Taking Attendance:
Take attendance 2x per day: Once in the morning and again at the end of the scheduled live day. Students may enter for part of the day, enter after a session begins, or only be able to enter live instruction part of the time. Students who attend in a live session would be considered present.
When a student does not attend a live session, mark the student as pending (see below), and make contact with the student/family to verify attendance.
Verifying attendance:
- Make multiple (at least 3) attempts to contact the student or family through various modalities (phone, email, etc.)
- Inquire and explore how the student was engaged in or attending to a learning activity for the day, and what supports are needed for the student to participate.
- Develop a plan of support to ensure the child is connected, has access to materials if unable to join live sessions, and knows how to find Schoology work, videos, etc.
- Use ’family connection time’ in your schedule to make these contacts.
- If unable to verify attendance within 24 school-day hours, contact your attendance specialist and your school principal for support.
In Power Teacher:
For each student, enter one of the following in the attendance box:
-
A - Absent if you know they are not participating
- N - Nothing (leave blank) if you know they are participating
- P - Pendidng if you are unsure which one to enter; then verify attendance (see above) and update the record within 48 hours.
Admin Note about Attendance:
- We want to have a positive attendance system vs. punitive.
- The goal is to bring our students in and keep them engaged in the school community.
- Positive attendance will include, but is not limited to, live instruction, completion or participation with asynchronous activities, and any 1 to 1 or small group check ins or communications Use of Live Attendance, Schoology Analytics, Email/ Phone conversation and Schoology submissions are all useful tools for gathering attendance data.
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday
Synchronous Best Practices:
Before the Live Session
- Post a weekly general agena
- Create your meeting link with the naming convention:
- "Teacher Last Name, Class Period, Live Class"
During the Live Session
- Do not start the live class right away, give students a few minutes to get logged on. When students sign into your class, have a slide open with one or more of the following
- A "Do Now"
- A Learning Objective for the session
- A List of things students will need to have open or in front of them for the lesson
- A fun fact or community builder
- Consider having music when students log in o the meeting and giving students choice in the music
- Please do not police how a student shows up to class:
- For example, we will not require students to turn on their camera, dress a certain way, or do the meeting from a specific place in their home. View this infographic for more details and guidance.
- If students are leaving to do some individual or group work and then returning to the whole group live session, have clear expectations around timing.
- Consider leaving your meeting link open if students go off to do activities in case they need to return with questions.
- Prioritize activities that allow for students to engage in student discourse and sense making
- We encourage the use of breakout rooms and smaller groupings so students can have authentic connection
- Do not deliver more than 20 minutes of direct teaching instruction
Ending the Live Session
- End the live session with an optimistic closure and a clear outline of their tasks
- Have a "To Do" slide at the end with the activities students should complete in their asynchronous time and show them how to do this and where to submit
- Students should have an opportunity to do any work and community builders or SEL activities presented synchronously in another way
- For example, if a student is absent from class there is a suggested activity/make up that can be completed
- If you need to record a portion of your live lesson you could ask students to turn off their videos so they will not be shown in the recording
- Create an updated that explains what a student could do if they missed synchronous time and post at the end of the period
Example Synchronous Lesson:
This is just an example. It will be different for different classes, but notice that student interaction and relationship building is prioritized as the main portion of this time.
9:00am-9:05am: Soft Open - "Entry" Slide is up with something for students to do or write in the chat. Music is playing and you are welcoming students
9:05am-9:15am: SEL Check In Activity
9:15am-9:25am: Any of the following: Highlighting student work from asynchronous time, recapping last live lesson, grounding in Today's lesson, explaining tasks/modeling
9:25am-9:45am: Breakout rooms, individual work time
9:45am-9:50am: Share out, Optimistic closure, Asynchronous activity assigning
Asynchronous Best Practices
There are many ways that asynchronous time can be used:
- Clearly post the asynchronous activity instructions in the calendar, in a folder or as an update- make it predictable and clear where you will be posting and show students the activity in the live session
- Maintain availability during this time and have clear procedures for how students can contact you
- Will they email you through Schoology or Outlook email?
- Schedule 1:1 or small group for students with IEP/ 504/ ELL/ Academic Enrichment and AVID and other students that have been identified as needing Tier 2 support from your ongoing assessments. Be sure to coordinate with case managers to see if they will be supporting the small group or you will be.
- Schedule 1:1 or small group time for differentiation
- Asynchronous work should be able to be completed during the allocated 50-minute asynchronous time. There should be no “homework” on top of this time.
- Be creative with what ways students can show their learning. Learning output should not all be written.
- Record a video or narration/ audio file to show evidence of thinking and learning
- Use of draw or dictation tools
Wednesday
Advisory:
- For the first few weeks, consider taking the first or last five minutes of your advisory to give students a moment to view their calendar for Wednesday and ask any questions about their asynchronous tasks if needed
- Follow the Character Strong calendar Bethany emailed out
Small Groups:
- Purpose: Small groups with students that need tier 2 support based on your ongoing assessments
- We recommend looking at student work/ listening to their work/convos on Thursday/ Friday and decide with whom you want to check in with on Wednesday
- If you plan to meet with a student in a small group on Wednesday, share this on M/T in live class time
- Clearly post the small group schedule on your page in a predictable space
- Create a calendar invite for small groups and in description write who is meeting in the small group
- Only use time that is allotted for your period to decrease overlap
Asynchronous Activity:
- Build time in on Monday/ Tuesday to go over the asynchronous work that will be given on Wednesday
- Where to find it, how to do it and where to submit it
- Make a calendar invite for asynchronous work or an assignment calendar invite with description of activity students should be working on
- This is not the time to introduce something new: the asynchronous work should be focused on further practice of M/T curriculum or an SEL activity.
- Make the asynchronous activity
- Fitting of the time constraint (30 mins)
- Relevant
- Clearly posted
- Easy to find
- Predictable
- Some suggested activities
- A Forms Survey
- Discussion Board
- An exit ticket activity to review work from M/T
- Extra practice
- Reading
- SEL activity
Digital Citizenship for Students:
Work with students to establish what digital citizenship looks like in your classroom and clearly post it as a community agreement on a slide or on your page. Here are some examples of things to discuss:
- When to mute
- What is considered appropriate language/images
- Comfort level with camera
- Use of the chat: When and how can they write in it, what should it be used for
- When to use school technology vs. personal technology
- Changing name, background, etc.
Teaching Students Tech:
We will teach students technology ”modules” in different periods on 9/14-9/18, with action items for them to practice during asynchronous time. Extra support will be provided during tech office hours on 9/16. The modules will be available in a tech folder to be posted to your Schoology page.
- Schoology
- Calendar/events
- Where to find feedback
- Where/what they should check daily
- How to submit
- Teams
- how to add their pic for when their camera is off
- view options,
- hand raising, screen share, mute, chat, how to turn off banner notifications/sound
- Digital Citizenship Best Practices
- Changing Name
- Digital Footprint
- Being Safe Online
- Microsoft Outlook
- Accessing email
- Sending an email
- Checking email
- Creating folders
- Setting up notifications
- Using a Planner
- Digital Planner through Outlook or Schoology Calendar
- Physical Digital Planner
- Office 365 + Organizing Computer
- Creating folders
- Bookmarking/ Favoriting Websites
- Using PowerPoint and Word
- Sharing Work
- Saving Work
Resources will be provided to support each period in their “tech module”. There will also be community builders at the start of each period.