition for TSA in Spokane
Tuesday April 15	Skate Night at Lynnwood Bowl and Skate (6:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m.)
Thursday May 15	ArtsFest and Bite of Cascade
Wednesday May 21-Friday May 23	K-5 Spring Camp at Camp Huston- Get in touch with our camp lead, Brandi at springcamp@cascadek8ptsa.org and keep your eye on the Wolf Howl for information!!
Tuesday May 27-Friday May 30	6-7 Spring Camp (Naturebridge)
Friday June 6	Market Day at Cascade (2:00-3:30)
Wednesday June 11	Moving On/Moving Up Ceremony at Shorecrest (6:00-7:30 p.m.) This is an evening to honor all of our students to celebrate moving on to the next grade, and especially our 8th Grade students who are moving on to high school.

*for more information, see below

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COMMUNITY MEETING SIGN UP: ACTION

If you are interested in presenting a mini lesson (or a summary of a lesson you are currently working on with students) at a community meeting, please sign up here. Please complete an ELO form if you decide to present!

This is an opportunity to highlight for families the powerful instruction I get to see every day here at Cascade K-8.

 

REPORT CARDS: HELPFUL

Report card timeline for this year is as follows:

• End of semester:  Jan. 17, 2025

• Window to complete grades: Jan. 17 - Jan. 30, 2025

• Non-student grading day: Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025

• Report cards sent home: Friday, Jan. 31, 2025

BOOK STUDY DATES: ACTION

Team Meeting 1 - Thursday, December 12th from 8:05-9:00 a.m.

Come prepared by reading section 1 of Braiding Sweetgrass and completing your pre-meeting questions. 

Team Meeting 2 - Thursday, March 6th from 8:05-9:00 a.m.

Come prepared by reading section 2 & 3 of Braiding Sweetgrass and completing your pre-meeting questions. 

Team Meeting 3 - Thursday, April 17th from 8:05-9:00 a.m.

Come prepared by reading section 4 & 5 of Braiding Sweetgrass and completing your pre-meeting questions. 

PROFESSIONAL LEARNING OPPORTUNITY: ACTION

Register by 01/6/25 in ProDev Course # 5118. Non-cert staff must be pre-approved

Earn up to 14 Equity clock hours as you engage in a unit ready to go for February’s Black History Month. This class can be a refresher for GLAD strategies or new learning about OCDE Project GLAD®. Strategies learned can be used independently throughout your teaching day or used together to explicitly teach content writing through a Black History/ Black Excellence unit. This unit has adaptations for K-8 (and 9-12 MLL) students and is designed to be used with your whole class. Pre-printed materials provided. No previous GLAD experience is necessary. QUESTIONS? Contact Melissa Sargent, P-12 MLL TOSA melissa.sargent@ssd412.org/ x 4508

WATCH A VIDEO PREVIEW HERE -  Showing classroom examples from last year’s class. 

In-person 4:00-6:00 PM @ SLC I-107

Jan 8:  Observation Charts, Picture File Cards, Big Book

Jan 15: Timeline, Pictorial Input Chart, Narrative Chart

Jan 22: Expert Groups,  Mind Map,  Process Grid 

Jan 29: Jeopardy Game,  Coop.Paragraph, Graffiti Wall

LANGUAGE LINE UPDATE: HELPFUL

1. Alternative to Language Line - Coming in January 2025 - Shoreline’s subscription to Lingolet (which is currently being used for interpretation in our school offices) includes phone interpretation similar to that provided by Language Line at a much reduced cost. Beginning in January, district staff can use Lingolet in place of Language Line. The process will be identical to Language Line, just a different phone number and account code. Details will be coming in January. Language Line will also remain available through June 2025.

2. New Platform for Requesting In-House Interpreters - Beginning in January 2025 we will be utilizing a new scheduling platform for making interpretation requests with our In-House Interpreters called Propio. Propio is a scheduling system to create and manage interpretation requests at each school. Casey Baldner, Language Access Coordinator, will be reaching out to staff who schedule interpreters to provide zoom training opportunities on the Propio Scheduling Platform in the coming weeks

For students in Grades 1, 3 & 5, universal screening has been completed and further testing for eligible students will be held during Jan. 22- Feb. 14, 2025  24-25 School Rosters of Student Qualifiers for Further Testing

12/19-20/24	Schools and families have been notified of students who are eligible for further testing (CogAT). Families must provide written consent for testing by the end of day 1/15. Rosters will be updated as consent forms are received. NO LATE REGISTRATIONS ACCEPTED. Each school has a lead proctor who will work with you to schedule dates and coordinate testing logistics.
1/22-2/14/25	Testing window. Once you have scheduled your testing days please share information with teachers and recommend that they let families know the specific testing dates for your school.  Knowing testing dates is a request we consistently hear from families.
mid-March	MDPC for eligibility. Notification to schools, families, and position control. Services start the following school year.
Opt-in Testing- Gr. 2, 4 & 6-8	Now through April families of students in Grades 2, 4 & 6-8 who wish to register for optional screening/testing will be notified via ParentSquare of the opportunity to register in January and testing will occur in March/April/May at the SLC. Middle school students will be tested in March at their schools. The lead proctor will work with you to schedule dates and coordinate testing logistics.

GRADES 6-8 EMAIL UPDATE: HELPFUL

IT has enforced a limit to the number of people students can send a single email to. Currently the cap is 40. If students send an email to more than 40 people it will be denied. There are two primary reasons for this change - 1) Google will suspend a student’s gmail account if they send email to too many recipients in one message. This is one of their efforts to curb spam emails. 2) Students have been using long email chains to simulate unmonitored chat that has become problematic to supervise. 

Unfortunately this impacts legitimate student emails sent to clubs, sports teams and other activity groups. We recommend that emails sent to large groups of students for this purpose be sent by a staff member so they will not be blocked.