Issue #1 | October 2020
Our Monthly News & Updates
Hello, New Haven Public Schools Learning Community:

This is the first issue of the 2020-2021 newsletter
organized and run by the NHPS Physical Education, Health and Athletics Department.

Despite the pandemic challenges, since the end of August-beginning of September,
the physical education, health teachers and coaches have been engaged
in working with the students in full swing.

Things are happening both online and live
(although in limited scope).

We offer you a glance at the events and news in our department
in this newsletter and hope to hear back from you.

The departmental section on the district website
is being updated with new information as well. 
‌
ATHLETICS:
First Game
of the Season
The first game of the season – a soccer match between Career High and Wilbur Cross High -- took place last Thursday, October 1st, at Bowen Field in New Haven. The game ended in a tie – one to one.

With all mandatory COVID-19 precautions in place, it was not a busy and lively event, but rather quiet and low-key. No spectators on the bleachers, only a small crowd of devoted supporters outside the fence. However, the students and coaches seemed to be very happy to meet after months of lockdown.

The game was streamed live through the departmental Facebook page. The recording of the game is available there too. Check it out to find game schedules and videos of NHPS games:

NHPS and Connecticut game schedules can be viewed on the district website here:
HEALTH EDUCATION:
New Year, New Reality
The Michigan Model Health curriculum, just like the rest of the subjects, went online in the new school year. All the teaching materials are stored on Google Drive in PDF format and are readily accessible for the teachers. They can also record classes and/or offer videos from existing teaching resources in the Internet to present them during their online sessions.

Since the start, the original Michigan Model curriculum has been available in English only. Over the summer, thanks to the efforts of Naa Lomoley Sahin and Hannah Malcolm and the support of the Department of World Languages (director Jessica Haxhi), portions of the lessons for 7th and 8th grades were translated into Spanish. These materials can be accessed via Google Drive shared link.

In August, a new health education lesson tracker was created and tested. Instead of filling out a table on Google Drive which was done in the previous years, teachers simply fill out a short online survey. They can do it from their desktop computers or smartphones. The plan is to publish the survey results in a Tableau dashboard online monthly so that the schools could see their progress and compare it to that of their peers’.

A separate survey for the teachers teaching health was launched in October. The purpose of the survey is to gauge teachers’ satisfaction with the curriculum, to identify its strengths and weaknesses. The survey is intended for teachers who have at least one year of experience teaching the Michigan model curriculum.
PHYSICAL EDUCATION Online?
Yes, It Is Possible!
In the midst of the worldwide pandemic, NHPS physical education teachers have had to find a way to continue educating our students. This was something that no one has ever done before. How do we teach effectively through a computer? The first thought was to create some lessons online and hope that the students would mimic the movements of some online personality. The second concept was the notion that if you type it, they will perform it. Both methods were not 100% effective. The New Haven PE department decided to create exercise and movement videos (that they starred in) for the students to view. The teachers used these videos to aid in the teaching of their movement lesson. Students are not always able to view live classes, so the exercise videos are very helpful. All of the teachers created videos. The videos went into a shared library that all the health and PE teacher could access.

Marvin Christley,
Lead Coach

Click on the image above to watch one of the video workouts created by Elisa Basini, PE teacher at Barnard school.
SCHOOL HEALTH ASSISTANTS:
Working on School Entry Compliance
Connecticut General Statutes Sections 10-204 and 10-206 require that prior to entry into school students must show proof of:
·        a completed program of immunizations or initiation of an ongoing schedule of immunizations to meet the requirements; and
·        a health assessment.

Traditionally, it has been school nurses’ duty to keep track of students’ medical records on physical examinations (PE) and vaccinations. By law, school nurses are required to keep paper charts with this information. In the past, in order to identify and contact families whose compliance status was not up to date, New Haven school nurses and school health assistants (SHAs) would create their “chase lists” (lists with non-compliant students) based on these paper records.

A couple of years ago, a solution to facilitate compliance work was created in Google Sheets. It consisted of spreadsheets with PE and immunization records, as well as nurses’ and SHAs’ follow-up work results. These records could be easily accessed by the involved parties.
Reports in Google Sheets were tallying up numbers and reflected changes in real time. Overall, the solution allowed for better collaboration and performance control.

Since the first months of the pandemic, school nurses have been working on the 2020-2021 version of the Google Compliance Sheet moving their paper records online, and updating them.

In the situation when the schools are not open for learning in person, SHAs have been doing their part of compliance work remotely. Since the end of August, the group has been taking Excel classes, as knowledge of Excel is a prerequisite for working with data.

They have been also “cleaning up” the Google document, eliminating inconsistencies and errors.
They wrote, translated into Spanish, and recorded the first robocall message to parents. It reminds parents of newly enrolled students and students in the mandated grades to update their children’s medical records before the school start, references available medical providers and the required health assessment form.

Based on the data from the Google Compliance document, new robocalls will be generated to address specific groups of parents (e.g. parents with no PEs, parents with no immunizations, etc.).

Photo: first meeting of the SHA group in September.
OUR CONTACT INFORMATION
Interested in collaboration?
Have ideas and suggestions?
Drop us a line!


Liliya Garipova
Phone: 475-220-1107