I recorded and uploaded this video before the District-wide announcement went out via email and phone…the written update is posted below the video, it is missing the weather forecast for today…

Good morning, I have a couple of updates for you today.  First off, if you responded to the first assignment, thank you.  I was receiving replies through yesterday. If you haven’t responded to the first assignment, you still can respond, there are only a couple of people I have not heard from yet.

Yesterday I pushed out the second assignment…almost immediately people started responding.  I have mixed responses from the group and that is okay. Some of you are ready to move on, some are a bit hesitant.  Again, that is okay. If you haven’t responded, you have plenty of time, no need to worry.

I want to address some of your concerns, especially the big one…a number of people are uncertain about starting back up, because they are unsure of where we left off.  Consider the new assignments as Day 1 of the course. I will not throw old material at you on a quiz or test, unless we cover from this day forward. So not being fully confident about the old material should not be an issue, please do not worry about it.  We are pretty much starting over…the only material you need to worry about is what will be coming out.

Also, I will not be quizzing you right away, we will be doing other various activities…not everyone has the same access to technology, which will make quizzes non-standard.  When we get to that stage, they will probably be open note writings, or something along those lines, but we are far from going down that path yet.

Back to technology, those of you that followed up with me, I passed that information on to Mr. Yates and Mr. Budacki.  If anyone’s situation changes or you start having technology issues, please let me or any of your other teachers know ASAP.  If you lose access, let a friend know and have them contact a staff member so we can address the situation.

Another concern was difficulty with topics or technology…once again, please do not worry.  We are going slowly for a reason, and we will continue to move at a comfortable pace until we are sure everyone can move forward without difficulty.  I will be posting video tutorials to help you remember how to use the various tools we use in class. I will also be posting tutorials and audio/video notes on the class content to help explain the topics.  It is important for you to give me feedback if you need more or different assistance. We have been doing that all year with the self-reflections, so you should be good and letting me know if we have to adjust things…zip me an email or message me in Edmodo, I am monitoring both.  Communication is important especially since we are no longer in the same room, but together we can successfully make this adjustment.

Staff is working on other forms of feedback to use with students, I will let you know about those once we have approval.

Thank you for the YouTube links, I am going through those and making playlists to share out.  Keep responding to the assignments, I am keeping track so we can use the information later. If we have any important updates in today’s virtual staff meeting, I will pass in forward to you.  If you have any questions, please email them to me or another one of your teachers.

Have a great day!