Paper Staff Call August 17, 2018
Louisiana Virtual Charter Academy
Kindergarten DRDP Testing Schedule and Staffing
DRDP Training Guide
Praise Report
You Survived!
Our Sweet LAVCA Family Children
Zearn Movers and Shakers
Head of School
Welcome Welcome Welcome!!!!!!
Please help me welcome BACK to our LAVCA family the newest member to our ADM team, Mrs. Lisa Kliebert. We are so excited to have her back on our staff and serving as Academic Administrator/Middle & High School Principal. Find out more about Mrs. Kliebert in her report below. She is no stranger to LAVCA or K12, and her instructional expertise will be one of her assets to our team. Please take time to meet and greet her.
We still have several vacancies. If you have any referrals, please don't hesitate to send them our way. They include:
~Biology Teacher
~Spanish I & II Teacher
~ Elementary Math Teacher
~ SPED Teacher
~New Math Blended Teacher - will report to the blended site 3x's per week in BTR.
Below is the link to the blended schedule. Please keep in mind, if you are not assigned to a blended location, you are a designated FOG. We are still working on getting those initiatives scheduled and "off the ground." Special thanks to those staff members who willingly volunteered to work blended to relieve those tested/content specific teachers. #LAVCAPRIDE #WEAREONE
FOG Schedule
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1UMHM-ocm3Y2jAwi-gbKywjQdUu9vAqpgkXie2t4DWhs/edit#gid=0
Lamont Cole, our CAO, will begin classroom observations soon. You will be receiving directives from your AA on making sure he is invited to your class connect sessions.
"The old paradigm is to plan, teach and then assess what has been taught. The new paradigm in our D-CSAL model has to be to create the assessment, plan, teach in preparation for the assessment and then assess. If our teachers are not doing this using all of the resources then we are going to miss the mark in terms of the tested areas. Think about it. " ~Cole
Please take a moment to view this Youtube video he shared with the leadership team at the 3 schools.
"Lets get it done this year. Commitment and Consistency."
Have a great weekend,
~Danielle
Special Programs
Happy Friday from LAVCA’s SPED Mission Control Center,
I want to welcome aboard our newest astronaut, Evonda Wright! She is the IEP Facilitator for grades 8th – 12th.
Student accommodations generally are shared within the first 2-3 weeks of school. Our timeline will fluctuate due to the staggered release of jurisdiction in SER by parishes.
General education teachers will receive an email with the link to the accommodation folder for 504 students Individual Accommodation Plan (IAP). The folder will include the accommodations for students you teach. The link will be emailed today, and you will also receive an email to complete a form acknowledging receipt of access to the IAP accommodations.
General education teachers will receive an email with the link to the accommodation folder for special education students’ accommodation pages from their Individual Education Plan (IEP) by EOB Wednesday, 8.23.18. As we get jurisdiction and IEP meetings are held for new and returning students folders will be updated and you will receive an email letting you know the folder has been updated. However, you will only be emailed the link to complete the form acknowledging receipt of the IEP accommodations, one time each semester.
There have been questions about accommodations and the committee will meet next week to collaborate and develop a plan for LAVCA. Thank you to everyone who volunteered!! Food for thought: It is not an accommodation for a 504 or SPED student if it is the same thing you are giving to everyone else. According to E. Strom, accommodations change how a student learns the material. A modification changes what a student is taught or expected to learn. (Click on the underlined terms for more information on each). Review the examples to help explain the differences between them at the following link: https://www.understood.org/en/learning-attention-issues/treatments-approaches/educational-strategies/the-difference-between-accommodations-and-modifications
We have started having IEP meetings for grades K-7th and meetings for 8th-12th will start soon.
Don’t hesitate to contact me with additional questions or concerns. Looking forward to an awesome year. Have a good weekend!
Thanks,
Meshell
K-5 Instruction
-Send me the names of students that have missed more than 3 classes this week in your course.
-Please come prepared to staff call with your lesson plans for the week of Aug 27. Along with your assessment guidance and exit tickets/weekly check points. We will be planning and teaming by departments at Staff Call.
-K-3 please also come to staff call with your DIBELS data and ready to explain how your students performed :
- How many above, below, and well below students do I have?
- How are those numbers compared to last year?
- What am I planning to do differently this year because of the scores I see?
6-12 Instruction
New Announcement:
Greetings LAVCA staff,
It is with pleasure and honor to have accepted the LAVCA Middle and High School Principal position. I am looking forward to strengthening relationships with former and familiar co-workers, while developing new ones with others.
I would like to offer a bit of background about myself. I am a four-time Nicholls State University graduate, having the following degrees: Masters in Educational Leadership, Masters in Teaching, Bachelors in Management, and Bachelors in Dietetics. I started my virtual education journey, right where you are, as a LAVCA teacher, teaching both in the middle and high school levels (after teaching in Brick and Mortar schools). I assumed dual roles for LAVCA teaching and instructional coaching, before the K12 iTeach Instructional coaching program began. In the program's initial year, I shifted into the position as a Southern Region Instructional Coach. This past year, was spent as the only "Roaming Instructional Coach" where I was able to work with K12 schools across the nation. From this experience, I am hoping to bring forth to LAVCA, best practices from across the nation's K12 school network, along with clear-cut processes and procedures that were most efficient.
I am confident that, together, we will continue to make LAVCA a strong and fierce school choice.
Thank you,
Lisa Kliebert
Course Assignments Reminder
Teachers, this is just a reminder of the discussion we had during PD along with explanations of a few questions that were asked since then, please look over them to ensure you are following proper procedure in your course(s). Class times were reconstructed with the anticipation of the following:
- Teachers should be utilizing some class time for students to work on course assignments. It is understood that larger assignments may be completed/finished outside of class and that the typical outside-of-class assignments should be no greater than a normal HW assignment would be from a brick and mortar school (except on Fridays).
- Students should be completing no more than 3 graded assignments per week (excluding Exit Tickets).
- If you give a Checkpoint or Checkpoints, it should count as one of the 3 graded assignments for the week.
- The 3 graded assignments should be scheduled on either a teaching day or on a Friday. (ELA and Math may schedule their assignments Monday through Friday, but other subjects will have to restrict graded assignments to teaching days.)
- Graded assignments that are worked on during class time should take the place of the Exit ticket or Checkpoint for that day. Example: If students complete a course quiz during live class time, the class does not need to have an Exit Ticket. If that quiz is assigned to be completed outside of class, then an Exit Ticket needs to be assigned for the day.
Honors Course Reminders
Teachers, when communicating about honors courses please keep the following in mind:
- Colleges look at courses taken, not just the overall GPA and recognize the rigor associated with honors courses, even those not on the 5-point scale.
- There are intrinsic incentives for students who are enrolled in the honors sections of the course
- While there is a need to communicate the information concerning the 5-point scale, we should not be discouraging students from participating in the honors sections for those courses which are on the 4-point scale.
Operations
Hi Team!
Please see reminders below:
*The use of code 28 on the phone system, shouldn't be used during business hours. All staff should have a K12/LAVCA issued work phone with an assigned extension. Please use your work issued phone. If there are issues regarding your work issued phone, submit a ticket to help@comm-core.com as soon as possible.
*We should all actively use Skype Business to communicate!
1) Click on Start > All Programs > Skype for Business
2) To log in, please use the information below.
email address: jdoe@school.org
username: jdoe@school.org
3) password: current TVS/OLS password
If you experience any issues with the setup, please submit a ticket to the K12 National Help Desk.
*Thank you for being patient with reimbursement upgrades! New creations always need time to work out the kinks, but I think these kinks are totally worth the wait!
*Records requests are being processed as quickly as possible. This includes both requesting and fulfilling requests.
*Please continue to send me your issues you experience in any of the platforms. When you do, remember to send me as many details as possible, screenshots, and any student IDs (if it's an isolated experience).
*Lastly, as always, please don't hesitate to reach out with any additional questions or concerns.
Thanks,
Kristy Davis
FAST Team
All Connection Calls (except for the students who start on 8/20) should be completed by Monday COB. See Launch Pad for instructions and a list of students who still need calls.
Students who start on 8/20 should receive a Connection Call by Friday, 8/24.
Please continue to announce that the Online Learning course needs to be completed. It should be completed by Monday, 8/20. (except for students who start 8/20. They should have it completed by Friday, 8/20.)
Please continue to encourage all new students (especially those starting 8/20) and rising 6th graders to attend a new student orientation and come to FAST live help with questions. We still have students who need to attend. The FAST team is also reaching out to those students as well.