5/21/20
Dear Rowe families,
It has been wonderful to finally get some truly warm weather. I am sure it is making a difference for most of you as you head outside for play breaks and experiential learning at home. We continue to be appreciative of your efforts to help your children complete work each day as best you can.
END OF YEAR INFORMATION FOR 2019-2020
As you read in Dr. Dolloff's e-mail our end of school year plans are starting to become more finalized. For your own planning here are some dates and information for you:
- Week of June 1-5: This will be the last week for any new student learning. Remote learning will continue as usual.
- Monday, June 8: Step Up Day! Students entering first grade will find out who their teacher and classmates are for the 2020-21 school year. More specific information to follow.
Tuesday, June 9: YES Step-Up Day! Students entering grade 2 will have their Step Up Day virtually with YES. They will also provide more details soon.
Wednesday & Thursday, June 10 & 11: Last two days of school. We will be providing closure to existing classes in the last week of school. Further information about this will be coming to you from your child’s teacher soon. All kindergarten and first-grade teachers are planning to host Zoom meetings with the whole class. The teachers will be in touch with exact dates and times.
Friday, June 12: Report Cards sent out.
Week of June 15: We are finalizing a plan to coordinate a curbside drop off for the following school items:
· School iPads and chargers
· Library books
· Classroom library books
NOTE: If you expect to be moving out of the district, please be sure to email your child’s teacher and Amanda Murray, our administrative assistant. Thanks in advance for the help!
Student belongings
Families will be able to pick up student belongings they may have left at school. Again, we will be in touch with those specifics as soon as possible. Currently, the existing building at Rowe School is under interior construction. There are a limited number of people who have access to the building due to health and safety concerns.
END OF YEAR REPORT CARDS
As noted, spring report cards will be mailed home on June 12. As you are aware, the move to emergency remote learning from March 17 to June 12 has affected our ability to provide the same depth of instruction on all of the grade-level standards. Over these last few months of the school year, our instructional focus has been on the reinforcement of skills and concepts that were encountered earlier in the year while folding in exposure to new priority content.
The winter student report cards were provided to you in February. At that time you received a report that shared your child’s progress in reading, writing, math, and habits of work. The report card broke those subjects down into indicators to reflect how students progressed towards grade-level standards at that point in the year.
Due to our shift to remote learning, this end of the year report card will be shared in a teacher narrative form as opposed to being broken down by each indicator. The more summative assessments we typically use to inform the report card, such as the Benchmark Assessment System for reading, cannot be administered in this format. However, there has been a significant amount of ongoing formative feedback from teachers through this model.
As in the past, we will still report out on reading, writing, math, and habits of work. This modification will allow your child’s teacher to provide feedback on their progress, but it will be more customized to fit the learning targets that they have been exposed to for this unique school year.
Coronavirus Art Showcase
Message from our the YSD Technology team
We have observed an increase in repairs needed for student-issued devices due to liquid damage and overheating. Students should keep food and drink away from their school-issued devices at all times. It's also important, especially when streaming video in Hangouts, YouTube, etc, that devices are not used on soft surfaces like bed comforters, pillows, or towels/blankets. When they are used in this manner the vent at the back of the device gets blocked and will overheat quickly. If students must use a device in these sorts of locations we ask that you put a hard object, like a book, under the device. Thanks in advance for your cooperation!
Message from Yarmouth Education Foundation:
Yarmouth Education Foundation volunteers are still hard at work helping our schools during these unprecedented times. YEF is proud to have awarded $60,000 to the Yarmouth School Department this year. This includes traditional grants and professional development opportunities, but YEF has also given back in other ways. YEF donated more than $15,000 this spring to make sure all Yarmouth students had technology access and the proper school supplies to make remote learning a success. The YEF mission is to support innovation in education, and we understand innovation may look different in the months ahead. We’ll be here to help!
YEF Clipper Honors:
YEF Clipper Honors is back! Our incredible Yarmouth School Department employees deserved to be honored, and YEF is excited to partner with Clayton’s Cafe this spring. Donate $25 to YEF in honor of an educator and your special person will receive a YEF certificate of appreciation, a personalized note for your family, and a gift card to Clayton’s. The deadline is June 4. Order online at the YEF website: www.yarmoutheducationfoundation.org
YEF Spring Grants:
All Yarmouth students will benefit from a grant awarded to Yarmouth High School teacher Mr. Hill. When students return to the classroom, YEF will be funding a 100-gallon marine touch tank at YHS. Students will be able to study sea creatures of Casco Bay with this hands-on piece of equipment. From scallops to sea stars to baby lobsters and more, the Maine State Aquarium will allow YHS to borrow aquarium animals for use in the tank. Several different science classes will use the tank as part of their studies, and younger students in the district will be able to visit the YHS aquarium as well. YEF is pleased to fund this $9,200 grant.
YEF also just funded a grant that will impact next year’s second graders. High school students Emma Moll & Hannah Swift will work alongside Mrs. Moll to introduce second grade students to vermi-composting, that’s composting food waste with worms! There will be an indoor worm composting bin in second-grade classrooms next year, and students will study how food scraps from snack time can be recycled into valuable compost. To start, the compost will be used in the Yarmouth Community Garden, but when YES construction is complete, the compost can be added to the new school garden. Emma & Hannah will serve as mentors to the younger children during this community project. YEF is excited to fund this $1500 grant.
Have a wonderful, well deserved long weekend!
Sincerely,
Susan Lobel, Rowe School Principal
