Sept. 14: Blended learning schedule begins

Nov. 3: No Classes, Professional Development

Nov. 4-5: Parent/Teacher Conferences

We begin our blended learning schedule on Monday. Class will begin at 9:15 a.m. and end at 2:55. When learning remotely, students will attend via Google Meet according to the schedule below. I have explained to students that their experience from home might be a little different as we move to blended learning. We will still meet for lessons, but I will have students in front of me and will not be able to answer all questions immediately or troubleshoot tech problems right away. We discussed being independent learners and remembering to use the skills we talked about for resolving most tech issues. These can be found at the end of our Torrey Hill Family Tech Guide linked below. I will be implementing "Breakout Rooms" which will be explained to students next week. Students will be able to choose a google meet during independent work time based on level of need for support (teacher, peer, independent). More to come on this soon!

For any questions about Torrey Hill Technology, please see the Tech Guide linked below.

I've attached a color coded copy of our schedule for blended learning. Please note that it may still be tweaked slightly, but I'll notify you all of any pertinent changes.

Students will need to bring all items for learning to and from school each day. Unfortunately, we will not have access to lockers this year. Here is a list of important things to remember each day:

Students will be keeping ALL of the items below in their backpacks, which will be kept next to their seats. Please have them keep everything in their backpacks when working remotely at home as well for easy transport to and from school.

1. Charged chrome book

2. Headphones or earbuds

3. Mouse (optional)

4. Math and ELA notebooks

5. 3 folders

6. Pencil bag/box (pencils, markers, colored pencils, scissors, glue stick, pencil sharpener, highlighter)

7. Water bottle (NO DRINKING FOUNTAINS AT TORREY HILL)

8. 2 masks

9. Snack

10. Optional - it is quite cold in the building right now. A sweatshirt or jacket might be a good idea.

In order to prepare for next week, I have placed materials for your child in the Torrey Hill office. You will find a math workbook and language arts book. These will not be referenced in lessons until Tuesday, so if you are able to come to the TH office for pick up on either Monday or Tuesday, that would be very helpful. If for any reason this is a problem, please contact me and we can make other arrangements.

1) A basket of books next to your child's workspace--a mix of fiction and nonfiction. Libraries are still open and a great place to start with a collection of books if you don't have access to a lot at home.

2) I encourage you to go onto https://www.getepic.com/ and sign up for a FREE 30 day trial. Students have free access to Epic during school hours only.

3) Download the 'dualless chrome extension' on your child's chrome book. Once downloaded, play around with the different split screens and teach your child how to use.

OR

4) Show your child how to split screens manually by clicking on the two boxes in the upper right hand corner. We went over this a lot, but it would be good practice to play around with it. This would be helpful when on sites like kahoot and quizizz.

5) I recommend purchasing blue light blocker glasses for your child to wear during screen time. Amazon has a ton of options.

6) During breaks, please help me in encouraging your child to walk away from the screen, run around outside, ride their bike, close their eyes, etc...

6) Review the supplies list linked below and have items ready by your child's workstation by Monday. If you need any assistance with supplies, please do not hesitate to reach out to me.

Here are a few tips that will be helpful in keeping chromebooks working well.

Forgot your username or password? Please keep this information in a safe place in your home, but if it is forgotten or lost, just contact your child’s classroom teacher.

Many common Chromebook problems can be resolved by shutting down and powering back up. If this does not resolve the problem, try a hard reset by holding down the refresh button and power button at the same time. This forces a full reboot and corrects many strange behaviors. (See image below)

Check for unnecessary extensions. Inside the chrome browser, click the 3 dots in the upper right, select more tools and then extensions. Remove anything that doesn’t belong. Some extensions can cause the chromebook to misbehave.

To power off your chromebook, select the menu in the bottom right corner and select the power icon.

We will begin NWEA testing soon. All students will test remotely. Even though it may be tempting to help your child, students must work independently to ensure the integrity and accuracy of the test results. I glean a lot of meaningful data from our NWEA results, and create instructional groups based on that data, therefore, I want to ensure the results are accurate.

NWEA is an adaptive test designed to determine at what level students are ready to receive instruction, so if students are performing well, they will see more complex questions. They may see concepts they have not yet learned. It is okay for them to take an educated guess. Again, please do not define vocabulary words or offer assistance (aside from tech issues!) LOL!

I truly appreciate your support and understanding on this!

Please be sure to log in to your Parent Vue account. Through Parent Vue, you will be able to see your student's grades in all subjects as well as any missing assignments. If you have any trouble please call the Torrey Hill office at 591-3617.