From Roger…
Dear Parents,
What a first week! We hope that during this week your student started to get a feel for what is to come in terms of content and style in their academic classes. We hope that they managed to log on, navigate Canvas, and start to settle in to some of the new “digital reality”! And most of all, we hope they started to make some connections with teachers and classmates before, during, and after our WebEx classes.
I have a few highlights from this week:
- Popping into a couple of classes and a couple of Crews and seeing students on WebEx… learning, laughing, and interacting!
- Our “Words on Wednesday” kick off where students attended our first all school community gathering on WebEx and we got the pleasure of hearing from a couple of our student leaders. Get ready for next week’s “Words on Wednesday”!
- Our “Week 1 Appreciation Padlet” that ended the week – check out the words of appreciation our students and teachers have for each other. Click above or on the image below to go to the Padlet site and read ALL the amazing appreciations!
Yours in Crew, Roger
ATTENDANCE:
Yes – we ARE taking attendance!
ATTENDING SYNCHRONOUSLY: Students are expected to be in their scheduled WebEx classes every day. Synchronous WebEx classes happen in the mornings on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Teachers take attendance and we expect students to REMAIN in class and engaged the whole time in order to be “present virtually”.
If your student misses one or more live WebEx classes they should email the teacher or you can call our attendance line so we can keep our attendance records accurate. Our attendance Secretary is Lisa Johnson and she can be reached at 541-355-5429
We also track students’ participation in Canvas during their afternoon asynchronous learning time. Students are expected to complete between 2-3 hours per day of asynchronous work (this will vary significantly by student and course load) in the afternoons/evenings and teachers can track this participation through Canvas Activity reporting function.
This week, the asynchronous work load was likely pretty small. This was intentional and designed to allow students to “find their feet”. You can expect the asynchronous load to increase in the next two weeks.
CANVAS FOR PARENTS
Canvas is our new District wide Learning Management System (LMS) that teachers and students will use every day for teaching and communication! Parents can download the app too and become an “observer” on your student’s Canvas account.
Parents: One pager on creating an Observer Account
Parents and Students: here is the District’s Canvas Help Page
UPDATED STAFF CONTACT LIST
We encourage you to reach out to teachers whenever you have a question or a concern! Recently, we discovered an error in our staff listing. Download our staff list here. Or view a web based version here
STUDENT SCHEDULE CHANGES
We understand that schedule changes happen! Our last day for schedule changes is Wednesday September 23rd! If you have a change request, you must let us know ASAP using this SCHEDULE CHANGE FORM
KEYBOARDS
We strongly suggest that students use a keyboard with their iPad and we have put them on our school supply list as a recommended item! Some students are also using a laptop or home computer to access Canvas, WebEx and their other school work. iPads are small!
We have a limited number if iPad keyboards that we can sign out to students! If you are interested, email [email protected] or call at 541-355-5500.
PARENTS – YOUR VOICE MATTERS!
Roger will be hosting a Parent Drop In WebEx to hear your impressions of the start of the school year, to answer your questions, and to gather your feedback. Our goal is obviously to ensure our distance learning program is rigorous, supportive, engaging and more! Please consider joining Roger on WebEx next Thursday September 24th from 5PM – 6PM. The meeting will take place in Roger’s WebEx Room…. stay tuned for an email with link!