It’s definitely been a busy 24 hours for Timber Creek students, many who’ve gone through the process of not knowing their schedule, to seeing errors, to having things fixed within the first half day. But we’re here to explain what happened, why it happened, and what’s going to be happening in the future.
First, a disclaimer: There are 3363 students currently enrolled in Timber Creek High School, we simply won’t be able to go through every variation of missing periods, double bookings, teacher changes or remote learning errors. But here’s what we know, based on interviews and communication with our Timber Creek Counseling department, in the hopes that you can understand what’s going on on and how it’ll be fixed.
1. AERIES Errors: Though we expected schedules to be completely and properly loaded in AERIES on Tuesday, Aug 25, basically everyone knows that the process took longer than expected and both teachers and students weren’t able to access their schedules until much later in the day. This caused two problems
1. Anxiety for students and parents who saw errors in their schedules and…
2. Confusion for teachers who had, until those schedules were released, may not have known what classes, periods, remote, in person or co-seating situation they may be placed in.
On top of that, while Parent logins had been created for AERIES weeks before to fill out the student survey to attend class online or in person, Student logins were not released until much later in the day, leading to confusion about how to log in and see schedules.
P.S., we recommend going through KCloud to get to AERIES: http://kcloud.kellerisd.net/
2. Fixing Schedules By Priority: We believe that EVERY student at Timber Creek is a priority, however, due to the circumstances of in-person learning, remote, and hybrid classes, Counseling needed to spend the MOST time today (August 26) working on students with missing periods, double classes and other issues while they were physically here in person. While dozens of students were able to get their schedule fixed today, more issues may pop up during the Odd day of school on August 27. Once again, counseling will be present to adjust what they can.
Even before the school day was over, Counseling had moved on to fixing remote schedules, beginning with students who were missing classes. If your remote learner is missing something, chances are that the Counseling department is already aware. How? AERIES is able to run reports on students that are missing classes, have two classes scheduled at the same time, and many other conflicts that might be a problem. Counseling recommends checking remote learning schedules again tomorrow morning to see many changes — schedules are resync’d overnight, according to our sources.
Finally, counselors may have been sending default out of office messages or other standard information in reply to your e-mail — this is simply because they are working extremely hard to fix this. Your patience is appreciated.
3. Remote Learners Disconnected
One of the biggest challenges for day 1 Remote Learners was….what do I do? This issue stems from three key issues:
- Teachers got schedules the same time you did
- Systems like MyBackpack, Canvas and others have yet to be refreshed to include this year’s classes
- TCHS Wifi went down for a long time during the day.
We expect that remote teachers will be in touch today or tomorrow with updates about how your course will progress. Systems like MyBackpack and Canvas will be syncing with the new AERIES schedules but could take until Friday or later. Plus, they’re working on the wifi and providing backup systems for teachers so they don’t get caught offline.
Please know that any remote learner that was unable to connect to their class for any reason today will NOT be missing out on any content of their class. For the first day of courses, most classes spent time working on Social Emotional Learning, introducing each other, and going over the 2020-2021 Policies and Procedures. Also know that the Remote teachers are adjusting to these challenges and will be treating you with grace and mercy.
If you’ve yet to hear from your remote teacher, please know they’re working the best they can to get things in order. Your patience is appreciated.
4. Login Errors: This is information provided to us at 4:46 p.m. on August 26, 2020 about student logins.
ALL student passwords were reset to default. Even if they changed their password last year. They need to use the DEFAULT password and/ or reset their password. If they got a message their password was changed today, it was not a hacker, but rather Keller ISD Technology.
Mostly this impacts our 7-12 students who reset their passwords last fall. Below is default info to help them get back in:
Grades 5-12…… (first initial)(middle initial)(last initial)(full birth date no leading 0’s)
Example: John James Smith September 08, 2005 – jjs982005
Additionally, a reminder on how Keller ISD builds e-mails: (first initial)(middle initial)(full last name)01@kellerisd.com
Example: John James Smith — jjsmith01@kellerisd.com
NOTE: If you’re not the first to have that same combination of first initial/middle initial/last name, you might have a 02 or higher before the @kellerisd.com
Students can reset their passwords once logged in to KCloud.
If they can’t login, click Forgot Your Password on Kcloud. Follow recovery/ reset steps.
Still not working after trying all of the above? They can email studenttechhelp@kellerisd.net or call (817) 744-1200.
5. Zero Hour
For many students, especially remote learners, a new “zero period” was displaying on their schedule. While during #AskTalon yesterday, August 25, we believed that was only for KCAL and before school athletic practices, counseling has also informed us that the zero period has another purpose — these remote classes are offered based on the teachers schedule.
For example, they could meet before school, during a conference period, after school. This means the teacher will have some flexibility on when they can schedule their course with their students. Now, before you panic, counseling has stated that many students that have a “zero” period will have a free period somewhere else in the day. Note: These are ONLY for remote learners, so it would not impact transportation to or from campus.
More information on Zero Hour classes should be coming from each teacher.
6. Tech Check
Many teachers are working hard to get their technical presentation for remote or co-seated students up to level where all students can hear, participate and learn without issue. This will continue to take time, but please know that administrators and district technology personnel are working on this process.
Simultaneously, if your student is having issues with technology, there is the aforementioned tech help e-mail and phone number to contact.
7. What’s Next
Counseling has been working feverishly to fix schedule issues, resolve conflicts, complete all the remote learner issues and incorporate hybrid learner classes so every student has a complete schedule as soon as possible. But, frankly, your e-mails won’t make things go faster right now. Previously, Talon itself (and Mr. Janda by default on any live stream) have encouraged e-mailing the individual counselor, but that’s only going to do two things: make you feel like they’re ignoring you (which they aren’t) and add to their hundreds of e-mails to shift through (some which might be critical updates from higher up the District chain.)
For now, we ask for your patience, kindness, grace and mercy as schedule issues are resolved. Things ARE progressing. Hang tight and we’ll get this all fixed.