Here is your daily update. Make sure you don't miss a post by signing up to follow this blog by email. I will be posting every day as we work towards developing our distance classroom. I have been calling parents in between meetings with other staff and I am doing my best to touch base with everyone. If you haven't heard from me, here are some things you need to know today:
- First and foremost, I miss my students! I had the chance to meet a few of you a number of weeks back when I was subbing in the school, and even if I haven't met you yet, please know that the school is super lonely without you. I can't wait to get to know you all once we have things in place.
- The grade 3/4 team is hard at work developing materials and resources for our distance learning classroom. We are hoping to do a soft roll out this Thursday, April 2. Emails with more details will be coming soon.
- Some parents have questions about how everything is going to work. Please know that we are doing our best to figure things out but we are also learning the technology for the first time and will need some time to figure out the best way forward for everyone. We are currently trying to figure out what supports and technology our students have access to and working from there.
- We are hoping to have our Google Classroom set up and ready to go this week, and to start rolling out weekly assignments starting Monday, April 6. We are also working out when we can be available digitally for students to sign in and converse with us. Schedule will be posted once we have it.
- We will primarily be focusing on literacy and numeracy skills. As per Alberta Education, students in grades K - 6 are to be assigned 5 hours of work per week (or 1 hour a day). I know for some parents this might not seem like a lot, but we are trying to go slowly to ensure parents an student do not feel overwhelmed. I am also trying to get a sense of where students are with their abilities.
- I will be linking a number of websites below for parents to use to either support their child's learning or to give parents a sense of where their child should be academically. Please note, that the skills as they are listed can seem extremely overwhelming. DO NOT PANIC. Students will continue to build these skills throughout elementary school; it is totally okay if these skills are band new and students need help learning them.
- Please make time to be kind to yourself and others. This is a crazy situation we find ourselves in and whatever you may be feeling is totally valid. Please make time to check in with your family and friends.
Here are some helpful links for both grades:
Khan Academy - this is a fantastic and FREE resource for students to use to help build their skills in most subject areas.
Handwriting Practice - even in our digital world, we still require handwriting! This is a great resource for you to build your own handwriting worksheets. Don't have a printer? No problem! You can use the instructions on here for reference and have children use lined-paper to practice.
Here are links to programs that the students already have accounts for. If you need their login information, please email me.
Read Theory - practice with reading comprehension. The website automatically adjusts for their reading levels. Reading is essential to developing literacy skills. Practice daily for 30 minutes.
Typing Practice - now more than ever, developing appropriate typing skills is essential to building literacy skills. This is a free website where students can practice typing. I recommend 30 minutes daily.
Prodigy Math - math practice disguised as as video game! Login and challenge your classroom friends. Practice for 30 minutes a day.
Here are links to programs that the students already have accounts for. If you need their login information, please email me.
Read Theory - practice with reading comprehension. The website automatically adjusts for their reading levels. Reading is essential to developing literacy skills. Practice daily for 30 minutes.
Typing Practice - now more than ever, developing appropriate typing skills is essential to building literacy skills. This is a free website where students can practice typing. I recommend 30 minutes daily.
Prodigy Math - math practice disguised as as video game! Login and challenge your classroom friends. Practice for 30 minutes a day.
Breakdown of skills by grade:
Please click on the resources below to review a general summary of the skills, by grade, that students need to be familiar with. PLEASE DON'T PANIC IF YOUR CHILD CANNOT DO THESE THINGS YET. My hope is to eventually host some digital classroom sessions where I can demonstrate how to achieve these various skills. If you are completely unfamiliar with what your child needs to do, that is totally okay! We are all in this together and I am happy to help you figure things out. Additionally, teachers are working on how to meet student's needs who require more support or may be below grade level. I want to repeat that this is totally okay! Students learn in different ways and at different paces. I am a teachers and I was personally behind my peers in my elementary years. We will be working with you to ensure students can find success wherever they are in their learning journey.
Finally, if you have made it this far, thanks for reading my blog! I am going to be creating an About Me page that will be attached to this blog that will have some of my current interests, my education background, and a picture of myself so that you can get to know me a little more. Please email me anytime to discuss your concerns or just to touch base. I am happy to communicate with you in whatever way will best work with your schedules. I am planning to by onsite at the school each day, Monday to Friday, from 8:30 am to 3:30 pm, but I ask that parents refrain from calling me at the school at this time while we are setting things up and working out next steps. I will keep you posted about my availability and if you want to connect by phone, please email me and I will be sure to touch base with you.
Until tomorrow, keep safe, keep well, and remember that you are missed!
- Ms. Ott
