Distance Learning
There are times in our schedule where weather, delays, or scheduled staff in-service may require our students to work and learn from home. These Distance Learning Days allow students to continue their work at home through the use of our Chromebooks or through teacher-prepared lessons/work. Our Distance Learning Guide drives the work we do as teachers, and it explains the expectations for our teachers, students, and MCS families. Please take a minute to look through our Distance Learning Guide to learn more about what distance learning instruction is, vocabulary that you might see, and ways instruction might be delivered.
Inside our Distance Learning Guide, we list expectations we have for our teachers, students, and families. These expectations may vary depending on whether the Distance Learning Day is a scheduled day in our calendar or an impromptu day due to weather or other factors, but if you want to know what a Distance Learning Day could look like, see the expectations below:
Distance Learning Expectations
Student/Parent Expectations:
Students WILL have school assignments/work to complete on distance learning days. Assignments may vary but could include:
Traditional assignments in all grades and content areas
Completing assignments that they are currently working on in school
Completing assignments that are missing
Working to redo assignments as given opportunities by the teacher
Students WILL have flexibility as to when they complete their assignments. Scheduled distance learning days are scheduled around weekends to allow students plenty of time to complete the work they’ve been assigned. Assignments given for distance learning days due to weather-related school closings will be shared as soon as possible, and students will be given ample time to complete assignments if obstacles arise during weather-related absences.
Students WILL have assignments given in a variety of manners. Some students may have assignments given to them through Google Classroom, so they will need access to their Chromebooks on these days. Work that is online or work that has been downloaded to be completed offline can be accessed and completed. Students without Internet access will have options for work they can complete. Some students may work on assignments that do not require Chromebooks, such as reading and writing assignments, choice boards, review packets, etc.
Students WILL NOT be expected to be present for Google Meets at scheduled times in order to be counted present for the day. Teachers may post office hours for virtual availability as needed.
Students WILL NOT be overloaded with assignments. The expectation for students will be that work should take no more than 30 minutes per content area, and the work will not be new learning that would be better guided with the help of their teachers at school.
Students WILL be accountable for the work assigned to them for distance learning days. If work is not attempted/completed in a timely manner, students may be counted absent for the day.
Parents WILL help communicate expectations with students and help make sure students complete assignments in a timely manner.
Parents WILL check communications from teachers and schools to know what expectations are for distance learning days.
School/Teacher Expectations:
The district, schools, and teachers WILL communicate the expectations of students to parents. We will do this through district and school/classroom-level communication. For weather-related distance learning days given on short notice, schools/teachers will quickly communicate expectations to students and families.
Teachers WILL review how to download work to be completed offline. This will allow students without Internet access to use their Chromebooks at home. (Click HERE to learn how to turn on offline access to Google Docs, sheets, etc., or reach out to your Instructional Tech Team for help.)
When necessary, teachers WILL have offline work for students to complete on distance learning days. This work can consist of practice, review, choice boards, and/or other paper/pencil assignments to provide students with meaningful work.
Teachers WILL review student work from distance learning days in a timely manner for accountability. If assigned work was not attempted/completed in a timely manner, students may be marked absent for the day.
School staff WILL be working on professional learning at their schools during scheduled distance learning days. We will have district-level learning going on during the morning hours, and schools may use the afternoon hours for school-level learning. Individual teachers may also post office hours for virtual availability as they see a need. Attendance on these days is vital, and any professional learning missed due to absences will be made up on the teacher’s time outside of normal school hours.