The leadership team has found Google Hangouts as a great way to communicate, but it does allow us the added bonus of seeing that face we work alongside every day--a colleague and a friend. Please utilize it for your PLC meetings while we are away.
Remember that South Shore is a family and if you're having a particularly bad day please do not go it alone. We are all here for each other.
I am attaching a link for the Employee Assistance Program. It is free and can be a great resource for all types of information and help.
https://www.theeap.com/employee-benefits-overview
You do have to set up an account to access the content. You should select "Employee/Family Login," type in "South Shore Regional School District" and then follow the prompts. If anyone has difficulty creating an account or logging in, you can email Holly and she will gladly lend you a hand.
PLCS
We expect departments to continue to meet and discuss PLCs items in addition to any lessons or resources they may have come across during our absence from the campus through google hangouts. Please invite the Leadership Team member that is usually at your PLC meeting and Mark so they can attend whenever possible, and update your minutes as usual.
Schedule
The leadership team met daily through google hangouts all last week and plan on continuing to do so moving forward. Besides triage our Covid-19 responses for families, students and staff we have also continued to move long-term items forward like the schedule. We are working to meet our own previous in place deadlines for construction of and sharing of the schedule as it is formed. Like you we have had to use different methods to communicate, but always with the goal of building the best schedule possible for our students.
Student Support Team
Please review the 'Protocol for Faculty/Staff Regarding Student Safety' document that was shared by Katie. Even though YOU are part of our team, we urge you to not take on serious issues alone and to follow the document to seek support and advice from the experts: Amy, Colette, Michelle, Mike, Joe, Todd, and Officer Hill too! If you're unsure of who to reach out to, and it's not an emergency - don't hesitate to use the studentsupport@ssvotech.org email. We can not stress how important it is to reach out to families and students - a simple 'hello, how are you?' can make all the difference!
Student Curriculum
Regularly provide a review, re-do, or enrichment for your students on the days you would normally see them in your classroom or shop. You do not need to post daily, feel free to give deadlines, but do not add any new grades into PowerSchool at this time. If a student makes-up work, or re-does and assignment, feel free to update a grade. If you'd like to track who has done your assignments so that you can take them under consideration when we return to school, feel free to keep a separate log. Please do keep in mind that at this writing student can not be penalized for not completing work assigned remotely. Please DO reach out to sbaldner@ssvotech.org with any questions! All correspondence on this topic and be found on SST's intranet.
MCAS is cancelled through June 2020.
Cooperative Education
The schools co-op program will be following the school closure schedule. This means that we will not be requiring hours or timecards from our students while school is not in session. Students may continue to work at their, and their employer's discretion with parental guidance, but their time will not be considered as part of our co-op program.Students are encouraged to communicate their plans with their employers, parents and the vocational office. There will be further co-op communication to students coming on 3/23.
Professional Development Week of 3/23
All employees will be receiving emails with information on the PowerSchool training modules assigned to them. The modules will be different depending on the role you play at the school, but the procedure to access the training is the same. However, there are 2 sets of instructions depending on whether or not you've previously accessed PowerSchool PD+ training.
For those who already have an account you will receive an email telling you you are enrolled in training and a link to access that training. If you do not remember your password, there is a "forgot password" link that will send you a reset code.
If you do not already have an account, the first email you receive will be one from PowerSource with the subject, "Your PowerSchool Community Account". I need to warn you... the email is confusing (and there is no way for me to change the content of the email). At the beginning of the message it provides instructions for creating a PowerSchool Community account. You do not need to do that part! The only part of the email you need to worry about is at the very bottom where it says:
PowerSource Activation URL for Training Materials
You have also been given access to resources in PowerSource. Please click the following URL to activate your PowerSource account: <URL>
I cannot assign you training modules until your account has been activated so please do this as soon as you receive the email. I'll be able to see when your account has been activated and will assign the training modules accordingly.
The first training module, which should take you approximately 1 hour, will be assigned on Monday, March 23 and due by the end of the day on Wednesday, March 25. The next module will be assigned on Wednesday and due by Friday, March, 27.
I also encourage everyone to check out the Staff Intranet on a regular basis, as we are posting links to resources, training material and other information to help you!
Many teachers have asked me how they can quickly create email lists for their courses. A video covering this is in the "Tech Help" section of our Intranet, and can be accessed directly here.
The IT department is responding to Mojo helpdesk tickets as always, so if you have any problems accessing your training (or anything else for that matter!) please create a ticket and we will respond as soon as possible. If you are unable to access the helpdesk you can send an email to "techsupport@ssvotech.org".