Week Ahead: April 20-24

Week 10 … well, that sounds substantial doesn’t it! 10 weeks of virtual school done and dusted. It’s truly phenomenal that we have a working virtual school running … and successfully running … in this time. I am so proud of the work you have all done, of the care you have shown students and families, and the continued excellence for which you strive.

So as we move into the next phase of our work, I think it’s time to take off the mantel of “emergency” and “crisis” thinking. We picked it up because we had too. But things are different now. Things are not urgent right now. Things are stable now. They aren’t normal, but they are stable. We have planned well, executed even better, and made thoughtful modifications as needed. This puts us in on a solid foundation to walk our way to the end of the school year – what ever that end looks like. So let’s set down the burden, the added stress that “emergency,” “urgent,” and “crisis” brings. We can confidently move forward at a slow, but steady pace, and maybe even stop to smell a rose or two.

Here is what’s up next week:

Monday, Apr. 20
Day 8, HEFG
Spirit Day: School Uniform
12:30 Tech Training: FlipGrid

Tuesday, Apr. 21
Day 1, ABCD
Spirit Day: Favorite Color Day
11:45 HOS All School Mtg
12:30 Tech Training: FlipGrid
2:00-2:45 SST Mtg

Wednesday, Apr. 22
Day 2, EFGH
Spirit Day: Green / Earth Day
12:30 Tech Training: FlipGrid

Thursday, Apr. 23
Day 3, BCDA
Spirit Day: PJ Day
11:30 Divisional Check In / Meeting
12:30 Tech Training: FlipGrid

Friday, Apr. 24
Day 4, FGHE
Spirit Day: Fancy Friday
7:30 Breakfast Club (zoom link on MS Faculty calendar)
12:30 Tech Training: FlipGrid
3-4:00 Virtual All School Happy Hour (link emailed and on MS Faculty Calendar)

Upcoming (on the radar)

• April 30, May 1: No school

When You are Sick: It’s no different than when we are in physical school … if you are sick, you don’t work! That’s right. Even in virtual land, you get to be sick and take the ENTIRE day to rest and get well. If you happen to be sick, please text Hang and Molly, then enter the leave in the HR portal. Just like with any illness, you are still expected to have a lesson posted and ready for students. The difference in virtual school is that we (the office) will email your students for you and let them know you are on leave for the day and will not be available for Google Meets. If the illness is significant and you are unable to continue to develop lessons, then we will work with you to get that done too.

New Platform Available – FlipGrid:  We are happy to add FlipGrid as an approved platform for MS. We are hoping that there will be a larger focus on speaking as we head into the final weeks of Quarter 4. Early returns from this week’s student survey shows that about 50% of students are only speaking English for 1-2 hours a day. Around 15% note that they can go entire days without speaking English. Here are the requirements for utilizing this platform:

• You may not launch this until I have been able to notify parents that we will be signing up students for this. I hope to do this on Monday.
• You must attend a mandatory tech training prior to using this with students (even if you have used FlipGrid before). These sessions are everyday next week at 12:30 with David Rynne
• You must do a “how to” lesson for your students prior to including FlipGrid in any lesson as an activity. This will be discussed in the tech training with David.
• You must use your SSIS ID as your account.
• You must start slowly and anticipate user error and a learning curve for students. If this platform becomes a stumbling block or road block to success, we will stop using it. So let’s work hard to ensure a successful (slow) launch.

Documentation of Prioritized Standards:  There are two ways you can document what has been adjusted for Virtual School. First, you can create a comment or note on the original unit plans that exist in the shared drive. Second, you can create a separate document detailing the new unit and then link it to the original unit plan in the shared drive. Third, if there was no existing unit plan in the shared drive already, include a section in the unit documentation that lists the “unused” standards. If you have questions, please see me or David Chadwell.

Edpuzzle Update: For those who use Edpuzzle (and those of you who would like to give it a try) – the upgrade issues have been resolved and you can now enter the PRO school code (upgrade code is f0uz29). How to sign up: https://link.ssis.edu.vn/tiki-index.php?page=Edpuzzle&highlight=edpuzzle
Please see the attached document for upgrade instructions. Contact David R if you have issues (with Edpuzzle).

Missing Work and Zeros A reminder that marking assignments collected/missing is to be done by 10am the day following the assignment being done. At that time, you also need to enter a 0 for all missing assignments. These 0s are placeholders that will help parents and students see the impact on their grades. If you would rather start with a 50% F mark, you can enter that instead of the 0.

VTC2020 Online Event: VTC has adjusted again! This is an excellent fREE professional development opportunity.

• VTC2020 – Distance Learning – Our New Virtual Reality!
• Saturday, April 25 from 7am-2pm
• Please see the website for more details: https://2020.vietnamtechconference.org/
• The workshop sessions can be found here; and you can sign up here
• Our very own Thomas Galvez will be presenting on “Formative Assessment with Online Tools” Click here to join his presentation.

Library Passwords and Accounts: From Claire – Since we are not on campus, it is even more important than usual to have the correct links, usernames and passwords. Attached you’ll find the database links and login credentials in a PDF, google doc and word doc format.
We also have a free subscription to the New York Times for SSIS. Follow these steps. Please see Claire’s email for all of this information.

Important Info at your fingertips:

Wellness Blog
SSIS Professional and Personal Travel Guidelines (COVID-19)
Travel Questionnaire
International SOS Travel Recommendations
Insurance update from Tie Care 

Virtual School Documents: Here are the Q4 Check-In Docs
G6 VS Check-in Doc Q4 19/20
G7 VS Check-in Doc Q4 19/20
G8 VS Check-in Doc Q4 19/20