April wrap up and May beginning!

It has been such a crazy month. I am so grateful for the students who continue to tune in on our Friday check in and who keep submitting their work. As we head into May, here are a few things to note:

• Today (April 30) was our Hats on for Mental Health awareness. Students were asked to wear a hat in the Google Meet and we took a group photo to be included in the year book. I also asked each student individually if they wanted their photo taken and those who said yes got an additional close up photo taken. I will edit the photos into a collage and post it to Google Classroom once it's finished. It should also be included in the yearbook. ***Parents! If your child could not attend the Google Meet today and would still like to be included in the collage, please take a picture of them wearing a hat and email it to me ASAP***
• Due to the feedback from the students in the class survey, the majority have said they would like to have more opportunities to tune in on Google Meet and ask questions, read a book together, and play some math games. On Monday, I will be rolling out a new weekly schedule of events. I will include a picture below so you can see what we have planned.
• I will be going through the reading tracking calendars for April and totaling up the amount of books read. Everyone who submits their reading calendar will have their name included in a draw for a prize. I am still working out what that prize will be, but I will let you know as soon as I do. The monthly reading calendar tracking for May has been posted and is due at the end of the month.

Thanks again to all the students who keep coming to our checkin on Friday and keep submitting their work on the classroom. I am both amazed and humbled by all of your efforts and I miss seeing you all in person. Stay safe, stay well, and keep reading!

Schedule starting next week:

Google Classroom Happenings - April 29

Hello students and families of room 11!

As you've probably noticed, I have not been posting on the blog daily this week. I don't want to overwhelm families with information and I am posting most updates on Google Classroom. However, here's some things for you to note this week in case you haven't been checking the classroom posts:

• Tomorrow (April 30) is the last day to submit the classroom feedback survey. Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to respond as it really helps me figure out how to best support the students and what kinds of things are working or need tweaking.
• There is a wrap up review/quiz on 2D and 3D shapes that will be posted tomorrow. Students have until May 4th to complete it.
• This week is Hats on for Mental Health! During our regularly scheduled Google Meet on Friday at 10 am, make sure you're wearing your best hat! I will be looking to take some photos of students in their hats for the year book during this session. I will always ask for student permission before taking a photo and these photos are meant to be used for the school yearbook only. If you're uncomfortable having your photo taken for the yearbook, please let me know and I will not take your picture.
• Make sure to submit your monthly reading tracking sheet tomorrow. I may be working on getting some prizes for students who complete their calendars.
• I am currently taking class name suggestions! Students are encouraged to submit their suggestions through the question assignment. Once I have gathered enough suggestions, the class will vote on what they want to be called.
• Finally, and most importantly, I have made a special video for the students to view over on the classroom. Everyone who submitted a video of their Rube Goldberg project was included. I am so proud of all your hard work with this!!! It is also my first time creating and editing a video, so I would love if you could watch it and leave a comment underneath letting me know what you think. I will not be posting the video to the blog as it has the students in it and is meant only for our class to watch. I have taken a screen shot of where you can find it on the classroom, so give it a look!

As always, email me with any questions or concerns. I miss working and learning with the students and I really value hearing from you! Until next time, stay safe, stay healthy, and keep reading!

Wrapping up week 4

I know I say this almost every week, but I can't believe we're here. I can't believe the schools are still closed and that we have made it through 4 weeks of online learning. It has certainly been a journey! Here's a few things to note from this week:

• I have put a survey on Google Classroom for the students to fill out about their experiences so far. If we were in our regular classroom, I would be asking students for suggestions for how we can create our learning space together. I know this is a very different kind of classroom, but I still value having a classroom community and I would like if all students could fill out the survey as it will help guide me in creating content and learning experiences for the students. I have asked the students to get help from a trusted adult to fill out the last section in order to help them get their ideas down. This survey will expire on April 30 @ midnight. I really value your feedback, so I hope to hear from everyone.
• Today we had our Show and Tell where we introduced our furry friends or shared some art that we were proud of. I made sure to disturb Mr. Crowley from his regular routine of sleeping all day and he was not impressed. However, I told him that if he wants to keep living in this household he needs to contribute somehow and he could consider this a rent payment. 
• The staff at Capitol Hill School put together a short video to tell the students how much we miss them and to talk about things we are grateful for during this crazy time. I will post the video below so you can take a look as well. Let us know what you think!

Although this is never how I imagined I would be teaching in 2020, I am immensely grateful for the time I get to spend with the students and learning how to navigate this territory together. I miss their laughter and their stories. I miss learning together and from each other. I miss our community. But I also refuse to give up. I am working hard behind the scenes to see what I can do to make this a better experience for everyone.

Enjoy the weekend. Stay safe, stay well, and keep reading!

CHS staff grateful video

Returned work

Hello students and families of room 11!

I am slowly making my way through assignments and returning them with feedback. Here are a couple of things to note:

• some assignments may be returned with no feedback (such as Google forms). Unless I specifically leave a comment in the feedback that the work is incomplete or needs to be redone, I have recorded the students' answers and marked the work as completed.
• I intend to read through each student's work and provide a comment or suggestion of what could be improved. It is up to the student to revisit the work. If students would like to redo the work, they need to unsubmit the assignment on their end, make their corrections, and then re-submit it. Students are not obligated to do this. However, it is a great way to improve their skills by reviewing their work and correcting it. It is strongly encouraged, but not required.
• I know that some families are not engaging with the work on Google Classroom and are instead using this time to maintain mental health and overall wellbeing. I strongly support this approach. I will be sending follow up emails to check in about missing assignments and to ask how you're doing overall, but if you tell me that this is currently the focus for you and your family, I have no problem with that. However, because I was unable to spend significant time with the students before the school closure, I will be basing my report card comments and making recommendations based on the work they complete in Google Classroom. Marks will not be lowered as a result of incomplete work. 

Thank you to all the parents who have reached out to ask questions and let me know how I can help. Please continue to contact me with any comments or concerns as it helps guide me in what kind of information to provide to parents on the blog.

Stay safe and stay healthy.

Reminders for next week - April 20 to 24

That's a wrap! Can you believe we have already been through 3 weeks of online learning? Here are some reminders and highlights from this week:

The students have overwhelmingly voted to have all assignments posted on one day and I am happy to accommodate that. So, going forward, all assignments will be posted on Monday for the whole week. These assignments are meant to be completed throughout the week, so please take your time and don't rush. Again, we will still accept work that is submitted after the deadline. Just remember to click Turn In on your assignments so I know it is ready to be reviewed.

During our class meet today, we discussed what kinds of activities we can do during our next meet. Capitol Hill School will be undergoing renovations all of next week, so I will be working from home. So, on Friday, April 24 at 10 am, we will be doing our weekly class meet with a special appearance by Mr. Crowley (my cat who is a butt) and everyone else and their pets are invited! Once everyone is logged in, we will introduce our furry friends. I will call on students one at a time so everyone will get a chance. If you don't have a furry friend, then please feel free to share an art project that you have created or a favorite toy. Afterwards, we will play Heads or Tails and do a short sharing circle to review the week.

Finally, the teachers have been busy making a video surprise for the students, which we are planning to post to our Google Classroom next week, so keep an eye out for that one.

Thanks for all your hard work

Google Meet tomorrow at 10 am

We will have our weekly class meeting tomorrow at 10 am on Google meet. Nickname is posted on Google Classroom. Looking forward to seeing everyone and doing a small sharing circle!

Novel study has started on Google Classroom!

The teachers are busy learning all kinds of new technology! We have finally got our copy of Fortunately, the Milk by Neil Gaiman and we are busy reading and recording parts for the students to listen to and enjoy. There will be a few short answer questions for each section. The first part is posted on the Google Classroom under ELA and is read by Ms. Seaman. I will be reading part 3 and part 6, so stay tuned for those in the next few weeks! As this week is a short week, there will be no new assignments uploaded on today.

I can see on my end that most students are having success with navigating Google Classroom and have been turning in assignments. I have posted a reminder on the class stream for students to double check that they are clicking the Turn In button once they are finished so I know they are ready to have their work reviewed. Again, do not worry about turning in work late as I will still review it once it has been submitted.

I hope everyone has been keeping busy and has lots of good books to read. According to my GetEpic account, our class has already read 14 books! That's amazing. Keep going! I know some students are not using GetEpic and are reading through Read Theory or paper copy books, and that's great! Students can keep track of their reading in the Reading Tracking spreadsheet on Google Classroom and submit it at the end of the month. For those of you reading on GetEpic, let's see how many books we can finish by the end of the month!  Here is a screen shot from Get Epic showing how many books we've read so far!

As always, please email me any time with questions or concerns.