RVA News: November Edition

An RVA Family Update

RVA News: November Edition

Vision

What should the student experience be at River Valley Academy?

At River Valley Academy, diverse Iearners receive the individualized academic, social, and emotional support they need to graduate and launch confidently into career and college.

Mission

How will we work toward achieving our vision?

At RVA, students drive their own learning through goal setting, self-paced coursework, and one-on-one Rockford teacher support—developing essential communication, advocacy, and self-awareness skills, and preparing for career and college.

At RVA, we are living out our Vision and our Mission, as we finish up the first trimester on November 13!!

Students and staff worked hard to define our purpose, in terms of vision and mission. In our vision and mission work, four words rose to the top: Belong. Grow. Graduate. Succeed. You can find more information below on our work around Belong and Grow. This month, students will be working on creating graduation plans. As a part of our weekly and daily goal setting, it is important for students to be aware of what lies between them and graduation, so they can plan appropriately. Students will be making a visual to share with staff and parents to illustrate their plan.

As the trimester ends, students are working hard to complete classes! Please check in with your student to make sure they are on track to complete all five (or more) of their scheduled classes!

As always, please reach out with questions, or if there is anything you need!

On behalf of the RVA Staff,

Jenny Deur

Director of Adult and Alternative Education

Rockford Public Schools

B.E.L.O.N.G.

To start the year, we began some learning around belonging. We knew that in order to learn, we need to have our physical needs of food, water, rest, and safety met. We learned that we also need our psychological needs of love, belonging, security, and self-esteem to be met to be in the right headspace to learn. (See graphics below).

To address this need, we spent time learning about what it means to belong.

B. Be yourself

E. Embrace differences

L. Listen without Judgment

O. Open up

N. No masks needed

G. Grow together

We used our work to draft agreements around how we will treat each other.

G.R.O.W.

Over the past few months, RVA and RPS staff have been working to define a vision and mission for River Valley Academy. Students liked these tag words: Belong, Grow, Graduate, Succeed. In September, we spent time thinking about what it means to grow.

G. Grit: Pushing through when motivation fades.

R. Resilience (reframe negatives): A mistake is just feedback telling you to change your strategy.

O. Own your path: Blaming takes away your power; deciding what to do now takes your power back!

W. Work together: Use your resources to succeed!

Following this work, students drafted working agreements to answer the following questions:

1. How do we want to be treated?

2. How should we handle conflict?

3. How can we support each others' academic goals?

Following, students will be meeting with an advisor to create a graduation plan, and to consider post-secondary options.

Arbor Circle Group

In October, Arbor Circle counselors began meeting with students weekly, on Thursday mornings at 10:30. This important mental health support is available to all students! In this first segment, they are working on life skills!

GRCC Main Campus Visit

On November 6, RVA will be making a college visit to GRCC! We will get a GRCC student-guided walking campus tour (dress for the weather as we will be outside) and hear about their programs from an admissions representative. GRCC credits are highly transferable, and they offer programs that allow students to earn both short and long term industry certifications and Associate's (2 year) degrees. Of course, GRCC is especially appealing as community college is currently free for students!!

The Game of Life!

Representatives from Kent Intermediate School District, led by Rockford's Career and College Ready consultant, will be here on December 1 to lead our students in a Game of Life. Students will get to pick a career. With the income from that given career, students will select housing, a car, and utilities. They will spin the wheel (like in the Game of Life) to determine the number of children they have and consider cost, as they budget! It should be an enlightening day!!

Goals: Weekly and Daily

River Valley Academy is the RPS credit recovery option for the students of Rockford. As such, we allow students to work at their own pace. While this provides students the opportunity to catch up or accelerate, it can also allow them to drag classes out longer than they should. Students have been reminded of our purpose - we are here to complete our work and to graduate!

To teach valuable time management skills we are requiring students to set goals, both weekly and daily. On Mondays, students will set a weekly goal with each teacher. Daily, they will set goals in each class to help them meet their weekly goals. On Friday morning, students will check in with teachers regarding completion of their weekly goal in each class. Students who meet 4 out of 5 weekly goals and have completed their daily goals for the week, will have choice RAM (intervention) time on Friday!

Hand 2 Hand

Hand to Hand is up and running in RPS again this year! Might this free support be a help for your family? Reach out to the office to sign up!

School breakfast and lunch

There is no cost to families for school breakfast or lunch this year! It is still very important, however, for families to complete the Education Benefits form. This form benefits students in other ways, as it is used for various state and college benefits.

Breakfast packs of cold cereal, a snack, and juice will be available for students. RVA receives a hot lunch entrée daily from RHS. The menu is located on the RPS website. Of course, students may bring their own food and drinks as well. We have a refrigerator and microwaves in the kitchenette.

It is important to fuel bodies and minds for productive work at school! :)

Revised RVA Student Guide and Secondary Handbook

Please take a few minutes to read the RVA Student Guide and Secondary Handbook. You will find RVA expectations and detailed suggestions for success, along with the Secondary Handbook and Code of Conduct set by the RPS School Board. After reading, please complete the RVA Student Guide and Secondary Handbook Signature form.

Cell Phone Ban

As I am sure you are aware, personal electronic devices have been banned in Michigan schools during instructional time. Here is a look at our policy:

RVA Electronic Device Policy

Students may utilize devices (cell phones/ipads/tablets/smartwatches) during non-instructional times. This includes before 7:45 a.m., during passing times, during the student’s scheduled lunch break, and after 2:18 p.m.
Cell phone/ipad/tablet/smartwatch use is prohibited in classrooms, hallways, and other common areas during instructional time. This ban includes PTO breaks, as they occur during instructional time. Students will be able to access music with wireless headphones. However, they may not change songs during instructional time. Students will need to create play lists outside of instructional time.
The use of personal electronic devices is prohibited in bathrooms and locker rooms.
Violation of the school policy will result in the following consequences:
- 1st Offense
  - Student takes cell phone to the office and teacher writes a behavior report to log the offense. (Failure to follow this reasonable request of a staff member will result in an Insubordination BR.)
  - The student may retrieve the device at the end of the school day.
- 2nd Offense
  - Student takes cell phone to the office and teacher writes a behavior report to log the offense. (Failure to follow this reasonable request of a staff member will result in an Insubordination BR.)
  - The student may retrieve the device at the end of the school day.
  - Half-day ISS will be issued for the next day.
- Additional offenses: Discipline will be issued in a progressive manner and the student will be placed on phone suspension while at school.

How can I make this year successful?

With Rockford's trimester high school system, students are expected to complete 2.5 credits (5 classes) each trimester, for a total of 7.5 credits each year. Students will begin the year with 5 classes, which should be completed by November 13. While November 13 seems like a long way off, trimesters are about 12 weeks long, so each week, students should be completing about 10% of each class, to finish on time. Completing this work will require students to make progress on assignments and activities in every class, every day!

Setting goals and making action plans is a key part of earning credit and graduating on time! During the first weeks of school, students will meet with their assigned teacher/advisor to set long-term and short-term goals for completing classes by November 13!

How do I know how my student is doing from day to day?

RVA courses are run through either Schoology or Edgenuity. Schoology courses are RPS teacher created and directed. If you want to know how your student is doing in these classes, log in to Schoology. Using a parent log in, parents can see messages and course information. However, if you want to see what your student has completed and what grades they have earned so far in classes, the best way to do that is to log in as your student. Students have access to the course gradebook which includes a list of assignments that need to be completed, showing scores earned on work that has been turned in.

If you want specific information on how your student is doing in Edgenuity, ask your student for their login information. If you log in as the student, you can see a more detailed report.

Good questions to ask your student include:

1. Are you attending all class sessions?

2. Are you completing at least one assignment in each class session?

3. About how far in each course are you?

4. What are you doing well?

5. What can you do better?

Parents and schools are partners in educating students!

How are you doing? People care and want to help!

Hand 2 Hand can help with food and toiletry needs.

RVA has an amazing staff, social worker, and mental health liaison who can listen and connect you to resources!

Ele's Place is a community based organization with the mission to create awareness of and support for grieving children and their families.

Opportunities for Rockford Rams

Athletics

Winter sports tryout information can be found at the Rockford Athletics Website. Winter sports include: basketball, gymnastics, bowling, power lifting, wrestling, skiing, competitive cheer, dance, swimming and diving.