In the spirit of continuous improvement, the Venado faculty and staff refined expectations for some existing practices, as well as created new opportunities to help students navigate and succeed in this unique learning environment.
- Notification of Missing Assignments: Teachers will notify students of any missing assignments weekly through Canvas messages. Our teachers are using Aeries and/or Canvas as the program to manage student gradebooks. Please review the attached “Canvas Guide for Parents” to help you monitor your child’s grades and progress in class, as well as familiarize yourself with the Canvas platform, including how to establish your own parent observer account. Canvas Guides for Parents.pdf
- Retake and Revisions: Many of our teachers offer assessment retake or revision opportunities, and our teachers will be working to streamline this process and reduce any barriers to the retakes. Please encourage your child to take advantage of the various retake or revision opportunities offered by his/her teachers.
- Homeroom Lessons: Homeroom teachers recently presented two key lessons to students. The first lesson hones in on the students ability to successfully navigate the Canvas platform. This lesson was taught on February 9 and 10 during Homeroom. The students received a similar lesson at the very beginning of the school year, and this lesson served as both a comprehensive review of Canvas and also highlighted key features that will help students utilize the program more effectively. The second lesson focused on developing executive functioning skills: organization, time management, etc. This lesson was taught on February 11 and 12.
- Time when Assignments are Due: When a teacher creates an assignment in Canvas, the program’s default time to submit the assignment is 11:59 p.m. on the scheduled due date. In order to promote healthy work and sleep habits, assignments will be set to be due no later than 8:00 p.m. so students are not expected or encouraged to submit assignments late at night.
- Targeted use of Mondays, Office Hours and Distance Learning Independent Days:
- Mondays: Following the 20-minute Homeroom period from 8:30-8:50 a.m., the purpose of Mondays is to provide students with dedicated time for subject-specific academic support and intervention. Generally, students with missing assignments and/or low course grades should already plan to attend their teachers support time in order to receive help. Additionally, teachers will notify students if they are required to attend their “mandatorial” academic support time and students are expected to attend. If students fail to attend the “mandatorial,” he/she will receive classroom and/or administrative consequences.
- Office Hours: Each teacher hosts office hours Tuesday through Friday from 8:00-8:25 a.m. Office hours may be held virtually or in person, based on the teacher’s availability. Office hours are by appointment only and an appointment may be requested by the student, parent, or teacher. If students fail to attend the “mandatorial” office hours, he/she will receive classroom and/or administrative consequences.
- Distance Learning Independent Days: When students are working remotely at home via distance learning on their independent days, they are required to sign in to Zoom for attendance and teacher instructions during the first 10 minutes of each period. When they are released from Zoom, students are expected to work independently on their coursework for those classes during the scheduled class period. Teachers have observed that many of the missing assignments are from the students’ independent day. Please support your child’s time management and organization on the independent days so he/she remains on track with their coursework. Additionally, if students finish their independent work early, the teachers will be providing extension or activities for additional practice in order to keep students engaged in the learning.