Ruby Van Meter Letter to Families May 4, 2020
5.5.2020
Ruby Van Meter Students, Families, and Caregivers,
We hope everyone was able to get out and enjoy the sun and warmer temperature this past weekend. Here are a few updates as we approach a new week in distance learning.
1. If your family requested a laptop or hotspot for your RVM student and have not picked it up, please contact your student’s teacher.
2. Online resources provided by the district are accessible at DMPS@Home. This will be the homepage for all district information for distance learning. Check it out!
3. If your student uses a communication device and it is currently at school, please arrange a time for pick up with your student’s teacher for pick up on Tuesday, May 5th from 1-2:00 pm.
4. Your student’s 3rd and final learning packet will be arriving at the beginning of the week of May 18th. This packet will be individualized based on your student’s current instructional levels. Please contact your student’s teacher if you have any questions.
5. Virtual Classrooms using Microsoft teams will be offered this week by our Related Arts teachers. The meetings notices will come from your student’s teacher and will repeat each week. Your student’s teachers in PE, Swimming, Art, Music, Health, Work Experience, and Home Living Skills will be leading the meeting and available to answer any questions regarding lessons from their classes.
Thank you to all the families and students that joined classrooms for our first week of virtual classrooms! Staff were so excited to see the students!! This new way of learning will require us all to be a little extra patient with technology so please keep trying if you had difficulty getting on last week. Teachers can help problem solve on getting connected and there is information below on Microsoft Teams that can can help troubleshoot issues. We miss all the students and families and look forward to seeing everyone for week two so please join a virtual classroom!
As always, the health and safety of our students, families, and communities are most important. Please continue to follow the CDC guidelines and follow updates from the district on COVID-19.
RVM Administration, Cindy Weisz, Jennifer Brindle-Rothman, Laurel Friedman
Getting Started With Microsoft Teams
Tips and Protocols for Successful Virtual Engagement Check out this Teams Quick Start Guide for a visual overview of the entire platform. Join “Learn about Teams” for detailed directions.
Joining a Virtual Meeting in Teams
Check out this short video resource from Microsoft Teams about joining a virtual meeting. This is a great resource to share with staff members when you send an invitation to a Teams Meeting.
When joining a meeting, start by entering with your mic muted and choosing if you want to appear with video by toggling the three switches underneath the purple Join Now button.
Setting Up and Managing a Virtual Meeting in Teams
Check out this short video resource from Microsoft Teams about creating a virtual meeting and inviting participants. Detailed directions can be found in Learn about Teams on the “Meeting Basics” channel. These are great resources to share with staff members who might be setting their own meetings with PLCs and other teams.
1. Select New meeting in your calendar in Teams.
2. Type in a meeting title and enter a location. An online meeting is created by default.
3. Choose a start and end time and add details as needed.
4. Enter names in the Invite people box to add them to the meeting. Note: To invite someone outside our organization, type in the appropriate email address(es).
5. See DMPS staff availability in the Scheduling assistant to see available times in a calendar view.
During your meeting, do you want to share something on your screen with everyone? Select Share .
Select what you want to share:
• Desktop lets you show everything on your screen.
• Window lets you show a specific app.
• PowerPoint lets you show a presentation.
• Browse lets you find the file you want to show.
• After you select what you want to show, a red border surrounds what you’re sharing.
• Select Stop sharing to stop showing your screen.
Effectively managing a virtual meeting can make it more user-friendly and successful. Try these management tips:
• Ask all attendees to mute the microphones when they aren’t speaking. This improve sound quality.
• Use the Chat in a meeting for questions and responses, or to indicate who wants to speak. Ask another member of your team to moderate the chat, repeat questions verbally for all to hear, or add documents to share.
• Sharing your screen can be helpful when walking through a process or referring to a resource or website.