Monday, May 25, 2020 - Memorial Day (No Classes/Check-in)
Daily Attendance & Announcements
Over the past three weeks our online attendance has improved significantly. The number of “absent” students over a 15 day period is less than 10 students per day. This attendance rate is simply AMAZING!!! Please note our school wide attendance program uses Google Classroom and “class assignments.” Points are used to establish when each student “checks-in.” 100 points when students check in prior to 1:30, 50 points when students check-in past 1:30. We are hoping to have some awards for online attendance towards the end of the year.
Online Student Activities
We have been impressed by our student engagement and participation in many of our online Student Activities. Some of these activities had student awards sponsored by our PTSA.
Our Essential Workers Contest had over 280 submissions! Students submitted amazing art and creative ideas which made it very difficult to select the best. Each grade had 3 lucky winners who received a $5 Amazon Gift Card via email.
Congratulations to:
8th -Yuhan Jia - Nimisha Mishra - Audrey Sanders
7th -Alyssa Huang - Andrew Yan - Max Ursenbach
6th Urooj Nasir - Ann Thekkinedath - Cameron Chao
Kahoot Winners
A Big Thank You again to Mrs. Doty, our Faculty & Staff for Friday’s fun Kahoot Game.
With over 180 Players our winners from the two rounds are:
7th & 8th Grade Game: Amanda Bruers - Pranati Anna - Jessica Hsu
6th Grade Game: Astha Munot - Alyssandra Quezada - Jaivant Pantam
Quick PTSA Association Meeting (5:45 p.m. on May 26, 2020)
Every year before our school’s Open House our PTSA holds an Association Meeting. This is an important function necessary for our non-profit operations. Generally, this is a short 15 minute meeting. Please join our PTSA Board who will be holding their Video Conference Association Meeting on May 26, 2020 at 5:45 p.m. Please use the link below to RSVP for this short meeting. RSVPs are due by May 21, 2020. Once your membership is verified you will be emailed instructions on how to join the Zoom meeting.
Progress Reports
Classroom Procedures Update: Reflecting on last weeks Progress Reports, we identified a correlation between low grades and students who appear to be AFK (Away From Keyboard). To better address our AFK students, our faculty may issue mini-research assignments to students who are not with us during our Google Meet sessions. This means working video and audio. If you have issues with your computer, please contact our office to check out a Chromebook.
Google Classroom, Work Submission and Grades (Notes for Students & Parents)
Check for late or missing assignments:
Did you know? We accept Late Work! Nearly all Google Class assignments have a turn-in deadline. However, Google Classroom does not prevent you from turning in late work. When your teacher assigns work, it’s marked Assigned. If you don't turn in your work on time, it's marked Missing or Done late as soon as the due date or time arrives. For example, if work is due at 9:00 AM, turn it in by 8:59 AM. If you turn it in at 9:00 AM, it's late.
Go to classroom.google.com.
On a class card, click Your work .
At the right, you see the work status of each item:
Assigned—Work assigned by your teacher. Check the due date.
Turned in—Work you turned in on time.
Graded—For graded work that your teacher returned, you see your grade.
Returned—For ungraded work that your teacher returned, you see a check .
Missing—Work you didn't turn in.
Turned in: Done late—Work you turned in late.
(Optional) For more details, click an item to expand it click View details.
For more ways to check work status and track your work, go to See your work for a class
Please remember to speak to your teacher if you need assistance with classes, assignments, or connectivity.
Google Classroom Guardian Feature
Google’s guardian feature provides parents a daily or weekly summary of all missing assignments assigned by teachers in the Google Classes. Our hope was to reduce the number of emails issued daily. Unfortunately, the Guardian feature does not allow parents to see the class assignments, and some of our students would complete “assignments” before parents received the google summary. Including announcements associated with our student attendance system. With this in mind we will shift our daily announcements to our Google Site Page: https://sites.google.com/a/tusd.org/blms/daily-announcements
Student Video Key to Keeping Students Safe. Parents Online with Students
We are dedicated to maintaining a safe learning environment and our faculty may request cameras on to ensure the student logged into a class is the child scheduled in the class. While we encourage parents to monitor their child’s online behavior including participation in our Google Classes, we strongly discourage parents or older siblings from “attending” classes for their child. This included taking tests online.
End of Year Procedures
We are finalizing plans for closing out our school year in June. One aspect of our plan includes a list of items on record for students to return. Items include textbooks, library books and Chromebooks. Please note we have retrieved textbooks from lockers and recorded these books as returned. We hope to issue a draft of our end-of-year plans prior to June 1st. As a reminder school year ends June 11, 2020.
Connectivitiy Issues?
We are using Contemporary Issues class for school wide attendance and announcements. Students should check in between 6:00 am - 1:30 pm Monday -Thursday. Frequently, we have a daily question to answer. Daily questions are a necessary function for the "Assignment" to be "Posted" and for your attendance to be marked "Present." Missing students will receive a "Q" and robo-calls, texts and emails will be sent to your parents. To clear a "Q," please send Ms. Takahashi an email.
If you are experiencing connectivity issues, please contact our office for assistance.
8th Grade Only
Promotion Slideshow Ceremony: Thursday, June 11th @ 6pm. YouTube & Facebook Live links will be emailed and posted on www.bertlynn.com.
Similar to the traditional promotion ceremony, this slideshow will present each student’s photo in alphabetical order to the promotion music of Pomp and Circumstance. Our program will include student singing, student speeches and dignitary speeches.
Committed to supporting West High School, Bert Lynn’s PTSA has collaborated with Jefferson’s PTSA to provide all of our 8th grade students with a custom red t-shirt. Upon entering West High School, each graduating class is assigned a color and our future class of 2024’s is red. We believe this is a perfect way of preparing our students for future WHS class spirit day events. Along with the t-shirt, students will receive a West High drawstring bag, and a frisbee. Our PTSA is working on a promotion banner for DIY promotion photos with more detailed information to follow.
Promotion Program: We will be producing the student promotion program that will be available online once our guest and speaker list is finalized.
I want to thank you all again for all for the support and patience as we navigate through these unprecedented times. I hope you are all staying health and safe.
Thank you,
LeRoy Jackson
Principal, Bert Lynn Middle School
Office Hours 8-11:30 M-F