Merlin Parent News August 14, 2020

During the instructional days, students will have breaks, there will be a lunch period, there will be no specials this first week, our main priority is really to get the students acclimated to the CTOS platform and work out any bugs that we may have with the system. Teachers will share their expectations, help students navigate the platform, and we will also be administering some assessments to your students during the first week of school. So what will the expectations be while your student is logged into the CTOS platform? Well, for starters, everyone needs to be on time. Wake up early, kiddos, and log in before class starts. Work and a quiet place. Set yourself up in a quiet area and check your surroundings to be sure they are free for disruptions. Make sure your computer is charged, your camera is on, and use headphones if you have them. Please be sure that you are dressed appropriately. The school dress code is in effect that means no pajamas. Make sure you're in view of the camera. 

Mute yourself when someone else is talking. That will ensure that any background noise or conversation is not projected into the classroom. Be focused, be attentive, and be an active participant. Raise your hand to speak and type your questions in the chat box. Speak up clearly and look into the camera when you speak. Be sure not to have any sidebar conversations. And just as expected and regular school always be kind and respectful. Parents, as you may have already noticed, we are still working out the bugs with the CTLs learn platform. There will be glitches this first week of school. Every teacher and every student in Cobb county is utilizing this amazing platform. So there are bound to be some glitches on the first day. Cobb county school district technology department is working extremely hard to work out these technical issues. If you have technical issues, utilize the digital resource guide that's found at WWW dot com K12 dot org backslash CT LS. 

There are videos, frequently asked questions and gods in Spanish and English that will give you directions on how to troubleshoot most problems. Your teachers should have sent you a Zoom meeting link today. Just in case we have issues with the CTOS learn platform, class will be held using those zoom links. Here you see the virtual instructional schedule at clay harmony Leland elementary school, instruction begins at 8 a.m. and concludes at 12 noom. Each class will start with a morning meeting at 8 a.m.. All grade levels will have specials as a designated time during the school day. Students will have a block of instruction for English language arts, math, science, and social studies. We will operate on the schedule Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. Wednesday is designated as a collaboration day for teachers, also a parent power hour will take place from the district on Wednesdays. And teachers will meet with select students and student groups on Wednesdays. 

Teachers will be giving you more information about Wednesday sessions as we progress through the week. You may be asking yourself, well, how does my child log in to the CTL S platform? Students will log in with their Office 365 username and password. You can find your child's username and password and parent view. If you go to the parent view app or website, click on Office 365 consent and at the top of the page, you will find the students username in this format. First name last name at students dot com K12 dot org. The students password is the same one that they set last school year. Or it may be one two three or one two three four. If your child needs to reset their password, use the link in the digital parent resource page to submit a request. This request will go to one of our staff members who will reset your password. Devices and more devices, we have distributed over 500 devices this week. If your child does not have a device to use for digital learning, please email their name to melody crew at Cobb K12 dot org. We have distributed all of our devices at this time, but we will put your student on a waiting list, and we will contact you when a device becomes available. 

Parents, your one stop shop for digital learning information is Cobb's learning everywhere website. Please bookmark WWW dot com learning everywhere dot com. Here you will find schedules, information about lunch distribution, device troubleshooting, links to the CTL S platform. And academic resources. This is your one stop shop for information about digital learning in cop. Well, this about wraps up our video. I hope that you found this information helpful. If we can help you in any way parents and students, please don't hesitate to reach out to us. You can reach us at 770-819-0736. Our office hours are 7 30 to two 30. You can also contact us via email. Here you see my email address, Angela Whitehead, at Cobb K12 dot org, as well as the email addresses of my two amazing assistant principals, doctor Reese and McKinney, and mister Kevin o'mara. Kiddos, we look forward to seeing you bright and early, Monday morning at 8 a.m., have an awesome weekend, see you on Monday, merlins.