#StrongerTogether
PCOE & PUSD - Summer Newsletter, Staff edition
Summer 2020, Weekly Communication
Video message for today provides a brief overview of the three different distance learning options that will be available as school starts on August 24. We know there are lots of questions about each of these options, and are committed to sharing out information just as soon as possible. For the quickest response to your questions, please contact your school's principal by email (below) or reach out to Mrs. Warren at kwarren@pcoe.k12.ca.us
Principal email addresses:
CRC - Melissa Leal mleal@pcoe.k12.ca.us
Portola JSHS - Sara Sheridan ssheridan@pcoe.k12.ca.us
Quincy El Pioneer - Alan Reeder areeder@pcoe.k12.ca.us
Quincy El Alder - Lara Hollister lhollister@pcoe.k12.ca.us
Quincy JSHS - Tom Brown tbrown@pcoe.k12.ca.us
Greenville El and JSHS - Traci Cockerill tcockerill@pcoe.k12.ca.us
Chester El - Colly Fischer cfischer@pcoe.k12.ca.us
Chester JSHS - Terry Hernandez thernandez@pcoe.k12.ca.us
Return to School Enrollment Google Form, 20-21
Haven't seen the form yet? Check your email spam folder to see if it's there, or check out the list of links below.
Please complete by Sunday, August 9th.
Questions? Please contact your school's principal for the quickest response.
Greenville- Elementary and Jr./Sr. High School
Return to School Decision
August 4, 2020
Distance Learning and Learning Hubs or Independent Study
In consideration of the safety of our school communities and creating a consistent learning experience for all students the Plumas Unified School District Governing Board voted 4-0 to return to school on August 24th via distance learning with learning hubs, a small, consistent group of students that meets in person with school staff for a limited amount of time.
This difficult decision was made only after many long hours of planning for in-person instruction and the belief that with every safety precaution in place we would be able to accomplish offering all three options for our students.
There are several key factors that influenced this decision including data which reflects when opening a new sector there will be an increase of positive cases. While we have plans in place for when this happens including when to close a classroom, school and district, the end result is to implement distance learning.
In addition, the staffing considerations and lack of available substitutes is a real concern as we don’t have the option of increasing class sizes. Also, the increased anxiety related to the return to school is very real for many of our employees and families. We are taking this into consideration along with the many other related details.
Along with distance learning, we will be working together to implement learning hubs:
What is a learning hub?
A small, consistent group of students that meets in person with school staff for a limited amount of time
Will allow social interaction and support in accessing distance learning
May or may not be aligned with a grade level and may include family units at a school site
Optional for families
Types of support available in a learning hub may include:
Technological- internet access
Digital skills development- navigating distance learning
How to use our new Learning Management System-Canvas
Support with Google
Assessment- time and place to take proctored assessments
Access to materials and resources- paper, books, etc…
Social/Emotional- connections to peers
We will be sending out a notification on Wednesday, August 5th, to sign up for one of these learning options.
Update on Athletics
Thank you for your patience everyone!
Board Updates/Superintendent
Board Meeting Policy
PCOE and PUSD develop the Schedule of Regular Board Meeting at the annual organizational meeting each December. At this time, the Board meets on the second Wednesday of each month with some exceptions. This schedule is posted on our PCOE website under About/Plumas Governing Board. These agendas require 72 hour notice prior to the meeting date/time.
A Special Meeting may be called at any time, and require 24 hour notice prior to the meeting date/time.
An Emergency Meeting is allowed in the case of an emergency situation involving matters that require prompt action due to the disruption or threatened disruption of public facilities and services. Attempts must be made to notify the media by telephone at least one hour in advance, unless the phones are not working.
Department Updates
Human Resources
Hello staff!
Human Resources would like to share three documents related to leave and remotely working. The documents are linked here for you to review.
Please reach out to Human Resources mdaun@pcoe.k12.ca.us or kretallack@pcoe.k12.ca.us if you have questions or would like more information.
1) Remote Work Request COVID-19 Stages 1,2,3 Flowchart
2) Remote Work Request Flowchart
3) Remote Work Agreement
Classified Employees who have been laid off may contact Betsy Webster at bwebster@pcoe.k12.ca.us to get on the classified substitute list.
Curriculum and Instruction
2020-21 Assessment calendar
Is anyone else having fun with bitmoji classrooms? If you are, I'd love to see yours! - Kristy
Teach Like a Champion: ‘SEMI-SYNCHRONOUS-NESS’ IS OUR NEW FAVORITE THING
I’ve been writing a lot here lately about the synergies between synchronous and asynchronous lessons- about how they balance each other out and how a good lesson could actually be a hybrid, moving back and forth between synchronous and asynchronous activities…. it needn’t be one or the other.
…I started watching footage of teachers transitioning from synchronous Lesson Openings to asynchronous Independent Work…
And then suddenly I realized that I was wrong. That what we were looking at when teachers shifted to independent work it was not actually a transition from synchronous to asynchronous teaching but from synchronous to semi-synchronous teaching, where students did work on their own but with ‘cameras on’ and a sort of passive safety net in place.
What was working so well was in fact a third category all together.
Read the full article here: https://teachlikeachampion.com/blog/semi-synchronous-ness-is-our-new-favorite-thing/
Mystery Science TK-5 Science
Plumas Unified School District has a membership to Mystery Science! Mystery Science lessons are open-and-go, simply gather a few materials and start teaching right away!
Click here to join your school's membership:
https://mysteryscience.com/start?district_id=1271
If you have any questions, please see our FAQ (http://mysteryscience.com/faq), email support@mysteryscience.com, or call us at 650-550-0670.
Thank you for partnering with Mystery Science!
Mystery Science Team
4 Steps for Powerful Distance Learning Experiences
Over the next four weeks we will share one of the 4 Steps for Powerful Distance Learning Experiences from this great article from smartbrief.com.
Develop Growth-producing Relationships with Students
In his review, Cornelius-White (2007) described several elements of effective teacher-student relationships including:
- Teacher empathy: understanding students’ experiences, interests, values, and goals
- Unconditional positive regard: warmth in interactions and feedback
- Genuineness: the teacher’s ability to be authentic and honest with students
- Non-directivity: student-initiated and student-regulated activities that are supported by the teacher
- Encouragement of critical thinking: focusing on students’ thinking as opposed to traditional memory emphasis
Each of these can be established and maintained during distance learning. For example, teachers can greet students as they arrive at video conferences, provide empathetic feedback, be reliable and so on.
This is an important part of the learning process. It would be worth some time in back-to-school professional learning to focus on the value of healthy relationships. To paraphrase the late Rita Pierson, young people don’t learn from older people that they don’t like.
7-12 Social Studies- TCI Curriculum
Hello Social Studies teachers,
Good news- the TCI order has been processed and activated. If you already had a TCI account, please log in. I have given you access to the grade level curriculum that I have you down for teaching this year. If I have made a mistake or you need additional access, please let me know.
If you have not created a TCI account, please follow the email invite from TCI to do so, or click here. Once you have created your account, I will assign you the correct textbook.
Please don't create class lists at this time, as Michael will assist with rostering and log ins for students.
In order to assist you with learning this new curriculum for 7th and 8th grade, I can authorize one day of training using the TCI self paced course, available here. Please submit your certificate of completion along with your extra duty sheet to Tara Klement.
Thank you for all you are doing to prepare this school year. Let us know if you have any questions or if there is anything else needed to support you.
Hope all is well and we'll talk soon,
Kristy
New CTE Resources Newsletter
What's New at Zoom
New Updates to Web
- Waiting Room now under the Security section when scheduling a meeting: When scheduling a meeting, the Waiting Room setting is now available under a Security heading.
- Meeting and webinar passwords now called Passcodes: Meeting passwords will now be called “Passcodes” and are meant to be shared. Your account or user password, should never be shared.
- Setting to request permission to unmute: As an account owner or admin, you can enable a setting to request permission to unmute, allowing the host to request permission to unmute meeting participants and webinar panelists. Permissions, once given, will apply in all meetings scheduled by the same person. This setting is available at the account, group, or user level and can be locked at the account or group level. This requires client 5.2.0, which is planned for release in early August.
- Configure Waiting Room options without enabling the setting: As an account owner or admin, you can now configure Waiting Room options, such as adding approved domains, without enabling the setting. This allows admins to configure these default settings without forcing Waiting Rooms for all users. Users can enable Waiting Room with these admin configured options at the user or individual meeting level.
- Setting for webinar passcodes: Account owners and admins can enable or disable a setting for webinar passcodes separately from meeting passcodes. This setting is available at the account, group, or user level. You can lock this setting at the account or group level. If this setting is enabled and locked at the account or group level, it can also be applied to previously scheduled webinars by checking the option below the setting.
- Profile phone number verification with a phone call: In addition to the option to verify with SMS, users can choose to verify with a phone call to successfully save their phone number in the Zoom web portal under Profile.
- Setting to sign in with Apple ID on iOS: Users can sign in with Apple ID on the iOS app on version 5.1.1 or higher. Account owners and admins can disable this feature in the Zoom web portal, under Advanced then Security. The Web setting was released on June 28th, 2020 and the iOS client was released on July 2nd, 2020.
- View toll-number changes in the operation logs: You as an account owner or admin, can view changes to available toll numbers in the operation logs on the Reports page of the Zoom web portal.
Technology
Update on new laptops for Elementary Teachers from Tarrick Grant:
You are receiving this email because you are on our list to receive a new laptop this summer. We are anticipating that the new ones will be here early July so late to early August we are planning on getting them swapped out.
Many of you have a Dell Latitude 7480 laptop, if you want to know if you have this model flip it over. Those laptops were our first time leasing staff devices and those need to be returned to the leasing company. Those of you that don't have that model we'll still want to collect the laptop from you but those don't need to be sent back.
We can transfer over people's data but if you have everything saved to Google drive or a flash drive this will help the technology department out great. Most of our time spent when we are swapping out laptops is transferring data. In the past it's taken us a few hours just to transfer one person's data. Saving your data will save us time and it's good practice for you to save your own data.
We are hoping to get the laptops collected soon so we can get the ones that need to go to the leasing company back to them as soon as possible.
This is a link to a google sheet where you can put any notes or request.
Please feel free to contact me with any questions or comments at tgrant@pcoe.k12.ca.us.
Canvas Resources
7/2/20
In order to help you plan your utilization of Canvas for next year, please use this checklist for essential, best practices and exemplary elements.
Canvas recordings
6/25/20
Thank you to everyone for your hard work and dedication to Canvas training. There has been a lot to learn with this new LMS! If you'd like to access the training course and your Canvas course over the summer, all log ins and training courses will remain active. In addition, with Canvas having so many users in our state and across our country, I found the following social media resources to have some great tips and ideas, from Canvas and directly from users just like you. Check them out if you'd like!Facebook- Several Canvas groups are on Facebook. Several that I follow are:
- Teachers Using Canvas (3.1k members)
- Canvas for Elementary (6.1k members) So many great examples from teachers using Canvas!
- @CanvasLMS (39.7k followers)- links to some great live sessions
YouTube
- Canvas for Littles - Making Canvas Cute (video posted June 23, 2020) Creating a Button Based Homepage
- CanvasLMS (13.4k subscribers)
From our Instructional Coaches, Susan and Yvonne
Yvonne and I wanted to communicate to you that should you choose to learn more about Canvas and setting up your courses over the summer, we now have access to multiple resources which you will find to be helpful.
First of all, here is a Canvas course checklist to help guide your course development. Several of you have asked to see a document which lists the Canvas implementation components for the 20-21 school year. We hope that you find this to be a useful document as you prepare your courses.
Next, we now can open up the Training Services Portal. When you open up your Canvas account, find the Help question mark (?) on the bottom of the blue strip to the left of your screen (otherwise known as the Global Navigation menu). Click on the question mark, and the Training Services Link will be to the right of the question mark. If a Training Portal window pops up requesting access to your account, click authorize. Once you are in the Portal, you will see a brief tutorial. Next, you have options to take courses, watch video tutorials, and enroll in live trainings. One of the courses we recommend is K-12 First Day Ready.
We would also like you to know that many courses are available for you to adopt from Kern County Office of Education. You may search in the Commons for California Distance Learning Consortium and explore. When you go to your dashboard, you will want to create a blank course separate from your assigned course(s) or class(es). You need to import the Commons course first in order to be able to see all of it and utilize the built in videos, etc.
Here are the steps:
- Select "start a new course" in the dashboard and name it
- Select "import from Commons"
- Search "California Distance Learning Consortium" in the Commons
- Choose a course and import to your newly created course (do not download the course)
In this way, you can pick and choose any components that you may wish to add into your personal courses/classes without adopting the entire Kern course.
Another excellent resource that we just learned about is the FaceBook page Teachers Using Canvas. The tips are outstanding. Some experienced Canvas teachers are also offering to do Zoom sessions with teachers who are new to the system. Ideas presented cover
K-12. Another Facebook page specifically for K-6 teachers is Canvas for Elementary Teachers.
Finally, the Canvas live trainings that we had during the first two weeks of June are now available in Announcements in the training course that we provided to you. The session Power Points are available there as well.
Susan and Yvonne
Elementary Workbooks- Journeys and Eureka Math
Local information
Official Information from County and State Departments
Plumas Unified School District
Website: www.pcoe.k12.ca.us
Location: 50 Church Street, Quincy, CA, USA
Phone: (530)283-6500
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PlumasUnified
Twitter: @PlumasUSD