It's the SCOOP for April 30, 2020
Your weekly news from Santa Barbara Middle School
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DISTANCE LEARNING 3.0
We want to thank all of our families for providing so much valuable feedback through Cups and Questions, by Lilli's calls to each of you, and from the one-on-one conversations we have had with you. This feedback has helped shape our Distance Learning Program 3.0 which we will roll Thursday in the next SCOOP. You are welcome to keep the feedback rolling in!
We will also be sending out the 2020-21 school year calendar in the next SCOOP. As you know, this year we will not be hosting end-of-year trips. We are planning, in conjunction with other private schools, on opening campus in the fall on our original start date of September 2.
Please be advised we may have to change this given orders from public health officials or recommendations from our COVID-19 Committee. There will be many updates between now and then to communicate any changing dates.
CUPS AND QUESTIONS
Thank you to all the current families and parents for joining us this morning for Cups and Questions! You can catch up on our discussion in the
recorded meeting video here. We really appreciate all the feedback from parents during this time. Join us next Thursday at 9am for our next meeting! We'll be sending out a reminder email early next week.
REMINDERS & REQUESTS FOR OPTIMAL STUDENT LEARNING
ATTENDANCE PROTOCOL
All absences, either for one period or a full day, should be reported to the office at
office@sbms.org
. Students should contact their teachers to receive any make-up assignments. The office will continue to call home daily if there are unexcused absences.
ZOOM REMINDER
Please have your students sign into Zoom under their SBMS emails (vs. personal) as it helps with breakout rooms and attendance. Thanks!
CHECKING THE HUB
The HUB is your center for tracking grades and homework assignments. It is a great resource, so don't forget to check it often, track the progress of your student, and reach out with any questions or concerns.
CELL PHONES IN CLASS
We would appreciate it if students kept their cellphones in the kitchen or away from their study space during their classes. We recognize that we cannot control all of the distractions at home, and we know that all of you are busy and cannot monitor your children while they are in class. It would be great to establish a routine of turning in the cell phone at the beginning of the day and getting it back at lunch or after electives. We've had a few incidents of group chats being started during class with lots of "pinging" going on, which distracts everyone. We know that many students use their cell phone at the beginning of class to ask a friend to relay a message to the teacher if they are struggling to enter Zoom. If students are experiencing difficulty logging in, they can shoot their teacher an email from their computer. No cell phone is needed! Thank you for your understanding.
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WELCOME NEW FAMILIES
WELCOME TO THE SCOOP!
It was so great to see you all on Wednesday morning. We hope you enjoyed our Cups and Questions and that we were able to answer all your questions. There will be another Zoom meeting coming up, and we look forward to bringing the kids in for a mixer to meet current students so they have familiar faces in the fall. There will be more new family updates to come. We are so excited to welcome you all into our family!
WANTED: SBMS SUMMER MENTOR FAMILIES
Our Admission Team is excited to be welcoming in a whole new group of awesome and excited kids and families for our 2020-2021 school year. We are looking for current SBMS “Mentor Families” to serve as a more personal point of contact and to offer an additional connection to our wonderful SBMS community for these new families.
What does being an SBMS Mentor Family entail?
- We will team you up with 1-2 new families to “mentor."
- An email or phone call to introduce yourself — and eventually a virtual Zoom meet-up.
- Come summertime, provided our social distancing restrictions have been revised, we encourage mentor families to host a summer event where all of the kids and parents can get to know one another at a beach day, hike, etc.
- Our SBMS Mentor Families stay connected with their new families well into the first half of the year, offering some advice on all things SBMS - trip prep, the HUB, how to get involved, etc.
Please email
Sue
if you are interested in being one of our awesome SBMS Mentor Families.
FYI
- We won’t begin making Mentor and New Families connections until the end of May, so this program won’t officially launch until mid-June.
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BIANCA'S BLURB
Possibly the first and most prominent thing you learn about the adolescent and teenage years is that it is the stage when our children push their family away and bring their social group and peers in closer. So much of their identity is shaped by this process. And as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, our adolescents and teens are being forced to do the exact opposite. They are required to hunker down with their families and are unable to interact socially with their peers in a way that is natural and that they are accustomed to. For some families, this has turned out well with siblings playing together more and a general relaxed feeling without some of the pressures of school and peer expectations. For others, however, this has not been the case. My own children fight every day. My son, who is extremely social, has told me on a few occasions that he's lonely. I want us all to begin to message to our children that this is their heroic effort. It's frustrating. It's hard... and it's our current journey. All of us are experiencing hardship and just because it's a challenging path doesn't mean we aren't going to do it. Our efforts to stay home is what we are enduring AND what is helping others.
We can do this. We can do hard things. This is our mountain to bike up.
With that being said, I want to offer a few creative ideas of how to allow your children some safe social interactions.
Please note, SBMS does not endorse nor promote student gatherings at this point in time. We must follow state and county health recommendations.
Here are some creative ideas to connect.
- Old school phone call. If your kid is hating the screen, have them pick up the phone instead of texting! Parents, you too! You'll be amazed at how good a normal phone call feels. Walking and talking is wonderful, too.
- TikTok challenge. Have them learn a new TikTok routine and challenge their friends to it.
- Drive-bys. Offer to drive your kid to their friend's house so they can see them, say hi from a distance, and have a quick chat.
- Car hangouts. Talk to 2 other families and meet up in your cars in a big, empty parking lot. Let your children sit on the roof or hood of your cars while you sit inside with the window up. You can enjoy some peace and quiet (read a book, listen to a podcast) while the kids chat privately. Strategically place the cars at least 6-10 feet away, limit to 2-3 friends. Wear masks.
- Go for a hike or bike ride at the same time as another family. Keep your distance, wear masks, but allow for some 6 foot, mask wearing chit chat before or after the hike/ride.
Hang in there!
Look back at all of Bianca's Blurbs
here
.
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THE WEEK AHEAD
Monday, May 4
N/A
Tuesday, May 5
Wednesday, May 6
N/A
Thursday, May 7
9am Cups and Questions on
ZOOM
Friday, May 8
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FAMILY ACTIVITIES
Don't forget the
Carpe Diem Bucket List
is full of activities to do! There will be an update to the list next Thursday in the DLP 3.0.
FROM THE DELI: LICK THE PLATE
Lick The Plate is live and hosting the very first cooking session this Sunday from 5pm to 7pm. This session will likely not take the whole time as we'll be learning all about vinaigrettes and vegetable prep. Follow along or just watch with me over Zoom. You will need: Olive oil, vinegar (any kind!), garlic, dijon, salt/pepper, and ideally a mason jar to partake in this lesson on how to make my favorite version of vinaigrette. Email PA (
pa@sbms.org) for the Zoom info and Google Calendar invite
.
Stoke your fire and get cooking!
FRIDAY PILATES CLASS
Michele Lee continues her SBMS exclusive classes this Friday from 2:15pm-3pm. To enter class, click on the
ZOOM link her
e. Parents and students are welcome to join!
P.E. CLASS WITH ERIK
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PHOTO CONTEST
Satya
is the winner of last week's photo contest! Congratulations! This photo makes us smile too.
This week's contest theme is
Black and White is Beautiful! This week, you can shoot whatever you like, but your submission must be in black and white. Keep in mind that because there will not be colors in the image, your composition and lighting become more important. Consider the type of light. Is it strong sunlight from one direction that creates strong shadows, or is it a soft light that fills in the shadows and creates a subtle mood? Your composition is important as well. Think about all of the elements in your image including the subject and background. Take a picture and then ask yourself, “How can I make this better?” Consider changing your position to move an element into or out of your image. Take a bunch of images of each subject and pick the best once you have uploaded them onto your computer. Have fun and be creative!
Here is the link to a
Google Drive folder
to submit your photos. Upload your images with your full name and title by next Wednesday at 10:00pm. Good Luck!
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COMMUNITY
COMMUNITY HAVES + NEEDS
SBMS is working to highlight ways for our school families to collectively make a difference for those in need in our community. If you'd like to get involved, you can find the full
Haves + Needs list linked here
, with this week's top ideas highlighted below. This list will be continuously updated, so if you have suggestions to add, please send them to
Phoebe
.
Order dinner to support local restaurants!
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PHOTOS!
This is a historic experience and will be in our memories for a long time. We would love to see photos of your student's workplace, the projects they are working on, how they are staying busy, and any hobbies they are pursuing. They may look back on the photos one day and hopefully have memories of special uninterrupted time with their families, a new way of schooling, and the hobbies they learned.
BIKES FOR SALE
Do you have a used bike or trip equipment for sale that could work for an incoming SBMS student? If so, please send details (photo, detailed description, age, condition, price) to
Merritt
to pass along to new families with a contact email you would like to use.
quaranTEEN VIRTUAL WORKSHOPS
Every WEDNESDAY from 3:15pm-4:30pm for 7th grade-college age youth in Santa Barbara County. Be entered in the weekly RAFFLE when you RSVP.
RSVP:
YouthWell.org/teens
- MAY 6 • Non Profit Panel will provide an opportunity to learn about how students can create meaningful ways to volunteer and do community service during their teen years.
- MAY 13 • Cara Ferrick, co-owner CorePower Yoga will speak about the power of movement & breathing and how it improves your mood and relieves stress.
- MAY 20 - Talk to local leaders about next steps with COVID-19 in our community.
In addition, we are working with Just Communities to put on these 3 workshops for families...
MANAGING TRANSITIONS DURING A DIFFICULT TIME
- MAY 3 for parents in English
- MAY 17 for parents in Spanish
- MAY 24 for parents and their graduating seniors (English and Spanish)
See below for all of the information in both English and Spanish:
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FROM THE PARENT ASSOCIATION
Another week has come and gone, and it’s getting harder to distinguish one from the other. We are down to the last 6 weeks of school. The PA is discussing ways that we can break up the monotony and create activities/events at the end of each week to give the kids something special to look forward to. Have you seen "social distancing" events at other schools or communities that would be fun to do at SBMS? Have you seen virtual events that could work in our community? If so, please pass along to your grade reps so we can add them to our discussion.
Dave Mochel spoke at our first virtual PA meeting on Tuesday, April 21, about tools and practices we can use to stay grounded amidst all this uncertainty. If you weren’t able to attend, see the slides from the presentation
here
. We are having some technical difficulty with the recording from the meeting and hope to provide that for you soon.
Some additional resources are:
We also have the video available from the March PA meeting when Debra Kessler spoke on
Compliance to Competence: Guiding Your Teen
. Click link,
Parent Association MEETING #6
,
to view. Both speakers were excellent and had some very helpful tips and information to share.
Please join us every Thursday morning at 9am for the Cups and Questions discussions to hear the latest updates from the staff on new offerings and plans for the rest of the school year. It's a great opportunity to ask any questions that you might have. If you aren’t able to attend, you can view the recordings in the SBMS Hub under the Parent Association tile.
Stay healthy and safe,
Debbie Popovich
PA Chair
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ON THE HORIZON
In addition to the Spring Auction being canceled, we have also canceled the dates for Songfest, Whitneyfest, and the Spring Drama Performance. We hope that there will be a chance to host some type of reimagined version of these community events including Rites of Passage in June. The school will keep everyone informed on new dates or virtual events.
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