We are still settling into this strange new world, but our work has already begun in earnest to build the best possible learning experience for our students.
Some points for the coming week:
Thank you for keeping it going and keeping it Social Studies strong!
- FLVS - I have loaded FLVS for the groups who asked for it on the original sign-up sheet. If the WH/Grade 9 PLC wants to look at it, I will load you into the system and give you access to the WH materials. Please make a decision as a PLC and let me know. If you already e-mailed me, I apologize. I went through the spreadsheet I sent out previously and have not combed through e-mails for individual
- This evening I loaded the American History course into the US history teachers' courses. For some reason, only the US II textbook is available to us, not the US I. The state rep for FLVS said something to me about American History being "more comprehensive," before I could actually see anything. I guess this is what she meant.
- Loading students has to be done section by section, so it will take time. Once you decide to commit, let me know ASAP. We don't yet have training for kids. I'll get Malinda to work on that.
- Course size - we still are all over the place on course size. Nothing is small, but we have some sections are in the high 30s. I am working on this now. I am covering three sections right now and hope to get an actual LTS to pick two of them up and give us some relief elsewhere. The dept chairs likely will be creating a system of independent study/leadership/service to help with the extra credit crunch. For Social Studies, it will be dependent on another (at least part-time) body into the mix. You'll know in the next few days where things are likely to stand for the rest of the marking period. Once in-school is settled, we'll be able to look at leveling some of the other sections.
- PLC - CPT.
- We are working on deciding on the FA departmental CPT day. Yet again, FA CPT falls during the same period that I teach, so I won't be able to stay full periods with you, but we can Zoom for at least part of the period. Once the day of the week is chosen, Jill will let you know and we will begin to meet.
- Because there will be no "duties" -- at least at the beginning of the marking term -- you should be able to meet as PLCs more than once a week. For some of you that will mean it will be much more easy to meet with multiple PLCs to work on courses. We will go back to our pre-Covid reporting practices for CPT work. Focuses for the year include:
- Preparation of online-curriculum that is common and commonly used across the PLC.
- Archiving of digital material for the PLC on the departmental Google Drive.
- Re-creation of course curriculum maps taking into account the 2018 Frameworks, with online and in-person variants on the maps. I will create instructional materials around this.
- Ensuring equity across all sections of our courses, and between courses.
- Ensuring academic rigor that reaches into all students ZPDs.
- Communication with students.
- Some of you questioned the movement from Zoom to Meet exclusively. We brought that back to Mike -- some of you brought it directly to him -- and we discussed it further. You saw the outcome in his last memo about it. Things are changing quickly with many of our apps, so we will try to be responsive to the realities of what teachers are experiencing. At the same time all of us need to be very conscious of best practices for online safety. There are a lot of knuckleheads out there -- and we never know what will be triggering for kids during an already high-stress time in their lives.
- Please remember that we need to use multiple communications modalities to track down and contact students who have been lost to us since March and/or make an appearance and then disappear again. I've already experienced this as I am sure you have. If you have any questions about the many tools you can use, please reach out to Malinda. She has many good ideas. Jessica Lander also is a communications guru, as are Suzanne Riley, and Nate Kraft, to mention a few. Ask around and see what is working for other people. AND ASK STUDENTS TO TALK WITH THEIR FRIENDS. Leveraging our young people as conduits to students we cannot reach often yields fast results. Don't overlook that. Even if a friend of your missing student isn't in your class, often, someone in the class will have an idea about where to find them -- or you can broadcast an All Points Bulletin to other teachers of your students to figure out a likely student intermediary.
- IEPs & 504s. It is best for you to be aggressively proactive about IEPs and 504s. Remember that they are still in force and we must accommodate students with them. If you need help in interpreting and implementing an IEP or 504, contact me and I will help or else get Allyson Carbone or one of her specialists to help. She oversees IEPs, but can help with 504s, too. My practical recommendation is that you download all of the relevant IEP and 504 .pdfs to a common folder on your computer for quick reference.
- This is a .pdf of Monica Brady-Myerov's latest newsletter from Listenwise, in case you don't receive it. There is a good piece on whether current events belong in Social Studies classes. This might be a good conversation to have with your students. We believe they should, but it is worthwhile talking it through with your students to see where they are, especially given the protests, the pandemic, the election season, and a lot of news that should rightly unsettle even the most settled of us. As a reminder, our premium license has been removed. We should resume using it at least twice per marking period, either for current events work or as an integrated part of a lesson.
- In-person schooling begins tomorrow. So, a big shout-out to our three in-person teachers: Ann Bienvenue, Mike Crowe, and Mike Neagle.
- As always, reach out directly to me if anything comes up. If you need to redirect parent requests or frustrate, give them my e-mail. As many of you already know, it is best to text me for quicker responses. My e-mail queue is ridiculously long. 508-259-6973, if you don't already have it in your phone.
Thank you for keeping it going and keeping it Social Studies strong!