Glasgow Community:
I hope this email finds you safe and well. I have been so impressed by our incredible staff and their flexibility, eagerness to dive into uncharted territory to support our students, and ability to collaborate with each other at a high level to ensure our approach to distance learning meets our students and their families’ needs.
We are getting so excited about the launch of Distance Learning at Glasgow. We have built our approach on an asynchronous model supported by synchronous learning opportunities. The key to our approach is to provide meaningful learning opportunities for our students as well as provide support, feedback, and opportunities to collaborate. These learning opportunities can take place either online or using FCPS’s learning packets. The following sections will outline what we mean when we say Distance Learning at Glasgow.
On Friday, April 10, at 9:00am, Joash Chung, DSS, and I will be hosting a virtual parent coffee that will hopefully answer any lingering questions. Here is the *new* link to the Blackboard Collaborate Coffee Session. You can also call in anonymously using 571-392-7650 and using the PIN: 1370518093. Looking forward to seeing you there!
Below, you’ll find a description of our approach to distance learning, information about how students will access distance learning, and other resources.
As always, please reach out if you have any questions.
Katie Madigan, Acting Principal
Contact Information:
Twitter: @ktmadigan
Email: kemadigan@fcps.edu
Website: http://www.fcps.edu/GlasgowMS/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GlasgowMS.FCPS/
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Distance Learning
Distance Learning will begin throughout FCPS on April 14th--our Glasgow site will go live on April 13. Glasgow students and families will be able to access asynchronous lessons in all content areas through Blackboard. Here is the link to the FCPS Distance Learning website that will provide you detailed information.
Our Approach
In developing our distance learning approach, we are focusing on three key ideas:
- Equity -- ensuring our approach can meet as many of our families’ needs as possible
- Best Practices -- building a structure that is modeled after what is working across the world in schools that have implemented distance learning due to school closure
- Leveraging our strengths -- using our approach to instructional planning and collaboration to support students’ distance learning needs
Middle School Bell Schedule - Glasgow, along with FCPS, will use the following bell schedule for the middle school. Asynchronous learning will occur each day using the grid or the paper packets, and synchronous learning will happen on Wednesdays and Fridays. Each synchronous session can be up to 45 minutes long.
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Asynchronous Learning - Asynchronous learning means that students can access the grid or packet and do them any time during the day or evening based on the times they have access and are available. FCPS guidance states that each middle school lesson should take around 30 minutes per subject to complete. Five days per week, students will be able to access the grids for their core classes (English, Math, History, Science, and World Languages), and two times per week for electives (Health & Physical Education, Arts, and Design classes).
Synchronous Learning - Synchronous learning means that students must be logged on at a particular time to engage in the learning opportunity. Two days per week, core teachers will be providing synchronous learning opportunities and support for students. Students can login during their class period and can then interact with their teacher, ask questions to clarify asynchronous lessons, get feedback, and further their understanding through discussions.
Glasgow Lesson Grid - To communicate asynchronous learning opportunities to students and families, we will be using an aligned lesson grid across Glasgow as the foundation of our instructional approach. This simple and clear school-wide lesson grid will allow students and families to see and use a familiar interface as they move from course to course. Specifically, the lesson grid is important because it:
- Facilitates collaboration for our teachers, which helps them create meaningful learning experiences for our students
- Supports alignment across teachers in each course, ensuring every student gets the same access to high quality tasks
- Reminds teachers that considering the student and family perspective is critical when planning distance learning
- Will be used school wide, across all content areas and classes, which simplifies the student and family experience
Learning Targets and Academic Tasks - Developing and communicating meaningful learning experiences for our students is key; we will do this by continuing our practice of using learning targets and academic tasks in our instructional planning, and which you will also find in the lesson grid. Glasgow students are used to seeing learning targets in every class every day. Here is what we mean by learning targets and academic tasks:
Student Syllabus - We have compiled a document we are calling our syllabus that will be a one stop shop for distance learning information. This document has been sent to your student’s fscpsschools.net email and will also be available on each course homepage.
Access
Blackboard Hub - Blackboard will be the main entry point for Distance Learning throughout FCPS. Students will first login to Blackboard and look for the Glasgow MS Distance Learning Portal. They will then be taken to the Glasgow MS Distance Learning Hub. From this hub they will click on their courses to see their Course Homepages.
Course Homepage - Once students select their course, they will be taken to a homepage. On this home page will be the link for the weekly asynchronous learning grid. There will also be links for our synchronous sessions as well as teacher contact information.
Student Schedules - This week your student will be sent their schedule (the same as their 3rd quarter) to their fcpsschools.net email address, with the links to each of their courses homepages. This is another way that students can access their asynchronous and synchronous learning opportunities directly.
Office Hours - All teachers will be available via email every day and will do their best to respond to families within a 24 hour time period to provide speedy support. We ask that families recognize and understand that our staff members are balancing home and family challenges along with supporting students’ instructional needs.
Grading Update
3rd Quarter Grading Update - The School Board was briefed that no student work assigned after March 13 will be graded, at the recommendation of VDOE; however, work assigned prior to March 13 will still be accepted up until April 24 in order to be applied in the calculation of students’ third quarter grades. Additionally, it is the intention of FCPS to use maximum flexibility in assessing and evaluating student learning for the remainder of the school year.
4th Quarter Grading Update - Middle school and high school students will be assigned a “no mark” for the fourth quarter, with assignments submitted being allowed to positively influence the student’s overall grade for the year based on mastery of learning concepts, in accordance with FCPS grading policy. Only final grades will be shown on transcripts; a “no mark” will not show on a student’s final transcript.
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Parent Coffee
On Friday, April 10, at 9:00am, join Katie Madigan, Acting Principal, and Joash Chung, DSS, for a virtual parent coffee that will hopefully answer any lingering questions. Here is the *new* link to the Blackboard Collaborate Coffee Session. You can also call in anonymously using 571-392-7650 and using the PIN: 1370518093.
Looking forward to seeing you there!
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Be Informed, Stay Involved!
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