Greetings Gibson Families,
This week’s message contains important information regarding upcoming MAPS testing and Cohort Selection should the District make the transition to the Hybrid Model. Please read it carefully and be sure to reach out to either your teacher or the office if you have questions.
The MAP Growth testing window is now open until December 18, 2020. Many of our classes are testing next week. Please see the attached letter and perhaps review the videos for families (link in attached flyers). We have also included some reference materials for you;
Resources for Families
MAP Remote Testing Guide for Families (English)
MAP Remote Testing Guide for Families (Spanish)
Please remember it is imperative that your child work on the assessments independently. Telling your child the pronunciation or meaning of words can skew the results, and leave the data meaningless for your child’s teacher.
Clarification on Hybrid Cohort Questionnaire:
As you may or may not know, the Board of School Trustees met last week to discuss a potential return to school under a hybrid learning model. Although no final decision was made, we are still proactively planning for students to return when it is safe. In order for us to create a model for students to return, we need to know your plans if and/or when a hybrid model is approved. If you have not already, please take a minute to fill out the Hybrid Cohort Questionnaire located at http://ccsd.net/survey.
As previously announced, the questionnaire will remain open through November 20, 2020, until 5:00 p.m. If you would like to change a selection you already made, you may submit a second response that will replace your first response. Parents/guardians may only resubmit their response one time through November 20, 2020, until 5:00 p.m.
Any students who are not included in a response will, by default, be assigned to the full-time distance education cohort.
You may review the District’s working Plan to Transition to the Hybrid Instructional Model to assist in your decision. The plan can be viewed here. It is important to note that if Cohort A/B is selected, students will work in Distance Education three days a week. There will not be live lessons from the classroom teacher during these at home (Distance Education) days as they will be instructing students in person.
Speaking of surveys, each year the Clark County School District sends out a Safety Survey. All parents, staff members and students in grades 4-12 are asked to participate. At Gibson Elementary our fourth and fifth grade students will take the survey during class. Please take a few moments to tell us how we are doing.
Parent Safety Survey https://aarsiapps.ccsd.net/survey/
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 Communication with your Teacher.
A recent study showed that the most common frustration of families across the nation is the need for more communication from their children’s teachers regarding schedules, tasks and assignments. Gibson teachers have both weekly and daily schedules posted on classroom homepages. Have your child take you on a tour of their Google Classroom or Canvas Home page. Have them show you where to find schedules, assignments, and where to submit work. If they are unable to do so, please contact your child's teacher.
Many families ask, how often should I be in communication with my child’s teacher? We encourage you to communicate weekly. This may include reading weekly Dojo and Parentlink messages, email correspondences, and even materials deployments.
In addition, you and your child should be able to answer three fundamental questions for each learning experience;
1. What am I learning today?
2. Why am I learning it?
3. How will I know if I have learned it?
Notice the key word of “learning” as a focus for all of these questions. It is important to talk to your child more about their “learning” than what they are “doing”. This simple focus of word choice sets the expectation that children should be learning both in and out of school.
Stay Safe. Stay Healthy!
The Gibson Team