Winter is hereThe snow in some parts of our state coated the trees and ground to create some beautiful scenes yesterday. This was a photo captured of the Common in Grafton where I live and it looks almost magical. I'm sure some of us are coming in with some sore backs and others with some fun memories if you got outside sledding with your children. Others may have loved being forced to stay inside for awhile. I do hope that you enjoyed at least a bit of the beginning of our winter season. Thank you to many of our MURSD custodians who came in yesterday and early today to clear the paths for us to have school. You are greatly appreciated! I know we will continue to be faced with some inclement weather (as soon as midweek with intense rain/winds coming) in the next few months and I appreciate your patience as we do our best to navigate the winter season. Portrait of a learner ChallengeThe first MURSD Inspired Learning Day (ILD) of the year is on Tuesday, February 6, 2024 (with a snow date of Tuesday, February 13)! Schools are beginning the process for developing proposals and schedules to plan for the day. We will continue to connect our Portrait of a Learner Competencies directly to our Inspired Learning Days. As a build up to the Inspired Learning Day we will have a fun New Year's challenge to highlight our PoL competencies with our community. Those who participate will be entered into a raffle which will take place at on February 6th and three people will win a prize for participating. 1. Take a photo of your students in action displaying one of our Portrait of a Learner Competencies and post it to Twitter (X), Instagram, or Facebook with the hashtags #MURSDThrives and #PortraitofaLearner. Feel free to also tag either me @MaureenMCohen or our district page @MendonUptonRSD. 2. If you do not have a social media account yet, then you can e-mail me at [email protected] and our social media coordinator, Molly Smith [email protected] and we will try to share some of them out. Instructional Partners meet today after schoolInstructional Partners will meet today to finish preparations for our January 17th learning walks. It's been a while since the group got together so we're looking forward to seeing everyone. We'll meet in the Central Office conference room. Please be sure to put in for a sub on January 17th, if you need one. Please let Colleen or I know if you have any questions. --Cheryl MENTORS AND NEW EDUCATORS MEET ON JANUARY 9THJust a heads up to mentors and new educators that we will all be meeting on January 9th in the Nipmuc PDC. This meeting will be a joint meeting that we look forward to each year, as we so infrequently are able to bring everyone in our mentor/mentee community together. Let Andrea or I know if you have any questions. --Cheryl 1/2 Day PD Friday, January 12thWe're looking forward to our next Professional Development day this Friday, January 12th. It is a half day PD, that we decided to make a district-wide day in order to bring us all together and Focus on us, as a way to start 2024 off right. Doing something together as a district on a 1/2 day early release is a bit tricky since schools let out and end at different times, but we've tried to be creative, knowing what everyone needs is different, and with the help of educators across the district who are eager to share their ideas and talents, have devised an agenda of diverse choices that we hope will give everyone the opportunity to explore something valuable to grow and support personal/professional wellness. Additionally, we are delighted to bring Carrie Stack to Mendon-Upton. Carrie works with educators across the Commonwealth sharing a message that she calls the Power of the Positive that emphasizes the importance of focusing on ourselves. She'll deliver a keynote at 1:15 and will also lead a WIN Workshop for elementary educators and anyone else who wants to stay at 2:30. The whole day will be held at Nipmuc. Here is the agenda which has been slightly adjusted to allow Middle School educators a comfortable amount of time to get to Nipmuc. 12:15-1:15 What I Need (WIN) Workshops for High School and Middle School educators (See workshop offerings here) 1:15-2:15 Carrie Stack Keynote - The Power of the Positive 2:30-3:30 What I Need (WIN) Workshops for Elementary educators (See workshop offerings here) Please visit our PD website for more information and register for the keynote and select your workshop in TeachPoint by Wednesday, January 10th. Welcoming Newcomers and attending to mental healthSchool and district teams that are involved in welcoming and supporting newcomer students are invited to join DESE at 2:00-3:00 p.m. on Tuesday, January 30 for a webinar titled “Building a Supportive Infrastructure: Addressing Mental Health and Trauma Support for Newcomer Students.” This session will feature presenters from Chelsea Public Schools and Boston Children's Hospital’s Trauma and Community Resilience Center. The webinar will also include updates from DESE on available resources. Registration is open online. On a related note, the U.S. Education Department has re-released its own Newcomer Toolkit. This toolkit is a resource for state, local, and school leaders in supporting multilingual learners and general education educators who directly serve immigrant and refugee students. Additionally, an English Learner Toolkit reminds educators of the civil rights of families of newcomer students. Please also see DESE’s newcomer FAQ (download) for additional assistance. Laughter is the best medicineFor inspiration
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