Episode 12 - Return to School Seneca Valley Academy of Choice with Ms. Denise Manganello

SHOW TOPIC
Return to School Seneca Valley Academy of Choice

SPECIAL GUEST
Ms. Denise Manganello, Seneca Valley Academy of Choice Principal

Ms. Denise Manganello has been an integral part of the Seneca Valley Academy of Choice (SVAOC) program since its inception in 2007 first serving as an assistant principal and then becoming principal in 2013. She is currently working on her doctorate through American College of Education with a focus on Online Education. Prior to that, she served as Assistant Principal of the Senior High School and has been with the district since 2006.   

IN THIS EPISODE, WE WILL REVIEW
• Live sessions and student interaction
• Grade level courses and time for peer interaction
• Daily login and communication from Microsoft TEAMS
• Remote Learning and how it differs from the SVAOC full-time cyber program

USEFUL INFORMATION
www.svsd.net/ReturntoSchool
www.svsd.net/LearningModels
https://www.svsd.net/Page/16416
https://www.svsd.net/Page/16417
https://svtube.svsd.net/play/?id=uf9xdfn4zm
www.svsd.net/Cyber

Transcript

 FULL TRANSCRIPT (with timecode)

Voices E12 Denise Manganello

File Name: Voices E12 Denise Manganello.mp3

File Length: 00:09:29

SPEAKERS

Int - Introduction

JK - Jeff Krakoff

DM - Denise Manganello

00:00:02:24 - 00:00:07:23

Introduction: Welcome to Voices, a Podcast brought to you by the Seneca Valley School District.

00:00:10:29 - 00:00:27:23

Jeff Krakoff: I'm Jeff Krakoff with Denise Manganello who is principal of the Seneca Valley Academy of Choice Program, which is the cyber program for the school district. Thanks for joining us today, Denise. I know you've been with the district since 2006.

00:00:27:25 - 00:00:34:23

Jeff Krakoff: You were an assistant principal at the high school before moving into your your current.

00:00:34:25 - 00:00:40:13

Jeff Krakoff: You've been with the Academy of Choice since it began in 2007, correct?.

00:00:40:15 - 00:00:41:00

Denise Manganello: Correct.

00:00:41:11 - 00:00:49:17

Jeff Krakoff: OK. Well let's talk about it as we get ready to go back to school and definitely an abnormal year, right?

00:00:49:19 - 00:00:52:15

Jeff Krakoff: Everyone's dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.

00:00:54:27 - 00:01:05:27

Jeff Krakoff: Typically, the program was asynchronous students could do it at their own pace. I understand there will be a live component for tutorials.

00:01:05:29 - 00:01:09:20

Jeff Krakoff: Can can you walk us through how this year will be a little bit different?

00:01:10:18 - 00:01:33:24

Denise Manganello: Yes. So for this year we are starting and implementing live tutorial sessions for students. Those sessions will be grade-based or subject-based for the secondary students. So they will be able to work with Seneca Valley teachers during that time and we'll have live support from those teachers.

00:01:34:14 - 00:01:35:12

Jeff Krakoff: OK.

00:01:35:21 - 00:01:44:16

Jeff Krakoff: So you know it's been a growing program over the years, but because of what we're dealing with right now it's becoming more popular than ever.

00:01:44:18 - 00:02:03:06

Jeff Krakoff: So in the past, you had group various grades together for example, maybe in elementary K-4; K-6, right? But as I understand it this year because of the increased demand you're going to be offering grade specific for each and every grade, programs.

00:02:03:08 - 00:02:08:27

Jeff Krakoff: Can you explain why that shift happened and how that's all going to work this fall?

00:02:09:22 - 00:02:43:10

Denise Manganello: Yes. So based on the demands of our community and looking at our cyber program as our options for their families we are able to organize our cyber program based on grade levels and we will try to keep them as much community-based in the elementary as possible, but also it could be District-based where a kindergartener could be in school. We had one student from Haine and another student from Evans City, but all students in that grade would be in kindergarten or in first grade.

00:02:43:12 - 00:03:07:05

Denise Manganello: So as much as possible we're trying to keep it based on their elementary school, but also adding in other students to make it a full classroom or first/second graders and then in the secondary we're be looking at keeping it subject-based and having those live sessions with students in their same subject.

00:03:07:07 - 00:03:22:09

Jeff Krakoff: OK. So prior to this year again it was more asynchronous. I would imagine there's a whole lot more peer interaction now there are live components. What are some those opportunities that the parents know about for their students? \

00:03:22:11 - 00:03:56:28

Denise Manganello: So we're really excited that our district has implemented Microsoft TEAMS as a landing space for us and we are having students log into Microsoft TEAMS daily instead of just going to the asynchronous platform and by doing that that will allow students to be connected to other students that are currently taking that exact same course. So they will be able to collaborate together, they'll be able to work together, they'll be able to record chat, they can video chat each other, or just call each other.

00:03:57:00 - 00:04:11:08

Denise Manganello: They'll also have those same resources with their Seneca Valley teacher by utilizing Microsoft TEAMS as our landing space. It's giving us a whole another layer of collaboration that we've never had before.

00:04:11:10 - 00:04:17:22

Jeff Krakoff: OK. So was there a lot of demand from parents and the community.

00:04:17:24 - 00:04:29:26

Jeff Krakoff: I would imagine that as parents are making a decision which route they want to take for their specific students what what kinds of things have you been hearing from the community in terms of cyber?

00:04:30:00 - 00:05:06:00

Denise Manganello: I think that our cyber program is growing in a new way. Before parents opted to take cyber program for flexibility, opportunity, scheduling dilemmas within their current secondary schedule. Now we're looking at as parents and their option to keep their children home but to still keep structure and stability of their education. Therefore, we know that it was important not just to have that asynchronous program but to add these live components to help meet the needs of our new cyber students

00:05:06:11 - 00:05:29:29

Denise Manganello: and what they're looking for. But we also didn't want to change our existing program because we still have a lot of families that are looking for that asynchronous work when they can, around their schedules, around their travels, whatever they need to as a family. So we're trying to blend both worlds together to make sure that all of our community's needs are met.

00:05:30:09 - 00:05:40:09

Jeff Krakoff: OK you just use the word structure and that's so important in the classroom and so important in a cyber-type of situation.

00:05:40:11 - 00:05:48:15

Jeff Krakoff: Do you have any tips for parents to help them structure their students so they can be the most successful they can be?

00:05:48:17 - 00:05:53:12

Denise Manganello: I think structure is the key to success on online learning.

00:05:53:19 - 00:06:44:15

Denise Manganello: A lot of our secondary students realize that after the first nine weeks where they procrastinate and they wait till the last second to get all of their work done and then they pull a 24-hour work on a course and that is not what we want at all. We want students to be learning throughout the entire marking period and every day. So really having that structure either of creating your own bell schedule or following the current bell schedule that you would if you were in the traditional setting, adding some breaks to be away from this screen is important though, so making sure maybe that you still take a 10-15 minute break in between classes, just as you would walk through the hall for the four minutes in the secondary.

00:06:44:17 - 00:07:18:29

Denise Manganello: You want to structure it though to where you have all of your assignments done and timed out throughout that day. So then you can mark your daily assignment calendar as accomplished. Some familie like to blocks schedule where English is done on Monday. Science is done on Tuesdays, Social Studies is Wednesday. Thursday is math. Whatever works for the family, that's fine but some type of structure and timeline for that student is necessary for the success of the program.

00:07:19:01 - 00:07:35:06

Jeff Krakoff: Got it. So it sounds like there's flexibility per family, but structure is the 's the thread the common thread. So Denise, again if I'm a parent of a student in the Academy of Choice what are some of the main takeaways?

00:07:35:08 - 00:07:40:10

Jeff Krakoff: What are some of the main things I need to know and think about as we get back to school this fall?

00:07:41:16 - 00:08:16:28

Denise Manganello: I think one of the main takeaways is that we're a team together and that we're working for your child's success and that our goal is that every student within Seneca Valley is learning and growing every year regardless if they're in the traditional setting or if they chose our cyber  platform and in all settings, it takes that team approach where parents are just as important as the teachers, just as important as us administrators. But together we work to make sure that their child is being successful.

00:08:17:00 - 00:08:47:13

Denise Manganello: So if there are struggles at home where they need us to help. That's still our job. It's still our responsibility. So if we need to set up even a structured timeline for their child to follow, an additional check-in by their teacher, or if they need anything to reach out to us and that we hope that our level of communication from our teachers from us as the administrators is to their level of expectation also.

00:08:47:16 - 00:09:07:15

Denise Manganello: So really the biggest piece of online learning is open communication and regular communication. So answering back to an email and really both ways of us knowing that they're reading it; at parents knowing that we've read their email and we're addressing those concerns.

00:09:07:17 - 00:09:14:07

Jeff Krakoff: All right. Great insight, great tips. Thanks again for joining us, Denise Manganello.

00:09:14:09 - 00:09:19:29

Jeff Krakoff: Best of luck as we get back to school this fall and have a great day.

00:09:20:01 - 00:09:20:28

Denise Manganello: Thank you.

00:09:21:00 - 00:09:21:13

Jeff Krakoff: Take care.