Covid-19 Information Hub

• Lower School: Mrs. Malu Molano
• Middle School:  Mrs. Abby Johnson
• Upper School: Ms. Diamond
  Your upper school student can also join Director of Wellness, Ms. Diamond’s Wellness Page on Schoology (https://app.schoology.com/group/2412319417) for tips to stay engaged and to connect with other students.

Each week, middle school and upper school teachers should post the schedule for the week--assignments, Zoom calls, etc--at the top of their Schoology class pages. Lower school teachers post this information in Seesaw. Take some time to review each one with your student and help him/her develop an organization structure that works for him/her.

Our learning specialists are only an email away and can help, too. 

• Lower School: Mrs. Danielle Earle
• Middle School:  Ms. Aliya Killion
• Upper School: Mrs. Shelly Hollingsworth
  Upper school students can also check Mrs. Hollingsworth’s Learning Support page on Schoology (https://app.schoology.com/group/2418064905) for her virtual office hours.

As teachers adapt to the virtual classroom, traditional assessments, like quizzes and tests, make little sense beyond giving insight into where students are in the process of developing understanding of a key skill or concept. In other words, what many teachers might have used as a Summative assessment now only works as Formative assessment. Summative assessments now have to take advantage of the easy access that students have to information and ask them to develop deeper understandings and apply that knowledge in new ways. So a Chemistry unit might evolve from a lecture and lab into a book study, a statistics test into an epidemiological study of Covid 19, and so on. Disruption often inspires innovation, and our teachers have started to run forward to innovate for their students in the face of this unprecedented disruption.

All faculty have been given up to date training on how to protect their sessions from unwanted intruders by using security features, such as passwords and waiting rooms. Please encourage your student not to share Zoom meeting links and passwords to protect the privacy and safety of our teachers and students. In addition, Zoom continues to enhance its security as its platform continues to be used extensively for business and educational purposes.

Parents are welcome to email or send messages via Schoology or Seesaw to teachers at any time. However, please understand that teachers are being encouraged to keep good boundaries to attend to their own wellbeing and their families, as well.  You should expect a response during regular school hours within 1 or 2 school days. In addition to conducting their virtual classrooms, teachers are spending an inordinate amount of time revamping and creating lessons to work in this new virtual teaching model. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Reach out. Email teachers, advisors, administrators, counselors, or whomever you need. We are here to help.

• Based on the experience and advice of our peer schools in other countries and out west who are farther into distance learning than we are, we are intentionally not scheduling every class for every scheduled session to limit screen time and avoid burnout for students and teachers. 
• Your student should have at least one synchronous session a week. 
• MS and US:
  • Synchronous sessions are often supplemented with optional drop-in support for students.
  • Screen time per class session should rarely if ever go longer than 40-50 minutes per class session.

• Yes. You should help support your child's participation in every synchronous class session and check-in to make sure he/she is completing all assigned classwork.
• Attendance, as indicated by presence in Zoom sessions and completion of class assignments, counts towards the legal expectation of school attendance for credit for the year and the ability to pass to the next grade level. That said, we understand there will be unavoidable absence.
• There will be no penalty for absence due to illness, family responsibilities, or tech issues, but your student will have to work with teachers to make up missed work.
• Please communicate all unavoidable absences to teachers.
• MS and US: Parents should also email msabsences@carrollwooddayschool.org or usabsences@carrollwooddayschool.org. 

Classes are still graded. Teachers are taking into account the new format in designing assessments and opportunities to demonstrate mastery in their subjects.

• Yes. The college counseling department will be communicating regularly with US students and parents via email and Schoology.
• College Counseling presentations will be reformatted for virtual delivery, as necessary. 

US students should expect classwork/homework in every class. Teachers should assign 3-4 hours of class work per week maximum, about the same time allotted to class sessions in our regular schedule. This includes time for reading/watching/listening, engaging with peers via discussion boards and docs, attending class virtually via Zoom, and classwork/homework.

• We will not be holding underclassmen to our 25-hour minimum; they can make up hours over the summer or next year to ensure they have 100 hours by graduation. 
• Seniors still need 100 hours to be eligible for Bright Futures.
• There are many opportunities for students to do online service; click here for ideas.

There will still be the end of semester summative assessments, like exams. The format for these summative assignments might shift if our closure is extended.

• We are waiting to make decisions about Senior Send-Off, Senior Honoring, and Graduation until we have a clearer sense of the length of our closure.
• We are thinking through workarounds, alternatives and modifications to events in order to make them as meaningful as possible through the end of the year.
• Please continue to send photos and reflections as planned.
• GradBash has been canceled; refunds will be processed next week.

1. Put Away Distractions, and Set Aside Time for Learning

• It will be in your student’s best interest to put away distractions (cell phones, video games, etc.) during class and independent work time.  This will help with focus on learning.

2. Find an Organization System that Works for You.

• Being organized will help your student be successful.

• Your student should plan to work on school daily (Monday- Friday). This will help get your student into a routine and will help them retain what they are learning. There will be 3-4 hours of work per class, per week.

• Have your student make a checklist for each day, go over Schoology with you, create a calendar for a wall in their room, use alarms on their phone, or use stickies on their computer to keep organized.

Additional Tips

If you have technology limitations at home that prevent your child from participating in online learning; reach out to the Assistant Head of your division:

• Lower School (ECC through 5th grade): Mrs. Stacey Hendershot at shendershot@carrollwooddayschool.org
• Middle School (Grades 6 - 8): Mr. Dan Holtsclaw at dholtsclaw@carrollwooddayschool.org
• Upper School (Grades 9 - 12): Mr. John Horsington at jhorsington@carrollwooddayschool.org

Should students need any technology support from the IT Department, please open a help desk ticket using this help desk link:

• https://cdsit.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/requests/new

Message from CDS Technology Department

• ECC and elementary parents can access the LS Distance Learning Plan on Seesaw. It is located in a "Distance Learning" folder on each classroom teacher’s page.
• Middle school and upper school parents can access the MS/US Distance Learning Plan on Schoology. The plan is available in the resource file located in the left column of the MS and US school pages, as well as the resource file on each grade level page: Class of 2020, Class of 2021, Class of 2022, Class of 2023, Class of 2024, Class of 2025, and Class of 2026 (6th grade).

Lower School
Teachers will be share schedules and assignments with students and parents on their Seesaw page.

Middle School & Upper School
Students and parents should check Schoology daily for updates. Teachers will be more active on Schoology.  On Monday, teachers will post a preview for the week. There will be regular updates for each course. Please make sure your student reads these thoroughly.  Don’t skip things like videos or links.

Your teacher will send an invitation for your child to join a scheduled Zoom Cloud Meeting. This will be sent via email and/or posted to your child's class page on Seesaw or Schoology.

Attached are step-by-step instructions how to install Zoom on your device.

• Computer Users: You will be able to install Zoom when you click on the link in the invitation.
• iPad Users: You will need to download the Zoom Cloud Meetings app.

Requirements/Suggestion:

• Browser Requirements: Google Chrome 53.0.2785 or higher, Internet Explorer 10 or higher, Microsoft Edge 38.14393.0.0 or higher, Google Chrome 53.0.2785 or higher, Safari 10.0.602.1.50 or higher, Firefox 49.0 or higher
• Headphones will help eliminate background noise.

ZOOM Directions for Students

Synchronous classes/meetings are opportunities for teachers to interact with students (and/or parents) in real-time through online sessions to support learning and the socio-emotional well-being of students. CDS is set up to conduct these sessions using several platforms, including Zoom, Schoology Conference, and Google Meets. Links to join these sessions will be posted to Schoology or Seesaw class pages and/or will be sent out via email. All virtual conferences will be recorded.

Lower School: Lower School will be doing morning meeting check ins with the entire class and eventually teachers will do group lessons as well.

MS and US:  In addition to virtual conference classes synchronous sessions could also involve group collaboration on shared documents or scheduled discussion chats on Schoology class pages.

Lower School:
Teachers will check in with students daily.  These check-ins will not always be a live virtual class. Completing virtual lessons, responding on Seesaw, email, submitting assignments, etc., all constitute check-ins. 

MS and US:
Students should try their best to attend all live virtual class sessions.  All research on distance learning suggests that live touch points enhance student engagement and success in virtual classes. Attendance in these sessions is not optional and will help keep students engaged with teachers, peers, and their learning.  However, we recognize that synchronous attendance will at times be hard for a variety of reasons. If you cannot make a class, reach out to your teacher and they will help you make up your work.

Yes. Middle School and Upper School will continue to use Schoology as a digital gradebook.

Assessments may need to be altered a bit due to the online format.  Teachers will monitor student progress using such methods as check-ins, projects, Nearpod, and summatives.

Lower School
Parents should email your child's classroom teacher if they are ill or unable to attend class. 

Middle School and Upper School
If your student is ill or can not attend class, reach out to your teacher and have one of your parents must email msabsences@carrollwooddayschool.org or usabsences@carrollwooddayschool.org. The classroom teacher will be in touch to help your student make up any work missed due to unavoidable absence.

Each teacher will have at least one synchronous (real-time, virtual) class or check-in per week. Some may have more.

Lower School:
Teachers will check in with students daily.  These check-ins will not always be a live virtual class. Completing virtual lessons, responding on Seesaw, email, submitting assignments, etc., all constitute check-ins. 

MS and US:
Classes will not be in virtual session for every scheduled period or for the full length of a regular class session, but when they are in session it will occur during the student’s regularly scheduled class time. Teachers will publish expectations for virtual attendance by Monday of each week. Attendance will be taken for the scheduled time of the student's class, as published on Schoology.

Classes will rarely if ever last the full 80 minutes.  When live classes end, there will be work to do and submit independently.  Teachers will offer clear instructions and support for students as they work independently.

1. When will school end for seniors since they were supposed to be preparing for exams and now that is not necessary?
   At this time, we do not yet have a firm decision on the final day for seniors. We are currently waiting for information from IB to further understand the details of any coursework and deadlines they now require instead of May exams. We expect to have more information in that regard after March 27th. We are also monitoring the announcements from the State of Florida for school closures.
2. When will students receive their IA results?
   Typically we do not know their grade award until IB releases the grades in the summer. The core components were uploaded prior to March 15th with additional IA work to be loaded through the end of April for various subjects. IAs are loaded to IB and then examined and moderated by outside examiners. Students should be able to understand their range of IA grades based on the feedback from the teacher when they submitted their drafts. If students aren't sure, they can reach out to their teacher to clarify or to Nancy Hsu, DP Coordinator.
3. How will the cancellation of May IB exams affect qualification for Bright Futures?
   We have not yet received guidance from Bright Futures on the IB announcement and whether this would change their scholarship award. Since IB is still planning on awarding diplomas this year without the May exams, it may not require any changes in the Bright Futures procedure. Our college counseling staff is actively reaching out to Bright Futures. Additionally, Mrs. Hsu is working with the Florida Association of IB World Schools who deals directly with the FL Department of Education on these matters. Once the state gives clear guidance, we will share that information with families as soon as we have it.