From CSISD:

Dear CSISD Parents and Guardians:

I hope you and your family are well and are staying positive during this time. Please see below for updates regarding several COVID-19 related issues.

At-Home Learning

Just this afternoon, Governor Abbott modified his executive order to keep schools closed through Friday, May 1. As such, now is the time for us to continue to move forward with our at-home learning model in order to expand the services we are offering our students and families.

We have been preparing for a long-term closure and are currently finalizing our plans to introduce new material, establish an element of accountability (grades and turning in work) for students, and for students to receive feedback from their teachers regarding that work. This could start as early as next week in certain subjects and grade levels. The details for this will be communicated to you by your respective campus principal.

In addition, I want you to know the teachers in CSISD have the autonomy to reach out to your students via Zoom, Google Hangouts, or other means to stay engaged. What that looks like will vary by teacher, but it is an expectation for our campuses and classrooms to stay engaged with our students.

Technology Resources

Campus principals are working with our technology department to check-out Netbooks to families who have indicated they have no technology resources at home. The focus for this week is to distribute these resources to identified high school and middle school students. CSISD is developing a plan for intermediate and elementary technology deployment based on remaining inventory following this week.

Internet Access

The CSISD Technology staff is working to install additional access points at South Knoll, College Hills, Southwood Valley, River Bend, Oakwood, CSHS and AMCHS to enhance access to WiFi outside of the building. More information on this will be made available once the access points have been installed.

Suddenlink/Altice is offering a 30 Mbps broadband plan free for 60 days to any new household within their service area which has been affected by school closures. Please call 888-633-0030 to get more information or to enroll in the free plan.

Also, most cell phone companies providers have waived data usage limits, allowing some phones to become "hot spots." This will allow you to have WiFi in your home, or students could use devices with cellular access to complete assignments. Call your cell phone provider to determine your current data limitations.

School Lunch/Breakfast

CSISD continues to serve lunch and breakfast each weekday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the following locations: College Hills, Southwood Valley, South Knoll, River Bend, Oakwood and the Lincoln Recreational Center.

Students must be present to pick-up lunch and breakfast. CSISD explored the option to provide lunches to parents without their child(ren) being present, but it is not feasible at this time due to the reporting requirements and regulations adopted by the Texas Department of Agriculture.

Seniors

This is an especially difficult time for our seniors. Along with our high school principals, we are actively working on a plan to allow seniors to graduate this year and with all credits intact.

Reed Arena will not be an option for our graduation ceremonies this year, but we are finalizing a plan to have graduations at CSISD facilities, as well as alternate dates for the ceremonies should the need arise.

Alternate plans for prom are also being developed, and our high school principals will communicate directly with their students when the plans are finalized later this week.

What's next?

Much work has been done by dedicated educators in this district to develop plans to continue learning for our students. Our focus is not only to provide a meaningful at-home learning environment for all students, but to continue to modify and expand on the educational services we are offering to our families.

Please know we continue to monitor COVID-19 through the Brazos Valley Health Department, the Texas Education Agency, and other local, state and national agencies.

We are all experiencing upheaval to our routines, alternate working environments, and overall change to our lives. With almost 14,000 students in more than 9,000 households, we understand that each family has a different set of circumstances. CSISD's bottom-line goal is to continue learning for everyone.

Respectfully,

Mike Martindale, CSISD Interim Superintendent of Schools

Very vague, no concrete plan still. It is clear intermediate and elementary won't even be looked at until a week or more for now, which means instruction is at least 2-3 weeks out.

My wife asked one of my daughter's teacher today if she could refresh us on with where my daughter was in learning objectives prior to the break and gives us a few pointers to resources as to what upcoming learning objectives were so that *we* could teach these to her. Her response... "I'm not sure I'm allowed to provide you with that information."

Ya'll, I'm done.

https://www.csisd.org/departments/CurriculumandInstruction

It's public information, not sure why he/she was being so secretive about it.

That doesn't surprise me but also makes me very mad. I think today's update was good, but leaves no excuse for teachers not to start reaching out to smaller groups or individuals more. The once a week 5 teachers and 60 students thing is useless, even socially.

Because teachers aren't getting paid full time salaries in the summer (they are paid for working 9 months), and also because other districts and schools (in our own town) have figured out how to do it better in the same time frame?

Serious question - please tell me what Bryan has done that is better.

I am not wanting a bashing run but my friends with kids there aren't seeing more than we are. And this question is in lieu of the thread title.

Three Seasons said:

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(Forgive any typos - small screen...fat thumbs)

So a question was asked about teaching online.

What does teaching look like in my classzoom? I worked tech as a summer side gig so l have a school laptop, a small document camera, and two personal monitors hooked up with another personal laptop sitting on the shelf above the school laptop. Because our school is 1:1 on student tech, it was mostly an easy fix for parents with no WiFi, we walked them through the process if needed to get net access.

I'm up at 6AM checking my connection, and getting things going (mostly me...) making sure everything is good to go. Kids hit the waiting room at 7:40 AM, I start my first class at 7:45 AM. Because the kids are on school computers, they have to use their school credentials to log on. This allows me to use a program to view the (depending on class size) 15-20 open browsers in (near) real time. I have several windows open at the same time (school email, messenger app, google classroom, zoom, and a couple of websites we use for online learning (math & science). I do a short intro for the daily expectations, a short direct instruction bit, and some whole group Q&A for the first 15 minutes before sending them to breakout rooms I assign (keeping one room empty for 1:1 instruction if needed. (Safety is not an issue - it's all recorded). If I'm in one breakout room, I'm watching my "screens" monitor to keep everyone on task (yes they try to get over on me there too...that program has a record feature - so I send their parents a recording of their online activity which normally corrects that behavior.)

If a student is receiving any special services, then the specialist comes into my session, I assign them as co-host and an individual breakout room, then they can move any students into that room as needed for instruction.

What is cool is that even my poorest students have a smartphone (yes I realize that I'm lucky in that respect). I've allowed them to sign on to the zoom as "student1's" iPhone that they can use as a doc-cam to show me written work that I can check. If I need to explain something I'm written form, I can switch over to my doc-cam and write it all out in real time.

I bounce around breakout rooms... if a student [electronically] raises their hand then I can go straight to that room to answer the specific questions. If a student finishes early and messages me - they sign off to go get a snack, chase their dog, etc. until their next class.

Rinse and repeat for 3 math, 3 science, and one CTE elective. Teaching (now) 4 days a week to give the kids a 20% reduction in screen time.

Are there technology issues? Yep. Today my math website went down in 6th period. We had a 3 minute delay. I broke out the workbook, used CamScanner to scan the problems, dropped that into their google classroom, switched over to my doc-cam and picked up where I left off.

Do students have technology issues? Yep. If serious enough the drop off the computer for repair at an assigned location. They use their iPhones and we work the problem.

Do students have life issues? Yep. Family comes first. I have a student with her mom in the hospital - we'll catch her up later... go be with mom. Students with younger siblings needing online help with parents at work? Go get everyone set up - come back and we'll work it out. Students wanting to get over on me because they think they can work the system? Don't BS me, I invented the system before you were effing born... using mathway or photomath to make those great daily grades? You will be using that smartphone to show me your written work in real time when I test you on Friday.

The point is that it's not a perfect system, but it's working. The teachers are learning new tech on the fly, we're sharing ideas and experiences, and kids are learning new material. Our tech people are working non-stop, and the administration has had a very proactive approach. We've closed the school "indefinitely" because [doing the math] we realized early on that this would be a longer shelter in place situation - so why string our parents along.

Whoever connected it back to Leadership was right. We were told that "...this is the new norm, you will get all the support you need, failure is not an option... so make it happen."

Last week I put my iPad up on my dashboard and "took" my Bio kids to my neighborhood park. They laughed watching my slow a$$ chase a squirrel (food webs right?) so when I got back to the house, one of my students that is hard to connect with took his iPhone outside where the class directed him around his small farm (they live in another county) finding different things that we talked about in "class." The kid that skipped the first two days of class hasn't missed a single day since.

Class is different now - and it's exciting. Everyday is a new set of challenges and successes. Without having the STAAR test looming in a month, I get to do some really cool things! For some of what I have planned - I hope it actually works

I hope that this answers some of your questions. I'm lucky to teach what I love and work for a district [with 20k students statewide] that is willing to take risks to educate our kids.

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C'mon CSISD! See how easy it is?

Could not love this more ThreeSeasons. Thank you for what you are doingyou clearly love and are committed to your job and the kiddos. THANK YOU! This IS hard, it won't be perfect, but that is not the reason to just give up and call it a year. Let's hope CSISD catches on soon.

Edit to add based on previous poster's comment: I have faith that CSISD teachers are as competent and committed as Three Seasons. No it is not easy

txgardengirl said:

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Serious question - please tell me what Bryan has done that is better.

I am not wanting a bashing run but my friends with kids there aren't seeing more than we are. And this question is in lieu of the thread title.

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I think it's just that it seemed BISD got off to a better start on all this stuff than CSISD, at least from what the OP said. It was about early communications and perceived ineptitude of CSISD by a few of their parents.

This thread has far outdistanced the OP as well as the topic title. However, not many current BISD parents have been on the thread complaining or praising BISD's online operations. Seems like this is now a CS thread to either complain or defend the ISD, with a few of us Bryan interlopers posting from time to time and enjoying the meltdown of our neighbors to the south.

This is the latest post on BISD's COVID-19 Update Center. I have not yet received he usual Text/Email blast though.

My own experience with this whole event is: I've seen a mix of teachers being total Rock Stars in this, some sending out a random little note of suggested enrichment material, and some are invisible. I'm lucky with this kiddo. His grades matter to him in a way that mine did to me, way back when. He touches base with the teachers when he sees no new material. In all fairness, part of his motivation is refusal to get behind because he despises having to catch up.

"Dear Bryan ISD Parents/Guardians,

As we all work together to stop the spread of COVID-19, Bryan ISD schools will remain closed through Friday, May 1, making the earliest possible restart Monday, May 4, 2020. This extended closure mandate comes from Governor Abbott, who issued an executive order today stating that Texans should only be in public for essential reasons, such as buying food, and even then need to continue to observe social distancing.

I agree with Governor Abbott's decision and believe this is the right step towards ensuring our students, staff, and families are safe. As I have stated in previous letters, just because our campuses are closed does not mean learning has stopped. I have been so encouraged by all of the learning I've seen from our students and the positive messages from principals and teachers about the virtual interactions that are taking place.

In anticipation of continued closure, BISD leadership has been busy developing Phase 2 of our Instructional Learning Plan. Starting Monday, April 6, 2020, all students will be interacting with their teachers through a program called Schoology, available through ClassLink at go.bryanisd.org . I'll send a more detailed letter with information about this plan tomorrow (Wednesday), but I'd like you to take the rest of the week to make sure you have a computer at home and the ability to access the internet. We've handed out thousands of Chromebook laptops, but if you have not received one yet, please take our online technology survey by clicking HERE. If you are unable to connect to the internet, please click HERE to see a number of options for free internet. It is very important that our students are connected with their teachers to make sure they are receiving the best education possible during this closure. To accomplish this, they must engage online, for the optimum safety of our staff and children.

Our grab and go lunch/breakfast will also continue. You can continue to pick up a grab and go lunch/breakfast from Monday - Friday, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. at Bryan High School, Long Intermediate School, Kemp-Carver Elementary School, Jones Elementary School, and Navarro Elementary School. Per the Texas Department of Agriculture guidelines, you must have your children with you in the car. For safety, some practices at the site may change to keep social distance and to assure safety, so stay tuned.

I'm excited to share more about Phase 2 of online learning tomorrow (Wednesday), but today I thought it was important to focus on the extended closure and abiding by this new executive order from Governor Abbott. We are all doing our part together to stop the spread of COVID-19, and get life back to normal as soon as possible. Thank you for being a partner in this for Bryan, the Brazos Valley and the State of Texas. I appreciate your partnership."

Dr. Christie Whitbeck
Bryan ISD Supterintendent

BISD is going to start using a platform that CSISD has been using for a while now ??

Wicked Good Ag said:

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BISD is going to start using a platform that CSISD has been using for a while now ??

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We already were. It sounds to me like things will just become more structured, starting next week.

I thought they had been. The email made it sound new to people

Bryan ISD has primarily used Google classroom. From what I was told, there were some FERPA concerns using Classroom for complete online learning, so they switched to Schoology.

You are a rock star! My kids teachers have been very similar to this and I've been BEYOND impressed with online school! Keep up the good work!