Weekly Email
GAVS: 3/16 - 3/20
Upcoming Events
March 17 - 19 French and Japanese National Exams
April 6 - 10 GaVS Spring Break
April 25 - PLS at Kennesaw StateTeacher Quality
The Mentee Minute, Volume 14: https://www.smore.com/ts4h6
Offering Remediation PD, Thursday, 3.26
Brightspace 10.3 What’s New PD, Tuesday, 3.31
Spring Break Late Work Policy
GaVS Spring Break dates are April 6-10. Friday, March 27 is an assignment due date.
The late policy will be applied the week of March 30-April 3.
Please remind students to keep up with their schedules and to be back on pace once we return from Spring break on April 13. Students who have a different Spring break should work ahead if they do not intend to work on their GaVS courses during their break.
- Teachers please post Spring break information on your course homepage.
GAVS Teacher of the Year
AP Released Exams/Secure Documents
The AP Released Exams and Secure Documents for each AP course will be posted in GaVS Test Prep-Adv Placement Edmodo Group. (Group code: gioh9t)
AP practice exams should be used in a secure environment.
Do NOT post practice tests on school or other website.
Individual AP practice test questions can be used in synchronous sessions.
AP practice test questions can be used in online assessments within the LMS.
Course Updates
Biweekly course updates are sent to students, correct stakeholders (parents, guardians and facilitators*) and assigned Quality Assurance Specialist.
Some facilitators may ask not to have these updates.
The purpose of the updates should not be to simply state that grades have been updated. The purpose is to provide informative communication about the course to the stakeholders.
- They do not have to be called biweekly course updates. These could be in the form of a newsletter or simply an email providing information about upcoming assignments, etc.
Senior Failure Notifications
Seniors in danger of failing a Spring course will be identified based on progress report grades.
All stakeholders will receive an email this week notifying them of our concern.
- Stakeholders will be asked to contact the instructor directly to discuss the student’s progress.
Chrome Hiccup
The first page of a content module contains a Module Minute that is a MP3 file.
Normally the MP3 automatically begins playing when the page is accessed.
The updated version of Chrome does not have a 64 bit Quicktime player. This causes the MP3 file to be downloaded to the computer and would need to be opened in order to play the file.
- If a student reports an issue, he/she simply needs to click on the file showing in the bottom tray. The file will begin playing.
Special Needs Update
Accommodations Tips
When working with special needs students, it is important to establish efficient ways to implement accommodations in your online classroom. When looking over the Special Needs Survey results, we noticed two accommodations were commonly mentioned as difficult to implement. Below are time-saving tips for implementing these two accommodations:
Accommodation: Provide a copy of notes, whiteboard notes, powerpoint, etc. if not already embedded in the course
Tip: Because GAVS classes generally have all of the content online and readily available, this accommodation is usually not very time intensive. A copy of notes is generally needed when students are in a face to face classroom listening to a lecture and writing their own notes from that lecture. Because all of the content is generally embedded in GAVS classes, you can simply state that all notes are embedded in the content and a copy of additional resources (such as powerpoints in a synchronous session) will be provided to the student as needed. You do not need to create notes for the student from the content online as it is available to the student throughout the entire semester!
Accommodation: Check in for understanding (a weekly email, during synchronous session, etc).
Tip: This accommodation can be time consuming if you don't have a plan for how to implement it for the semester. One of the best options is to create one check-in email each week and use that same email to blind copy (Bcc) all of your special needs students with that accommodation at the same time with that same email. Note that you must always use “Bcc” rather than the “To” or “Cc” email fields when using this method in order to protect student confidentiality. For example, you might compose an email to check in with your students with this accommodation that includes the upcoming due date with the assignments listed for that due date, any classroom news updates, or a reminder to log in daily and check email, feedback, and grades. You might also include a resource or graphic explaining a concept from the current unit. Close with an invitation for them to respond to the email or call to let you know how they are doing and let them know that you are available to answer any questions. Enter each of the names of the students with a student check-in accommodation into the Bcc field and send the email! It is much easier to make one nice email template and send it as a Bcc to all of the impacted students rather than send multiple individual emails each week. Check out the example check-in email template below from our Special Needs Resources page in the Teacher Toolbox!