Category Archive

Good afternoon families, It was wonderful to see so many of you on Zoom this week. Your thoughts and questions are invaluable to our planning. Please continue to provide input, and we will have listening sessions again the second or third week of school. I have a lot of information to share this week! You will find out your homeroom teachers by close of business on Wednesday, August 26th. I will get that information out as soon as possible. Living Through History DCPS students in every grade and across every subject will kick off the school year with the Living through History cornerstone. Cornerstones are high-quality, powerful lessons that are embedded in the DCPS curriculum. Students will act as global citizens by documenting, sharing, advocating, and reflecting on their personal experiences during the pandemic and a time of increased awareness and response to racial injustice. During the cornerstone, elementary students will create class time capsules. There will be more details on Living through History in the coming weeks. Health Forms Please email your health forms to Ms. Brooks at robyn.brooks2@k12.dc.gov. Thank you! Meal Assistance District of Columbia Public Schools offers healthy meals every school day. Your children may qualify for free meals or for reduced price meals. To check your availability or apply, click here. Mr. … Read More

Good afternoon Shepherd families, It has been a real treat to see so many of you pick up student belongings. Everyone is bursting with ideas on how to make things better, especially our students. I have been collecting some terrific ideas that we will start sorting through next week. I also want to give you the opportunity to ask questions and make suggestions. To that end, Ms. Rottman and I will be hosting two Zoom sessions next week on Wednesday, August 19th at 3:00 pm and Thursday, August 20th at 3:00 pm. Please join us if you can. On Wednesday, August 19: Topic: Opening of school listening session Time: Aug 19, 2020 03:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada) Join Zoom Meeting Meeting ID: 869 8836 4655 Passcode: d4tyXG On Thursday, August 20: Topic: Opening of school listening session Time: Aug 20, 2020 03:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada) Join Zoom Meeting Meeting ID: 857 3783 4123 Passcode: VY3hXx Attached please find a presentation Ms. Rottman made to share the Shepherd Elementary Quarter 1 Virtual Learning Schedule. It reviews your feedback from spring listening sessions, DCPS requirements and schedules by grade. We will be reviewing this presentation during the listening sessions. Please reach out with … Read More

Dear Shepherd families, I hope this email finds you well, and it was wonderful to speak with a number of you this week as you picked up your student’s belongings. If you would like to pick up your student’s belongings, please sign up here. Thanks to Ms. Rottman, we have a draft schedule for virtual learning. Once Superintendent Jackson approves our schedule, I will share it with families. Please know that we carefully reviewed our notes from listening sessions and incorporated your feedback. Key concepts behind the schedule include: All students have the same break and lunch times Students receive instruction from 9-3 Wednesdays will look different with specials and time for family/student check-ins The student experience will be more consistent from grade to grade and day to day and week to week Also, find the grading policy for school year 2020-2021 attached. This document was just released yesterday. SY 20-21 PreK_12_Grading Guidance.pdf I also wanted to share the policy regarding learning/pandemic pods because I have received a number of questions about scheduling students. The focus for DCPS educators is on ensuring outstanding instruction every day for every student and ensuring equity of access through materials and technology. DCPS recognizes the challenges of … Read More

Hi Shepherd families, I hope this finds you well. We are attending School Leadership Institute this week to prepare for the opening of school and are learning a lot more detailed information on the systems and structures that will be in place. Please look for more communication from me at the end of this week, and thank you for your patience. The majority of students took belongings home with them in March, but that is not the case for all of you. We will be having curbside pick up for students’ belongings from Friday, August 7 until Friday, August 14. There is a time slot for pick up in the morning and one for the afternoon. Please sign up here so we can have your student’s belongings ready for you. Thank you, Phyllis

Good afternoon Shepherd families, Today, in consideration of guidance from DC Health, Mayor Bowser announced that we will start School Year 2020-2021 virtually with all students learning at home. This will apply for all grades — Pre-K through 12 — and last at least through Term 1 from August 31 to November 6. Summer Bridge for students in grade 3 will also be virtual. You can watch this short video DCPS prepared for our students and families for additional information. You can access sample student schedules here. Now that we are no longer working with hypothetical scenarios, we can dig in and start planning for school year 2020-21, and I hope and believe it will end with us all back in the building together. I certainly would enjoy my “first” Field Day, gala and live promotion ceremony. Late spring field trips would be another bonus. We will get there! Next week, we will be attending School Leadership Institute and will learn a lot more about the resources DCPS staff has been creating for the last several months. The previews I have seen are exciting, and Shepherd staff has become seasoned virtual educators and communicators, which will make the opening of school less stressful than the … Read More

Hello Mustang families. On Thursday, we marched and drove as a community to speak out against racism and call for justice. For many of our students, it was an event they will never forget. I know I won’t. I have had many powerful and moving moments as an educator, but our walk was the most moving. We are a formidable community, and we demonstrated that in word and deed. Providing a safe space for our young students to demonstrate against racism was an important step of moving our International Baccalaureate Primary Years Progamme into action. Teachers are analyzing curricular units to devise more ways to extend learning into action, and students’ voice and choice will guide that work. Thank you to our families who made who participated, and check out our social media pages for photographs of the event. When I came on as Interim Principal last July, in my wildest dreams, I could not have imagined how school year 2019-2020 would unfold. We have been through a lot together, but through it all, we have communicated, providing feedback and changing course as necessary. Thank you for the opportunity to serve the Shepherd community. Our families and staff are thoughtful, creative, action-oriented … Read More

Hello Mustang families. On Thursday, we marched and drove as a community to speak out against racism and call for justice. For many of our students, it was an event they will never forget. I know I won’t. I have had many powerful and moving moments as an educator, but our walk was the most moving. We are a formidable community, and we demonstrated that in word and deed. Providing a safe space for our young students to demonstrate against racism was an important step of moving our International Baccalaureate Primary Years Progamme into action. Teachers are analyzing curricular units to devise more ways to extend learning into action, and students’ voice and choice will guide that work. Thank you to our families who made who participated, and check out our social media pages for photographs of the event. When I came on as Interim Principal last July, in my wildest dreams, I could not have imagined how school year 2019-2020 would unfold. We have been through a lot together, but through it all, we have communicated, providing feedback and changing course as necessary. Thank you for the opportunity to serve the Shepherd community. Our families and staff are thoughtful, creative, action-oriented … Read More