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Remember what it was like 35 days ago? Routines were firm; prepare for work, drop kids off at school or daycare, gym time, pick up kids, cook dinner, do laundry, help with homework, and this repeats daily for the four or five day week for you, your students, and maybe your own children  Teachers…..what has changed? No more duty days this year, no more volunteering for the spring festival, no more baseball games, or concession stands, but now we have extended learning and it is all virtual. It does not matter if you are using Zoom, Google Hangouts, or GoTo Meeting, Canvas, or Moodle, these are just some of the teaching platforms teachers are using to connect with their students. This will remain to be a new way of teaching and reaching students until the end of the school year. Gratefully, at this point in the year teachers had built a rapport with their students and it is that midyear stretch in which teachers were reinforcing concepts and getting to those lessons that students need to reach mastery on before taking the state assessments. There will be no assessments this year and the Governor has waived seat hours for the remainder of the year. However,  many districts continue to move forward ensuring students do not go without instruction. 

Here at Region 9, we are supporting the efforts of teachers in our member districts by providing Google Classroom and Zoom training to assist teachers using these platforms. Teachers are utilizing many multimedia sources so they can make sure their students can interact and receive the instruction they need to successfully complete the year and ensure students are prepared for the next grade level. In response to the training that was provided, Educational Consultants Cleo Mow and Amanda O’Doherty continue to move forward with various training to support teachers. In the coming weeks, we will offer training on Google Hangouts and continued professional development on the Google Suites platform (Drive, Docs, Sheets, Calendar, Classroom, Forms, Sites, YouTube, and Slides). Keep on the lookout for more professional development coming from our office to support all the teachers out there continuing to teach! In the meantime, if you feel you could benefit from something in particular, please reach out to us and we will do our best to accommodate your needs!