Good Afternoon Students and Parents,
In case we haven’t spoken before parents, I am Laura Ramos, your child’s science teacher at Dundee Ridge Middle Academy. Yesterday, I sent an email to each student through their school accounts asking them to respond to me. I’ve received about many responses, and I have responded to each of those students, sending them a copy of our “syllabus” and reminding them that Thursday will be the first day of virtual school. Many of you signed up for REMIND texts, and are aware of this as well. Many students have not responded to my email, I need this to be done today, please. Just in case your child hasn’t shared the information with you, I wanted to take an opportunity to do that here. The syllabus is attached, but I’ll highlight some important things here, as well:
Office Hours: I know it says that my office hours are 2-3 Mon-Fri, but that just means I have set that block of time aside to do NOTHING ELSE besides take student questions about class. You can still contact me any other time throughout the day, though the response may take a little bit longer, if I am doing other professional activities. I am also available after “school hours,” as I am not someone who minds helping my students in the evenings, especially during this time, when I know how important flexibility is. If I’m cooking dinner, I may take a little bit to respond, but I will. This goes for parents if you need to contact me, as well. My personal number is 863-604-4553. I do ask that you text first, as I probably won’t answer if I don’t know the number, but I will call you if you would like me to. Remind and email are also fine for getting ahold of me. Students can use the chat feature in Microsoft Teams, as well.
Virtual Classroom: We will be using Microsoft Teams as the platform for our virtual class. Students can access it from their classlink. Other teachers are using this as well, so there may be multiple teams there. Students will work out of them separately for each class. It’s really simple to use, I think, as it’s very cut and dry. The post feed, where I will post the daily bellwork, reminds me of a facebook newsfeed, so most of us are pretty familiar with the formatting. I will be patient and flexible with my students, and I’m hoping you all will be the same with me, as this is just as new to me as it is to you. When I have an announcement to make to the class, starting Thursday, I will make it on the Teams feed. We will continue to use zzi.sh for quizzes, as well as our online class notebook from the notes section of this website. Students may also access the class’ text book from classlink (McGraw-Hill Science) if you need it as an additional resource.
Attendance and Assignments: There will be two assignments a week starting next week (we will have one short quiz this week on the syllabus, since we’re only doing this two days this week): a small project and a quiz. Students will be given these assignments on Monday, and then be expected to submit them (via Microsoft Teams or email) by Saturday at 11:59 pm. You can work on them whenever you can or want to during that 6 day period. Students will need to log in every day for attendance purposes. The way that I will do this is to have them do one of the multiple choice “bellwork” questions on the Teams feed, where you just respond to my post of the question each day. I will get it posted by 8 am each morning, and I ask that you just find time to answer it sometime by 3pm each day, so that I can record attendance by 4pm. At the end of the day, I will post a video explanation of the question and the correct answer, and these will serve as instructional resources if the student is not understanding a concept. If students do not respond to the daily question, you will not be marked present that day.
Again, we officially start Thursday, though I know several students have already begun, so please make sure your child logs into our class on teams sometime before 3pm on Thursday. If you need ANYTHING at all, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me.
Sincerely,
Laura Ramos
In case we haven’t spoken before parents, I am Laura Ramos, your child’s science teacher at Dundee Ridge Middle Academy. Yesterday, I sent an email to each student through their school accounts asking them to respond to me. I’ve received about many responses, and I have responded to each of those students, sending them a copy of our “syllabus” and reminding them that Thursday will be the first day of virtual school. Many of you signed up for REMIND texts, and are aware of this as well. Many students have not responded to my email, I need this to be done today, please. Just in case your child hasn’t shared the information with you, I wanted to take an opportunity to do that here. The syllabus is attached, but I’ll highlight some important things here, as well:
Office Hours: I know it says that my office hours are 2-3 Mon-Fri, but that just means I have set that block of time aside to do NOTHING ELSE besides take student questions about class. You can still contact me any other time throughout the day, though the response may take a little bit longer, if I am doing other professional activities. I am also available after “school hours,” as I am not someone who minds helping my students in the evenings, especially during this time, when I know how important flexibility is. If I’m cooking dinner, I may take a little bit to respond, but I will. This goes for parents if you need to contact me, as well. My personal number is 863-604-4553. I do ask that you text first, as I probably won’t answer if I don’t know the number, but I will call you if you would like me to. Remind and email are also fine for getting ahold of me. Students can use the chat feature in Microsoft Teams, as well.
Virtual Classroom: We will be using Microsoft Teams as the platform for our virtual class. Students can access it from their classlink. Other teachers are using this as well, so there may be multiple teams there. Students will work out of them separately for each class. It’s really simple to use, I think, as it’s very cut and dry. The post feed, where I will post the daily bellwork, reminds me of a facebook newsfeed, so most of us are pretty familiar with the formatting. I will be patient and flexible with my students, and I’m hoping you all will be the same with me, as this is just as new to me as it is to you. When I have an announcement to make to the class, starting Thursday, I will make it on the Teams feed. We will continue to use zzi.sh for quizzes, as well as our online class notebook from the notes section of this website. Students may also access the class’ text book from classlink (McGraw-Hill Science) if you need it as an additional resource.
Attendance and Assignments: There will be two assignments a week starting next week (we will have one short quiz this week on the syllabus, since we’re only doing this two days this week): a small project and a quiz. Students will be given these assignments on Monday, and then be expected to submit them (via Microsoft Teams or email) by Saturday at 11:59 pm. You can work on them whenever you can or want to during that 6 day period. Students will need to log in every day for attendance purposes. The way that I will do this is to have them do one of the multiple choice “bellwork” questions on the Teams feed, where you just respond to my post of the question each day. I will get it posted by 8 am each morning, and I ask that you just find time to answer it sometime by 3pm each day, so that I can record attendance by 4pm. At the end of the day, I will post a video explanation of the question and the correct answer, and these will serve as instructional resources if the student is not understanding a concept. If students do not respond to the daily question, you will not be marked present that day.
Again, we officially start Thursday, though I know several students have already begun, so please make sure your child logs into our class on teams sometime before 3pm on Thursday. If you need ANYTHING at all, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me.
Sincerely,
Laura Ramos