Upcoming Important Dates: (Dates subject to change)

3/24 (Tuesday)- Unit Test on Lessons 6 and 7. (Postponed until further notice.)

3/24/20

Dear FMS Families,
I’m excited to report that we will be resuming instruction through distance learning on Monday, the 30th (tentative). Meaning, Monday the 30th, I will be posting new assignments on Google Classroom. Google Classroom will also be my primary form of communication with students starting tomorrow. At this time, I unable to provide specifics as to what the assignments/grades will look like during this time of distance learning until we receive the guidelines regarding instruction from district, however, I know they are working on developing those for us. I will update you once I have more information about this.

This past Sunday, I asked families to double check their student was able to access our Google Classroom and the TCi website. Thank you to those who reached out with tech issues, so we were able to address those right away. I want to make sure every one of my students are able to access my Google Classroom, so I have be just posted a new prompt for students to respond to as a way for me to triple check all my students are able to connect. Can you please ask your student to log into our Google Classroom and reply to that post by Wednesday night of the 25th (if possible) and I will check their name off my list indicating they were able to access this platform. This will also help me narrow down my list of students who are still in need of access. Mrs. Daniels wanted us to reach out to families and ask if any of our students are still in need of a device or internet. If so, please email her immediately at tdaniels@fcusd.org so she can assist you.

This week is all about getting teachers and students prepared for distance learning to start on Monday (tentative). Meaning we are trying to resolve any tech issues this week along with practicing how to accesses some of the online platforms we will be using. ZOOM is a free app that can be used to hold virtual “meetings” (sessions) with my students as well as a way for me to record lectures I could then post to Google Classroom for students to review when they are able to. The way it works is, I create a virtual meeting by posting a like in Google Classroom that students can click on to join the “meeting”. I’m hosting ZOOM sessions tomorrow to allow students to join and practice using some of the online features.

I know families are sharing computers along with balancing other obligations, so if a student is unable to join this session it is 100 percent ok… please do not stress about this. If you (or your student) is uncomfortable about having them on camera, your student can join the session “without video”, so they will not be on camera during the session. Due to the fact that I have a total of 170 kids and managing that many students in an online meeting can be challenging, I will be holding separate ZOOM sessions per period. I would GREATLY appreciate it if you are able to review the behavioral expectations below with your student prior to them joining our session. This will greatly help reduce the number of unwanted distractions/behavioral issues that may otherwise occur. Thank you for all of your support and understanding! You have all been SO amazing during this time of uncertainty. I can't even tell you how much I appreciate all of you!!!!


Here are the times for the different ZOOM sessions:
1st period = starting at 9:00 am
2nd period = starting at 10:00 am
3rd period = starting at 11:00 am
5th period = starting at 1:00 pm
7th period = starting at 2:00 pm

Behavioral expectations for our ZOOM sessions:
1. Log in with your real name.
2. When you log in, your mic will automatically be set to mute. Please keep it on mute to minimize the background noise/feedback. It is ok to unmute to ask a question, however, re-mute it when finished.
3. ONLY use the chat messaging board to post questions, so that questions are not lost in the stream.
4. Make sure your images/avatar are appropriate and not disruptive.
5. Any students not following our behavioral expectations will be removed from the session and will lose the privilege of rejoining that session.

If your student will be joining us, please remind them of the time their session starts for their class period. The link for their session will be posted in Google classroom tomorrow. I look forward to seeing their faces!! Please let them know I miss them all very much!!

Sincerely,
Mrs. Milobar

 WELCOME!