New Procedure for Accessing Teachers' Lessons - for Coates Parents

Hello Coates families!

Thanks again for your patience this week.  FCPS leadership has offered some solutions to schools so that we can avoid having students log in to Blackboard each day for live lessons, while still maintaining the security features and teacher controls that we needed from the BB Collaborate Ultra tool.

Moving forward, students at Coates will be using new Blackboard Collaborate links sent to their FCPS Gmail accounts.  These links are secure and identify each student to the teacher.  This new set-up makes these personalized links accessible without logging in to Blackboard.  Three schools in FCPS piloted this approach last week and were able to maintain synchronous learning (live lessons, easy access for students) when the rest of the district struggled.

 

This new process will start for some classes tomorrow (Thurs.).  For other classes, it will begin next week.  The staggering of implementation is due to the time needed for the system to process all our teachers’ new sessions and send personalized links out to students.  Your child’s teacher will send you an email prior to tomorrow’s first lesson letting you know if his/her lessons are live or not.

I ask that you disregard the previous process that we gave you for accessing links to teacher lessons (sessions).  Those links no longer work.  You do not need to log into Blackboard.  Follow this new procedure instead.

All students’ unique links have been emailed to students’ FCPS Gmail accounts.  They can log in to those accounts through the FCPS G Suite page. The username and password used for logging in is the same login that is used to access the FCPS Blackboard page – your child’s 7-digit ID number and password. I encourage you to review the steps outlined in this 2-minute video for help in finding and using this new link. The same, student-specific link will be used for all classroom instruction and teacher office hours moving forward.  If your child does not yet have the email with the link, it may simply be delayed.

Most of our older students are aware of their FCPS Gmail accounts (student#@fcpsschools.net).  They have used Google Classroom and have accessed their accounts.  I’m sure that many of our younger students (and parents) are not aware of their Gmail accounts.  Be assured that your child has one, and you can get to it following the steps above. 

Please check your child’s FCPS Gmail.  Use the link to get to our scheduled lessons on time.   Use the same link for both math and language arts lessons.  Your child may enter the session early, but s/he will not be able to use any of the features (camera, mic, comments)  until the teacher enters the session. 

For the time being, specials classes (PE, art, music, etc.) will continue to be pre-recorded lessons that your teacher will provide via email or Remind.  Next week, specials lessons will go live.  We’ll tell you when to check Gmails for the new specials link.

Thanks again for your patience during these false starts.  Your disappointment and your children’s disappointment were warranted, and it was shared by our teachers.  I hope that the worst is behind us and we can fully implement our distance learning plan.

 

Jesse Kraft

Still Proud to be Principal of Coates

jkraft@fcps.edu