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Elementary SLDA Parent Meeting

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all right well welcome everybody we have a few families and we have some teachers on the line at for elementary parent meeting for the Southlake Digital Academy I want to welcome you to a new school year I'm John Cena on the director of curriculum and director technology for Southlake schools so we've been busy all summer prepping things for your and for your teachers to start a new school year we thought it was important if we made some significant changes to our virtual option to have a parent meeting and kind of go over what he change and what the expectations will be going into this upcoming school year in Southlake Digital Academy so I got a PowerPoint that I'm going to go through at the end of the PowerPoint if anybody has any questions we will open it up and allow anybody to ask any questions they may have traceable I'm get right into this and I guess I will just say I see in the chat that I want to make sure mrs. Dorothy's that is it Keir says hello to mrs. dorta so he's probably excited to see his teacher from last year I'm guessing alright cell Southlake dental academy for the 2021-22 school year just want to welcome everybody hopefully everybody had a great summer and Ezra did you start back to school next week Tuesday we have made a number of changes to the south of digital academy in response to feedback that we heard from our Educators in the spring so that can improve on what we're offering and he'll be able to meet the needs of our families that you know may have a medical condition or some other reason why they don't feel comfortable attending First Alert I just want to do an overview first of all of the slda model so the slda model is going to be live synchronous instruction that is the same as what we did last year but we have to recognize that we don't have nearly as many students that are virtual this year as we had last year this year we have actually you know only about a hundred hundred students call that are that are virtual so the S I'll be a model is alive synchronous model at the elementary level attendance will be taken twice per day once in the a.m. and once in the p.m. and this year we're going to utilize a camera and audio I'm in the regular classroom so something that parents will have to understand and students will have to understand is that teachers will be teaching students in front of them and student and virtual students at the same time so we will have a camera and audio system in the regular classroom on the camera you see pictured is what's known as a PTZ camera it stands for Point tilt and zoom on that will be installed in the ceiling audio system so that the students can hear and the teacher will have a microphone so that the students the virtual students will be able to hear what the student or what is going on in the classroom so there will be virtually in students in the same class virtual students will connect through Microsoft team just like they did last year the teachers are going to create meeting rooms for students and they are going to post them either in there eulogy course or in their csoc course we're encouraging that they they have like one meeting that the students will always go to and they will go to that meeting I'm at their regularly scheduled time for instruction the virtual students will follow the same schedule as in-person students and receive the same instruction of the advantage to this is that if a virtual student you know decides that they want to come in person we can transition them are you in person learning very easily without any disruption and they will not have to change their teacher as was different than last year one of the issues that we ran into last year when families would move from virtual chat in person they would typically have to get it a new teacher which is problematic for the student in the family one thing I want to highlight is you know through the slda model we are not offering specials with our special features and we don't have the technological Tina building do that so there are periods of time where the students live person students will be going to a special and the teacher will have their . tell me virtual students won't have anywhere to go okay in particular I know that misses the cook has a special first thing in the morning sell first thing in the morning her kids are going to go to their 5th grade special and then the virtual students are going to connect with their classroom as soon as that special is over I think it's at like 8 5855 Selby the cook will communicate that I know that mrs. craft has like one hour with kids or should the kids eat breakfast and then she's going to start her math lesson and then they are going to go to a special spell the kids will connect I'll spend a little bit of time with the classroom with mrs. And then the the in-person kids will go to the special and then we'll have her. And then the kids will come back and we'll talk a little bit more about specials for on Virtual kids a little bit presentation but I just wanted to put that out there right away that under this model there will be some in gaps where the students aren't necessarily connect did live to the classroom during that special . and during lunch and recess so you wanted to go over some parent responsibilities overall you know what we're asking for parents and this was kind of outline in the application that you would have filled out is we need you to provide your child with a quiet place to work without any distractions an adult must monitor you try route to school day it doesn't necessarily have to be the parent but there has to be an adult in the room if you know we can't allow their young children to be at home by themselves. We are asking for parents to partner with your child's teacher you know that their students growth and learning and you know be a mentor and Coach your student to get their work done another thing that is a pair of responsibilities there are periods of time where we have mandatory testing some of that testing is dictated by the state of work sample we have to test all children with a benchmarking assessment you know every year we use the nwea map test for that so there will be a fight all nwea map of winter nwea map and a spring nwea map on. Where the parents will have to bring their child in for that required tests you'll talk to your teacher and you're building princess Opera specifics about the schedule we also do a reading assessment of dibels so there will be a time where you will have to bring your student in so they can get their deals pass is a one-on-one components as well as as well as I V your 5th grade A days that can be done at you know great quickly it will have somebody available in the in the building to help facilitate that and then of course the m-step test which occurs in April and May we'll have to come in to take the m-step test and then the last thing we're asking appearance is just to be understanding the use of this technology will be brand new to all of your teachers we will be supporting but technology issues will happen I know that we'd lost internet in the district I think two or three times last year you know we have put things in place to try to mitigate that we try to keep our Network up as much as we can but if you know the district rule of power of we lose Internet you know your child will obviously not be able to connect a classroom so just be understanding of those technology issues they will happen we will work through them and we will work with you and teacher responsibilities in a teachers are going to be providing instruction to in-person and virtual students at the same time so it will be a bit then what we had last year where we had a teacher behind the laptop and they were just teaching virtual students they didn't have kids in front of them this year they will have kids in front of them they will have to still walk around the room and monitor those children interact with your children just like they normally do you know but you have to understand that they also will be walking around the room they won't be sitting in front of your laptop watching that screen at all times get that person so they will be posting all work in schoology for 3rd through 5th grade students for the virtual skin to access on for the case you're too we have purchased a more lower elementary LMS of seesaw the teachers will be using and then you know the future will be reviewing all the work and spillage in providing feedback to students to help them learn and grow and you know teachers are going to partner with you to ensure student growth and learning responsibilities I'm sure there's some students that are watching this right now but I know where is you know so we have the responsibilities of four students your number one they need to be engaged in learning you know the whole purpose of offering this is to make sure that we are meeting the needs of our and if they are being successful academically and emotionally and you're going to be you know healthy and happy adults a secondly that you know they're going to have to keep your iPad camera on as directed by the teacher with a blurred background invisible on screen one of the issues that we heard from our teachers last year you know we struggled with you know students you know laying in bed and not paying attention you know not being in a spot where they could be monitored and seen by the teacher as well as things going on in the background that were distracting to other students have to remember that there will be in person students in the classroom so you know we have to make sure that everybody is engaged and that not distracting other students apparently they're going to need to fully charge your iPad each night the important this is going to be their connection into the classroom it doesn't do us any good if the iPad dies after an hour or two hours that I've had used to last for significant portion of the day of I would you know keep your students had asked where they can Eva keep the device plugged in and then we're also going to ask you no proceeded to keep their microphone muted and less speaking with the class so if the student has a question because I'm using the microphone and say hey mrs. craft I have a question that audio will pipe through directly into the classroom with all the students in that class from here at this also means that if someone is in the background vacuuming the living room or smoke detector goes off if that microphone isn't muted the entire class will hear it for asking students virtuous to keep their microphone muted and less speaking with the class there will be times where the teacher will ask the virtual Studio or Rachel students questions and then you know they'll direct them hay unmute your mic and answer the question so that so that they can participate in class they will have to work independently as directed by the teacher we need them to stay organized and stick to a regular routine I was just a regular bedtime brushing your teeth stay on a schedule and we need to do this to demonstrate academic success a regular attendance Christian struggle with learning in the virtual environment you know we may require them to return in person letting you know we have to have students we have to ensure that our students are learning and the students need to be there regularly they need to be participating in it may need to be showing progress academically your teacher is obviously going to work with you as the parent and the student and be our partner you know if you know students can't stay Gage and they really struggle with that we may have to make the decision to require them to return in person but just like last year we are going to be using teams spell Microsoft teams as you saw earlier from the outside can't access our teams pennant we do that on purpose because we don't want I'm sure all of you have heard of Doom bomb and I'll people from outside organizations coming in to meetings and dropping things we have policy set in place that only students and teachers in our organization and access our meetings we do keep students safe and disruptions at a minimum that's why we're on Zoom this evening so teachers will provide a link to the classroom teams meeting they will either provide that Lincoln schools provide that link in seesaw we're and they will probably also email it to your student email account so that they have easy access to it at the appropriate time since will connect to the classroom according to the regular school schedule so wasn't that be 845 Avalon or 8:30 at Elmwood or if the schedule is slightly different because of a special students will connect and disconnect to one meeting do students will need to have a camera on and be visible on the screen at the beginning of each school day for attendance purposes and any other times directed by the teacher so the teacher asked the students to turn their camera on and have them I mean be a blurred we don't want things going on in the student background to be distracting that's why we're asking them to blur their screen that will be important so that the because I will see them sometimes teacher protector and sometimes on a second monitor we want to make sure that everybody is staying focused on learning I just wanted to quickly show parents and how to do this let me so I got three screenshots I did last night the first one this is inside of a team meeting on an iPad when the student hit these three ellipses right here at brings up to dishel menu one of the options in the additional menu is background effects in this the third one from the bottom 1 students I'm in the meeting they're going to hit us up the window right here and we want students to select this option need to select the blur then once I hit and you'll see the difference between your pictures that are in like I'm in the area and you can see that they are blurred out there are other Virtual Boy how's that are available to students your teacher will likely ask students not to use those virtual backgrounds as many of them are quite distracting a bunch of balloons in the background or do you know unicorns with rainbow some teachers may allow students to do that but we are at least just asking for students to blur their backup schoology all assignments for students in third through fifth grade will be posted in schoology by teachers and submitted to teachers by students so one of the key features of your child iPad what is the OneDrive if they are doing something if they are doing something you know paper and pencil they can complete that they can complete that assignment maybe it's a worksheet a drawing that they had to do anything that they are doing that is non digital of the students pull up their OneDrive app there is a camera icon in the OneDrive app and it allows them to scan their work as a PDF I'm into their OneDrive and then they could submit it directly in schoology something that will be working with the students on teaching them how to do I will be taking some videos from how to videos and some step by step directions for the air balloon important skill for students and parents to have a baking dish network to their teachers four came through to the assignments will likely be in in seesaw we did purchase seesaw for key through two teachers this was my teacher request teachers of told us that for the very young students of the Seesaw LMS is much easier for them to use on the schoology is but I also know you know what a point out that if I got you with confidence say that parents will also to pick up materials and supplies at the school on a regular basis and met with some of our teachers today. Make sure we plan on providing parents with supplies I'm either on a weekly basis or on a biweekly basis and so that will be important for parents to pick up the supplies so that students have what they need to participate in the education everyday won't do any of us I'm any good if students don't have what they need to participate in school you talked about this one other time but required in person testing like I said we give the Devil's Pass in the fall winter and spring we give the nwea test in the fall winter and spring so your school will be reaching out to you to schedule a time for your skin to come in and take those April and May we have our regular m-step testing as required by the state of Suits will have to come into the building to take the m-step test as well special now specials will not be offered synchronously to Virtual students to South Lake teachers we do not have the technical capability of doing that family can request for the district to provide an Archer music special to a third party so the online vendor would provide an online teacher and students with complete work independently while the rest of the class has been there in person special but this would be outside of what they're doing with their class on an everyday basis we are recommending that families wait until like the end of the end of September to gauge how online learning is going before requesting an online special there will be periods of time are you still have the other kids are are eating lunch and your student will need to be eating lunch and having recess there is a 50-minute special for the in-person students everyday you know your students may need to catch up on other work that they were unable to get done technical difficulties or anyting anything like that we are not requiring the family engage in special we are going to provide it at the family's request so if you are interested in him your child participate in a special on specifically art or music we will purchase that on behalf of your child and are in your family and you can contact the school to kind of give us a gauge of where they are but we don't want it automatically enroll students in a special at this time just to see how you know they react and how they're in a meeting the expectations of the Core Curriculum before we add on additional work mustache with that we're going to open this up to questions I think I have loud people to mute the cells if you have a question you can either type it in the chat or you can unmute yourself and speak to the group I have a question this is my cell and I have a 5th grader that'll be very true as far as the specials I do understand the situation as far as not having the new technology available in those areas a special kind of went during you know Cobra the initial impact of it like they kind of provided that information in schoology as far as like under whatever that specific one was whether it was all right or Jim or whatever it was they kind of just uploaded like a little video for them our lord gave them different options for that so is that not an option for the the staff there to upload that information or is it just going to be going through like a third party if we need that I'm sorry, so if if not and we do decide to go with his third party or ask him if we don't decide to do like the third party you know what whatever they're trying to offer will my child be hindered or negatively impact it because this wasn't an option at the initiation of you know this version of online it will be hindered they just are going to let you know they are certainly going to miss out on I'm in Richmond you know that our specials are all in you know in Richmond you know kind of fun courses for them to participate in unfortunately we can't do what we did last year because last year our specials we didn't offer specials 5 to anybody you know we only did that auction will this year the the special teachers will be teaching the in-person students and they'll be pushing into classrooms and there's a lot of movement so that's why we can't offer it synchronously just like we are with the with the regular classroom so the only option we have at this point is to purchase a special through a third party yeah we know what Benders we can use for those so you know if you would like to do that we will certainly pay for it and there will be a separate online teacher that would work with your child and yeah but most of the work would be done it would be very similar to what our teachers did but it would be a lot of Southlake teacher going to be provided got to just to piggyback off that so I know that they didn't do like a video of the Chinos I'm just saying like how they uploaded it to schoology with it was like okay for gym for example it was just the thing goes like okay this is what we're doing this week so Monday Tuesday Wednesday was like a schedule base for them to do with then at the end they would turn into like a participation form or show proof that they did that so I get that they can't do the cameras or so that's not an option for them to upload you know what they're doing in person to the virtual world so they can still kind of turn in like a participation form like how they do last year you just I was just going with the third party. At this point we would be going to make that work with are because like I said our special teachers weren't teaching anybody in person so they were able to dedicate more time to do what you described but this year they'll have students in front of them for 7 hours a day so there's not any there's not any additional time to give them time to prep and to build all that stuff all right this is Herman  could you please show me what the in-person schedules are for fourth graders this year specials not schedule so fourth grade I believe has a special here hold on one second I think I can what's up I asked you might have it right on my computer I typed in the chat Jon those are the five special do we have in 4th grade yeah I don't think are you asking what the special are German are you asking what the schedule is I'm sorry it was supposed to read special so miss craft thank you I do see that John music PE in Spanish Spanish is new this it looks like because the internet yeah we when we reconfigure the building we we've always done Spanish Spanish was done at Avalon and capsule on when we work a 5 until 3 Burlington in Mandarin was done at the Elmwood when we reconfigure the buildings we we came down to just Spanish and then with covid-19 actually used our Spanish T20 user Spanish teacher as a regular classroom teacher cuz we didn't have enough enough staff with with covid-19 out so this year where we are bringing back Spanish as that as at Richmond but it is new to you but it's not new to this okay thank you I I was wondering I would Spanish be one of those options for a third-party curriculum or is it just music and art right now I know that I've got music and art I'm still kind of doing some research on on other specials that we may be able to offer what we would do if we would start the students out on like a music and art special and that would be the special that they would work with until they finish that course so rather than having rather than having five specials at week they'd work on one special by the time the reason we're looking at I mean that is it's easier for the student and for the family to manage and organize we often do that with with we all can do that with students that go fully online and we tried to give them too many classes at one time because it's it becomes overwhelming for them to to organize even at the high school level level on a fuel module thank you and I'm mrs. Brown Gibson offered when will special be offered to Virtual students you can request the special at this point we're kind of leaving up the family as we I am thinking that we want to give families at least a few that's why I put the PowerPoint that we're recommending that you wait until the end of September to request a special but that doesn't necessarily mean that you can't request a special now we just really kind recommend that you give your students a little bit of time to get used to this new virtual environments and and keeping up with their core content work before you decide whether they can handle that extra enrichment work that they will have to do hope that answers your question are there any of the questions I have another question. Are the specials the same time every day it's just a different special for the in-person students they will but it is the same time everyday but they are going to follow this is something that when we reconfigured that we we started last year and then with the reduced school day two kind of weird to reduce the school day in order to keep the enough to in order to Silo the kids and I find this the kids will have a special. The same special for 18 days and then they'll rotate through for the semester so now you know some kids will have art for 18 days and then look what a music for 18 days and let go to Spanish for 18 days of technology for 18 days and PE for 18 days that will take them to the first semester then if they the first semester that roll through that same schedule again this we believe will give our special features more time you know with you know working with students so they can use a project-based burning and things of that nature yeah that actually sounds really good I like that idea I was just wondering is it the same time every day so like the virtual students would they have this same time every day that they would be logged off from the classroom all that stop real quick that's what I what you fart I can you guys see this spreadsheet I hope you can says I'm still sharing my screen so this is the way that they schedule work so fifth grade specials will start at 8:45 and go to 9:35 so fifth grade older specials at the same time everyday so why we talked earlier about mrs. Cooks class they will start school at 8:35 and they will go immediately into the special so misses the Kooks like 5th grade virtual student really start the day until 9:35 when they come back because you know during this period of time students are coming in taking their coats off eating breakfast and then they go into their special so will give families I'm that's when a tenant will be taken is a mess and then you know the fifth grade will also have lunch here at 11:25 so they'll be lunch and recess in this. So they will connect from at 9:35 up until lunch at 11:25 and then they will come back from lunch and recess at 12:05 and then they will spend the rest of their date classroom fourth grade special starts at 9:35 so they will have an hour then they will have a gap they will come back and well really do have fourth grade and then they immediately go to lunch but I have the spirit of time here or they won't connected between special and lunch then they will spend the rest of the day after soon as lunch and recess is over they will spend the rest of the day in the classroom so we have if you look at the schedule we rotation and in this way all our teachers have a common planning any time so they can meet the needs of students better and as well as have lunch in there so essentially the virtual kids are logging gone then getting off for about roughly what two hours and then coming back to school I mean this this is why I so I understand the special it is for that I'm just sitting at cuz it's kind of just coming off as like the in-person children are more of a priority as opposed to just everybody kind of having that same priority status so I mean essentially like my kids the fifth grade so his teacher is mrs. Cook so that first hour and that first hour is a specialist or simply he's logging on at 8:30 and then for an hour not doing anything and then log back in for an hour to get back off for an hour for lunch so it just kind of seems as if like the virtual students are kind of getting lower hand up the deal at this point I guess I would push back a little bit on getting the lower hand they're going to get the same instruction is as all the rest of the students they just aren't going to go to their special you know but I mean even if they were you know all students have need a lunch. And all students needs recess time so that's built-in throughout the day your student would need a lunch time and recess time just like any other student would but they're still going to be participating in math science Ela you know reading all of that stuff it will be participating in an addition if if you so chose to do the the special with the third parties and during that first part of the day is when you're stupid work on that is that material going to be in line with what they're learning in person even though it's through a third party yeah it's an elementary music special so as you know it may not be the same that may not be the same part but it is still you know aren't Richmond sand and music in Richmond all right we have any additional questions it looks like mrs. Alicia raise your hands everybody I'm over at Avalon I said where I like if those you know those guidelines parents that they're not fulfilled in June seem to be struggling virtually we can bring them back in person yeah we did talk about that earlier slide make that point you know that virtual kids have been you know our job to make sure that students are learning and growing and if there if you're not learning and growing them then we may have to bring them back quite frankly hopefully over time you know this this situation in our society gets a lot better and you know to where you know families feel comfortable bringing their students back in person we know the Vesta the best formula the reason why we put this together it's very easy to if you look at some of the your surrounding districts in Macomb County they are offering a virtual option but it is Whitney asynchronous and is completely with teachers that are not their teachers this is our best effort at making sure that your children are part of the Southlake Community have a regular Southlake teacher and access to a teacher for the majority of the day I can tell you that you know if you were somewhere else you may get in contact you and get in contact with the teacher twice a week and the rest of the time the students will be working independently Elizabeth this is our best option at keeping your virtual students engaged in our school community and getting the the help and attention from so if your child is if they're returning to Virtual School this year from last and you are interested in the specials before the end of September is that also possible or do you you're just waiting for everybody to go at the end of September know you could you could request that you could just eat a sin and email to your child's principal said hey we'd like to start this right now we have a little paperwork to fill out we process it and make it happen Okay thank you yeah it's not a requirement you wait it's just a recommendation based on you know quite frankly I've spent a lot of years putting kids in online classes and I I can't tell you the number of times I put a student in fully online and buy I meant to have the family contact me a week later and say oh my Lord this is way too much in and then they come back into email they come back and rather quickly so that's why you know this is a big transition is different than what students experience last year so you know our recommendation is that you just give your child a little bit of time to get used to the new schedule and then and then bill on from there highest Jennifer I had a question again I think you've done a really great job I mean I agree with a lot of what you said regarding you know the time in the thought that's been put into this I can see that and I appreciate that I think maybe just with the specials maybe offering a little bit more that would be like really great I I was wondering like let's take you know a lot of us are here because of the covid play we get to a point where we're comfortable with our children returning to in class or in person learning how is that going to work is that going to be like just to call and they can start or do we wait till the next semester higher reason why we design our on our virtual program this way is because it it makes it very very flexible for you as a parent to bring your kid back into in-person weho hardly believe that in person instruction with our septic teachers are the best form of instruction that we can offer your children this allows if you were to call I didn't know what grade level your child is in I meant but I'm I'm going to assume that you are a 13 fifth grade parent if you were to call Mister finger up and say hey I changed my mind I feel more comfortable I know the district has a mask and a you know I want him to be my child to come back in person he would say great show up here tomorrow I swear if if we had chosen like I said a third party and we were paying a LinkedIn learning or or something along those lines you're kind of stuck for at least the semester because the district would have and a lot intuition and you know we didn't want families to be stuck the worst thing that could happen is for a family to decide we want to be online and then something changes and they can't make it they can't come back and play so the whole reason why we designed things this way was so that parents and students can make the decision if they feel comfortable to bring their kids in person right away thank you all right well if there's no I have another question this is Miss Allen again okay so as far as not missing out on those and I'm cuz I'm working from home at this point so I'm definitely going to be here to help him out like how it was before and I'm forced to go back to work so because the district has paid this money you do for me child to do these third-party specials and now I'm forced to go back to work until of course I will need him to go back to school so at that point he wouldn't be able to come back until what the the money that you got to pay for that semester runs out or like a ball with that be no quite frankly all I would tell you is the cost of the special we would not care about don't don't even worry about that at all we would bring your child back in person and we would eat the cost especially wouldn't give two thoughts about it what I'm talking about is if we have done the entire you know if we had done a third-party virtual option for the entire school where the district would be spending in $3,000 per kid that would be when when you know kids will be stalking them in a universal option I only say that because other districts in Macomb County are doing that and and their kid you know cannot change until they at the minimum the semester we've designed this cell that this is Alan if you suddenly have to go back to work and you feel comfortable with your child coming back into the school you can call us up and we can start your child back in person the next day that answer your question sure thing thank you one last question I'm sorry d specials I know you said they're going through a third-party if things go back to the up-and-up or say and my son is in the vert in the specials with a third-party does that if that transition back to the in-person specials or that you don't have to be all caught up with their teacher with their core classes how does that change up for them going back to school face-to-face with the specials and we would just bring them in and they will start participating in the specials and our buildings there really wouldn't be I mean we're not in the situation where any of our element horses are credit-bearing where we have to worry about you know we have to worry about did the kids are in a credit towards you know graduation specials are are really enrichment activities for students to help them well-rounded and socialize and grow so we would just bring the student into into whatever whatever special they are there class is participating at the time they were just transition right into that stuff okay thank you all right well I hope this was helpful I know we don't have a lot of parents on the line but I did record this I will post it to our website the other parents can refer to it if you guys have any other questions or concerns please feel free to reach out to your child's teacher reach out to your child's principal reach out to me you know my email call Jay Pharoah at solake.org we are here quite a bit so if you have questions you know we're here to make sure that we meet you are child and your family's needs so I hope you guys have a great rest and thank you for the very positive feedback in the chat we appreciate that

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