Please click on the following link to read critical information about the MNPS Schoology learning platform that all teachers across the district will be using for the remainder of this school year and possibly in the upcoming school year.

JTM Schoology Letter For Parents.docx

Also, please click on the following link that shows office hours for each content area teachers for the remainder of this school year. This is also a student schedule that I encourage parents to adjust for individual family needs. The key will be knowing that the morning meeting with homeroom teachers will be held from 8:30 to 8:55 each morning and teacher office hours are set at the listed times on the schedule. Students can meet with their teachers during these office hours to receive assistance and feedback on academic instruction and work assigned in Schoology. Teachers are free to have additional meetings with students outside of office hours as needed. It is the district’s expectation that students complete the work assigned for each class every week and upload such work into their Schoology account for teachers to provide feedback. However, I encourage parents to not engage in battles with their children over work completion and to enlist help from teachers and administrators if help is needed to encourage your students to engage academically. We do not want to cause your family additional stress as we are all learning to adjust to our new life circumstances. Let us be a support system for you. Finally, please talk with your children daily about life in general. These are difficult and isolating times for children who are very social human beings. Some children may experience significant feelings of loss, sadness, and depression over time as the Covid 19 crisis continues and as we continue to adjust.

Student Work Schedule.xlsx

I know that many students have belongings in their lockers and musical instruments that need to be retrieved from the school building. At this time, we are not permitted to enter the building, not even me, until MNPS gives permission to based on guidance from the Mayor’s office. Once we are given the go ahead, we will develop a schedule for cleaning out lockers and retrieving belongings.

Finally, I will be sending out links for weekly Zoom meetings with me for parents at each grade level to attend if desired. These meetings are just another way for parents to ask questions of me about school, their children, and to vent about anything that is on your mind while we mingle and catch up. This principal misses greatly his school, his students, his faculty, and you, the parents of our students.

Parent access codes for Schoology will be communicated to you by your students homeroom teacher by Monday evening, April 27th.  We appreciate your eagerness to get on board; we are excited to share your students work with you. Please bear with us as we also learn to use this Schoology system alongside of you. The faculty and I are certainly not experts on this system as we received basic training on its implementation this past week. There will be a few bumps in the road as we go forward. However, if we have to use the system again at some point, the faculty, students, and parents will all be well versed in its use.

You will only need one parent access code for each child in order to access all of that child’s courses. You can add additional children using the drop down menu and using the parent access code for that child.

You will also need the building ID. The number is 1535168695

Here is a link to a YouTube video that the wonderful Mrs. Paxton (6th grade reading/language arts) created for me to send to you to walk you through the Schoology sign up process.

https://youtu.be/JOJ5b_xUs2w

Please send virtual hugs to your teachers. They really need them right now.

Please hug your children from me and let them know that they are very much loved and missed.

As always, please do not hesitate to contact me if I can be of assistance. My email address is [email protected]. Hang in there. We are all in this together and will get through this…together. At JT Moore Middle School, we defy gravity…together.

Dr. Gary D. Hughes, Executive Principal, JT Moore Middle School