I hope you had a great week of distance learning! I know it's a week of changes and lots of learning.
Social Media-
When you are posting to social media, just a reminder to not post students' last names and faces of those who opted out of techology. With Google Hangout/Meets, it's almost impossible to show a student without their first and last name appearing in the corner.
Also, one other thing that Mike Halverson reminded me of - be aware of where kids are at (in their house) when we take a picture. You don't want to post pictures of students in their bedrooms.
Distance Learning (PLEASE READ CAREFULLY!)
There have been so many amazing things happening this week; here are a few of the things I’ve noticed:
- staff reaching out to offer to help others with new technologies or structures
- a whole new level of collaboration
- so much positivity
- trying new things
- Everywhere we look there’s a ton of evidence of the love McKinley staff has for students, families and one another!
I wanted to take a moment to share a few reminders from our various virtual meetings to be sure we all have the information.
One Pager
The purpose of the one pager is really to simplify things for families and care providing centers across the district. When families know that for each student, all of their links are on one page, it is simple to navigate.
A few reminders and tips about the one pager:
- Add it daily in your Google Classroom under a date heading.
- The one pager should be only one page or slide, and we should only post one day at a time (so as to not overwhelm families).
- Please include a reminder for students to check specialists’ topics (music, art and PE).
- Here is the folder where we are sharing samples.
- If you’d like to see how to have this open for students larger (in present mode), check out this 2 minute video from Kacie Clauson. It’s also located in our McKinley Staff Classroom
- If it makes sense in your grade level, you could divide and conquer the one pager.
- You can link to assignments in google classroom (but not until they are posted) by clicking on the three dots and copying the link.
- The goal was to have this consistent in classrooms by Monday; please reach out if this is feeling overwhelming. I am more than happy to help! Mark Langlois and Jen Koziolek also offered to support or talk through anything also.
Distance Learning Instruction
I have had a few people reach out to let us know that some of their students are spending many hours on screens to complete their learning. This is a challenge for families sharing devices, but we also know that we don’t want kids in front of a computer all day. Here are some ideas for how to reduce screen time:
- Streamline what students need to “complete” online
- Justin said this best when he said we can offer several opportunities to practice before we do a check for understanding and collect evidence.
- Provide directions online, but have activities be offline things that they can do.
- Some grade levels chose to provide 2 minute videos for how to do a math game or activity, but then have kids leaving their device to go and complete those things.
- Encourage them to go outside and/or get moving when possible (chalk the math work, find a sit spot outside to observe or read, do a scavenger hunt, etc.).
- Kids can do some of their responding in writing/drawing (on paper) or to another person in the house orally too. Some of our students take a long time to type.
Thank you for all you have invested into our students. While there have been bumps in the road, the successes far outweigh the challenges thanks to all of you! I am here to support you; please reach out anytime.
Libby & Justin
Building Weekly Newsletter:
Have a GREAT weekend! Find some time to unwind and be around those you love!
-Justin
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