We are gearing up for the first day of classes!

We want to thank all of the parents and students who visited our virtual Back to School and Orientation events last week. We haven’t polled our staff to find out how well attended their Meets were, but we have heard some positive feedback from a number of you. Thanks!

Below are some notes and 'to-do' items that will help to get the year started. As always, if you have any questions, let us know! We’re happy to help.

Hope you remain safe during the end of our extended weekend!

Sincerely,

Principal Dillon

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General Expectations:

Back to School officially begins with the first day of school on September 8, 2020.  The student time schedule is posted on our website as well as in the CHS Student Canvas Community. Students should also be able to see their class Meets on their Canvas Calendars.

You might want to print a copy of the daily class schedule and attach it to the student's work space at home. Students should attend the "additional synchronous support" times as well as the synchronous class meet times for each of the four periods.

If you didn’t check them out already, you should review the Canvas Student and Parent Orientation modules and resources have been uploaded for your review. Canvas will have a new ‘look and feel’ this year. These updates have been made to help standardize how content is presented and organized for student and parent use. Students should review the module prior to the first day of school. Access the module here: https://hcpss.instructure.com/courses/9495

Students should:

• Set up a quiet work space without distractions.
• Turn on the computer's camera, say hello/present in the Chat box, and mute the microphone at the beginning of each class.
• Keep the microphone muted when not speaking to reduce background noise.
• Use the chat to ask questions while the teacher or another student is talking.
• Use the “raise hand” to request to un-mute your mic to ask questions.
• Demonstrate effort, accuracy, and persistence in work
• Ask questions and seek instructional support when needed.
• Work to build positive classroom relationships by respecting differences.
• Behave in a virtual environment in a manner consistent with the same expectations as when you are in school.
• Check the Canvas calendar, announcements, and to-do lists daily to ensure all assignments are complete.​​​​​​

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Technology Issues in Virtual Learning:

One of the biggest questions about virtual learning is what happens when technology fails – like it did for some of our staff on Thursday night. When a student is experiencing technical difficulties, they should contact their teacher as soon as they are able to do so to inform them of the challenges. The issue most likely to occur is a loss of, or poor, connectivity. Students may find they have lost Wi-Fi but can connect using cell service. Please make sure your family has a discussion about your data plans!

If a teacher is having technical issues, students are to wait for five minutes before logging out of a meet in session. The teacher will post a message on their Canvas page (or an administrator will do it for them) letting them know what to do next.

Having used Meet since April, we have noticed that occasionally, a user will need to log out of a browser entirely and reboot in order to reconnect audio and video. We have also learned that Chrome works best with Meet – no surprise there. But, occasionally, I’ve used other browsers when Chrome wasn’t behaving.

­­­­­­­­Policies and Procedure Review: 

This year, the Code of Conduct and Student Handbook will not be provided in hard copy. These reference materials are available for your review online. We are asking students and parents to review these documents using this guide and to submit this form affirming you have reviewed the information together with your student.

Family File: 

We currently have a 55% completion rate for updates to the Family File. That means we are still waiting for about 660 of you to take care of business! Please complete this important annual update as soon as you are able! It only takes about 10 minutes. Login here to get started now: https://www.hcpss.org/connect/

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Meet Codes:

There are still folks attempting to access our course meet code list using personal email accounts. Please, please remember that only your students can access this document using their hcpss email account. By now, it’s probably easier to check the student calendar in Canvas. Meet codes and times should be populated there before Tuesday morning.  

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Absences:

We’ve added the process for reporting absences to the home page of our website. Visit our front page and click on ‘Report an Absence’ to get the email address and links to absence request forms.

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Textbook and Materials Distribution Day:

We will be distributing textbooks and other materials for learning on September 16, 2020 from 7:30-5:30. Also, included in this distribution event will be yearbooks, folders, and a few other items. Rather than assign time slots, we’re going to let you sign-up! Please visit our Sign-up Genius to claim your spot. You may pick up materials for more than one student at a time. We encourage car-pooling. Sign-up now!