Week Ending Friday, September 25th, 2020

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Dr. Malone's end of week message to our students!

How cool is this?  Ms. Laprise Turgeon is creating a virtual classroom with her Durfee Orchestra Students.. this is ONLY one section!!

And here we are, at the end of the FIRST Cohort D full week!  All hybrid students have at this point filtered through your classrooms, and as I listen in to some rooms, and look at plans, I am reminded of how IMPORTANT these first weeks are for you and your students..

  • Establishing those ROUTINES
  • Establishing the Health Guideline ROUTINES- distancing, cleaning, etc
  • Establishing NORMS AND EXPECTATIONS for submitting work, Google Classrooms..
  • Getting into the routines of REMOTE.. or what I'd like to call "REMOTE CONTROL" ha ha...
I want you to take a breath as you read this.  Look at what you've done.  You've regained a sense of routine in the midst of all of this global unrest, and our students respect you for that.  When all else around a child is uncertain, different, masked, sanitized- they will always have you as their beacon, their constant. You've managed to pull off an opening like no other- CONGRATS to the FINE AND PERFORMING ARTS DEPARTMENT for a spectacular job.  We have...
  • assembled carts
  • connected technology
  • built google classrooms
  • attended google meets
  • invited students to meet with us virtually
  • planned lessons
  • assigned seats
  • dispersed supplies
  • directed lost students
  • learned new technology platforms
  • shared cool ideas
  • built schedules
  • set up rooms
  • found new ways to eat lunch in new places
  • established routines for clean up in the closing
  • established routines for lining up, entering and exiting classrooms
...AND ALL WHILE WEARING A MASK AND STAYING 6 FEET APART!  BRAVO!

GOALS:
So, what's the focus going to be this year?  Well, of course we will focus on planning great lessons in our content, but this year will no doubt have to have an aspect of TECHNOLOGY and ACCESSIBILITY.  I will share the department goals planning document with you, so that when you are goal setting, you are doing in in ALIGNMENT with what the department, and district goals are. 
Goals are due in TeachPoint by October 9th, and we will work through this process together in PLC next week!


THIS YEAR'S BLOG SECTIONS:
This year, to help you, I would like to focus on three things in the blog and these will be tied directly to our goals..
  1. The MASTER PLAN: In this section, I will dig into planning.  Some weeks, I will showcase a lesson that demonstrates solid Tier 1 planning with multiple "entry points" or ways that all students can access the task's objective. Other weeks, I will talk about how to plan this way.. for this week, check out this lesson: LESSON 
  2. PLUGGED IN: In this section, I will focus on how to keep kids engaged during remote days/weeks.  This will include strategies on how to plan for engagement, and how to keep kids coming back and logging on.
  3. ALL ACCESS PASS: In this section, we will focus on how ALL STUDENTS can be set up to succeed in your class- this is right out of Standard II A 3- Meeting Diverse Needs.  So, we will look at how to plan tasks that are high quality, while still making the learning ACCESSIBLE to all.
Updates:
  • Quaver- Look for the integration between Quaver and Clever soon- kids will be able to log into their student Quaver accounts via Clever.  Beth Lewis is working with Sean Smith from Quaver to set this up.  
  • Is your Google Meet not like your colleague's Google Meet?  Maybe you need to update Chrome?  Check for updates- To update Google Chrome:
    • On your computer, open Chrome.
    • At the top right, click More .
    • Click Update Google Chrome. 
    • Important: If you can't find this button, you're on the latest version.
    • Click Relaunch.
Nuts and Bolts:
  • Lesson Plans- Please submit weekly to your DH or VP.
  • Absent? Put your absence in Frontline, and share sub plans.  
  • Sub plans in this day and age would gladly be accepted in the form of a link to work for students, or simply add the day's assignment in Google Classroom, and leave a note in your sub folder so that the sub is aware of the plan.. and don't forget to leave rosters!  :)
  • Faculty/Dept Meetings- these are being run virtually as of now, so please stay in tune with your school's dates and hop on the computer when you need to!
  • Please, do not hesitate to reach out with any questions you might have.
Thank you!

Jackie



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