Cowboy Courier
April 22, 2020
Hello CMS! I hope you are hanging in there! I only hear great things about the work you are doing, so I know you are giving your all right now. I will continue to communicate as additional plans are made to close out the school year. I am sending the Courier early so I can share this info about grades with you. I can't wait to send to parents because they will receive it from other parents. Thank you! Amber
This message below will be sent to parents regarding grades. I will get with high school credit teachers to finalize plans for credit recovery.
Dear McKinney ISD Parents,
We know that the past few weeks have been challenging, both for teachers and for our parents and students. We are proud of the hard work of our staff and students to make the best out of these unprecedented circumstances during the COVID-19 pandemic. Students are doing a great job completing assignments and working to continue learning in spite of these challenges.
The district has studied many options related to the McKinney ISD grading policy. Administering grades fairly and equitably is much more difficult with online learning due to the wide range of external factors that impact learning and may be outside of the student’s control. After a significant amount of consideration McKinney ISD has determined that the most appropriate and fair approach is to freeze the 3rd quarter (nine-weeks) grades, carry these grades over to the 4th quarter (nine-weeks), and no new grades will be given for the 4th quarter (nine-weeks). The grades your child received in courses during the 3rd quarter will serve as the 2nd semester grade. For high school credit courses, students will be permitted to make up assignments if they were failing, and they will be provided an opportunity for credit recovery.
Teachers will continue to expect students to complete assignments and will follow up with students not meeting these expectations. This will also require cooperation and partnership with parents, in order to hold students accountable for completion of assignments. The most important thing to consider is not the grade, but the learning that is taking place. We know families, students, and teachers are doing their best during this difficult time, and we look forward to finishing the year strong.
Some parents may be concerned about their kids falling behind or missing concepts and skills. Please rest assured that we will support student learning now and into the fall to ensure that they are caught up and that students learn all of the required subject matter and skills necessary to be successful at every level. Thanks for your ongoing support and let’s have a great week of learning!
Teacher Appreciation
Bad Weather Day on 4/27
Please plan for a 4 day week.
Grab and Go Meals
How to be safe on ZOOM
UPDATE: The district has lifted restrictions on Zoom with students, so you might hear that from colleagues at other schools. CMS is staying on WebEx. This is in an effort to be consistent for families. I have approved a couple of very specific instances when we will use Zoom, but those are due to functionality/features unique to Zoom rather than personal preference.
Please stay on WebEx unless we have had a specific conversation about your circumstance.
Zoom is to be used for adult meetings only. While we aren't using Zoom with students, it is still important that you use the available safety features.
When you share your meeting link on social media or other public forums, that makes your event …extremely public. ANYONE with the link can join your meeting.
Avoid using your Personal Meeting ID (PMI) to host public events. Your PMI is basically one continuous meeting and you don’t want randoms crashing your personal virtual space after the party’s over.
Familiarize yourself with Zoom’s settings and features so you understand how to protect your virtual space when you need to. For example, the Waiting Room is an unbelievably helpful feature for hosts to control who comes and goes.
HERE is full article with other helpful tips.
Tech Support
Staff Support
· MISD Staff should enter a Help Request when they need assistance - even when working from home. Click here for Help Request System
· Technology staff will continue to check submitted help requests and try to help staff remotely when possible.
· If MISD Staff need Help Desk support, we prefer that they submit an email to support@mckinneyisd.net with a detailed description of their problem, including their campus location.
· If MISD Staff do need to call the Help Desk at 469-302-4048, please leave a detailed message including a return number. Because we are trying to limit exposure to Technology staff, we are responding to emails and voicemails only at this time.
· We will strive to correct issues over the phone when possible. At times, we may ask users to allow us to remote control their computers.
· MISD staff MUST MAKE AN APPOINTMENT with the Help Desk during the school closure for issues not resolved by phone or remote session. Appointments will only be made between the hours of 8:30am and 3:30pm Monday through Friday.
· We ask that you attend your appointment alone if at all possible. This way we avoid as much contact as possible.
Student Support (effective Monday, 4/6/2020)
· If a student needs help during this time or needs a laptop for distance learning, we ask that they email StudentHelp@mckinneyisd.net. This is for 1:1 High School students and any K-8 students that received a loaner via one of the deployments or need one. Students should email their name, student id, campus, telephone number and a detailed description of the problem/request.
· Technology Staff will strive to support the students over the phone or by remote control.
· If a student needs to be physically present to take care of their issue, whether that is for repair, replacement or issuing a loaner, AN APPOINTMENT MUST BE MADE WITH TECHNOLOGY.Please email studenthelp@mckinneyisd.net. Appointments will only be made between the hours of 8:30am to 3:30pm Monday through Friday. The student will be assigned a time to come toRON POE STADIUM TICKET BOOTH to meet with a technician.
· Please attend your appointment alone if at all possible. Friends and parents will be asked to wait in the car or away from the ticket booth while the student is at his appointment.
· For Parent HAC accounts, where they don’t know their username and/or password, please send or forward those emails to hacsupport@mckinneyisd.net. Please include the student's home campus.
Counselor News
Students/Parents -
Below is a link to a form that is a request to speak to a counselor. The information provided will allow us to better help you. Although our “meetings” with students will look different during this time, we want you to know that we are available during the school day to communicate with students as needed.
Link to form:
https://forms.gle/EXYh6JGV5rAQaFNW7
If, for some reason, you are unable to access or fill out the form, please email us directly.
Tana Hoover -Students with last names starting with A-G – thoover@mckinneyisd.net
Christal Helm- Students with last names starting with H-O- chelm@mckinneyisd.net
Courtney Starnes- Students with last names starting with P-Z- cstarnes@mckinneyisd.net
CREED Course
The link for enrollment is below.
Campus Celebrations!
I still encourage you to use this link! While we are all isolated I know everyone would love some good news in their inbox.
If you sent a shout-out and I haven't share it, please let me know. I am still perfecting my system of keeping up with these.
Kudos!
Good Morning! Shout-out to Tyler Kenealey for showing kindness! I am on the History 7 team at Evans, and I am new to Canvas and navigating throughout the platform.
This morning, I needed help accessing and loading an assignment into Canvas that was no longer accessible to me, and Tyler came to the rescue. He took time out of his morning to set up a Zoom session to show me how to get things set up and copy over the assignment successfully. I greatly appreciate his time and willingness to help me out. -Happy Colleague
Hi Mrs. Stanley,
Thank you for taking the time to contact us about our son's course selection for next year. Thank you for all the positive comments about him and his performance in your class.
I have been meaning to email you since online classes began. THANK YOU for all the fun and extra time you are putting into your weekly lessons. When you showed up with the beach background, glasses, hat and lei – I knew immediately you were going to go above and beyond to show your love to these kids.
Thank you for making online learning fun for these kids as they adapt to the new normal.
-Happy Parent
Mrs. Buchmiller,
Good morning. I wanted to share with you the attached email. Last week (our son) spent 4 straight days 3D printing for Robocats. He completed over 100 plastic pieces to be used for face shield in the hospitals. We had a phone conference with Rick this morning and he will resume production again this afternoon.
He has put his whole heart in to this project and has exceeded all of the other participants in this project. I am beyond proud of him and I am sure you are as well.
Using his blessings to bless others. ❤️
-Happy Parent
HI there,
Thanks so much for your note! Thank you for all that you are putting into eLearning. You have set the content up in a way that has been easy for Drew to maneuver through.
Hope you and your family are doing well. -Happy Parent