Ms. Catalina Quinones-Nelson: Hello Oakdale families.  Welcome back to the 20-21 school year. I would like to extend a special welcome to all of our new teachers joining Oakdale this year and welcome back all of our returning teachers and staff. Our goal at Oakdale is to work together to provide our students with a rich learning environment. Our vision is to always put students first. Our belief is that all students can learn.

As educators we need to provide an equitable education, discover how each child learns in order to differentiate our instruction to support diverse learning styles. In a collaborative effort we want children, our students, to thrive in all possible ways. Our hope is that all children will love school and nurture a learning environment that is positive, safe, warm, caring, as well as a fun place to learn and grow.

Student success is attributed to the partnerships and the relationships we build within our community, and it is most important now more than ever. It truly does take a village and at Oakdale we value teamwork and collaboration. Education is a joint venture and Oakdale greatly appreciates the support you provide for your children, our students, at home and at school to help them meet their learning goals.

This is a different year for us. Coming back remote learning is something that we've never done. We ended our year that way and we've been trying to learn how to navigate the platforms so that we can provide the best education for your students, for our students, for your children. I do ask that as families we are patient along with our teachers. We are both learning; parents are learning and teachers are learning.

Teachers are concentrating on instruction and navigating new platforms on the computer so I ask that we do have quite a few avenues when you need support. Please don't always lean on the classroom teacher. We have a wonderful computer tech, Miss Yolanda Svoboda, that will be helping us navigate through the system, so if you don't understand how to get onto the Chrome book, a certain platform, please reach out to her. There are plenty of people that are putting their hands in to help so reach out. Teachers will direct you into the appropriate person.

Although this year looks different than any other, we are dedicated in providing your children a memorable interactive engaging distant learning experience. In the Oakdale spirit we pride ourselves on being respectful, responsible, and safe. Now more than ever it is so important to continue checking in with our students and our families. Our morning community meetings provide an avenue to social emotional learning, social skills, and a sense of belonging to our students. I also challenge you to be thinking about ways you can continue communicating positively at home. Some ideas might include writing a letter to someone special, calling someone just to say hello, waving at someone, or decorating a mask with a smile.

Our Oakdale team will be focusing on all of the positives that we take from this experience, and as the role models in our little Wildcats lives, it is important that we display a positive attitude toward distant learning each and every day, and I encourage you to do the same at home. Oakdale families, community, teachers, students, we can do this.

We are Oakdale strong. We will get through it together. I've always appreciated working for Oakdale, for our community, and I would continue to do so as positively as we can during this difficult time.  If you need anything you know how to reach me.  Thank you, and let's make it a wonderful year!