The Bison Bulletin
OVCA Middle School Newsletter ~ November 23, 2020
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NOVEMBER MINDSET OF THE MONTH:
"Attitude of Gratitude"
From the Principal's Desk
I hope this newsletter finds you getting ready to have a wonderful vacation and time with family! We are already at the end of November, and the end of our first semester is now in sight. Teachers are busy reinforcing standards and preparing their students for mid-year growth assessments at the beginning of December! It's hard to imagine how quickly time has flown.
As most of you know, we had a school email outage for about a week, but most teachers are able to access their school emails now, so communications are back in business. Please be sure to always check the student course announcements for any immediate information from your teacher regarding class connects, when teachers are out of office, and other course-related information.
December 1-3 is our mid-year required growth assessments. All regular class connects will be cancelled for those days and your student will be invited to a math assessment on Tuesday, and a reading assessment on Wednesday. Thursday, Dec. 3 is reserved for makeup assessments for students. Please make every effort to keep those days open for testing, as teachers will be creating the sessions on the day we return (Nov 30). The schedule may look strange for a day or so, so please ignore any regular class connects for Dec 1-3 and only attend your scheduled assessment time. These assessments are required to be live proctored, and students can only take them with qualified school personnel in the live session. Students will be moved to a private breakout room and will share their screen and/or webcam privately with the teachers as they move throughout the rooms to moderate. Instructions will be given to students upon entering the session on how to log in and begin the assessment. All students at OVCA MS are required to complete these assessments.
Special setup directions and instructions for optimizing your computer for these assessments is below, so be sure to have everything set up and ready in order to make testing day run as smoothly as possible for your student. Teachers and staff are here to cheer your children on! We cannot wait to see how they have grown throughout this semester!
Be sure to have a conversation with your child(ren) about the importance of taking their time, but also about using smart test-taking skills. If they don't know an answer, they can think about it for a few minutes, but make an educated guess if they do not know. Average testing time takes about 70 minutes, so please assure them that our 1hr30mn sessions are plenty of time, but they will be able to complete in another session if they do not finish the first round. In the same fashion, please encourage them to take the test seriously, as we use this data for creating their personal pathways in Exact Path, and we want it to be a TRUE reflection of where they are academically.
Have a wonderful, refreshing Thanksgiving break, and we will see you on Monday, November 30th!
Be well,
Erin Goodridge
OVCA Middle School Principal
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Important Upcoming Dates
November 23: 11/16 new Start Students begin regular classes
November 25-27: Thanksgiving Vacation, NO SCHOOL
Dec 1-Dec 4: MID-YEAR REQUIRED NWEA MAP GROWTH ASSESSMENTS (math/reading)
December 4: Family Game Night--BINGO, 6-7pm
December 16: Last Day of 1st Semester (2nd quarter ends)
December 17-January 5: Winter Break, NO SCHOOL
January 6: First Day Back, "Welcome Back to School" Orientation week
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YOUR MID-YEAR GROWTH ASSESSMENT HEADQUARTERS
Check this section for what you need to know to get yourself and your OVCA Middle School student ready and in the right mindset for their mid-year growth assessments coming soon!
Getting Prepared for the Test
- All students must have Google Chrome downloaded to their computers. The NWEA site will only work properly with this browser. If you do not have Chrome installed, you can do that here!
- You must enable pop-up blockers for the NWEA Login Page for the assessment. You can go to https://test.mapnwea.org to do that ahead of time! If you're having trouble, teachers can help during live help time, or during class if there is time.
- Screen resolution MUST be set to 1024x768 or the assessment will not run (yeah, it's super picky like that....). Please be sure your screen resolution on your laptop/desktop is set to that resolution for your testing session, and then you can return it to your preferred or default setting after you are finished with both tests.
- The MAP Diagnostic Assessment is NOT a graded assessment. Students are not permitted to have assistance on the assessment, as we need to have a baseline of what students know/don't know in Math and Reading. This will help us place them in the classes that will help them GROW the MOST as readers and math problem solvers!
- It is recommended that students take no longer than 75 minutes on the test. We need to know what students already know quickly, not what they can figure out after a long period of time. Please prepare your student for this, and remind them that after 3 minutes, they should make their educated guess, and move to the next question.
Newrow Tips and Tricks
- Turn your computer off each night or restart in the morning.
- Clear your cache and cookies daily.
- Refresh is your friend! If something is glitchy, hit CTRL+R for a hard refresh, and that fixes lots of issues.
- Google Chrome is KING...if you don't use chrome, Newrow will not work.
- 3 or less tabs open on your browser when you are in a Newrow class session.
- Webcams are optional for students. Students who wish to use webcams in class must have a webcam permission slip on file. You can access using the link HERE.
- Remember: It is not perfect now--but our feedback is helping developers tailor-fit this product to our needs. It will only get better from here! :-)
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ALL FAMILIES MUST COMPLETE SURVEY BELOW
WEBCAM PERMISSION FORM
OVCA is focused on providing a safe virtual learning environment. With this in mind, we ask that a legal guardian complete the below survey for each student enrolled with OVCA. The media release form includes two sections: Photograph, Testimonial and Interview Release, and Face to Face Platform (webcam) Usage School-Guardian-Student Compact. You will be given the choice to accept or decline each opportunity.
Together we can help students reach their full potential through personalized learning this year! Thank you for taking the time to complete this form.
If you want your student to be able to use their webcam when we are in the whole group setting, be sure to fill out the permission form below!
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December survey coming soon! :-)
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RESOURCES FOR STUDENTS & FAMILIES
FREE TUTORING THROUGH OVCA!
We are excited to announce our school’s new Tutoring Initiative! OVCA will offer personalized academic tutoring based on your child’s needs with an emphasis in the subjects of English Language Arts (Reading/Writing) and Mathematics.
At this time, our new tutoring program will be completely virtual through an online service called TutorMe. Through this program, your child will be able to access a tutor at any time of the day to work on any subject. While the emphasis will be in math and reading, tutors for all subjects are available. The tutor will work with your child’s curriculum to help them improve their grades and gain confidence. The focus of tutoring is to equip your child with different methods of learning so they can have life-long skills in how to best solve problems for assignments, homework and projects.
Tutoring Sign-Up Link
Please contact Allison McCartney, our OVCA Tutoring Manager for more information.
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K12 NATIONAL NEWS
WHAT DO WE DO IF THE OMHS IS DOWN OR LAGGING?
- Take a deep breath and don't panic. It will be okay, and it won't last forever! If you're having trouble, most likely our staff is too, especially if the K12 software is lagging. We keep everyone up to date on social media with any known issues, and will keep the lines of communication open. Students are not penalized for software disruptions when the entire system is down.
- Find some hands-on, offline activities to accomplish! Many teachers have different suggested sites for their courses that students can go in and work. Offline activities are a fun break from a day in front of the computer!
- Your teachers will reach out with instructions via email if it is an extended outage, so always be checking your LC email for information, as this is the primary method of communication.
- Take a "snow" day if it's all just too overwhelming. You know we don't have those in virtual-land anyway, so take a break and catch up when you are fresh. Your teachers understand and if it's happened to you, it's happened to them! It will be okay, and you'll be back online eventually.
Most of all, remember to give yourself grace. Virtual learning isn't for the faint of heart. It's hard work! And sometimes, technology fails us. If and when that happens, you have a plan in place.
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The Oklahoma Virtual Charter Academy does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, disability, or age in its programs and activities and provides equal access educational programs and activities. As required by Title IX, the Oklahoma Virtual Charter Academy does not discriminate on the basis of gender, in its educational programs and activities. The following person has been designated to handle inquiries regarding the Title IX non-discrimination matters:
- Angie Foust, Title IX Coordinator, afoust@okvirtual.org, (405) 259-9478 ext 2069, 1160 S Douglas, Midwest City, OK 73130
- Additionally, you may contact the Office of Civil Rights by calling 1-800-421-3481.