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NHMS COVID Overview

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Dr. Bagwell explains arrival and dismissal plans, breakfast and lunch plans, and the cohort model.

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hello I'm Adam Bagwell the principal of North Habersham Middle School and I wanted to take a moment to create this video to serve as an informational tool for our parents and our students as you plan and prepare to return to school in a few short weeks certainly the 2020 2021 Academic Year will be different from any year that any of us have ever experienced in schools but a lot of things about school will still be the same will still have teachers still have students will still emphasize Literacy Math Science Social Studies will still try to create opportunities for students to have fun and be able to interact with their peers to develop socially and emotionally as well as academically make no mistake it's going to be a different year at North Habersham but it's going to be a great year I am eagerly anticipating the arrival of our students I cannot wait to see their Smiling Faces in our hallways and in our classroom I'll take a few minutes in this video to share some information about some of the processes and some of the precautions that will be in place when students return I'll talk about arrival procedures lunch procedures cohort procedures and dismissal procedures at the conclusion of this video I'll be sure to list the school number and also my personal email address if you have questions or concerns after viewing the video please don't hesitate to reach out to me and I will be sure to address those questions just as quickly as I possibly can say thank you for watching I'd like to begin by talking about daily arrival and breakfast procedures for student parents please note that we will not open doors to allow students into the building until exactly 7:15 no student may enter the building until we open doors at 7:15 the purpose for this of course is that we have to have adults in place in order to supervise students when they arrive school and these adults will not be in place until 7:15 each day so it's 7:15 will open the doors we will welcome in all of our students who are offloading from buses and all of our students who are being dropped off by their parents drop off times will be from 7:15 to around 7:45 our plan is to begin instructional day at 7:50 so we need all students to be in position before that time when students enter the building they will see several stands of hand sanitizer throughout the hallways we definitely want students after they coming to the school to get some hand sanitizer as they make their way down the hall in years past when students enter the building they went either to the gym or to the cafeteria that is no longer the case this year when students enter the building they should report directly to their home base classrooms certainly we will explain to our students between now and the first day of school exactly where those home base class rooms are for them but if any student arrives school on the first day not knowing where to go we will have plenty of adults in the building who will find that students location and be sure to get that student to the right spot students will be in their home base location from 7:15 or whenever they arrive at school until the beginning of the academic day at 7:50 at 7:50 a bell will ring and I will get on the intercom system I'll say the Pledge of Allegiance we will recognize a moment of silence and then I'll take some time to welcome our students and our staff for a great teaching and learning at North Habersham Middle School when I'm finished with the morning welcome we will begin our breakfast procedures this year students will not enter the cafeteria to retrieve their breakfast and they will not eat in the cafeteria students will retrieve their breakfast from stands set up in the hallways and they will eat their breakfast in the classroom and we will have a procedure for that and that procedure will begin at 7:50 any student who wishes to bring breakfast from home will be allowed to eat their breakfast in the classroom immediately upon arrival now I'd like to describe what will be probably the biggest and most noticeable change at North Habersham Middle School this year due to the covid-19 pandemic the change that I'm going to describe is called cohorting and North Habersham Middle School we're going to follow a cohort model cohorting is a practice that is highly recommended by the CDC the Center for Disease Control and the purpose of cohorting is to limit the number of students interacting with one another over the course of the day there by limiting the potential that students will interact with those who may be positive for covid-19 in a typical middle school day in the past students would arrive at school they would congregate in the gym or the cafeteria among dozens of their peer they would walk down the hallways crowded with many of their peers they would enter classrooms where they would have class with 25 or 30 of their peers then when class was over they would stand up they would again enter hallways and they would all go to different classes having class with maybe 25 different peers doing that several times a day by the end of the day each student may have had close contact or close interaction with upwards of a 150 or 200 people certainly that's not best practice when we are living in a pandemic so instead of following that traditional Middle School model this year the Habersham County School System middle schools will follow a cohort model here's how it'll look at North Habersham Middle School in general if I'm in 8th grade student I'll arrive to school sometime before 7:45 in the morning I'll enter the building I'll get some hand sanitizer as I walk to my home base classroom I'll enter my home base classroom I was stand and say the pledge observe the moment's silence be inspired by Dr. Bagwell over the intercom system and then we'll follow the breakfast procedures I'll eat breakfast at which time it's time for the academic day to start so I'm in the classroom with about 25 of my peers the Math teachers in the classroom the math teacher will teach us math for 70 minutes in other 8th grade classroom the ELA teachers teaching Ela science teachers teaching science and social studies teacher is teaching social studies at the end of a 70 minute academic period I don't get up and change to another classroom I stay where I am my peers in the classroom stay where they are in the classroom the math teacher leave the classroom to teach math to a different cohort and the ELA teacher or the science teacher or the social studies teacher comes to my classroom and teaches my cohort that content-area that'll take place four times during the day so for my four academic classes I'll remain in the same classroom with the same group of students the same cohort now disclaimer there are always special circumstances there may be some students in our school who for academic purposes unique needs and services they may need to leave the cohort for a period or two during the day but the vast majority of our students will remain in a cohort with the same 20 25 30 peers for the entire academic day not only will those students together for their academic classes but they will also travel together to lunch and we'll talk more about lunch in a few minutes they will also travel together to break they will also travel together from time to time for restroom breaks water breaks stretch breaks hand washing breaks Brain Breaks other breaks the point is that cohort of students will remain together for the vast majority of the day without interacting with students other cohorts so instead of your son or daughter coming in close contact with a 150 to 175 other middle school students during the day your son or daughter will likely come into close contact with around 25 or 30 in a nutshell that's what the cohort model will look like and that's going to be a big change for a student's but it's one that's really important and let me remind and let me remind our students that this is a temporary measure we will begin the Year by implementing the cohort model but it's a covid-19 situation has subsided substantially in October November December January February whenever whenever that happens we're ready transition back to the more traditional type of Middle School experience with students interacting with lots of other students changing classes and having more movement during the day the cohort model will dramatically improve our ability limit the potential of exposure for your child to covid-19 let's talk about lunch so lunch is obviously a very important time of the students day is the time but they look for to because they get to eat some good food and they get to interact with their peers in a more relaxed social setting than what they experience in many of our classroom however lunch is also a time when historically we put a lot of students into a confined area namely the cafeteria this year lunches will look much different than they have in the past because it's going to be very important for us to socially or physically distance are kids during lunch much as possible also it's going to be important for our kids to eat lunch in that same cohort of students with whom they have their classes so here's how much is going to work each grade level will have to lunch periods each lunch period will be 25 minutes long we divided our grade levels into two groups were calling these groups the Bobcats and the Raiders so there's a sixth grade Bobcats 6th grade Raiders 7th grade bobcat 7th grade Raiders Etc so when the 6th grade Bobcats are at lunch the 6th grade Raiders will be at break most days especially when it's nice weather break will take place in different locations outside of the building so let's talk about the 6th grade Raiders going to lunch and what that looks like the 6th grade Raiders as is the case with all of our different Raiders and bobcats in the different grade levels the 6th grade Raiders will consist of four classroom or four cohorts of student so when it's time for the 6th graders Raiders to go to lunch they will be dismissed by classroom to go get their lunch all students will go through the cafeteria to get their lunch not all students will eat their lunch in the cafeteria so the first classroom will be dismissed those students will make their way to the cafeteria they will enter the cafeteria through a specified door they will line up 6 ft apart will have adults in there to make sure students keeping their distance from one another will have an opportunity of course to wash their hands before entering the cafeteria and also to use hand sanitizer before they eat their food so students will enter through a specified or they will go get their food they will exit through the outside door and go eat lunch at some picnic tables set up outside the cafeteria once those students are in line to get their food another cohort of students from the six grade Raiders Hall will be dismissed the cafeteria their teacher will take them to get to the cafeteria where they will enter through different specified door get their lunch exit through the same specified door and go back and eat their lunches in the classroom so we got one cohort outside we got one cohort in the classroom after that happened to the other two cohorts will come to the cafeteria they will enter the cafeteria on opposite side and line up and opposite lines one cohort will get their food and eat on this side of the cafeteria spread out the other cohort will get their food and eat on this side of the cafeteria spread out so this cohort is sitting with this cohort only this cohort is sitting with cohort only and again we've removed over half of the chairs from the cafeteria to allow lots of space for students to spread out grade level teachers will create schedules to make sure that all cohorts get an opportunity to eat outside some days to eat in the classroom some days and to eat in the cafeteria some days of course if it's raining outside or if it's extremely hot or if there are other concerns about being outside on the days when a cohort is supposed to eat outside if that's the case instead of eating outside they will go back in their cohort classroom with their home base so that's the plan for keeping students socially distance and within their cohorts during lunch let's talk about Connections classes at the middle school level connections classes include classes like art technology business agriculture PE and music classes North Habersham Middle School during the first semester we will offer eight connections classes which will align nicely with our eight different cohorts at each grade level so following the same model it would not be a good situation for us to keep the same 25 kids together for their math or science or social studies and Ela classes but then allow those students to go to all different connections classes populated by students from all different cohorts so students who always want to PE and all they want is PE those students are not going to be able in the cohort model to always have PE the students who always want band will not be able to always have band in the cohort model part of the sacrifice that our students are going to have to make in order to follow the cohort what model which is the best measure that we can put in place to protect our students from an outbreak one of the sacrifices is their ability to be able to specialize in different connections classes during the academic day so let say I'm an 8th grade student in a cohort with 25 of my peers I will go to two connections classes everyday and those connections classes will be back to back those connections classes will be 35 minutes in length so for the first nine weeks I may be assigned to Art and general music if I'm assigned to art and general music everyone in my cohort is assigned to Art and general music so we travel together other students and other cohorts may be assigned to English support or English acceleration where students will focus on literacy skills reading and writing speaking listening viewing so I may be assigned to English support and health every one of my cohort in that case would be assigned to English support and Health so we're going to assign students connections classes by the cohort that they are in connections classes will rotate each 9 weeks so your student will begin the year in two assigned connections classes Maybe music and Agriculture and your student will go to those two connections classes every day for the first nine weeks at the end of the first nine weeks your student will be assigned to different connections classes within his or her same cohort of students so that may art and general music or maybe PE and business the point is that students are not going to be able to choose their connections class we're not going to accept parental request to change connections connections classes it simply won't work in the cohort model students will be assigned connections classes that they will attend for 9 weeks with their cohort and then they'll be assigned different connections classes that is the only way to maintain the consistency of the cohort model dismissal procedures so at the end of the day in years past we have dismissed our bus riders by getting on the intercom system and saying 8th grade bus riders please report to the buses when we do that dozens of eighth-grade students flood the hallways and walk to their buses that's not going to be the ideal scenario if we're trying to prevent interactions among student so we're also not going to dismiss by cohort because in our cohorts some students may ride a bus some students maybe parent pick-up and other scenarios so that would be a prudent way for us to dismiss either so the way that our students are going to be dismissed this year is by bus or as individual parent pick-up students using the number system that they've used in the past more on that in just a second so when we dismiss buses we will dismiss by bus so that the students were riding the same bus will be coming down the hall together so when it's time to dismiss I will get on the intercom system and I will say Fairview sixth grade shuttle bus please report to the bus area at that time all the students who ride the 6th grade Fairview shuttle bus will leave their classrooms and walk down the hallway to get on their bus so those students will have some interaction in the hallway but remember those students ride the bus together so they're going to be interacting with one another on the bus anyway parent pick-up in years past for those of our students who are watching and families were watching who are veteran North Habersham families you understand how the number system works in a nutshell for new parents you will receive a car tag that will have a number written on it that number will be assigned to your student and when you pull into the parking lot we will have an employee with a radio who will call your number into another employee who will type that number into a computer which them projects the number into each of our classrooms on the smartboards and so your child if he's number 6 when you pull in the parking lot number 6 Smartboard the child sees number 6 that child exits individually goes outside and wait on you to pull around and pick him up so we'll use the same number system that we've used in the past for a parent pick-up bus students will be dismissed by bus school will end everyday at 3:10 we will not release parent pick-up students until 3:10 thank you for taking the time to watch this video to learn more about some changes that are coming to North Habersham Middle School I want to assure you that the staff here North Habersham hold student safety as our number one priority and are number one core value we're going to do things and we're going to implement procedures precautions preventative measures that makes sense that are reasonable that allow us to protect our kids while still having school student safety is always number one student learning is number two our teachers are excellent and our teachers will provide your students with a great year of academic instruction core value number 3 is student experience it's important to me that our kids have fun and it may appear that our students are going to have a hard time having fun this year and there may be some challenges involved but I promise you we're going to do all that we can within reason and following are social and physical distancing precautions to provide opportunities for kids to have lots and lots of fun I always want students to look back on middle school with fond memories and remember spending time with their friends remember their teachers who impacted their lives and we will continue to aim for our students to have those kinds of memories if you have any questions about anything that we are doing at North Habersham Middle School related to covid-19 precautions the academic instructional plan or anything else that you're concerned about or that you'd like to have some more information please do not hesitate to reach out to me I'm the principal North Habersham Middle School it's my job to talk to you and to answer your questions and that's what I intend to do I'll post my phone number and my e-mail address at the conclusion of this video don't ever hesitate to reach out can't wait to see you and your students very very soon take care

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