Live Meetings and SPED Needs

Dear Members:

• Click here to see our MEA COVID19 secret weapon.  Super Funny goes first tonight!
• Click here to see our Weston Ranch High Rock Stars in yesterday’s Car Parade.  I’m hurt, I’m devastated, and I’m shattered by not being invited to this parade.  And Joshua Cowell, I heard you had one today as well with our Pink Friday fire truck brigade.  Boy, I guess I’m not on the VIP guest list anywhere.  Hey site reps, please let me know if your school is having a car parade so I can join in.  And I’ll try to invite my good friend, and your CTA President, Toby Boyd to the parade as well.  Many of you have met Toby, a kindergarten teacher from Elk Grove, and know what a great guy he is.  We’ll put a throne in the back of my truck so Toby can ride in style.  #keninjail
• Some of you might be holding live meetings with students.  If you do, and I don’t recommend that you hold live meetings, make sure you record these meetings.  Our district MOU does not allow a teacher to hold one-on-one virtual meetings with a student.  Please.  I’m busy as it is with meetings.  Now, video messages or pre-recorded video lessons that are planned out are one thing.  I don’t care what your admin says and neither should you if they are putting you in an unsafe situation.  It’s your tushie on the line if something goes wrong during a virtual meeting.  And if it is recorded and something goes wrong, it is still your tushie on the line.  Your reputation let alone your job.  And just ask yourself this question, if something does indeed go wrong, will your site admin back you up just like they did when you sent kids to the office?  Rhetorical question there.  Our new language allows you flexibility on lesson delivery so use it.  Packets, workbooks, pre-recorded lessons, sending assignments via email, etc... And frankly, online classes rarely use virtual teaching.  I post a very simple 3-4 hour weekly word document lesson plan with activities for my seniors on Friday.  It’s due the next Friday.  They read, they take a test, they watch a video, they write an essay.  Ding, done.  And…every so often I send video messages to my charges.  They need that emotional connection still.  Plus I connect with them via feedback on Teams.  I am really getting to know my students and their dreams, their passions, and their fears this way.  You know, our k-12 students are not college kids.  Our students really ARE kids.  And kids do stupid things while hiding behind their screens.
• Attached is a SPED Questions and Answers about our changing times.  And if anything needs updating during changing times, it’s SPED.
• Need additional graduate credits so you can move up the pay scale?
• Summer Institutes now has a NEW option allowing teachers to study the exact focus of their choice through our newest Independent Study Course #2.  Teachers can design a personal tailor-made course focusing on any specific targeted area, follow the guidelines listed, and earn 1,2 or 3 semester graduate credits now.  
• Also check out their traditional online courses taught by the experts:
  1. Effectively Teaching in Today’s World – 3 semester graduate credits – Dr. Mathew Kincaid

 

1. Unleashing the Power of Personal Narrative – 3 credits semester graduate
2. In June, “Live Courses” return to your back yard for an additional 3 units. 
3. Look for all the details on the Summer Institutes website today.