Anderson HS Community Letter
August 18, 2020
Dear Anderson students and families,
Whole child
Diversity
Learning together
New faces and names at Anderson High School
Adam Rappaport Social Studies
Alexis Servido Special Education, Life Skills
Justin Harvey Social Studies
Brittany DeValk Social Studies
Christine McKenna Science
Katherine Keatley Science
Jarred Favorite Social Studies
Katherine Vukovics Asst. Choir Director
Cheryl Lee Kimball Band Director
Deborah Edmondson Special Education, Teaching Assistant
Dominick Torres Special Education, Teaching Assistant
Dee Biester Administrative Substitute for Sammi Harrison
I will be taking medical leave effective 8/19/2020 to deal with my recent diagnosis of breast cancer. Ms. Dee Biester has graciously agreed to come out of retirement to serve as my substitute during leave. Ms. Biester retired from Anderson in June, 2019 so she is familiar with the campus, staff, students and community. I have confidence that with Ms. Biester and the rest of the Anderson administrative team the campus is in good hands. I will be checking in as time and energy permit. I ask for your support, understanding and patience during this period of time.
First day of Instruction, Tuesday September 8th
L. C. Anderson High School
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Email: first.lastname@austinisd.org
Website: andersononline.org
Location: 8403 Mesa Drive, Austin, TX, USA
Phone: (512) 414 - 2538
Facebook: facebook.com/AndersonHighSchoolAustinTX
Twitter: @twitter_ahsnewss
Reopening plan information and schedule
Additional information about re-opening
During the 100% virtual learning, students will be expected to be online for synchronous instruction with their teacher(s) during the designated class period times. Grades will be given based on the work students complete and submit to the teacher. Teachers will record teaching sessions and post on BLEND for students who are not able to be online at the designated time. Whether your child is in attendance during the synchronous class session or views the recorded instruction, he/she is responsible for the content and work assigned. We encourage students to commit to the structure of their daily class schedule and make arrangements to be online at the designed class times. During virtual learning it is better to have a structure of expectations in place to help guide students on using their time during the day. When circumstances arise that prevent being online the recorded instructional session is available, but we hope that this will only be the case on rare occasions.
We will follow a rotating A/B schedule that will be the same for us when we physically return to the campus. Since the next few months are uncertain and unpredictable in terms of whether and when we will be able to return to face to face instruction, teachers have been building instruction virtually to be robust, rigorous and engaging. We are also building in time for teachers to be available for online tutorials, office hours and Q&A opportunities for students.
Knowing that we will have students learning virtually as well as face to face (at some point in the future) it is essential that we have a schedule that is realistic and does not require students to be tied to a screen for hours on end. The schedule in the link above is the framework that we will follow for virtual and face to face instruction for the Fall, 2020 semester.
Teachers will have one hour synchronous learning with live two-way communication with students during the designated class time. After the 1st and 2nd block in the morning, there will be an hour of “work block” where students are working independently on content and assignments given in the first two blocks of the day. Teachers are available for online office hours during the “work block” times for students who need more support, clarity or feedback on their work.
Friday will be a rotating A or B day as designated by the official Anderson calendar. Friday classes are asynchronous, but will require an assignment to be turned in for each class on the asynchronous day. There will be a synchronous Homeroom time on Fridays (regardless of it being an A or B day) from 11:25 - 11:40. The asynchronous Fridays will also allow our custodians to deep clean each classroom area prior to classes resuming on the following Monday.
The point at which we are able to return to face to face instruction on campus, we will continue the above schedule for synchronous instruction in each class according to the student’s assigned schedule. In this plan, we are dividing up the school into pods. Each pod will have 3 classrooms, 4 teachers, and 36 students. Each teacher would supervise a CREW (Covid Response Educational Workspace) class of 12 students, and those students will not be moving classrooms. We will have students grouped randomly by grade level in these groups of 12. Students will not change classes; they will remain in the designated classroom participating in synchronous instruction online. Students will need headphones or ear buds to be able to manage this.
The teacher in the room is also teaching synchronously according to his/her assigned teaching schedule. The rationale for this model is limiting exposure and safety protocols for social distancing and sanitization procedures. In the event of a Covid-19 positive person, this allows us to quarantine the 12-13 individuals (for 14 days) rather than a student’s 8 classes full of peers and 8 teachers (potentially 170+ people). This model allows us to build a smaller community group to support students individually during this challenging and uncertain time.
Since the Fall, 2020 semester is fraught with so many variables that we cannot control providing safety through limited exposure and daily teacher support is our best option. Students will be able to come to campus after/before school for extra-curricular activities (where social distancing and safety precautions will be followed). Students may choose to do the instructional day virtually and report to campus for extra-curricular activities. This model also allows us to pull designated groups of students together on Fridays (once we are able to return to Face to Face) for specific activities and supports. While there are still potential issues to work through with this plan, and the risk of exposure is minimized, we feel like this is the safest way to allow a portion of our students to come back to the school building in person.