Herndon Happenings Faculty & Staff
April 8, 2020
Kenzi and Skylar Primm
Callie Ann Davenport
Mr. Thomas and Lily
Grading Guidance for Herndon Magnet School
Caddo Parish Public Schools is committed to providing opportunities for all students to stay actively engaged during this unprecedented time. In order to keep students' needs as the focus above all else, our district has adopted a "Do No Harm" philosophy that has guided our decision making while establishing the following guidelines for schools: (Please read carefully)
- JGradebook is open for the 4th nine weeks
- Teachers should input all grades from the week of March 9-13, the first week of the 4th nine weeks, into JGradebook as usual.
- No JPAMS calls will be used during this time of school closure. This means JPAMS will not notify parents of failing grades, absences, tardies, etc... The district does not want to create additional anxiety for families during this time.
Grading during school shut down
- Teachers will continue assessing students' work
- Teachers should take 1-2 grades per week per core subject and 1 grade per week per elective.
- These grades may begin as early as March 16. Everyone must take grades beginning March 30.
- Students should not be penalized academically because of their inability to access devices, the internet, or academic resources. If for any reason, a student does not complete an assignment, the teacher shall leave the grade blank. Do not put an X, E, or I for the grade. The grade must be left blank.
- Caddo's "Do No Harm" philosophy means that no student's grades will decline during this period. Because it could do more harm than good, this is not to be announced to parents.
- The 4th nine weeks grades should not artificially inflate a student's overall grade.
- If you have any questions, please contact Mr. Thomas or Miss DePriest.
Elementary and Middle Schools
- The annual instructional minute requirement has been waived.
- No standardized testing will be given during the rest of the 19-20 school year.
- The requirement to use standardized test scores when making promotion decisions for students in the 4th and 8th grade has been waived.
- As in previous years, SBLC will consider multiple sources of data when making promotion/retention decisions. Specific grade level guidance will be provided (pending LDOE guidance).
- Please submit via email to jldepriest@caddoschools.org names of students that need to go through the SBLC process for contract renewal due to attendance, behavior, or grades so that we can ensure all names are on our list once we start the EOY process.
Providing Accommodations for Students Virtually
REMEMBER: Document any and all accommodations provided to students.
Ideas for Teachers to Use for Assignment Organization
- Provide tools for self-monitoring such as checklists, or daily/weekly to-do lists.
- Provide flexibility for students and parents along with ideas to support student motivation
- Provide clear, explicit directions for students. Some students with disabilities benefit from visual/pictorial directions
- Provide clear, realistic expectations for the recommended duration of work sessions, and break assignments into manageable work periods with suggested break times throughout materials to support student needs
- Provide visual support like social stories and choice boards to reinforce expectations and support communication. Reading & Writing
- Provide sentence stems or word banks for writing assignments. Consider the students’ needs for transcription and be sure to include those in the assignment directions
- Use guided note templates with fill in the blanks to support students in synthesizing information. These materials may include pictures where appropriate.
Ideas for Teachers to Use for Assistive Technology & Other Tools
- Support parents in continuing to use assistive technology during instructional time.
- Include directions in lesson assignments for fidget tools or other tools to help students focus.
- Provide suggestions and guidance for peer support at home or through digital platforms.
- Provide suggestions for ways to use household materials and toys to aid multi-sensory and hands-on experiences.
Ideas for Teachers to Use for Accommodation with High-Tech Approaches
- Record videos or live lessons to support pause and replay options, if possible.
- Provide written and explicit directions or scripts for lessons and tasks along with verbal directions during video lessons.
- Include accessibility features within lesson directions. For example, open a PDF document and then turn on the magnification tool.
- Use read aloud resources such as Kurzweil 3000.
- Use digital mapping resources such as Coggle .
- Embed visual timers into lesson materials, where appropriate.
- Consider the motor functioning required to use technology and provide alternate modes of expression such as writing instead of typing, speech-to-text functions, recorded voice responses, and push-button responses.
Ideas for Teachers to Use for Accommodation with Low-Tech Approaches
- Offer one-on-one teleconferencing with support staff to review directions and model a portion of the assignment or task for students and parents.
- Provide support for read-aloud including one on one phone calls and pre-recording.
Herndon News
5 Word Message for Students - Video Project
- We will be making a video for students of messages from you. We want each of you to take a selfie with a 5 Word Message for Students in the picture. You can write it on a piece of paper, white board, chalk board, concrete with chalk, be as creative as you want in EXACTLY 5 words. We are looking for messages of encouragement and support, message telling them what you have been doing, or a message telling them how you feel. Just remember, it has to be EXACTLY 5 words. Email your pictures to jldepriest@caddoschools.org no later than Tuesday morning, April 14.
- This is for ALL Faculty and Staff to participate.
- Pictured above are some samples from a high school principal friend where I got the idea. He had his students send 3 word messages about what they were feeling and created a video. Just some ideas to spark your creativity.
Student of the Week/Month/Quarantine/Google Classroom/Digital Learning
- We will host a Zoom meeting on Tuesday, April 14 at 9 AM (Meeting ID: 401-810-293) for you to give 2 awards to deserving students. You will choose one student for the week of March 30 - April 3 and one student for the week of April 6 - 10.
- When you join the meeting, you will be muted. The meeting will be recorded. Do not talk, ask questions, greet each other, etc.. while waiting on others to join and for the assembly to begin.
- I will unmute Mr. Thomas and he will begin the assembly with a welcome and word for students and parents.
- Then I will call on individual teachers and unmute their microphone for them to share.
- Please work with other teachers at your grade level so that we don't give the same student multiple awards.
- You must be ready to go when called on so that we keep the assembly moving. We will go by alphabetically by grade level. (e.g. Kinder - Hartzo, Ivey, Reynolds, Webb)
Kindergarten
2nd Grade
6th Grade
Google Classroom
* You should be using Tier 1 curricula, resources you create using Tier 1 curricula, and/or the resources provided via Caddo Learning as your primary content.
* Continue being AWESOME! So many creative and fun things going on in your Google Classrooms.
* Look at the examples above of the different types of activities going on in our Google Classrooms.
April 6 - 30
* Post 2-3 lessons per week per core subject and French.
* Post 1-2 lessons per week per elective.
* Some parents have requested more/additional assignments. You can post "Enrichment," "Just for Fun," and/or "Review" content in addition to the mandatory 2-3 lessons per week. Please label them as such.
* Post all lessons for the week on Monday. (This will help those with sporadic internet to be able to go to a place with wi-fi and download the assignments for the week)
* Please schedule assignments to post between 8 AM and 3 PM. We have night owls and early birds on staff. We need to be mindful of the notifications going through at proper hours.
Useful Links
- Trainings - Google Classroom - Zoom for Home Learning - Google Forms for Assessments
- Library Resources can access from home can be found here
- Caddo has made Renaissance Learning (AR) available to students at home. Students can access accounts through Classlink. In addition to regular tests, there are also nonfiction articles and tests available in many subject areas.
- How to keep your Zoom meeting safe. Because of the recent reports of Zoombombing or Zoom meetings being hacked, district has asked us to ensure we are all following protocols to keep our meetings private. I made a quick three-and-a-half minute video showing you how to set up your Zoom meeting. Do NOT share meeting details via your social media or other public venues. We want to continue to be able to use Zoom, so please make sure that you are following the settings as demonstrated in the video. Please watch this video.