Jaguar Journal
Week of April 6th
Happy Spring Break! I hope you each enjoy time with family/friends and stay safe/well!! During Spring Break, the building will be closed to all. We will resume at home learning on Tuesday, April 14th! Enjoy your Spring Break!
NCE Spring Break Reading Challenge -
We are challenging students to keep reading over Spring Break. In our weekly call, we are asking students to complete at least 12 of the activities on this board and have parents initial each activity completed. We are asking students to take a photo of their completed board and e-mail or dojo message to their teacher. If we receive completed boards from at least 50% of students, we will send a video of us (Carla/Eddie) being face painted as Jaguars! Please help us encourage reading too!
Staff Video:
We plan to include a video of the staff in the parent call out/newsletter each week. Eddie will reach out to (varied grade level/support staff) groups each week (for the next 6 weeks or so) about filming a short (5 - 10 seconds max) video of you sending well wishes to the NCE community. He has asked that clips (once requested) are emailed to him so he can merge all the clips together. Here is this week's video.
Packet Pick up Day 2.0:
Our second packet distribution will occur on April 14th from 10:00 - 2:00. I will share details of the Pre-K through 5th grade packet pick up in the weekly call. Several classified staff members have agreed to help and we will create a schedule for a few people to be here in shifts (schedule coming soon). We will not need as many people to help since so few will be using a packet for at home learning. We will distribute packets every two weeks to go home with those that do not have internet access. For your planning purposes, our next packet pick up day will be April 28th.
PLC’s/Zoom Meetings for the Week of April 14th:
Monday - NO SCHOOL
Tuesday:
9:00 - First Grade Zoom PLC
10:30 - Kindergarten Zoom PLC
12:00 - Fourth Grade Zoom PLC
Wednesday:
10:00 - Fifth Grade Zoom PLC
12:00 - Second Grade Zoom PLC
Thursday:
9:00 - Specials Zoom PLC
10:00 - Third Grade Zoom PLC
12:00 - Pre-K Zoom PLC
Friday:
9:30 - Classified Staff Zoom Meeting (Eddie will be sending information about this meeting after Spring Break.)
PLCs:
Carla and Mandy will add any new district/state updates into your PLC agendas as needed, but just as it is during the “normal” PLC’s, the agenda is for your grade level to create/build together! The first Zoom PLC was a lot of sharing but there will not be as many updates to share moving forward, so please remember that it is your PLC and we want you guys guiding the at home learning planning for your grade level! Please work as a group to add items to your agenda each week that we meet.
Work from Home Information:
Work Intentions: I strongly encourage all IAs and Teachers to work from home as often as possible so we don't expose each other to germs. The more people we have in the buildings the more areas our custodians have to disinfect each day. I would expect most of us will work from home (except in special circumstances or if you are volunteering to help distribute computers or make/copy/pass out at-home learning packets). If you are coming into the building, please stop by or call up to the office so we know who is in the building.
Stay at Home Orders - On March 27th, the Governor issued a statewide stay at home order. It would be a good idea to carry your district-issued identification badges while traveling to/ from school if you need to do something essential (handing out laptops, creating/passing out packets,helping with food distribution,etc). We have been asked to limit building entry to only school employees carrying out essential duties. Please talk to Carla if there is a need for anyone else to come into school with you. We are not allowing the public into the building at all. Resuming April 14th, our building will continue to be open for staff from 7-3:30 for those needing to do something essential.
Building Hours/Staff Reporting Sheet - Resuming April 14th, the building hours are 7:00 to 3:30. If you plan to come into NCE, please know that custodians will be alarming the building at 3:25 daily. All staff members should complete this form each day. This form is linked into the NCE Staff page under the At Home Learning Section.
Here are more At Home Work Opportunities - see the opportunities that were shared from the district.
IStation:
A majority of the State Board of Education, against the recommendation of DPI and some other Board members, declined to extend the IStation contract. As a result, the state’s contract with IStation expired on 3/31/2020. Access to the IStation platform will be disabled. Districts and teachers will lose access to students’ personalized data, the assessment platforms, and Istation resources. Mandy and Brittany worked diligently this week saving our students’ Istation data by uploading reports and CSV forms into Google folders. As of Friday 4/3/2020 we are still able to access our IStation through Clever. If you want to access and save any specific student data for your own records, please do so very quickly as we have not been given an exact date as to when our access will officially end. We do not know of any details related to what may happen if we return to school later this year, but will keep you posted if we learn more.
NCE’s At Home Learning Site:
We have been working to get our At Home Learning Site up and working. There are still some kinks and formatting issues to be worked out before we go live on April 14th, but this is what is needed from the teachers:
One Stop Shop Directions Page:
Please be sure you have your document’s share settings at “ANYONE WITH THE LINK CAN VIEW”
BE SURE NO PERSONAL STUDENT INFORMATION IS ON YOUR PAGE
Lynne and Mandy will need access to your one stop shop documents so they can link them on the website each week. Be sure to email them to Mandy and Lynne as soon as you finish them. Write “POST THIS” in the subject line so they know specifically what you are sending them and why.
Teacher’s At Home Learning Expectations Documents:
Lynne and Mandy have already started to link these into the website. If you have put a word document OR "a copy" of your at home learning document into our Teachers' At Home Learning Expectations Folder please fix. They will not be linked until they are fixed. Please be sure that the form you have put into the Teachers' At Home Learning Expectations Folder is your original GOOGLE document and not a Word doc or a copy of your original. This way, you can go and update it as many times as you'd like and Lynne and Mandy will not have to update it on your page every time. Here are step by step Directions on How to Move a Google Document into a Different Folder. This set of directions and the at home learning folder links are both on the staff page to access if needed.
Spanish version -- Further down on your Teacher’s At Home Learning Expectation Document is the Spanish version of the document. Please also complete this! If you need help, reach out to an IA or Spanish World teacher to help you translate.
CEUs and PD:
We know many staff members are completing Professional Development while working from home. Please remember that if you are certified staff and are participating in PD that is NOT hosted by PTEC, NCEES, NCASCD, DPI, or CCS, then you MUST use the Prior Approval form in the Frontline learning management system. If the PD IS from PTEC, NCASCD, DPI, NCEES, or CCS you can just enter an historical PD record form in Frontline and upload the proof that you completed the course. Here is the Frontline CEUs Cheat Sheet for directions on how to do these steps. This is also linked on the staff page.
Google Proficiency:
As we move further into the weeks of at home learning, knowing how to proficiently use your Google Drive will become more and more of a necessity. One of your first steps in this process is to start using the Chrome browser instead of Safari. Start making this the primary browser you use for everything you do on your computer. Practice with it and understand how to navigate it. All things Google tend to work best with the Chrome browser. Next, there are a lot of ways you can learn about your Google Drive. You can set up a time to meet and work with Mandy, or you can watch videos and practice independently, or you can become a Google Certified Teacher. However you choose to learn, it is a great idea to start learning soon!
At Home Learning and Technology Privacy:
Navigating at home learning and collaboration with technology will be challenging as we move into online learning these next few weeks. Emma Braaten, CCS’s new Executive Director of Digital Teaching & Learning,
has created a helpful document called the At-Home Learning Guidance for Student Privacy. This is a good resource to help you prevent, monitor, and stop different types of inappropriate online behaviors that could occur while students use the tools provided by the district. This will be linked onto the staff page. See the privacy updates for Zoom and Seesaw below:
Zoom:
Direction Sheet for How to Change Settings on Zoom for Privacy. This is linked onto the staff page too.
Be careful about posting Zoom photos of the class on social media. Ensure the students’ first and last names are not seen in your picture. The host and/or the students can change their names when they first log on.
TURN OFF the private chat setting. Students should only be able to send a chat to “Everyone”.
Do NOT share your meeting link or meeting ID on social media.
There are FBI warnings all over the media about Zoom, if parents bring up concerns to you please let them know, “Our technology division has been working closely with Zoom for Education, the license we have, and it is HIPAA compliant. The free accounts and normal business accounts have a very different user agreement and user data sharing/privacy agreement than Zoom for Education.”
Please be mindful of which students have permission to have photos taken and used. If you have questions, please check with Lynne Crankshaw.
Seesaw: As students have started opening up and working in Seesaw with At Home learning we are noticing some possible privacy issues. We need to prohibit students from seeing other children’s journals. You can do this one of two ways. Please decide which way you would like to ensure privacy and do it soon!
Change your settings: Tap wrench icon > scroll down and turn OFF 'Students can see each other's work'.
At Home Learning Codes: This will slightly change the way students will log into Seesaw so you will need to inform students and parents. If you choose this option, you will want to keep your explanation to families as simple as possible. Carla or Mandy can help you navigate that situation.
Zoom and Class Management:
Holding a Zoom meeting at least once a week with your class as a whole group or in small groups is an expectation. This expectation will probably increase as we move deeper into these weeks of At Home Learning. As we do more and more Zoom with our students, the novelty will wear off and behaviors will increase. Therefore it is essential that you think about, create, emphasize, and reinforce your behavior expectations for your students while you are in a Zoom meeting. In addition, you need to think about positive reinforcement. How often are you providing specific praise to individual students and the group? Here are some excellent CHAMPS resources specifically designed for video conferencing and teaching. Please look through these resources linked below and decide how you can incorporate classroom rules/positive reinforcement, and CHAMPS into your online class meetings.
Resources:
Here are possible ideas and resources you could incorporate into your online planning for students or PD for yourself.
https://ell.brainpop.com/ - Brainpop for ESL students
web.seesaw.me/training - Weekly differentiated Seesaw trainings you can register for. You can earn CEUS and help improve your understanding and use of Seesaw.
Easy to Load Screencastify Videos - If you have students that have internet but it is really slow, here are directions from Matt Miller on how to change your settings in Screencastify so your students can more easily load the videos you send them to watch.
https://www.smore.com/corona - Free S’more accounts. These can help in how you deliver your at home learning information or class newsletters
Curriculum Associates/Ready grade level packets. You can download and use some or all of these packets with your students if you’d like. Use the link to access English and Spanish ready made At Home packets for each grade level for math and ELA.
go.ncsu.edu/ficonnects - The Friday Institute is associated with NC State and works on advancing education through innovation in digital-age teaching, learning and leadership. They are offering Role-alike discussions for elementary and secondary school educators on Wednesdays at 2 pm ET. They’ll share best practices and resources, but also spend time facilitating opportunities to collaborate, share, and ask questions of your colleagues from around our nation.
Living History Idea - Help your students journal, create a blog, or talk on Flipgrid about what is going on right now as they participate in “living history”.