PVE Friday Focus
Friday, December 18th, 2015
News and Notes
This has been a fast week and this will be a very fast day!!
Thank you for a great first semester of school. It has been busy, one of the busiest I have seen in years! It has also been very rewarding. We have some incredible celebrations, too numerous to mention. It is very humbling to go into break knowing we have hosted more school visits than any other year in the last decade and we will receive an all day Google Expeditions for grades 2-4 in January. This is due to the hard work and dedication to be unaccepting of comfort zones and pushing yourself every day to step out. May we continue this same spirit in 2016!!! Be the pioneer for student growth!!
Mark your calendars! The first Thursday we return in 2016 will be our next staff meeting. We will start at 8:00 AM sharp in the Adventure Center. Please be on time and be ready as we will have a full agenda! Mrs. Williams and Mrs. Moore will be sharing with us from Student Services.
Snow, Snow, Snow!!!!!
PVE Teachers,
Imagine with me for a second.......our teachers have been through e Day lessons before, but that was a couple of years ago and a bit different....we return after the break to find snow the Thursday of the first week back and then after the first weekend we are hit with a snowstorm...are you ready to deliver the first e Day lesson as a PVE teacher??
Here are a few questions to help you assess how ready you really are to run a successful eDay…
1) Have you published your homeroom Canvas course? * Please make sure you have published your homeroom and NOT your master class*
2) Have your practiced using Canvas on a frequent basis? Have your modeled how to go through a module with their class? Do you know how to create and publish a module? Here are some Resource guides below.
b. How do I add items to a Module?
3) Do you know how to put the eDay button on their Canvas page and correctly link it to their eDay module?
a. Here is a video of the process https://youtu.be/spxR8WyBRjo
b. In your mailbox today will be a whitepaper for eDay button instructions
3) Is this muddy and confusing? No worries! We can help! Keep reading!
4) If you do not have internet access at home, please email Chad and Dana no later than 12/30/2015.
5) Are you a special education teacher? Your plan may look a bit different! You may not know what will be posted until 9:00am for each of their students, and it is almost impossilbe to review all of those in such a short amount of time. It would be best practice to check in with each person on your case load and be available for help as needed throughout the day. I know a lot of the special education teachers gives their phone numbers to the families they work with, however we can provide any teacher with a google number to be called and they can dial *67 before calling to block their number if needed. If they would like a google number please put in a technology work order.
6) Are you a specials teacher? You will need to supply individual lessons to the classes you would have that day. The Specials teacher needs to have content within their own Canvas courses and the classroom teacher needs to remind students which special they have that day. Confused? We can help!
Do you still need helpful resources? In your mailbox today will be a digital learning checklist from Kyle and Carly and below is a link to their SMORE with the TOP TEN TOOLS to use on an eDay. GREAT STUFF!
a. https://www.smore.com/hy4u8
8) What about students gathering materials around the house for the lesson?
a. Finding a ruler, some yarn, some magazines and all the other items we asked students to gather the last time we did this was actually the 2nd biggest complaint in our surveys. Please encourage all our teaches to make their digital learning truly DIGITAL.
In closing, you are about to go on a much deserved two week break. You need to take time and enjoy this break and frankly get away from work to refuel. You also need to be aware of the thoughts above and have them on your radar as you start to work back to school routine in 2016 . We want to help as noted above! The first week back of 2016 will be dedicated to informal morning coffee talks centered around e day preparedness. Each morning of the first week back (except Thursday morning due to staff meeting), we will start at 8;15 in the Adventure Center, This is informal and not required. This is simply brainstorming and help desk time to get you any support or resources you have knowing that a real time e day is a strong possibility.
Safety: Always Job One
Before you leave!!!!
Here are some energy conservation reminders for over break. Thank you for double-checking on these items before you head out for a much deserved time away.
- Please take any items you may have out of the staff lounge fridge. It will be cleaned out at the end of the day.
- Clean out and unplug small refrigerators. Make sure to leave the door open!
- Turn off and unplug energy-using items.
- Unplug microwaves, coffee makers, and other small appliances that have a light.
- Close blinds.
- Turn out the lights!