Staff FAQs

“Instructional Continuity” is a phrase introduced by the Texas Education Agency that refers to the development of a specific plan to address “high absenteeism or school closures for short-term or long-term periods of time.” As we receive more guidance from TEA, the district will roll out more specific steps to meet the guidelines from the agency. At this time, BISD is working to ensure our students, families, and staff remain safe and healthy in a time of significant disruption. The district is attending to our students and our community’s basic needs first (e.g. prioritizing our students’ access to food) while developing and distributing resources for engaging students in learning activities.

Yes, eventually. We support our teachers' efforts to check in with students and get individualized assignments out to them.

For week 1 (March 23 - 27) our C&I team has put out a list of resources that our students are familiar with and can access through Clever via a smartphone. We would like for our teachers to use this time to check in virtually with students to see how they are doing and to gauge the device and internet capabilities in their students' household. Our Digital Learning team is developing a form to gather this information centrally so we can make decisions on devices should closures extend beyond two weeks. Also during this week we will begin to offer training on online platforms during this week such as Google Classroom, Seesaw, Class Dojo, etc. for teachers who need them.

For week 2 (March 30 - April 3) our C&I team will put out a more robust offering of activities (both online and offline) for students to work on from home. Simultaneously, we will continue to offer online platform trainings and begin to encourage and schedule virtual PLC meetings for planning.

For week 3 and beyond (should this be necessary) we will work to incorporate teacher created assignments to our At-Home learning platform. Our C&I team will continue to offer a base level sequencing of TEKS to help us maintain our Year-at-a-Glance (YAG) pacing but teacher created activities will be incorporated and supported!

Grades will not be taken at this time. Any assignments or resources are created and recommended for enrichment purposes only.

On March 20, College Board posted information about free online classes they will make available to students beginning Wednesday, March 25. These courses:

• Are optional, mobile-friendly, and can be used alongside any work your teacher may give you.

• Will be available on-demand, so you can access them any time.

• Will focus on reviewing the skills and concepts from the first 75% of the course. There will also be some supplementary lessons covering the final 25% of the course.

To learn more about the course offerings, AP testing schedules, and additional information visit College Board website here. We encourage AP teachers to utilize Google Classroom to support students' instruction and to keep in contact with students virtually. Training will be provided to AP teachers the week of March 23.

We understand that we do not have offerings currently for these subject areas. We are working to train teachers during the week of March 23 to ensure that these courses are set up on Google Classroom starting the week of March 30. Our priority is teacher check-ins with students, ensuring devices and internet, and the centralization of a platform so that students are receiving instruction in the most uniform and efficient manner possible. We appreciate your patience as we work through these logistics.