Good morning Stevenson High Families,
Happy Labor Day weekend. It has been over a decade since we have started school prior to the start of Labor Day. But this week’s start was different.
This past week, our teachers uploaded syllabi and expectations to Schoology and encouraged your students to engage in activities to get to know one another. Some created PowerPoints, other Virtual Lockers, and some FlipGrids. All started learning to use their devices and get back into the mindset of school.
Next week, we start live, in-person, remote learning, or what I’ve referred to as synchronous learning, at 7:20 am on Tuesday, Sept. 8 based on our new block schedule. That means your students must be up, prepared, dressed appropriately, and logged in ready to engage in learning. If your student is unable to attend, please call into our attendance line at the school and have your students Email their teachers. There are some common expectations for all students at Stevenson. We expect our learners to:
- Be on time and prepared to engage! We know this is going to be different, but attitude is going to be so important this school year! The difference between a positive and negative experience is 90% in our heads! This is no different than any other schooling they’ve done! Attendance will be taken and count, just as grades will be given and count! It’s game-on, and we’re excited!
- Be dressed appropriately for school and in a location that will allow them to have as quiet and focused an opportunity to learn and engage with their peers as possible! Headsets or earbuds with microphones will be an incredible asset!
- Be on camera and visually engaging with the teacher and peers. This is important. Humans are social animals and require that human connection to truly engage! The devices we provided will facilitate that as will the software on them.
The Student Technology Introduction Video which our kids watched to train on the new devices is now available to watch anytime, as is the Family Technology Night that was recorded last week. I know there are a lot of questions, but I think that these two videos will be incredibly helpful to parents and student. The UCS Tech site is also available and will be constantly updated, but you can send your questions to us as you have them. We’re compiling an FAQ document that will be helpful. A few big takeaways:
- Missing classes on Schoology: those should update over the weekend. Have some patience as the system cycles.
- PowerSchool: Some students have reported issues. It occasionally gets wonky! It will resolve itself and you’ll be able to get back on. Like anything, technology has challenges, but we’re working on it!
- Installing Drivers: You cannot install anything onto the devices, so you’ll only be able to print if it’s a discoverable printer or by using a flash drive between the device and printer.
- Microsoft Licensing: Please see the attachment below for a step-by-step process for how to solve this issue.
Resolving the Microsoft Licensing Issue.pdf
If there are other tech issues, let us know and we’ll do our best to trouble shoot them or get answers from those who can!
Schedules are still a work in progress, as is often the case as we start a school year. We continue balancing (evening out class sizes) and working through challenges such as missing classes. My counseling staff is on it! We will not be able to honor requests for class changes based on preference. At this point, we are focusing on class changes that impact graduation credit requirements and missing courses. Counselors are working and will continue to work through these issues.
We have several leftover items from last Spring in our office. They are becoming musty. I am happy to have held them over the summer in earnest waiting to get them to you this fall, but at this point we’ve emailed, called and called again. We’re giving parents two weeks to call and make appointments to pick up left items. As of Friday, September 18, all remaining items will be donated to a local clothing donation and supplies not donatable will be discarded. Please contact the main office to check if you have belongings left behind.
I hope this finds you all well. I hope that you’re able to enjoy the cooler sunny weekend ahead. And, I look forward to the engaged and meaningful learning that will begin this Tuesday in our new remote or virtual environments!
Have a great week Stevenson High!
With Titan Pride,
Kenneth L. Cucchi III
Principal, Stevenson High School