LVMS Staff Newsletter
Excellence In Everything - Coronavirus Edition III
This Week
Good afternoon all,
I hope everyone had a great weekend and was able to get away from their computers for a bit.
I wanted to thank everyone for their hard work and positive attitudes through this experience.. As we shift to digital learning next week, I wanted to remind everyone that there is no "right" way to do this. That would assume that we would have some sort of history and experience to fall back on. Unfortunately for us, I think a few things have changed since the last pandemic of 1918, so we don't have a lot to go from. The biggest thing to learn from that is we will get through this!
If you'd like to read about what teachers did then, here's an interesting article - https://stateimpact.npr.org/oklahoma/2020/03/31/during-spanish-flu-pandemic-oklahoma-citys-teachers-were-true-heroes/ If you're looking for something to do, maybe you could be a telephone switch board operator? Or you could collect coal that falls from trains?
Anyway, here are a few things to remember, just so we can be on the same page.
Modules will go live on Monday mornings by 8:00 AM.
You will take one grade per subject, per week.
So you can grade several things within a module, but ONE GRADE comes from each module and students essentially will have 4 grades that make up their average this nine weeks.
Although they will have a numeric average for the nine weeks (made up of the 4 module grades), their final grade will be one of three things:
I - INCOMPLETE (Will translate to a “0” if missing assignments are not submitted prior to May 15th).
P - PASS (100% in semester calculation, in accordance with weighted table)
F - FAIL (69% in semester calculation, in accordance with weighted table)
It is important to note that work will be considered incomplete if the teacher deems there is not a good-faith effort by the student to correctly complete the assigned work.
There will be no final exams for grades 6-12.
For the spring semester of the 2019-2020 school year only, the second semester average in grades 6-12 will be determined using the nine-week averages only:
3rd Nine-Week Average = 50%
4th Nine-Week Average = 50%
Google Extensions
Here are some extensions to improve Google Hangouts; try to install these before our next meeting so you can try them out.
Google Meet Nod (Raise Hand, Thumbs Up, etc.)
http://tiny.cc/gafrmz
Download the grid extension for Google Hangouts so you can view (and monitor) all of the attendees at your Google Hangout:
You'll like being able to see all your students...and keep them focused if needed!
Accommodations, Etc.
The first thing to do is to review all of your students' accommodations.
All teachers are responsible for providing all accommodations for each module - both paper and virtual versions - we will talk about this more this week. I attached a document below that Coach Foog and Mrs. Blakely created at the high school to help with accommodations - it's pretty simple and straight forward. I'll also email this out tomorrow - thanks LVHS crew(and Mrs. Bentley for getting it to us)!
Don't publicly display the difference between the regular and accommodated version. For example, DO NOT send out the same module to every student that says, "Everyone do these problems, but if you get reduced assignments, you only have to do the odds."
Our paras will be following their normal schedules(as much as possible) to help with documentation, and will also have office hours to help with students if neeeded.
Document, document, document. Since you don't have hard copies of your accommodation sheets, I would create a google sheet where you document what you provide. You will need to turn this in at the end of the semester.
If you have your own system already, great. If not, here's something you can look at for reference:
#ElectivesLivesMatter
As we move to digital learning...
Enjoy a lesson in cat massage...