Monday Memo
March 30, 2020 @MMSCougarPride
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Send Dara pictures to district email if you'd like us to Tweet something. Our followers are increasing every day!
Office Hours
Faculty and staff are expected to be available to students for 90 minutes between the hours of 8:20-3:14pm Monday-Friday. This can be 90 minutes straight or you may break it up. Your office hours must be posted in your Google Classroom. While it is not required that your hours be the same each day, that would probably be easiest for students. One tip-Keep your hours the same each day and then if you have a unique day where the normal time doesn't work, update that for your students and families. It will take a lot of figuring out the office hours for their various teachers so let's aim to be as consistent as we can. We understand that life happens and that consistency won't always work for the various home/personal situations we face during distance learning.
Office hours start on April 1, 2020 and will run for the remainder of distance learning.
Office hours are the time for you to be available live via Hangouts, WebEx, etc. for targeted support (answering questions, 1:1 support and/or small groups). You can turn the video off for Hangouts if that is your preference. This can also be via email but should be real time responses to emails.
Attendance Reminder-Period 1
Greetings and Updates from Ms. Gronau
Daily Quarantine Questions-You are encouraged to use the "daily quarantine questions" posted in the photo below or something like it as a way to check in with your students. I plan to refer to them consistently in my communication with our MMS community.
I've used these questions in my house and find them useful in checking in on our family's feelings for the day. They are actually posted in the kitchen and we discuss them at dinner! It's so important for us to focus on connection with kids and all the ways that we can do our best to build a virtual community. I know there's a learning curve for all of us, but making the effort to connect is the best thing we can do for kids. Prioritize nurturing community with your kids. That's what they need most of all.
Continue to reach out with questions-Please continue to reach out to Dara, Louis and Michael if you have questions during distance learning. We are here to help. If you aren't sure about the changes to distance learning effective April 1, 2020, feel free to reach out. So far most questions have related to office hours so I've noted that in this week's communication.
Photo of the week-Scroll down for a photo of Ms. Herstatt and her children doing a puzzle. What hobbies have you picked up during social distancing?
MMS Google Classroom-The code to join our MMS School-Wide Classroom is b47ek22. Join us!
GCN Training-Please remember to complete your mandatory trainings using your GCN login info.
Optional Pear Deck Session 3/31 at 2pm
There will be an optional Pear Deck help session for MMS teachers on March 31, 2020 at 2pm.
Info below to join us if you are interested..
Join Hangouts Meet-
http://meet.google.com/feo-hvug-ygj
Join by phone
+1 415-903-0115 (PIN: 794699221)
Have a tip?
Have a tip that you'd like to share with your colleagues for distance learning? Post it on our MMS School-Wide Google Classroom.
Newsletter suggestions
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GulYUyB0uFCr8rUV_DTak36-9x4TI48fDU3q11teWVo/edit?usp=sharing