Please visit this i-Ready Educator site for information on why, how, and when to administer the i-Ready diagnostic assessments in September.  Please remember these are diagnostic assessments. As such they are meant to establish ‘understanding baselines’ for every student.  There should be no stress put on any student nor should we think of them as anything more than a way to gauge where students are in their understanding at this point in time for the subject areas we are assessming.

No.  You should take attendance, play the recording of the teacher’s lesson or assignment for the period, answer any questions the students may have, and hold the Google Meet open for the students to work together on the assignment.  You should NOT record this class.  The teacher should post a recording (could be the one s/he left you as a sub)  or another recording of the content/assignment worked on during the period to his/her Google Classroom upon her/his return to work.

: No.  If you make the decision to pre-record your lesson, we are looking for you to prerecord a direct-teaching part of your core lesson of concept or skill development. Ask yourself, “What would I want to offer my students (the ones in class and the ones not in class today) so they are able to grow to understand today’s lesson objectives?”  Based on the day, this core lesson may only be 10-20 minutes in length or it may be two or three 5-7min recordings; this is your choice.  You could choose to capture these core lesson components in a pre-recording (Alt-Method 2) or you could choose to make these recordings in the classroom with your students present (Alt-Method 1). 

If you do choose Alt-Method 1, this is not hard to do.  You simply let the students know you will be turning off their microphones and putting yourself in the spotlight layout for a few minutes as you teach a core learning concept, skill, strategy, or technique.  By turning off their mics and putting yourself in the “spotlight”, you will not capture students’ video images or voices in the recording.  Whenever you are finished with the short recorded direct-teaching element, click to end the recording, and un-mute your students’ microphones so you can begin interactive learning once again.  After a few trials, this can happen with ease. 

NOTE:  Some teachers planned on doing this before we made Alt-Method 1 an option as they thought it would minimize disruptions and maximize clarity of the core of a lesson.  Student questions can begin right after the core lesson component is taught.  Moreover, if you had more than one core learning component for any learning block, you could choose to record more than once.  You will receive codes from Google to post to your classroom for every recording you make; it is fine to post more than one recording for any one learning block.

YES.  If you choose Alt-Method 2, you simply let the students know you will be turning off their microphones and putting yourself in the “spotlight” layout for a few minutes as you teach a core learning concept, skill, strategy, or technique.  By turning off student mics and putting yourself in the “spotlight”, you will not capture students’ video images or voices in the recording.  Whenever you are finished with the short recorded direct-teaching element, click to end the recording, and un-mute your students’ microphones so you can begin interactive learning once again.  After a few trials, this can happen with ease.  Question and answer time can begin as soon as you stop recording and unmute student microphones.

You can do this multiple times within a learning block if you feel that it makes sense to do so.  You will receive codes from Google to post to your Google Classroom for every recording you make; it is fine to post more than one recording for any one learning block.

 

Yes, but you do have to be very careful.  Students are relying on this pre-recording to be what YOU taught during the learning block.  If you choose to take this approach of sharing the responsibility of pre-recording with your colleagues, then you need to check to make sure that the pre-recorded lesson adequately captures the core of what you taught and the techniques you taught students to use when you taught the lesson in real time.  If it does, then there is no problem. 

However, you may find that you have to augment the first pre-recorded lesson with an additional few minutes of a recording of you providing extra guidance or more clarity; this should be no problem.  You would simply post two recordings for that learning block – the first one made by your colleague and the second one containing an additional few minutes prepared and recorded by you. 

The Superintendent approved the new document that outlines three methods available to teachers for recording in Google Meet.  It is now posted as a Teacher Guidance Sheet on the Virtual Educator webpage.  As is noted there, additional support materials will be added to the site by 9/13/20 that offer more details to teachers who may have questions about each of the methods. 

We do expect all teachers to begin recording on Monday, September 14, 2020. 

What can they do short of asking for a printout from the principal?

If Triple EEE teachers or Media Specialists have school-wide access in PowerSchool (many already do similar to Reading Teachers), then they can use the ST03 report described in directions we posted on the virtual educator - https://www.aacps.org/cms/lib/MD02215556/Centricity/Domain/1767/Admin%20Audio%20Video%20Prefs%20in%20PS%209_5_20.pdf.  Of course, the office staff and administrators can provide that information to those teachers as well.

If not, the principal can request that they be granted school-wide access to PowerSchool.  As part of that permission, teachers will have to complete a training video that is required before we grant school-wide access.  Teachers can contact their principal and then principals can contact Jeff Haynie’s team to request this access. 

The answer isn’t a simple yes or no.  

If the teacher thinks that a student without permission to be recorded has been recorded, they should check the recording.  Just because a student turned on their camera doesn’t mean their image/voice was captured and recorded.  If the microphones were muted and the teacher had the layout in “spotlight” mode, then it is highly likely that the recording can be posted as most likely no students’ video images or voices were captured.

However, if the student who isn’t permitted to have their video image and/or voice captured, actually has their image and/voice caught on the recording, then the teacher will not post that recording to their Google Classroom. Instead, the teacher will post a note in their Google Classroom that explains that no recording is available for that period for the given day.  The teacher may have to post a short description of the content and assignments that were provided during the period to support those students who were absent. 

Please visit the Teacher Guidance Sheet titled “Recording and Posting Google Meet Sessions”  on the Virtual Educator website, in column I under Fall 2020 Teacher Guidance Sheets.

An additional link under this document in the Teacher Guidance Sheet list will tell you our Why behind recording, how to tell whether each student in your class can be recorded or not, how to support students to turn their microphones and cameras on and off, how to record and post the recordings to support student learning. 

Please follow the guidance in this document to review and update the forms related to recording in Google Meet.

Please take student attendance once during the morning block each day.  IDD will be sending directions about how best to do this within the week of 8/31/20.  It is important to note that you will not have to take attendance during the afternoon block, but could monitor afternoon block student attendance/engagement informally using Google Classroom.  If there is pattern of afternoon absence established by a student, please reach out to the student’s parent/guardian letting them know that the expectation for every student is for them to attend a full day of school (AM and PM learning blocks).  If the pattern continues, please notify the school counselor and administration as we would do for any student who is habitually absent from school.

As was true in brick and mortar schooling, if a student has a doctors appointment or must be absent for any reason or is returning from an absence with a note, we will have a process to handle these requests/responses.  IDD will be sending the process for accepting and coding absentee notes within the week of 8/31/20.

Yes, students who absolutely cannot log into the virtual live-learning, may be able to log into their Google classroom to view the lessons and complete their assignments in the evening hours.  We hope that most students will be able to participate in the real-time learning and that those who need to miss virtual live-learning time will only do so infrequently.  The whole school experience, including live academic teaching, Circle Time, Cultural Arts, Tools for Success time, and Academic Flex time where students receive extra learning support, will all be missed if students are unable to join the virtual live-learning time.

During the week of August 31, 2020, we will post an application for families who must, due to their unique circumstances, have their students on an Alternate Attendance Plan as described above.  Check back on this site during the week noted if you are in need of an alternate attendance plan for your student. 

During Student Wellness time in the schedule, students will have the opportunity to learn and practice wellness strategies which support social, mental, and physical wellbeing. Through use of the Mindful Choices Curriculum, students will explore mindfulness techniques, breathing strategies, and focused movements that can be used to overcome stress, anxiety, negative thinking, and frustration. Providing students with healthy coping strategies will increase their ability to handle stressful situations and academic challenges.

Tools for Success is designed to support students in gaining critical academic soft skills to maximize their potential for success during virtual learning. Students will enhance their ability to organize academic assignments, manage their time effectively, and utilize study skills to independently navigate and balance their time.

We would like principals to select a pair of teachers who complement one another to be assigned to the Building Community, Student Wellness, and Tools for Success courses. Each group of students will have two teachers.  If either is absent, there will be no need for a sub for this block.

Administrators can assign teachers to committee work. There is meeting time available in mornings and afternoons for this purpose.

This is a challenging question.  Students have 90 min of virtual learning/week per class that we have to make the most of at this time.  We have compacted the curriculum so students are able to receive the major concepts and skills needed to move on to the next course in the sequence.  We will monitor this issue as students move throughout the fall semester in the sequenced-based courses.  We do recommend considering a flipped classroom so students may watch the video lesson/concept at home and be more engaged in the discussion or problem solving during virtual learning block.

 

We are planning to have school-based subs who are more apt to be able to step in meaningfully to sub due to knowing more of each school’s students.  However, we will also ask that each teacher records at least one lesson that can easily be played by the sub for when a teacher must be out in an emergency.  Video lesson sub plans or sub plans with links to video directions for students will help us move instruction forward even when the teacher must be absent from school.

This is allocated time for Special Educators, ESOL teachers, resource teachers, magnet teachers, and intervention teachers to meet with general educators to discuss the support of students.

Academic Flex time is time specifically allotted to reinforce difficult concepts and skills, provide support to students working through problems, offer extra support to students stretching to learn how to apply their new knowledge, and provide extensions for those who are ready to broaden their understanding.  Academic Flex time blocks will be teacher facilitated unlike most study halls.  This is real-time instruction offered by a teacher.

Academic Flex is also time for small group instruction for English Learners, time for students who need extra Reading instructional support, time for Special Needs students to receive specialized instruction or services, and time for ALPs students (elementary)  who are studying William & Mary or advanced mathematics.  In most elementary schools, teachers will regroup students at each grade level for Academic Flex so that all students have a teacher to facilitate the time to offer them what they need academically.

Academic Flex time is required at the elementary and middle school levels; attendance will be taken.  At the high school level, students will be given opportunities to choose what to focus on during Academic Flex time.  They will attend sessions of courses where they need academic support or are seeking academic enhancement.  Academic Flex time is highly encouraged, but optional for high school students.

We are working strategically to try to bring back small numbers of students in our Developmental Centers, our CAT Centers, and small numbers of ESOL students.  In-person learning for these students is planned in phases beginning with phase I in mid-September.  Each subsequent phase will be rolled out based on the health and safety of students and staff and the success of each previous phase.  As we move to ready students and staff for each phase, we will poll the students and staff in question to see their readiness level for a return to in-person learning.

Each subsequent phase will be rolled out based on the health and safety of students and staff and the success of each previous phase.  Eventually, we will be bringing back elementary, middle, and high school students into a hybrid learning environment as it is deemed safe to do so.  As we move to ready students and staff for each phase, we will communicate with families and staff members throughout the process.

Additionally, here is the Superintendent’s and Health Officer’s letter dated 8/28/20 that addresses the Governor’s 8/26/20 press conference where the reopening of school’s was discussed.

We are using Second Step lessons for the Building Community Block in middle school.  The MS Building Community Block does not require a special folder for Second Step.  Rather, teachers should access those lessons on the Second Step website.  Advisory Committees (School administrators, teachers, and counselors) at each middle school collaborate on the lesson sequence.  Further, the Community Building Circle questions come out of the Advisory Committees as well.  School administrators should be working with their Advisory Committees to house this information for easy access by teachers.

Each high school has a point of contact for the Community Meeting block who was given direct access to the Student Wellness/Community Meeting Google Drive.  The point of contact for each school is then responsible to share with their school (teachers) any resources from this drive. 

For Community Meeting block, schools trained in Restorative Practices (RP) were directly emailed the Restorative Practices-Community Building Circle Resources to get started virtually.  Similar to the Middle Schools, the school-based team should share resources with the staff.  For schools not yet trained in Community Building Circles (CBCs), suggested virtual team building activities are provided in the Google Drive.

Schools Trained in CBCs: Arundel HS, South River HS, Southern HS, Chesapeake Science Point, Glen Burnie HS, North County HS, Phoenix Academy, Crofton HS (Virtual), Chesapeake HS, Old Mill HS, Mary Moss @ JAA

Schools Not Trained in CBCs (Yet): Northeast HS, Broadneck HS, Severna Park HS, Meade HS, Annapolis HS

NOTE: Schools not trained in CBCs have resources for virtual team building in the Google Folder – one per week

The second part of this Community Meeting block is designated for school-based lessons, so those would come directly from the school team responsible for preparing lessons or activities.  This may be a school-based Advisory Committee, PBIS Team, School Improvement Charter, etc. and shared with staff accordingly.

Students are in a single course for both of these blocks with two assigned teachers.  It is expected that both teachers will be present and actively participate in these blocks.  You should give assignments – mostly ones that can be done together in class, expect work to be done, and grade work.  However, students will only earn a S or U for this course. Basically, we are seeking participation and engagement. This class should not add significantly to a student’s time load after hours.

Please review the Google Meet – Best Practices sheet.  This document offers the Do’s, Don’ts, and Considerations for teaching via Google Meet.  This is a very worthwhile matrix sheet to review.

There are indeed some best practices for setting up a well-organized Google Classroom for your students.  If you are a teacher of young elementary students, these best practices will also help your students’ parents navigate your Google Classroom with greater ease. 

Please take some time to review the two resources below to see what steps you may want to consider taking to strengthen the organization of the materials, resources, and assignments in your Google Classroom.

• Google Classroom Considerations, Do’s, and Don’ts
• Organizing Information & Assignments in Your Google Classroom

You, the teacher, are key to assisting your student. There are two options for you to help your student get access to your Google Classroom:

1. You can enroll your child directly into your Google Classroom.  When your student goes to log into Google Classroom they will see your classroom.  They will simply click on the classroom and they will be able to “enter” your Google Classroom.
2. You can give the initial code to your student again and it will still work.

 

Please NOTE: 

1. Please do not generate a new code for the student who lost the initial code you gave him.  If you generate a new code, sadly the old code will no longer work for any of your students.
2. Please do not tell your student or their parents to call the help desk or the number to ask for a password reset.  You, the student’s teacher, are the only person who can help your student access their Google Classroom.

Google is providing every AACPS educator Google Voice during this time away from school.  This means that you have received a Google Voice phone number.  Teachers/Administrators can use this number to reach out to students and parents.  This allows for educators to contact families from home without the ability for families to see their personal phone numbers.

Educators can also give this Google Voice phone number out to parents/students for them to use to contact their student’s teacher.  There is a voicemail hooked to these phone numbers so the teacher can access the after-hour messages left by students/parents when they begin their next school day. 

We are asking teachers to make calls only between 8am and 6pm. Before 8am and after 6pm, teachers should not call students.  Teachers should not answer their Google Voice number before 8am nor after 4pm; allow calls to go to voicemail.

Go to ClassLink to the Google Tile that says, “Introduction to Google Classroom, Meet, and Voice for Teachers” to learn how to use your Google Voice phone capabilities.  You will also be shown how to use Google Voice in the PD sessions most of you are enrolled in this week.

This Google Meet Microphone & Camera Infosheet can be used inside your Google Classroom with  students and parents.

If you are sharing a resource from your content area Shared Drive, you must make a copy of that resource (including videos, PDFs, and other documents that students will just view).

These directions will help you make a copy of Shared Drive resources. Never open a file and copy the web address that appears across the top. This does not share the file with others.

The 4 club meeting times per week at middle and high school levels are very important for students to be able to socialize.  The sessions are designed to eliminate student isolation and offer an opportunity for students who have little socialization opportunities with peers at home to have a place to do so while also offering them a chance to explore a passion or just have fun with a topic of their choice. 

No secondary schools should be supporting teachers to offer less than the four clubs. We built planning time into the schedule for teachers as well as meeting and duty timeslots.  This club time is teacher duty time that we have allocated for clubs for students; we really need this to be implemented as designed.   

NOTE: Teachers can offer different clubs over the four days.  They do not have to offer the same club all four days of the week.  For example, they can offer one club on Monday and Thursday and another club on Tuesday and Friday.

There is no specific list of clubs, however, the list of clubs may provide a starting point for your thinking.  Importantly, the club should be something that a teacher enjoys doing and could interest students in doing.  Moreover, you can switch clubs each quarter if you wish or if student interest begins to dwindle.

Similar to how teachers are expected to plan and implement lessons in the in-person environment, we expect teachers to creatively use our curriculum guides and resources to plan, development, and implement lessons in the virtual learning arena.  Moreover, you are expected to choose the assignments and due dates associated with your lessons.  We have asked that you do not over burden students with homework, however, it is your choice as to what and when assignments are made and when they are due.  Ultimately, the final deadline for all weekly assignments is Sunday evening at 10pm.  We have chosen this time due to the number of students who are not able to log into daily live lessons.  They must be given time to finish the assignments they are working on during the evenings or on the weekend days.

The information was sent to Elementary Principals and should be available to teachers.  There will be a bank of materials and resources ready for Monday, September 14^th.  It was noted in the email from Assistant Superintendent, Michele Batten, that during this week our Tools for Success time in Elementary Schools can be used to get to know our youngest students and support them becoming confident users of the buttons, tools, and links in the virtual environment. 

Guardians at the elementary level and students or guardians at the secondary level can reach out through their teacher or school administrator (Assistant Principal or Principal) to request that their “preferred name” is on file in the system.  It is this “preferred name” that will be used on Google Meet for all virtual learning sessions this fall. 

Please contact your school administrator to ask that the student’s preferred name be logged as soon as possible.  You are correct in thinking that this should occur and it should be handled as soon as possible – the same day, if at all possible. 

Students are in a single course for all three of these blocks with two assigned teachers.  It is expected that both teachers will be present and actively participate in these blocks. You should give assignments – mostly ones that can be done together in class, expect work to be done, and grade work.  However, students will only earn a S or U for this course. Basically, we are seeking participation and engagement.  This class should not add significantly to a student’s time load after hours.

Students are in a single course for both of these blocks with two assigned teachers.  It is expected that both teachers will be present and actively participate in these blocks.  You should give assignments – mostly ones that can be done together in class, expect work to be done, and grade work.  However, students will only earn a S or U for this course. Basically, we are seeking participation and engagement. This class should not add significantly to a student’s time load after hours.

Middle School teachers should take period attendance in all periods. They will however, take attendance in Google Classroom for Building Community, Student Wellness, Tools for Success, and Flex Learning Time.  Teachers will report attendance in Power School for all other periods of the day.