HILLSBOROUGH RESPONDS
An eLearning overview for families during the school closure
April 27 - May 1
A MESSAGE FROM SUPERINTENDENT ADDISON DAVIS
Dear Families,
I hope you are staying safe and healthy.
Part of staying healthy is taking care of your mental and emotional health. This is a tough time for all of us, and I want to make sure our learners and their families are handling the stress, anxiety and uncertainty as best as possible. Each one of our schools has a social services staff that is ready and eager to help. Reach out to them with any concerns or even if it’s just to chat.
We also have a mental health hotline available for our families. That number is 813-272-4787 and it is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m.
I’d also like to take a moment to thank you for making this week’s Grab-and-Go meal distribution so successful. I know the lines were a little longer as we transitioned to a meal tracker system, but your patience, partnered with our staff’s incredible organization and dedication, made it go smoothly. I am so proud that our schools have served more than 2.7 million meals to kids. We will be continuing this meal tracking system with Monday’s Snack Stop and Wednesday’s weekly meal pick up.
Lastly, I must commend our teachers and staff. I am so impressed with how they have made the transition to eLearning and the number of trainings they have participated in to make this process easier and more engaging for our learners. It is truly staggering the creativity and forward-thinking assignments so many of our educators have produced.
However, I’m sure they would agree that much of the credit also goes to you, our families. Thank you to everyone who is making eLearning a success. Because of YOU we are continuing to educate during this difficult time—and our learners, our schools AND our community will be stronger because of it.
Addison Davis
Superintendent of Schools
SECOND SCHOOL CHOICE WINDOW IS RESCHEDULED
The School Choice/Magnet application window, originally scheduled for April will now open on Friday, May 8 at 5 p.m. and will close on Sunday, May 17 at 11:59 p.m.
The online application may be accessed at https://community.sdhc.k12.fl.us.
If you need assistance you may contact the School Choice Information line at 813-272-4692. It's open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m.
Check out our School Choice webpage for more information about our National-award winning options.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR OUR FAMILIES
Elementary school report cards for quarter 3 are now available online. Thank you for your patience as we worked to transfer all the grades for our younger students into the online forum.
Join School Board Member Karen Perez and a panel of mental health experts for a real look at mental health issues faced by students and families. Monday evening at 6 p.m. Submit questions to PerezConversation@sdhc.k12.fl.us
Thank you to our families for being patient through our new Grab-and-Go meal tracker process. This past Wednesday we served 672,470 meals! THANK YOU to our Student Nutrition staff, bus drivers, security and administration for making this process such a success.
SPRING ATHLETIC UNIFORMS COLLECTED THIS WEEK
We understand it has been a challenging time for our students and families over the last few weeks. For our athletes, we know you put your time, commitment and hard work into what you expected to be a successful season.
Now that the spring sports seasons have been officially canceled, it is necessary for all Hillsborough County Public Schools to systematically collect all athletic uniforms.
To do so, while engaging in protocols that will keep athletes, their families and our staff safe, we will have a controlled collection process Thursday, April 30. Please review the information below regarding the times and procedure for turning in athletic uniforms.
- On April 30th, teams are to deliver uniforms to designated spots on campus.
- Each uniform shall be placed in a 1 gallon clear Ziploc bag with the student's name clearly identified.
- All passengers are to remain in the vehicle and will simply hand the uniform(s) in baggies to the school staff.
9 a.m. - 11 a.m.
Baseball
Girls Track
Flag Football JV & Varsity
11 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Softball
Tennis, Boys
Tennis, Girls
Boys Track
1 p.m. - 3 p.m.
Boys Lacrosse
Girls Lacrosse
Any winter sport if necessary
OUR TEACHERS CONTINUE TO LEARN AND IMPROVE DURING THE SCHOOL CLOSURE
"How do I get better? How do I help my kids?"
Our passionate teachers continue to rise to the occasion and hone their craft. Each week, more than 3,000 participants voluntarily complete a variety of eLearning trainings.
“This just shows an amazing sense of dedication from our teachers,” said Jamalya Jackson, HCPS Director of Professional Development. “In a word, teachers are simply selfless—they’re always doing what is best for their students.”
As evidence of this selfless behavior, more than 9,000 participants completed trainings
during Set Up For Success Week. In addition, nearly 2,000 participants sacrificed time during
spring break to complete webinars about Edsby.
“Teachers want their students to be successful,” said Barbara Miraglia, HCPS Supervisor of
Teacher Training. “This reaffirms that our teachers are eager to learn more as long as it will
allow their students to thrive. Their biggest concerns are, ‘How do I get better?’ and ‘How do I
help my kids?’”
Because eLearning is a new way of work for the majority of teachers, it makes the newest Professional Development course offerings even more critical.
“eLearning is more than just posting assignments and giving grades,” said Jackson. “Teachers are still responsible for relaying the actual content to students.”
One challenge of relaying content online is creating differentiated instruction depending on individual student needs—a difficult task during face-to-face instruction, let alone online.
“eLearning can be very isolating for teachers,” said Miraglia. “Our Engaging in a Virtual Team course guides teachers to successfully collaborate with colleagues by creating virtual teams.”
Designing trainings geared towards eLearning was not an easy job. Once school closures were announced, our district’s Professional Development team began designing courses to help teachers. In just three days, the team designed and began teaching more than 20 courses with a variety of topics.
“We aim to cover topics teachers will continue using,” said Jackson. “This has opened up the time frame for teachers, students and administrators to explore new technology they may have been hesitant to use.”
The courses are updated each week—providing a sense of confidence and opportunities of growth for our teachers.
WHAT'S COOL ON CLEVER?
A lot of our families are using Clever for teacher assigned work. However, did you know there are other really amazing applications on Clever that your children will love?
Typing Club
Look for the Typing Club icon after signing onto your student's Clever account.
Storytime Online
This initiative is continuing with special episodes during the quarantine with the help of the Hillsborough Education Foundation and the Tampa Bay Chamber.
Look for the Storytime Online icon after signing onto your student's Clever account.
POMP AND CIRCUMSTANCE... AS OUR SENIORS COLLECT THEIR CAPS AND GOWNS
Drive-through cap and gowns!
Bloomingdale High School seniors picked up their cap and gowns last week -- with social distancing in mind.
Teachers wanted to let their seniors know how proud they are- so they lined the streets with signs and cheered them on after they picked up their graduation attire.
IT IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER TO RECOGNIZE OUR EXTRAORDINARY SENIORS. CONGRATULATIONS TO THE CLASS OF 2020!
Jason Calzon - Senior at Plant High. Jason is Student Conductor in Chorus, Co-President of the Theater Board and was awarded a scholarship from the National Hispanic Recognition program to attend UCF in the fall.
Eliza Richard - Senior at Bloomingdale High. Eliza enjoys travel and has visited France, England, Belgium, Canada and Ireland. Eliza loves swimming, soccer and sailing and has won numerous gold medals with Special Olympics. Eliza hopes to study and work in the healthcare profession.
Joseph Hathaway - Senior at King High. Joseph has been in hospital homebound since being diagnosed with an illness in 2017. He is in pain most days but has continued to be positive and work hard in school. He loves the ROTC and has been on the honor roll this entire year.
Emeraude Shadow Wilson - Senior at Tampa Bay Tech. Emeraude is in the medical program and Salutatorian of her class with a GPA of 7.9. She completed her dual enrollment classes through HCC and was scheduled to graduate with her Associate's degree but the ceremony was canceled. Emeraude will be attending UF in the fall as a premed student with a goal of being an OB-GYN.
Edward Gonzalez-Oxios - Senior at Chamberlain High. Edward is a Cadet Gunnery Sergeant in Chamberlain's Marine Corps JROTC program. He is also highly involved in the art club. He will be attending HCC in the fall where he will major in graphic design.
Taryn Storter - Senior at Plant City High. Taryn will graduate with an 8.3 GPA and an Associate of Arts degree from HCC. She lettered in Swimming all four years and played Jasmine in the school musical "Aladdin, Dual Language Edition" where she had to speak and sing all lines in Spanish. Taryn will attend Liberty University to major in Journalism.
HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Email: newsletter@sdhc.k12.fl.us
Website: HillsboroughSchools.org
Location: 901 East Kennedy Boulevard, Tampa, FL, USA
Phone: 813-272-4000
Facebook: facebook.com/HillsboroughSch
Twitter: @HillsboroughSch