We're just starting our planning. These are my thoughts at this point but
hopefully will get further worked out and refined as we prepare for a
potential long term school closure.

Our hope is to utilize SeeSaw in grades K-4 and Google Classroom in grades
5-12. We'll expect that teachers communicate with students and parents
regarding lessons, assignments and assessments. We'd expect all teachers to
offer daily "office hours" to support students. Students in grades 7-12
take their devices home so that will be fine. We're banking on students
having access to some device to get their school work (smart phone at
minimum). We're fortunate that most of our students have access to some
sort of device at home. Our expectation is that teachers will create
asynchronous lessons for the most part. Some will utilize Google Hangouts
Meet (they just announced all premium features will be available until
July) for any synchronous sessions. We want to get teachers to connect to
share resources so that we do not have everyone recreating the wheel. They
can create their own content or utilize content that has been vetted
online. Personally, I'm creating a Google Classroom that I put all of my
teachers in for my own virtual office hours, FAQ's and resources for
distance learning.

We'll be making sure that our staff ensures that they take their device(s)
and chargers home each day. I'm assuming we're not going to be able to
access the building once we're shutdown for quite a while. I have a couple
of teachers who do not have Internet access at home so we'll be providing
them MiFi's.

We're hoping to come as close to a normal school day as possible through
the features of the SeeSaw and G Suite. We do not want to just send home
the expectation of read for x minutes, complete the following busy work
worksheets, etc.

My greatest challenge at this point is getting everyone involved. I'm
curious what thoughts/ideas others have for unified arts teachers, social
workers, guidance counselors, library, etc. A thought I saw on a blog post
was to do Mindfulness Mondays which our social workers and guidance folks
could collaborate on. This will be a very different approach than our staff
and students are accustomed to using. They'll need support and ways to
connect, learn and share successes/failures.

A couple of resources that I'm using as I plan can be found below:

Shared Google Drive folder from International Schools
<https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1VipbmytyUVINjIQ2VsxS5zezVgsfUFJb>

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2020-03-02-students-are-lonely-what-happens-when-coronavirus-forces-schools-online

Virtual Office Hours Video by Wes Fryer
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3tDfXhgWs0>


Let's keep this conversation going. I'm sure there are some really
innovative ideas out there.


On Wed, Mar 4, 2020 at 9:46 AM Jennifer Adams <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

> Hello colleagues of the techy kind,
>
> I'm curious to hear about any plans, ideas, or discussions your districts
> have come up with regarding potential school closures due to COVID-19. I'm
> mostly interested in hearing thoughts around instruction, but all related
> conversation is welcomed.
>
> Happy Wednesday!
>
> --
> Jen Adams
> Technology Instructional Coach
> Scarborough High School
>
> <https://jenadams.youcanbook.me>
>
>
>


-- 

==================================================
*Mike Arsenault*
Technology Director - Yarmouth School Department
Instructional Technology Integrator - Frank H Harrison Middle School

*Frank H. Harrison Middle School <http://hms.yarmouthschools.org>*
220 McCartney Street - Yarmouth, Maine


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