Updates from Dr. Hedlund
Our staff is continuing to engage in professional development and deepen our knowledge of social emotional learning. We’ve recently spent time exploring the relevancy of the five love languages in school. As a staff, we are deeply invested in ensuring your students feel loved while they are in our care. Ms. Browne, our social worker, defined different types of bullying that occur in school and strategies to prevent bullying. Ms. Mack, our IB Coordinator, began preparing us for our IB re-accreditation evaluation, which will occur virtually in early December. Finally, Ms. Bosman, our Central office team member for Special Education, spoke with us about the eligibility process for special education and service delivery.
Last Friday, the faculty spent time grading and writing student comments for report cards. This week you will receive an email about parent portal access in Aspen. I wrote about this earlier this fall in several newsletters asking families to contact me if they did not want access to the portal. You will have the capability to review grades through the portal, but will also receive paper report cards in the mail. More specific information will follow from DCPS this week.
Last week, eight members of the LSAT conducted a walk through of our building and raised some excellent questions, which we brought to the attention of Central office operations staff. We have received a lot of supplies to support in person learning, which the team also reviewed. More info to come soon on next steps for the CARES classes.
TOMORROW – Pick up of Eureka Math Workbooks – Friday, Nov 13th from 9-1 pm
Use the Jonquil Street entrance – materials will be in the multipurpose room.
Shepherd IB Evaluation – Dec 7-9, 2020
Ms. Mack and Dr. Hedlund are looking for 4-6 parents who would be willing to take part in a parent interview for the evaluation process on Tues, Dec 8th from 8:30-9:00 am. If interested, please reach out to Ms. Mack – avani.mack@k12.dc.gov.
NEXT WEDNESDAY (Nov 18th) – PTO meeting at 6:30 pm
We’ll be discussing updates from DCPS and how to further engage students online and in their work.
Free Thanksgiving Meal for People in the DMV Who are 70+ and Eating Alone from Medium Rare
The DC restaurant Medium Rare is doing something really special this holiday season. Because of Covid-19 and the rules regarding smaller gatherings for Thanksgiving this year, Medium Rare is offering a free Thanksgiving meal to be delivered to anyone who is 70+ years old who will be alone for the holiday. If you know someone that fits that criteria you can email secretsauceme@mediumrarerestaurant.com. In your email include the name of the person, their address and cell phone number, and Medium Rare will make sure they have a nice and free holiday meal delivered to their home.
Shepherd Park Branch Library Highlights
Native American Heritage Month
The DC Public Library proudly celebrates Native American Heritage Month this November by sharing events and resources to read, watch, listen to and learn from that honor and pay tribute to the rich ancestry and traditions of Native Americans.
National Novel Writing Month at DC Public Library
Each year, National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) encourages people to take on the challenge of writing a 50,000 word first draft of a novel in only 30 days. Each year over 300,000 people participate in NaNoWriMo activities around the world. The DC Public Library is making a commitment to support our local NaNo Writers by providing helpful resources and some friendly competition to fun incentives for registered participants who meet their word count goal. Click here for more information.
Teen Book Club: This month we will be reading a suggestion from one of you, All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven. We will be having a virtual meeting; however, the date is yet to be determined. If you would like to know the date, time, and have the link please email shepherdparklibrary@dc.gov to get the link to the meeting.
Family Movie Night: Our movie night bundles are doing great! We have pre-made bundles with a DVD, coloring/activity pages, and a bag of popcorn for you to pick up! If you have a particular movie that you would like to see included in a bundle for your family, email shepherdparklibrary@dc.gov.
Activity Bags are available for pick up! The bags include crafts supplies and decorations, book recommendations, and coloring pages. The recommended age group is 2-10 years.
Teen Craft Night: We will be creating Four Way Fold crafts! The template to create this craft has been printed and is available at the branch. The instructions to create the fold has also been included in the packet that you can pick up. Feel free to decorate your Four Way Fold in any way you’d like!
Blind Date With A Book: We have some great books that we would like to give away! We have wrapped books and put them on display throughout the library. If you read the hint and are interested in the book feel free to take it home, read, and keep! We have books for adults, teens, children, and some in Spanish you just have to hunt around the branch.
Catalog & Questions
Use our website to find materials and use or new chat box to ask questions directly to a staff member. Chat hours are Monday-Friday 10am-3pm.