EXCEL NEWS
Providing an Innovative Approach to Personalized Learning
đź”˝ EXCEL Teachers #QuarantineLife đź”˝
School News App by Edlio
We have started to use the School News app by Edlio, an activity feed for consuming alerts, news, and events for participating schools. It’s a simple way to view the school’s news feeds and calendars, and also receive push notifications directly from us.
It’s free to download to your iOS or Android phone and quick to set up:
- Go to the App Store or Google Play and search for “School News by Edlio” to install.
- Open the app and search for D-B EXCEL; tap “Add School.” If you have kids in other Edlio-powered schools, add them to the app too.
- Enable push notification by going to the Alerts tab and tapping “Enable Notifications.”
All of the news and events posted to our website are posted here for easy access. You can also add multiple Edlio-powered schools and/or districts to gather all news, events, and alerts in this one app. We’ll send push notifications out to keep you updated on urgent news.
Kingsport Public Library FREE eCard
Parents:
- Email name, email address, school attending, and zip code to youthserviceslibrary@kingsporttn.gov
- Library sends eCard number
- Students log on to Overdrive or Libby and READ
Mental Health Education
Need mental health education while you are at home? Watch this 30-minute training video and complete the guided notes below.
More Mental Health Information
You can also reach their call center at 865-584-9125 or their toll-free number 877-642-3866.
A Message from Dr. Hampton
I wanted to be the person to reach out to juniors and seniors directly with some unfortunate news. It is with disappointment, but full understanding given our current circumstances, that we announce the cancellation of the 2020 Dobyns-Bennett Prom, originally scheduled for April 25, 2020. In accordance with CDC guidance limiting public gatherings over the next eight weeks, Meadowview Conference Resort and Convention Center has cancelled all events during this time.
We know this news will be met with disappointment and frustration by our students and families, but we realize it is in the best health interest of our community. As we begin to get a better understanding as to when and how we return to school, we will revisit the possibility of rescheduling the prom or a prom-like event this school year. We will not be able to legitimately look at that option until the first week of April. It is possible that we won’t have an option to reschedule.
The prom is one of my favorite nights of the year and I know it is a milestone event in the lives of students. It would not have been cancelled if it were not for the recommendation of the CDC. I wanted to get this word out to you as quickly as possible and to let you know that we would entertain other options upon our physical return to the school campus.
Please be safe and as always, Roll Tribe Roll!
Respectfully,
Dr. Hampton
Principal
Dobyns-Bennett High School
Virtual Learning During Closure
Below you will find a chart that details Teacher Email Addresses and Office Hours. Even though teachers will not be able to meet in person with students, they have scheduled office hours for individual student and parent conferencing that can be conducted via phone, Zoom, Google Hangout, etc.
Food Assistance
If you are in need of food assistance, please click on the link below for more information regarding community organizations that provide support in Kingsport.
đź”˝ KCS INFORMATION & RESOURCES đź”˝
Free Breakfast & Lunch for Children
Kingsport City Schools buses will be running all of our regular bus routes loaded up with free meals for any child age 18 or under that would like one.
Both Breakfast & Lunch will be delivered between 10:00am - 2:00pm.
FREE BREAKFAST and FREE LUNCH for children 18 and under will be available at most school locations and will be delivered by buses on all days we are closed for COVID-19 (Coronavirus), other than Spring Break, when federal regulations prevent us from doing that. One meal will be given per child, who does not need to be a KCS student. Please visit our website www.k12k.com for additional details.
CLICK HERE for more detailed information about the KCS Feeding Program and to view specific instructions for each pick up location.
If you do not see a bus or cannot go to a school site for a meal, call (423) 392.4416 and leave a voicemail to schedule delivery.
KCS Extended Closure
ACT Testing Date TBD
đź”˝ INTERNET ASSISTANCE FOR FAMILIES đź”˝
Charter Internet Assistance
Charter Communication announced it will offer free Spectrum broadband and Wi-Fi access for 60 days to households with K-12 and/or college students who do not already have a subscription.
The news comes on the heels of the arrival of coronavirus in communities throughout the country, and concerns over transmission of the virus.
A service of up to 100 megabytes per second will be provided.
The offer begins Monday, March 16. Those interested in enrolling are asked to call 844.488.8395. Installation fees will be waived for new student households.
Charter will also open Wi-Fi hot spots across its footprint for public use.
Comcast Internet Assistance
As our country continues to manage the COVID-19 emergency, Comcast is taking immediate steps to help connect low-income families to the Internet at home. New Internet Essentials customers will receive two free months of Internet service, which is available to all qualified low-income households for $9.95/month plus tax. Apply by April 30, 2020.
Additionally, for all new and existing Internet Essentials customers, the speed of the program's Internet service has increased to 25 Mbps downstream and 3 Mbps upstream. That increase will go into effect automatically for no additional fee and it will become the new base speed for the program going forward. "During this extraordinary time, it is vital that as many Americans as possible stay connected to the internet – for education, work, and personal health reasons,” Dave Watson, Comcast Cable Chief Executive Officer.
Learn more about this offer by visiting https://www.internetessentials.com/covid19
đź”˝ LEARNING RESOURCES FOR STUDENTS đź”˝
Learn How to Code!
With schools closed and tens of millions of students at home, Code.org is launching Code Break — a live weekly webcast where our team will teach your children at home while school is closed, and a weekly challenge to engage students of all abilities, even those without computers.
Let us teach your children:
- A weekly webcast, featuring our founder Hadi Partovi and special guests
- A weekly activity or challenge
- Options for beginners, experienced students, and even students without computers
CLICK HERE to learn more or to sign up for the weekly Code Break!
Tennessee STEM Innovation Network Resources for Parents
Bedtime Math - Bedtime Math is a national nonprofit that ignites kids’ curiosity and learning by unleashing the fun in math. They offer playful, online math problems for parents to engage with their students, as well as lively hands-on games.
BrainPop - To support parents and teachers during school closures, BrainPOP is offering free access to their online resources. Brain Pop's expansive platform offers learning games, animated movies, and activities that cover topics across subjects and grade-levels.
Britannica Online - In response to Covid-19, Britannica has made their LaunchPacks curriculum for science and social studies available for free. LaunchPacks supports virtual learning, independent study, and remote assessments across topics covered in K-12 science and social studies curricula.
CK-12 Foundation - CK-12 offers free, high-quality, standards-aligned content in the STEM subjects. Students can explore their many learning tools, including digital textbooks, concept-based learning, SAT prep, and interactive Algebra curriculum.
Discovery Education - For U.S. schools or school systems that are experiencing closures due to the Coronavirus, Discovery Education is offering free access to Discovery Education Experience through the remainder of the school year.Discovery Education Experience is an online K-12 service combining curated curriculum resources with on-demand teaching strategies. Its standards-aligned content is assignable and meets the varying needs of diverse student populations in a safe and secure environment.
Everfi - As educators are looking for resources to extend student learning at-home, EVERFI’s Endeavor Resource, sponsored by TSIN, and other academic resources are available at no cost. Everfi's Endeavor course engage students in STEM career awareness through interactive modules and supplemental lesson plans.
Khan Academy - Khan Academy is a free resource for students, teachers, and parents. Khan Academy offers exercises, quizzes, and tests so students can practice and master skills, as well as instructional videos to help students learn or review material. In response to school closures, Khan Academy is hosting daily live-streams on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter with engaging lessons for students to continue learning at home.
Learning Blade - The STEM practices embedded within the Learning Blade platform are changing students' self-image and efficacy towards STEM. The Learning Blade platform includes online mission challenges, hands-on lessons, and parent-student discussion topics. TSIN has made Learning Blade available to all middle school students in TN for free.
Scholastic - Scholastic is offering free online learning experiences in response to school closures. Each day, Scholastic posts four new cross-curricular "journeys". Each journey is filled with exciting articles and stories, videos, and fun learning challenges. The students can even go on virtual field trips or meet best-selling authors.
SciGirls - SciGirls is a show for middle school students, showcasing bright, curious tween girls putting STEM to work in their everyday lives. Each half hour episode will inspire your students to explore the world around them and discover that science and technology are everywhere.
Smithsonian Learning Lab - The Smithsonian Learning Lab puts the treasures of the world’s largest museum, education, and research complex within reach. The Lab is a free, interactive platform for discovering millions of authentic digital resources, creating content with online tools, and sharing in the Smithsonian’s expansive community of knowledge and learning.
Virtual Field Trips - Students can travel around the globe through Virtual Field Trips. Covering key topics, historical events, and standards-aligned content, Virtual Field Trips is now offering engaging supplemental activities, including writing prompts and hands-on lessons, to extend the learning experience.
STEMx Parents Guide to STEM and school closure resources
The STEMx Parents Guide to STEM offers more than 30 pages of research and interviews examining how to understand STEM education. This guide is based heavily on a guide created for parents by the Greater Cincinnati STEM Collaborative. We also benefited from conversations with the members of the STEMx network and the national labs managed by Battelle.
Download the guide here. Please feel free to share with credit to the STEMx network.
Finally, all our readers supported this launch. Below, you’ll find a list of supplements to the parents guide, submitted by our readers.
The STEMx Parents Guide to STEM and these resources offer a long term resource. But what about parents looking for ways to support learning during temporary schools closures?
Battelle’s education team, which manages the STEMx network, has pulled together a list of some of our favorite online learning tools or special promotions created to help out during the COVID-19 crisis. Know a great school closure resource? Submit it in the comments below with a link and a one to two sentence description.
One special resource just launched. The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy has coordinated with American technology companies to create TechforLearners.org. The site provides a searchable online database of education technology tools for online classrooms and teaching, allowing educators to search for free and discounted tools and services by grade level, product type, and subject matter.
Want to learn more about Canvas?
Join the Parent Introduction to Canvas course!
(no need for an account - this course is open to the public!)
Click here to go to the Canvas login page. Click Browse courses. Choose the "Parent Introduction to Canvas" course.
Contact Us!
Email: shensley@k12k.com
Website: http://dbexcel.k12k.com/
Location: 400 Clinchfield Street, Kingsport, TN 37660, United States
Phone: 423.378.2185
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dbexcelkcs/
Twitter: @KCS_DBEXCEL