Update to Distance Learning Plan
Dear Gunston Families,
I want to take a moment to thank our entire community for your continued support. We had fun celebrating the Month of the Military Child with our spirit week activities. We hope you enjoyed the video to honor our families and all of the Flipgrid messages of support from your peers. I wanted to reach out to you with an update on how we will be moving forward with our Distance Learning Plan next week.
Following the update earlier in the week from FCPS Leadership, principals and school leaders engaged in training to get our Distance Learning Plan back on track. I am pleased to announce that our teachers have been working diligently to prepare for a successful week of face-to-face sessions beginning on Monday, April 27th.
What will be different now?
- Gunston teachers are creating individualized secure links in Blackboard Collaborate Ultra (BBCU).
- Each student has a unique link connected with his or her FCPS Gmail and student ID.
- The new link does not require additional logon steps or the need to access the Blackboard 24-7 portal.
- Synchronous classes, office hours and meetings can occur easily with BBCU.
In an effort to ensure that students and families have a positive experience with using their new link to access live (synchronous) sessions, we are taking care to have a gradual roll out plan. Monday’s live session will be a “Tech Check In”, an opportunity for teachers to support any family facing challenges finding the new link. Each virtual classroom will have more than one adult in the class, to allow teachers to monitor emails and help students having difficulty with their logon. Teachers will be with the class for the entire virtual teacher directed time to reconnect with students and review digital citizenship expectations. In addition, teachers will provide some asynchronous lessons/activities for students to engage in the rest of Monday. With a successful experience on Monday, students will resume face-to-face sessions during Virtual Teacher Directed Learning and Office Hours on Tuesday for the remainder of the year.
Next week our specials (PE, Music, Art, Japanese, AART, and AAP) classes will be asynchronous lessons only. You can find links to their videos and activities on Blackboard 24-7.
We will provide directions next week about how to access the various links to the specials classes and synchronous (face-to-face) specials classes will begin on Monday, May 4th.
We created a schedule at the bottom of this letter that clearly shows what to expect each day next week.
Teachers will be sending your students an email today with directions to access their school Gmail account and their new link to their virtual classroom. Gunston teachers deserve our utmost gratitude for staying focused on what’s most important-your children and their learning. I am honored to work with our dedicated staff and supportive community. If you have any questions, specific to your child’s needs, please do not hesitate to reach out to a teacher, counselor or administrator. We are here to support our community as we continue with our distance learning plan and resume live sessions next week.
Sincerely,
Kristen Rucinski, Acting Principal, Gunston Elementary School
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