News and Notes from Around the District
Hello, Team Remote Families! This week's blog includes information about SchoolTool/Report Cards for families of students in grades 5-12, information about school yearbook "candids", and some important dates. There is also another installment of the "Learning With Chromebooks" series.
SchoolTool and Report Cards
Report cards will be available in SchoolTool for students and families in grades 6-12 on Friday, November 13th. If you do not yet have a SchoolTool account as a parent/guardian, please complete this form to request an account. The form also has directions for how to reset your password if you already have an account but forgot it. Please click this link to learn how to access your child's report card information.
School Yearbooks
We would like to provide our remote students the opportunity to be represented in each building's annual yearbook. Feel free to email your "home" building's yearbook coordinator to share some candid photos of your children learning from home.
East HillDave Smith: easthillbook@gmail.comOnondaga RoadKristy Willis: kwillis@marcellusschools.orgSplit RockCarolyn Champlin: carolyn.champlin@gmail.comStonehedge Blue and GoldLoryn Petrik: lorynpetrik@gmail.comWGMSLindsay Hiserodt: lhiserodt@westgenesee.orgAngela Keida: akeida@westgenesee.orgAlternatively, parents/guardians can download the ImageShare App on their phone. Click here for directions on how to do it.CMSMonica Canterino: mcanterino@westgenesee.orgDale Keida: dkeida@westgenesee.org
Alternatively, parents/guardians can download the ImageShare App on their phone. Click here for directions on how to do it.
WGHSMartha Hennessey: mhennessey@westgenesee.orgHigh School students, be sure to follow announcements made by Student Council for additional opportunities to stay involved in school activities and the yearbook!
Important Dates
November 11th
Veterans Day (no school)
November 23rd
Elementary Remote Supply Pick Up: Pickup of supplies for grades 2, 3, and 4 is on Monday, 11/23 from 12:00 - 3:00 at your "home" building.
November 23rd and 24th
Elementary (Grades K-4): Parent-Teacher Conferences (1/2 day for students)
Secondary (Grades 5-12 at WGMS - CMS - WGHS)
As we approach the holidays with different breaks in the school calendar, we want to maximize the synchronous opportunities for our students whether they are in-person or fully remote. If we follow the existing calendar as it is, there would be long periods of time around Thanksgiving and December holiday breaks where one group of students would not have direct synchronous contact with their teachers for twelve or more days. With that said, we are going to adjust our schedule for the following dates:
Monday, November 23rdMonday/Tuesday cohort: synchronous classes on Monday only and asynchronous on TuesdayTuesday, November24thThursday/Friday cohort: synchronous classes on Tuesday and asynchronous on MondayMonday, December 21stMonday/Tuesday cohort: synchronous classes on Monday only and asynchronous on TuesdayTuesday, December 22ndThursday/Friday cohort: synchronous classes on Tuesday and asynchronous on Monday
Learning With Chromebooks
Back when I was in middle school, computers were a bit of a novelty. At home, I had replaced my Atari 2600 with a Commodore 64. At school, we learned some basic word processing but not much beyond that. By the time I was a senior in high school (WG '88), I took a keyboarding class and learned how to type properly with my fingers gently balanced over "home row" on a Smith-Corona typewriter. In college, a kid down the hall charged $2/page to type papers on his Apple IIc Plus, but even in the early '90s, the Internet was not widely available to the masses. Things started to change in the mid-'90s as home computing became more affordable. During the early part of my teaching career, big desktop computers filled up one or two computer labs that teachers would reserve in advance for a special lesson that required students to use Microsoft Office ("Be sure to SAVE YOUR WORK!") or complete a "webquest." It wasn't until 2007 when the first rendition of the iPhone was released and the iTunes helped to make the concept of "the cloud" a household term.
Today, of course, things are much different. To many of us adults, it feels like the students should be experts in using technology since they have been born in an era in which cell phones are like pacifiers. Although many young people may be good at making TikTok videos or Snapping their friends, students aren't necessarily experts at using technology to be productive in school. Of course, one of the first steps in being productive is getting organized.
In the spirit of helping students learn how to be better organized in a digital space, I have created a series of short instructional videos to help students learn how to get the most out of Google Drive, Google's cloud-based storage and productivity platform. Over the next several weeks I will be sharing a series of "Two Minute Drills"--short instructional videos--to help students master working in "the cloud." Please share these videos with your children to help them learn the basics of leveraging Google Drive for learning.
