April 22, 2020 - Staff Digest

April 22, 2020

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Dear SFUSD Staff:

I’m excited to share that over 95% of 3-12th grade students logged into their SFUSD online classroom last week. Let’s celebrate our students for finding ways to engage in school work through distance learning and the families and teachers who are helping them.

Updates

Happy Administrative Professionals Day!

We extend a hearty shoutout to all of our school secretaries, attendance clerks, central office admin staff, and other administrative support staff! While we appreciate your work every day, Administrative Professionals Week reminds us to take a step back and recognize all of the “unseen” things you do that keep us all moving forward.

Especially during this crisis, we thank you for staying on top of timeroll, continuing to manage our budgets, keeping our schedules on track, and responding to a myriad of other requests. Thank you for all that you do.

School Closure Digest Changes

Starting next week, April 27, the School Closure Digest will be shared with our entire SFUSD community once a week every Wednesday evening. 

We will continue to share new updates online and through social media (@sfunified). We invite you to reach out if you have questions. Staff may email staffingquestions@sfusd.edu and families may email familylink@sfusd.edu 

Family Partnership Learning Opportunity

Distance learning is a great time to suggest learning opportunities that allow students to explore and document their cultural and familial wealth. Create an activity for students to tell their Family Story (family can mean chosen family, biological family, or whatever definition of family y’all come up with!)

Students might ask their families: Where were you born? How did you get here to where you currently reside? What were your favorite foods growing up? What was your first job? Why did you work at that job? What did your parents do? What did you do for fun when you were a kid? What were some important things that happened in the world when you were growing up?

After hearing stories from different family members, students can put together a bigger story of your family. What is your family ancestry? Where has your family migrated from or to? What languages does your family speak? What talents does your family have? What dreams does your family have?

Reminder - Continuity of Learning Technology Resources

Reminder - Volunteers needed to support Chromebook distribution

Sign up to volunteer for any of the following roles:

  • Drivers/Deliveries (minimal human interaction): Pick up and delivery of devices and/or materials to families or community sites. 
  • Call families to determine unmet technology needs. Please sign up for 2 days or more, installation and training required.

Reminder - No staff or students allowed in schools at this point

Staff Resources

City of San Francisco:

School Closures is a nonprofit hotline that provides information and free tutoring for families during COVID-19 school closures.

  • Call or text this free hotline at 1-855-264-2051.
  • Parents and teachers can call in with questions about a wide range of issues, including where to find meals, tools for online learning, how to use Google classroom, how to engage kids while working from home, or just to have someone to talk to who can listen and empathize with their situation. 
  • This hotline is not specific to SFUSD (see SFUSD Family Resource Link information), but SFUSD staff have checked it out and found it helpful.

Health and Wellness

The Child Mind Institute has a wealth of resources to support families coping during this time. They note that your children may be feeling more anxious these days. Here a a few ways to help them understand and manage their feelings:

  • Label emotions and their intensity
  • Ask "yes" or "no" questions about their feelings
  • Create daily routines that include exercise
  • Model calmness and mindfulness

Bright Spot

Every National Poetry Month (April), KALW, America Scores and SFUSD team up to bring SFUSD students’ poetry to the radio! America SCORES uses soccer and poetry to help young “poet-athletes” discover the benefits of working together as a team, the joy of physical activity, and the fun in reading and writing. Tune to 91.7 KALWn Monday through Friday at 7:49am to hear these young people read their poems or listen to past recordings online

Warm regards,
Superintendent Dr. Vincent Matthews

This page was last updated on April 23, 2020