A Letter from Principal Drummond

Dear Hill Community,
We hope your family had a productive and positive first week of school! We are so proud of our staff and families for coming together to problem solve through situations none of us have had to work through before. Our parents/guardians were so understanding and helpful to let us know how we can improve while also being supportive. This is so appreciated! As we have stated, every day we hope to collaborate and learn more on how to best make this a workable situation for all. We acknowledge that this time is still a struggle for many and hope that everyone reaches out for the support and resources they need from our school community.

We also appreciate everyone working with their teacher on solutions to individual issues. One common thing we heard was the differences some saw in logging into BLEND, then Seesaw, through the portal vs. through the actual Canvas App that is included on our Pre-K through 2nd grade Ipads. One of our amazing district tech coaches, Laurie Beaman, led Hill and Doss families on Friday through a Parent Technology Best Practice Session (video linked here) based on all she has learned as an employee and mom. Be sure to watch this! She also discusses BLEND tips for all grade levels and encourages the use of Google Chrome. As we are now encouraging the use of the Canvas App on Ipads, the district has provided a video on Accessing District Curriculum through the Canvas App on district Ipads. A Hill parent and teacher also shared these screenshots to support logging into the Canvas app. We hope this helps!

If you have other technology support needs for BLEND, Seesaw, or other applications, please complete this quick survey to let us know what coaching you are hoping for in the near future. We would love to address common needs and see where our families want the most support to make our presentations meaningful.

We welcomed Chelsea Stover, one of our awesome counselors, to our Hill Principal Check-In linked here this Thursday. She shared the ways that she and Ms. Winfrey can support you and your students this year.

During this meeting, we also began discussing the Parent Survey that came out just before or during the meeting, asking family intentions on returning to campus or staying virtual once that time comes. Knowing that many families need more information prior to stating their intentions, it is not a committal survey. Families will be able to state if they would like to return to in-person learning with as few as 5 days notice before their return date. Please note we may do some of our own data gathering as well to ensure we have the best picture possible as we prepare for this transition. We know many of you hope to know how your teachers will be instructing, be it online or in-person. We will communicate those decisions as soon as they are made based on many factors. For now, survey responses are due by September 21st. We encourage families to wait until next weekend if they are not positive about what they intend to do, though it is stated you can change your response. Please click here if you need the link and did not receive the survey by email.

To give everyone the most up to date information we have next week and try to answer all the questions we can, we will go ahead and hold our next Principal Check-In this week on Wednesday, September 16th, at 4:00 pm. We may not be able to answer all questions on the phase-in reopening at this time but will definitely continue the updates over the coming weeks. Here is the Zoom info:
Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 865 3460 0430
Passcode: dillos

Looking ahead, we wanted to share our updated Anderson Vertical Team Calendar that includes our spring semester District of Innovation professional development days. This is the correct calendar that is comprehensive for our families to utilize this year.

If you have yet to do so, please ensure that you call ahead and pick up your belongings from the spring if interested. We will begin disposing of these on Wednesday of the upcoming week to clear our hallways. Have a wonderful weekend and enjoy this cool weather! We will keep you updated with any new information we need to share during the week. We look forward to hearing about all of your students’ Dillo Best efforts in week 2!

Principal Drummond

feedback_mix.png