Tyee Family Newsletter
September 8, 2017
Upcoming Events
9/9 Bellevue PTSA Council Back to School Fair
9/12 Welcome Back Coffee 8AM in the library
9/14 Hearing Screening for 7th Grade Students 12PM to 1PM
9/19 Picture Day – All Day
9/19 Information Meeting for Washington DC 6PM to 6:30PM in Room 1307
9/20 Synergy Parent VUE Presentation 6:30PM to 7:30PM in the library
9/27 Curriculum Night 6PM to 8:30PM
Announcements
Bellevue PTSA Council Back to School Fair
Bellevue PTSA Council is presenting a Back to School Fair on Sept. 9 at Bellevue High School. Please share the following information with you parent and school community.
The Bellevue PTSA Council would like to invite you and your family to our Back to School Fair.
This district wide community fair will have representatives from community partners and the Bellevue School District. Resource fair organizations will be able to provide information on after-school programs, human services and district offerings plus so much more. There will be over 60 organizations represented and many parent education session for K-12 families. Food trucks will be onsite to purchase food. For more information, click here to visit the Bellevue PTSA Council website.
Class fees will be assessed to student accounts by the end of September. This includes PE clothing. Please check your student’s account at the end of September to view any fees. Thank you very much.
All students should have received their laptops at this point. Thank you to our staff and parent volunteers who made this process flow so smoothly!
Ten Things to Know About the Computer Your Student Has Brought Home
- Parents remain in charge. Students will use the devices for learning, but at home, parents make the rules about when and how the devices are used, just like any other school work.
- Parents should know their student’s device log-on and password and have access to the device. One learning goal for the One-to-One program is digital citizenship–teaching students appropriate uses, respect for others in the digital world, and creative application of technology to problem solving. Parents have a lead role in that goal.
- Students and families already have access to the software loaded on the devices. Every Bellevue student can download Office 365 on any device they use now (Windows or MAC). In fact, we encourage students to get started mastering the various applications included in Office, especially OneNote.
- Students will not have administrative access to the devices, which will prevent addition of unapproved software.
- Bellevue School administrators, teachers and technical support personnel cannot access any student’s hard drive or online files without student consent. Extreme and rare cases may warrant an intrusion by a senior administrator, but only when clearly a problem has developed.
- Students and teachers will use the same device: an Enterprise version of an all-in-one Lenovo ThinkPad that has laptop, tablet, touchscreen, and stylus penning features.
- Social media sites are currently blocked on the devices because, through those sites, students may inadvertently access inappropriate content. There are plans, as our digital expertise and culture develops at school, to possibly add apps such as Twitter that students can use to access learning content and collaborate with other students and professional experts.
- Access to digital textbooks has reduced backpack weight at other Bellevue schools by 30 pounds.
- Students will store their work and files on their OneDrive cloud space, which they have already. Three reasons: one, ThinkPads have small hard drives to increase battery life; two, cloud storage gives the students access from any device anywhere; and three, college and career readiness demands a facility with cloud storage and applications.
- The ThinkPad battery life should take students through a 6-plus-hour school day. Students must develop an unfailing habit of charging their device overnight to ensure they will be ready for class activities.
Spring Break 2018 Washington DC
Information Meeting: Sep19th: 6-6:30pm, Room 1307
Is your student a current 8th grader or 7th grade GMSP student? They may be interested in taking an amazing trip with their peers to Washington DC Spring Break 2018, April 9 – 13. This trip aligns with the Social Studies curriculum and will give them wonderful connections to their learning. If you are interested in hearing more, please attend the 30 minute parent information session. You can still sign up even if you can’t attend the meeting, ask for flyers that your student brings home. Feel free to contact the teacher organizational leads, Janel Hershey ([email protected]) or Christina Biladeau ([email protected]), for any questions or concerns.
Check out an introduction video to the trip at: https://worldstrides.com/itineraries/washington-d-c-4/
Young Entrepreneurs Academy
Are you interested in learning about starting your own business? Apply for the Young Entrepreneurs Academy! The Bellevue Chamber of Commerce is thrilled to bring the Young Entrepreneurs Academy (YEA!) to Bellevue. YEA! teaches students in grades 6-12 how to start and run their own REAL businesses. Through the year-long program students generate business ideas, conduct market research, write business plans, pitch to a panel of investors, and launch their very own companies. With exciting guest lecturers from local businesses to dynamic field trips to local companies, students learn how to develop and run an enterprise in a fun, projects-based approach. Click here to learn more and apply.
Gifted Program Testing
Applications for gifted testing for students in grades 1 – 11 will be available online beginning September 1, 2017. District families interested in applying for testing should submit an application before the October 31, 2017 deadline at www.bsd405.org/applyforgifted. Parents of BSD Kindergarten students and 2nd grade students at Ardmore, Clyde Hill, and Woodridge do not need to apply, as these students will be considered for gifted services through the Kindergarten evaluation process.
To learn more about Gifted Program, please visit www.bsd405.org/gifted.
Picture Day is Almost Here!
Picture day is quickly approaching. Pre-orders for picture packages may now be placed online at https://ios.mydorian.com using your school’s access key provided here FH8VQ3PR. Online pre-orders using your school’s access key are available up to 4 days after picture day.
Message from Superintendent, Dr. Duran
Dear Bellevue Families and Staff:
A number of our students and families are likely concerned about the implications that the end of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program will have for them personally and for our school community.
The Bellevue School District will continue to provide a safe, inclusive, and welcoming learning environment for all our students without regard to immigration status. We do not, and will not, collect immigration information from any student or family. As a district, we will continue to support those who are concerned about DACA and its impact on their students and families.
The Bellevue School District is a member of the Large Countywide and Suburban District Consortium (www.successatscale.com)
On Tuesday evening, our School Board voted unanimously to pass a resolution that fully supports the consortium’s statement on supporting students regardless of immigration status. To read the complete statement from the consortium, click here.
The Northwest Immigrant Rights Project (www.nwirp.org) has also released a Community Advisory that has helpful information and resources for anyone who wants to learn more about DACA.
Our diversity is a key strength of our school community, and we recognize that all our students enhance our collective learning and enrichment.
In Partnership,
Dr. Ivan Duran