Happy Monday Gibson Community,
We wanted to remind families that there is NO SCHOOL TOMORROW, Tuesday, November 3rd. This is Election Day and in normal circumstances schools are closed so that they may be used as polling sites. Due to Covid 19 Restrictions, schools are not open to the public so our nearest polling location is Silver Springs Recreation Center.
Wednesday afternoon we will have our School Organizational Team (SOT) and Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) Meetings beginning at 2:20 pm. Agendas for both of these meetings are posted on the website PTO and SOT.
Each week, we will bring you a topic that will assist you in making Distance Education work for your child. Most of what we share with you is from “The Distance Learning Playbook for Parents: How to Support Your child’s Academic, Social, and Emotional Development in Any Setting” by Wiseman, Fisher, Frey and Hattie. This week we will focus on Google Meet Etiquette.
All teachers have expectations for students, whether they are taught in person or through Distance Education. These expectations should be clearly communicated to children. Of course expectations vary by teacher or grade level, a few general guidelines apply to all situations. For example, it is important that your child has their materials ready before meetings, so they can join Meet sessions on time. In fact, they should be ready a few minutes before the class actually starts. It is also useful for your child to stay in one spot during the Meet. It is very distracting to have students walking around the house or getting in and out of their seat during a Meet. Think about it, if you were in an in person class or meeting, would you be walking around while the instructor was speaking?
It is also important that your child knows how to mute and unmute themselves, how to use the chat appropriately, and even more importantly, keep their cameras on during instructional time. It is so much better for teachers to see children’s faces. Not only does it help with the student-teacher relationship, visual cues let the teacher know if the child is understanding the lesson or not. It also helps to build a sense of community in the class. An interesting fact we are noticing at Gibson ES is that children who leave their cameras on during instruction are performing better academically than their peers who have cameras off during lessons.
We have attached the SOAR Virtual Learning Matrix for your reference. This document was created by PBIS Champion Model System. This matrix emphasizes the importance of students taking charge of their own actions, staying organized and showing respect during virtual learning sessions. We hope you find it useful.