Dear Beech Tree Families, Thank you for joining us at our Tech Town Hall on the evening of Monday, August 31st, Virtual Orientation the morning of Wednesday, September 2nd and our PTA#BeechTreeFamily Meeting on the evening of Thursday, September 3rd. Please know that we will continue to do all we can to support you through our Virtual Start to 2020-2021! If you could not make it to the Tech Town Hall, please visit http://bit.ly/BTESTTH to watch the recording. We have created a technology resource page for parents and students at https://bit.ly/BTESTECH with help on logging into Blackboard, Google Classroom, student Gmail, and other applications. Here, you will also find a link to FCPS Technology Support for Families that provides parent phone numbers to call for assistance in various languages. Remember that all FCPS webpages can be translated into many different languages. Here are some reminders on how to take care of your school issued computers: https://adobe.ly/2Z1PjSW. Mr. Meyer, our School Based Technology Specialist, will be available to support students and parents with any tech issues starting 9/8/20, at mkmeyer@fcps.edu. Please join him at http://bit.ly/BTESsandbox on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 8:30 am – 9:15 am for any technology assistance your family might need. As a reminder, this is our Beech Tree Schedule for Virtual Learning, which will begin on Tuesday, September 8th, 2020: Students will log in to their homeroom to begin their day at Morning Meeting at 9:15am.

On Mondays, we will start the day in grade level Morning Meetings at 9:15am. We will then offer two large group sessions between 10am and Noon. Small groups will be scheduled individually by teachers, as needed. I will share more specifics in the next Principal Message.

Mondays through Fridays, when students log in to their Morning Meeting, teachers will take attendance. If students are unable to participate on any given school day, parents must report the absence to the school office: Beechtreeelem.attendance@fcps.edu Please email the teacher, to keep him/her informed, as well.

Many Fairfax County stakeholders have given feedback that it is difficult for students to find emails with BBCU links.  Based on this feedback, an automated process has been created to make it easier for students and staff to locate the links to their Collaborate sessions.  Starting Monday, August 31, students and staff will see a label in their Gmail titled BBCU Links.  This label will be applied to emails with Collaborate links.   A script will run automatically that will create an email filter for all users and that script will do four things:

1. Star messages coming from Scheduler
2. Mark the message as “Important”
3. Apply the label “BBCU links” to emails coming from Scheduler
4. Prevent the message from going to the Spam folder.

This will enable students to find their Collaborate session links in one convenient location without having to sift through their email. To locate their sessions, users have two options:

1. Click the BBCU Links label. If students do not see the BBCU Link label, they can click More to expand the view.
2. Click the down arrow to pull all Starred Messages.

Throughout our virtual instruction, we will be using a variety of technological tools. Please use this form to agree (consent) or disagree (refusal) for your child to use the FCPS-approved online tools listed on the school website as part of the instructional program. https://www.fcps.edu/node/41989

This year promises to be like no other. I have faith in the possibilities of this virtual experience because of our #BeechTreeFamily. We are like no other and we will stay strong together for the sake of all our Beech Tree Beavers! Enjoy the rest of our Labor Day Weekend!

As always, thank you for your trust and your support. Please reach out if you ever have any questions or concerns.

Karim Daugherty

Principal

Beech Tree ES

703-531-2600

https://twitter.com/BeechTreeElem

https://beechtreees.fcps.edu/

“There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.” – Colin Powell

REMINDERS:

Beech Tree Office Contacts

Spanish Speaking Parent Liaison: Stella O’Brien at msobrien@fcps.edu

School-Based Technology Specialist (logging on/using programs): Mike Meyer at mkmeyer@fcps.edu

Technology Specialist (laptop issues): Tom Kindregan at tpkindregan@fcps.edu

Registrar: Susan Do at sndo@fcps.edu

Attendance Secretary: Sheila Hudson at skhudson@fcps.edu

Principal’s Secretary: Esther Baca at ebaca@fcps.edu

Assistant Principal: Maureen Lopez at mmlopez@fcps.edu

Advanced Academics Resource Teacher: Patty Settel at pasettel@fcps.edu

Beech Tree Specialists Contacts

Kiri Cooper, Music Teacher at kncooper@fcps.edu

Meriem Bacha, Arabic Teacher at MBacha@fcps.edu

Greg Skrtic, Art Teacher at GGSkrtic@fcps.edu

Yolanda Adams, Guidance Counselor at yeadams@fcps.edu

Mike Jenkins, PE Teacher at MWJenkins@fcps.edu

Tina Britton, Librarian at clbritton@fcps.edu

Miller Susens, Strings Teacher (4th & 5th) at msusens@fpcs.edu

Lindsay Bowen, Band Teacher (5th) at ldbowen@fcps.edu

Kristen Hollen, STEM Teacher at kmhollen@fcps.edu

Bilingual Community Liaisons

Bilingual community liaisons support student registrars by providing families with information about school and community services offered in Fairfax County. Community liaisons also help parents fill out forms and complete applications:

• English and Korean: 703‐204‐4317

• English and Spanish: 703‐204‐4316

• English, Arabic, and French: 703‐204‐4315

Beech Tree Digital Resources

Parent Resources for Distance Learning: https://beechtreees.fcps.edu/resources/parent-student-distance-learning-resources

Video Tutorials for Distance Learning: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSz76NCRDYQHSc6ySaw5Nq-We-fzPsQ_i

Grab & Go Food

Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) will continue to provide “Grab-and-Go” meals during the upcoming school year. Our goal is to provide every student in FCPS daily access to a healthy breakfast and lunch during this pandemic:https://www.fcps.edu/news/coronavirus-update-food-resources

Internet Access

If you still need internet access and would like to borrow a MiFi device from Fairfax County Public Schools, please complete this form: https://forms.gle/CiEvUmnQqPGUczmo9 

“Registration!”

Please let neighbors know that they may register their child by contacting Mrs. Susan Do, Beech Tree Registrar, at sndo@fcps.edu to to make arrangements for specific enrollment information. 

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Updates:

Please continue to check updates through our Fairfax County Public School website.  We hope that you and your family are staying safe, happy and healthy during these ever changing times. 

To find the last updates from Fairfax county please go to https://www.fcps.edu/news/coronavirus-update

You can also find updates from The Center of Disease Control and Prevention at https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/index.html

3401 Beechtree Lane, Falls Church, VA 22042  | Main Phone: 703.531.2600
Attendance: 703.531.2626 | Web | Twitter