Every Day is a Chance...

-


After welcoming back more students to the buildings last week, we are all reminded of the age old phrase,  most often used in athletics, "every day is a chance to be better." Many schools have been doing the hybrid model for several weeks and are still working out the issues and/or in some cases, completely changing course. Every new adventure,  no matter what facet of life, will always bring a level of anxiety and some bruises as people work to adjust to new ways of doing things. Every day will have it's successes, it's failures, it's meh's and it's hooray's! Every day for the past several months has been a learning experience in some way shape or form, and the learning experiences are likely to continue to for the next several months. Regardless of what happens, as long as we can all remember that every day is a chance to be better than the day before. Everyone at this point knows that there are going to be challenges and new hurdles to be faced on a weekly and/or daily basis. Requirements can change at a moments notice and can change frequently. Mistakes are going to occur as all people (students, staff, and families) work to understand anything that may change. It is also important to remember that the physical process of teaching is completely different than ever before and each and every day is a growing experience for the entire educational system. Regardless of the challenges, the bruises, the bumps, and the stresses; if we can all simply make sure that every day is improved over the day before, the outcome will be positive. Each day we wake up, we have the chance to be better than the day before.      

Great American Rivalry - VOTE

Rome Free Academy football standout Tommy Dunn is one of 144 high school athletes in the United States who has an opportunity to be recognized by the Great American Rivalry Series and the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The 2020 Great American Rivalry Series Scholar Athlete Hall of Fame Team is now in our hands! NOW is the time for our community to support RFA and Tommy to help him secure a spot on the GARS Scholar Athlete Hall of Fame roster. In the end, 25 students nationally will be recognized. Please vote and vote often in support of our hometown athlete, Tommy Dunn. For more information, including casting a vote, please visit their webpage at: https://greatamericanrivalry.com/2020-scholar-athlete-hall-of-fame-voting/. 

NYSED Parent Dashboard

The New York State Education Department (NYSED) has developed a Parent Dashboard to increase transparency and make information about school performance and other school-level data easier for parents and the public to access. The Parent Dashboard is part of New York's Every Student Success Act (ESSA) plan, which emphasizes equity in education for all students and expands measures of school accountability and student success. This new dashboard will provide parents with information about their child's school. The Parent Dashboard is now available in addition to the New York State School Report Card on NYSED's public data site. The Parent Dashboard offers information on all public schools, including charter schools, and can be found at this link: https://data.nysed.gov/parents/. 

NYS Travel Rules Change

This weekend, Governor Cuomo announced changes to the NYS travel restrictions. This will have an effect on students and staff in the coming weeks. Basics of the announcement are below and for more information, please visit his website at: https://www.governor.ny.gov/.

The new guidelines for travelers to test-out of the mandatory 14-day quarantine are below:

  • For travelers who were in another state for more than 24 hours:
    • Travelers must obtain a test within 3 days of departure from the state.
    • Traveler must,  upon arrival in NY,  quarantine for 3 days.
    • On day 4 of their quarantine, the traveler must obtain another COVID test. If both tests come back negative, the traveler may exit quarantine early upon receipt of the second negative diagnostic test.
  • For travelers who were in another state for less than 24 hours:
    • The traveler does not need a test prior to their departure from the other state, and does not need to quarantine upon arrival in NYS.  
    • However,  the traveler. must fill out the traveler information form upon entry into NYS, and take a COVID diagnostic test 4 days after their arrival in NY.

CARES3 Child Care Scholarship

The Early Care & Learning Council (ECLC) and their network of 35 Child Care Resource and Referral (CCR&R) agencies applaud the action of the Office of Children and Family Services and the Cuomo Administration in developing a plan to provide child care to essential workers at no or. reduced costs to the worker.  This allocation of funding comes to the state from the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (the "CARES Act"), which has provided our state with $163.6 million in emergency relief to the child care system. School staff now have access to possible support with child care costs. For more information, including how to apply for the scholarship funds, please visit their application page at: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSesvZbqvAM2t1P7HR-bvKXXBnrwlaGKGGWwycdFdmoRsfluJw/viewform. 


Popular posts from this blog

It Takes A Village...

-
Image
 We all know the old phrase, "it takes a village to raise a child." One can reflect on the phrase and find a few different ways to interpret its meaning, however, it cannot be argued that when groups of people work together to help their children grow, success is more likely. To me, I view this phrase as referencing that there is someone within every community that a child can connect with to help them feel a part of their school and/or community. It may not be their classroom teacher or their principal. It may be a bus driver, a coach, a teaching assistant, secretary, custodian, food service worker, music teacher, art teacher, computer specialist, monitor, etc. The list can go on and on. Why mention this? Well, currently, one of the largest and most important educational research projects in our nation's history is occurring with some of the leading educational experts researching what education needs to be by the year 2025. Education 2025 is producing information that m...
Read more

When One Door Opens, Many More Follow...

-
Image
One of the hardest things to do in life is to deal with change. There is that old saying, "When one door closes, another door opens." I wonder though, why does a door have to close for another to open. Why can't many doors open when someone decides to go through a new door? I am about to embark on a new professional journey in the coming weeks and I refuse to think that the building that I have helped to lead over the past 3 years is going to be a closed door. Instead, I can think of thousands of opportunities that have been opened because of my decision to walk through a new door. I think of all of the people that have touched my life (students, staff, and parents) and I honestly don't see why a door has to close. Instead of that thinking, I choose to think that thousands of doors are opened now with all of the amazing people that I have had the opportunity to lead. The lessons that have been learned, the friendships that have developed, and the opportunities tha...
Read more

I Had A Dream...

-
Image
Once upon a time, when we all began our careers or started a new position/school, we had dreams. Dreams of what we wanted to accomplish, dreams we wanted to see our students accomplish, dreams we wanted to see our school communities achieve. Throughout my travels though, I have seen more adults tell students that should lower their expectations and downsize their dreams. Unfortunately, I would say that the ratio of adults encouraging students and adults discouraging students is close to 1:1 in my career. I ask, would you be where you are today without someone throughout your educational life encouraging you to pursue your dreams? As with many things in our schools, we need to focus on the positives that are happening and capitalize on them. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream for our country, and while his dream was related to equal rights and oppression, his intended message of having a dream and working tirelessly to achieve it can be applied universally in society. Recently, ...
Read more