Week at a Glance
April 13 - 17, 2020
Monday, April 13
Tuesday April 14
Wednesday April 15
-Primary Division Connect Meeting in Microsoft Teams at 1:00 p.m.
Thursday April 16
-Junior Division Connect Meeting in Microsoft Teams at 1:00 p.m.
-Staffing Committee Meeting today in Microsoft Teams at 2:00 p.m.
Friday April 17
-Pamela attending Learning Leaders' Meeting at 10:00 a.m.
--Intermediate Division Connect Meeting in Microsoft Teams at 1:00 p.m.-Agenda Orders Due Today
News Items
Google Classroom
Scheduled Check In & Connect Meetings
Agendas for 2020-2021
Answers to A Few Questions You Have Asked
Visiting the School
Question about Assigning Work for Students on Modified Programs
Q: Should time guidelines for students, provided by the Ministry, be adjusted if students are working at modified grade levels? (e.g. should a Grade 8 school-to-community student be asked to spend Grade 5 hours working, if he/she is modified to that grade level?)
A: The work for students may be individualized for each student, but the instructional hours have been set by the Ministry based on what grade the student is in. We are awaiting further information from the Ministry and will share when it becomes available.
How Can I include Planning Time Teachers?
Homeroom Teachers are encouraged to connect with all educators attached to the class of students. The educators need to work collaboratively to provide the instruction that meets the minimum amount of instructional time prescribed by the Ministry. Instruction may be integrated and sometimes may be distinct depending on the Big Ideas and curriculum expectations being planned.
What Platforms can be used for Virtual Meetings?
Limestone has 3 approved applications to support virtual meetings, all of which are available to educators: Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, and the Virtual Classroom inside Minds Online.
Google Meet is currently considered to be safe and secure when a virtual meeting is set up appropriately, meaning:
The meeting is initiated from a Limestone email address (Active Directory Account) and shared internally (only with other Limestone email accounts). Information on how to join a meeting can be shared from one Limestone email address to another, or through the Limestone Outlook or Limestone Gmail calendar.
Links to virtual meetings should not be placed on a class website or sent out in a more public forum like Twitter because others then will have the information to try to get into the meeting.
“Guests” should not be allowed to enter the virtual meeting room
The meeting organizer is able to admit or deny any other person trying to enter the meeting room from a non-Limestone account. If you are prompted to approve or deny access, it means the person is trying to join as a guest. You should deny access, even if you think it is someone inside the organization (e.g. they use a name you’re expecting to see in the meeting room). There is no need for anyone inside the organization to join as a guest. Staff do need to moderate this access.
All Limestone staff and students should always be logged into their Active Directory accounts for all virtual meetings.
There is a Knowledge Item on the ITS ServiceDesk for Setting up a Google Meet to help guide people in doing this safely.
We are also working on guidelines to share with students, educators and families to support people learning how to engage safely in virtual meetings.
If educators would like to explore how to use Microsoft Teams to host a virtual meeting, there is information located in the Knowledge Base of the ITS ServiceDesk.
ITS continually monitors security risks/threats internally and externally. If you suspect any suspicious activity in a Google Meet, or other virtual meeting, you can end the meeting and report the incident/concern to security@limestone.on.ca to investigate.