"By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail. " -Benjamin Franklin
The purpose of this site is to provide the PAC East Secondary ELA teachers a support site for continued instruction and professional collaboration via an alternate work site location due to an emergency school closure.
In the event of an actual school closure, it is paramount to stay in communication with your school's administrator for updates and details as they are released through the chain of command. First and foremost, it may be necessary to contact and work with local authorities and emergency personnel so please have a plan in place to ensure the safety and well-being of you and your family members.
For additional resources, you can go to the Home Learning - PAC East website.
During an emergency school closure, continued instruction for students will be most likely facilitated in an entirely virtual environment. As a result, please consider working closely with your Focused Collaboration team and branch out to other Focused Collaboration teams for support with other courses that you teach.
Technology does not always work
A spotty internet connection or a frozen computer screen can derail the lesson when teaching online
Give time to test the equipment before signing on with students
This may include battery charger, microphone, video, curricular resources (websites, PowerPoints, Schoology, Lync, turning off notifications (to prevent them from popping up or your computer making a sound signaling that you have received an email), etc.
Procedures for working online
Be mindful of your body language, make sure that you are facing your student, responding by nodding of the head and making positive facial expressions to show your students that your are right there with them;
Eliminate interruptions as much as possible
It might help to have a dedicated space for your teaching
Have a plan B for when technology issues arise and let your student know what to do if this issue should come up
Take a screen break – it might be helpful to set reminders on your PPT or assign the task to one of your student to be the reminder
Provide feedback tools like emoticons (laughter, applause, agree and disagree icons)
Define Goals/Objectives for the team
Audiovisuals are used to invite and retain the attention of students, numbers can be depicted in different kinds of charts and graphs, and color coding may by serve as a visual simulation in the form of colors
Set Expectations for team members
Establish procedures/protocols to ensure smooth meeting, transitioning times, etc.
Discuss agreed upon online etiquettes for presentation, discussion, work sessions, etc.
Plan within your Focused Collaboration Teams what strategies, approach, protocol, lessons, what the lessons will look like, etc. using DuFour’s four questions
Determine if you will be utilizing Schoology, blog or website along with other resources
Decide how students will be grouped, assessed, remediated, and enriched
DoDEA Clever Portal: https://clever.com/in/dodea/staff/portal
Incorporating EngageNY via Assistments (Assessment and assignment feedback tool)
Discovery Education (Provides digital resources to spark curiosity)
Edcite (Create assignments and assessments that mirror system wide assessments)
EdPuzzle (Personalized learning experience by making a video a dynamic learning experience)
Edulastic (Create assignments and assessments)
Flipgrid (Create grids of short discussion type questions that students can respond to through recorded videos)
KhanAcademy (Personalized learning tools)
Nearpod (Interactive presentation and assessment tool)
Padlet (Virtual bulletin board that allows students and/or teachers to collaborate)
Tutor.com (DoD funded program that providing tutoring services for military connected families)
You can access a list of online resources to supplement HMH Collections and the model units by clicking on this link:http://bit.ly/39KGrVe . Please review these resources to determine if they meet DoDEA's PII requirements.
It cannot require students to submit an email to log in.
Neither teachers nor students should have to sign a user agreement to access the website or resources.
If you need a guide for setting up your virtual classroom, you can refer to this Nuts & Bolts document.