Week Ahead: Feb. 22-26

First week back … and once again knocked it out of the park. Between Roxanne dropping into classrooms and me dropping into Zooms, we saw an amazing array of great learning experiences happening. Thank you for the work you are doing to create meaningful lessons in a virtual environment.

As I was browsing Days of the Year (as I do), I had to laugh when I saw that Thursday is actually Digital Learning Day. As we go through this coming week, since you will all be honoring Digital Learning Day, I am going to attempt to honor each of the days of this week with something that is an “official” day!

Here is what’s up next week:

Monday, Feb. 22
A-D Day
1:30-3 Sr. Admin Mtg
3:15-4:30 MS Leadership Team Mtg (agenda)

Tuesday, Feb. 23
E-H Day
9-10:00 Parent Online Session: Assessment (led by D Chadwell)

Wednesday, Feb. 24
*Happy Birthday Claire Elam!
Wellness/Consolidation Day
8-8:45 Virtual PD with Tom Schimmer
9-10:40 MS Assembly: Wellness Weds Choice Board and Advisory Check In
3:15-4:30 MS Divisional, library, focus = advisory

Thursday, Feb. 25
A-D Day

Friday, Feb. 26
E-H Day
7:30-8:00 Breakfast Club sponsored by Admin/Specialists

Upcoming (on the radar)

• Feb. 27-28 – Vietnam Tech Conference
• Mar. 1-5 – Season 3 ASA Registration
• Mar. 9 – Early Dismissal PD SSIS In House Institute
• Mar. 9 – Regular length day
• Mar. 25 and 26 – Student Led Conferences

Wednesday Assembly / Wellness Choice Board: We are working on a wellness activity for Wednesday! It is based on the previous wellness advisory sessions we have done before. Thank you to Kelley McKenna for all her work on getting this going! On Monday, we will have the activities finalized and will ask each of you to facilitate a “room.” Just a sneak peak, here are a few of the options we are working on:

• Murder mystery, Hogwarts Digital Escape Room
• Pictionary, Code Names, Charades and other games
• Doodling, Coding, Oragami
• Hip hop dance, creating playlists, read alouds

Student Support During Virtual School: We have begun implementation of the student support plan for virtual school. Here are your obligations in this process:

1. Keep your missing work information up to date daily in PS by 10:00 for assignments due the previous day; up to date Wednesday for previously marked missing work that has been turned in.
2. Review the appropriate check in document(s)
   • Tab 1 is the overall summary data; this includes all missing assignments from Q3 (Jan. to now)
   • Tab 2 is Cumulative Notes
   • Please check the docs now; you will check again on Thurs/Fri when the docs are updated with new information as well (Roxanne will email when they are updated and ready)
3. On tab 1, check to see if you have been assigned as a Virtual School Coach (column K)
   • Roxanne will provide directions for all coaches
   • Please note Virtual School Coach replaces the title Case Manager that we used last year
4. Add any relevant information on Tab 2, Cumulative Notes.
   • Things that might be added: not attending, not engaging, consistent issues with XXX
   • If there are academic honesty issues, please highlight those in orange
5. Active participation in Grade Level SOC

G6 VS Check-in Doc Q3 ’20-21

G7 VS Check-in Doc Q3 ’20-21

G8 VS Check-in Doc Q3 ’20-21

Ordering Lunch:  Please follow this link to order salads and hummus plates during Virtual school. It can be delivered to your room! Way to go Brian!

Traveling:  Before any travel outside of Ho Chi Minh City, employees must complete the SSIS Travel Questionnaire. This information may be requested by the Vietnamese government at any time, particularly if contract tracing is needed for a confirmed case of COVID. Please make sure you read and understand the SSIS Travel Guidelines and Quarantine Implications. If you have any questions, please ask WaiMun or Catriona. 

Important Tech Topics:
LMS Transition (PS Learning to Schoology): The EdTech team is completing the initial sandbox setup for Schoology so that we may be ready for full implementation starting next school year.  Please fill out this survey. It will help me guide our planning and training needs in the upcoming months.  Your feedback is appreciated…so much so that I am willing to offer something for your feedback (fill out the survey and see!)

Zoom Update (5.52): A simple reminder to update your Zoom regularly to the latest version.  They are always improving connectivity.  Click on your profile icon in the right corner of the Zoom app.  Scroll down to ‘Check for Updates’ and follow the prompts.

If you are finding students getting bumped out of your breakout rooms or not assigned to a breakout room then ask them if they are using the Zoom app on their computer and have them update their Zoom application.
FYI – as participants students can toggle between ‘Gallery View’ and ‘Active View’ when you are sharing your screen.  There is no way to stop them from watching their friends in class when they are supposed to be watching your presentation.  If they look distracted please remind them to be looking at the ‘Active View’ by going to the ‘View’ tile in the top right corner of the screen.

3 Polling Resources (PowerSchool Learning, Poll Everywhere, Mentimeter): PowerSchool Learning has a Polls Feature that you can use in your classes.A teacher can create one by adding a content block (Messages and Activities tab, Polls button)

Or, click the Activities tab and choose Polls.

Poll Everywhere  (Sign up for a Free Account – unlimited questions with 40 participants max)

Mentimeter
Import your presentation into Mentimeter and create the questions.  See restrictions for free account.