Hello everyone,
Thank you all so much for all the work you did with your student to help kick off our first week of at home learning! It was such a delight to see and hear from your students each day, I’ve missed them so much. I was impressed by all their hard work, and how so many of them are already better at using SeeSaw than I am J I know we're still very much in the learning curve, and last week wasn't without its hiccups and technical difficulties, but thank you all so much for your patience, flexibility, and dedication through this transition time. Choice Board This week's Choice Board is attached to this email, and will be uploaded to my website and SeeSaw as well. One minor change you might notice on the Choice Board this week is there's a section called "Enrichment". This is where all Science, Social Studies, Social and Emotional Learning (SEL), and STEM/STEAM activities for the week can be found. Announcements From now, I'll be using the Student/Family Announcements feature on SeeSaw for many whole class announcements. I will still be sending out my weekly newsletter via email, but other announcements (such as details for our weekly Zoom call) will now be sent out using the SeeSaw announcements feature. If you are not yet connected to your student’s SeeSaw account and would like to be, send me an email to connect as a parent. Class Rewards/Incentives: Featured Mathematicians and Student of the Week This week we're diving into our class rewards/incentives. This week we will have our first Student of the Week! For each activity a student completes on SeeSaw, their name will get submitted into a random drawing. So if your student completes all 15 activities on SeeSaw this week by next Sunday (5/3) their name will get entered 15 times into our drawing. The student whose name is drawn will be our Student of the Week! Students of the Week will get a special certificate and whole class shoutout on SeeSaw. Student of the Week will be announced on Sunday's via Student/Families Announcements on SeeSaw. I will also continue doing Featured Mathematicians which started last week. Students who complete our math challenge accurately before 3 PM on Friday will get to be one of our Featured Mathematicians for the week. SeeSaw Nuts and Bolts Hopefully your student has gotten comfortable with SeeSaw this week as it will be our central platform for online learning. If your student doesn't complete an assignment all the way (misses a page, question, etc.), I will send it back for them to correct. One change on SeeSaw this week is now activities from Specialists will be in a separate SeeSaw class. Students can toggle between classes by clicking on the light gray box with their name on it in the top left corner of the SeeSaw main screen. If your student isn’t sure if they’ve completed all their assignments/if their missing any, they can double check the activities tab. If all activities have been completed the tab should be empty. If you’re having any issues with SeeSaw, this is a great resource: https://wakelet.com/wake/ce6b8252-a745-4c3e-beac-aa6f99be3900 Office Hours My office hours this week will again be Monday and Wednesday from 4-5PM. You can of course email me outside of those hours, but those are dedicated times where you can reach out with questions, consultations about learning, and other concerns. On other days, I will be responding to emails within our regular teacher work hours of 8:30-4. Here's to another great week! Miss Sonneland E
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Hi everyone,
I hope you and your families were able to get some rest of this past week and hopefully had a chance to enjoy the sunshine! Tomorrow we will be our first day of our Essential New Learnings. I’ve been working very hard to create something that will work in this completely new territory of online learning, while still holding your students to high expectations to make sure they are ready and prepared to be 3rd graders! Thank you for your patience and understanding as we enter into this new “normal” together. At Home Learning Curriculum Night Presentation We of course had a Curriculum Night at the beginning of the year, but that was for in school learning not at home learning! Since At Home Learning will be quite different, I’ve prepared this presentation that explains the ins and outs of how this will work. Please read through it here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1NbacVGpCqwczLFNIZi-fC_2v4MvA0X-aMGwA4OYRpnc/edit?usp=sharing In the presentation I explain the weekly Choice Board, how to login to Clever, how to access, post, and complete activities in SeeSaw, other educational websites we’ll be using (or waiting to use till a bit later), as well as my office hours. I’m happy to answer questions, but please make sure to read through the PowerPoint first as I might answer your question in it J SeeSaw As I mentioned previously, all new instruction will be happening through SeeSaw. Your student should be logging into Clever (instructions in linked PowerPoint) to access SeeSaw every day to watch learning videos and complete activities. I will be uploading and posting videos explaining how we will be using SeeSaw with each subject, how to post, how to login, etc. for your student tomorrow. As shown on the Choice Board, this will be their main assignments for tomorrow as this will be very new for each student! I will also post the Choice Board to SeeSaw each week with recorded instructions for students. Any activity assigned on SeeSaw will also have playable instructions for your student. All learning activities will be posted to SeeSaw at 9AM on the day they are assigned. SeeSaw is an incredible learning platform, but is lacking a sorting system for activities so activities will not be loaded earlier than the day they are assigned. SeeSaw activities should take around 20 minutes for each subject. Lexia As you will notice on the Choice Board, there is a new learning platform we will start using this week called Lexia. Lexia is a great program that will help students with their reading fluency and comprehension, as well as strengthening phonemic awareness (infinitely helpful for working on spelling!). As I explain in the PowerPoint, students will be able to access the Lexia website through Clever. When they login for the first time they’ll need to enter my email and then it will be fine after that! Their login for Lexia is the exact same as their Clever login. I will explain all of this for students in my Monday video. Choice Board I tried to balance feedback I received from parents in creating our weekly choice board as best I could. The order I listed the subjects in is the order we would complete them in our regular classroom- however, if your student would rather start their day with math or social studies/science that’s completely fine (and encouraged)! All activities for each subject are uploaded at the same time no matter what. Activities will stay up until the Sunday of the next week- your student can complete/work on any activity till then. I tried to make the choice board with enough flexibility as well as specificity for each day to fit the needs families. I know this is going to all seem overwhelming at the beginning (I’m with you), but I hope that once we get through this first part it will start to feel easier. Soaring Eagles Our school will be launching Virtual Soaring Eagles soon, recognizing students submitting great work and staying active and engaged with their learning. I will also be giving shout outs on SeeSaw to students submitting work and logging in regularly. There are many ways the Choice Board could be tied into at home incentives as well- students could receive stars, stickers, etc. for each SeeSaw activity the complete, for leveling up on RazKids, completing a lesson on Zearn, etc. Zoom We will be having our weekly Zoom call on Friday’s at 3PM. I will send out information for the call on Friday. What students will be asked to share can be found on the choice board. Laptops If your student does not have a device to work on to complete their work each day, one can be checked out from the district here: https://www.issaquah.wednet.edu/family/supports/learning/laptops. If you have submitted a form to check out a laptop and are waiting to pick it up, let me know! Here’s to a great week! Stay healthy, happy, and safe. Warmly, Miss Sonneland Hi everyone,
I am writing to you today to give you an update on the upcoming weeks and the changes that will be happening. I know this is quite a long post (there are just so many updates!), but as things will be changing as of April 20th, please make sure to read all the way through. Thank you! New Learning Content and 2nd Grade Choice Board We have received our key Learning Targets from the school district that have clearly laid out the expectations of work for the remainder of the year. We will be working hard to make sure your students are progressing towards grade level standards, and ready to move onto 3rd grade in the fall. I will share more specifics about these learning targets for each week after we get started on the new Remote Learning Plan on April 20th, but in the meantime, here is a quick overview: Starting on April 20th we will be introducing new learning content in Reading, Writing, and Math. Social Studies and Science will also be covered but more as opportunities for enrichment. I am working together with the 2nd Grade Team, and we are planning and collaborating together, just as we would if we were at school. Each week we will be sending out a Choice Board with daily plans for students with activities and assignments aligned to meet grade level standards. The structure of the board will be similar to our regular school work day, but still has plenty of flexibility to meet the needs of your family. To help facilitate our new learning, we will continue to use SeeSaw. Here is an example of how things might look: I will put a video on SeeSaw explaining a new Math concept. Watching the video will be the first "assignment/activity" then, the Choice Board might say, complete one of the 3 Math Activities on SeeSaw. Completed assignments will either be uploading photos/videos/completion of activities using provided templates- students will get to choose which one they’d like to complete. We will do a similar set up for both Reading and Writing. I know many of you expressed a desire for non-digital learning in the form of packets or other printed materials, but at this time we have been told by the district not to send home/create packets for students. Our Choice Board will make sure to include options for “unplugged activities”, but ultimately we will be having to rely on digital learning as our primary form of instruction. If your student needs a device or an internet hotspot, those can still be checked out through the district. More information can be found here: https://www.issaquah.wednet.edu/family/supports/learning/laptops Communication As per the survey I sent out earlier this week and in coordination with the 2nd grade team, I will be sending out my weekly emails on Sunday afternoon as this was what as indicated as the majority preference for our class. Each Sunday I will send out an email explaining our main learning targets for the week (2nd Grade Choice Board), touch base, etc. so you will have an opportunity to see what the upcoming week will entail. The Choice Board will look fairly similar week to week, so hopefully once your student adjusts to the new routine this routine will stay the same through the end of the year. I will also be having “office hours” a few times a week where I will be available to video conference with you and/or your student to check-in or discuss any issues/needed supports/accommodations via Zoom. We will be keeping our weekly Zoom call (official time/day to be announced), so that students will have a chance to see their friends and classmates (and me 😊). SeeSaw If your student hasn’t had a chance to log into SeeSaw yet, I highly recommend they log in at least once before April 20th. This is where students will be able to access new learning and resources, as well as complete and submit activities. These activities and assignments will allow me to assess how students are progressing towards meeting grade level standards. SeeSaw is the learning platform our district is currently recommending for elementary students, and especially primary grades. I'm excited to use it more and more in the upcoming weeks! When we first began all of this, I had students logging to SeeSaw from home using a QR code in order to post to SeeSaw as this is what we had done in class and what they were familiar with. While this is a still a method that works for posting, as we shift to our new Remote Learning Plan, I now recommend that students log into SeeSaw through Clever. This will most likely be easier for most students anyway, as all of them have logged into Clever many times before. Instructions for logging into Clever can be found on my website as well as here. The reason for this change in logging in is that the QR code login method is largely used for shared devices (like the iPads we use in the classroom), so students can post but are unable to access and see their own portfolio. By logging in through SeeSaw, students will now be able to access their own portfolio, as well as be able to see comments from me and encouragement on their own. I will also be uploading the Choice Board and instructions for each day to SeeSaw, so your student will be able to independently look at the tasks for the day and know which assignments/activities they need to complete. SeeSaw has a great feature where I will be able to read aloud instructions for students, so I hope this will help students who might have difficulties reading directions so that they are able to complete tasks on SeeSaw independently. Instructional Time and Assessments Additionally, the district has given us a recommended 60 min block/per day for instruction...which equates to 20 min/subject (this can be in the form of videos or assigned activities). We recognize that your child is 7 and 8 years old so we want to ensure that they still get a chance to go outside and play, check out the Specialist pages (PE/Music/Library), have some time to just read stories, do some art, and continue to learn all of the amazing things that they have been learning. As I mentioned before, this is going to be a flexible learning environment. We also recognize that some of you have more children at home that are not in 2nd Grade so, again, we wanted to come up with a flexible way to deliver content that is still clear and direct. The last piece in all of this is assessments and report cards. We haven't received direction on this yet, so please do not worry about it...I will make sure to let you know about it as soon as I can! Right now, we will primarily be using SeeSaw to see how students are progressing towards standards (but not currently as a means to assign them a grade such as a 1, 2, 3, or 4). --- We 2nd Grade teachers have a pretty good idea in our heads about how we think this will/can work. However, because we have never taught this way before, we are anticipating we may have to alter some things along the way. All we ask is for grace and patience as we try our best to make things work and accommodate as many students and families as we can. Thank you so much for your continued patience as we continue to work things through. Next week is Spring Break. It seems a little silly that we are having a break when we have been at home for a month, but I hope you all get some time to unplug and recharge. I too will be taking this time to relax, enjoy the sunshine, work on some puzzles, tour all of the flowering trees in my neighborhood, and spend time with my family and friends (remotely of course). I will not be checking emails next week, you will hear from me again on April 19th with our Choice Board and learning plan for the week! 😊 As always, please let me know if you have questions about any of this, I am trying my best to accommodate and help as many people as I can. I understand that this is incredibly hard for everyone and I know that all of you are facing many challenges right now, but I know that we can find ways to work through this together. I am really looking forward to continuing to work with you as we get your child ready for the next chapter in their lives. Finally, please give your student a BIG hug from me. I was devastated to find out the news on Monday that we will not be returning to school at all. One of my first thoughts was "But I didn't get to give my students a hug goodbye!" So please, give them a hug from me. I'm so sad I won't get to see their smiling faces every day in class, but I'm grateful I'll still get to hear from them, see the incredible work their doing, and hear their amazing jokes. One of my favorites from our class Zoom call this week was Natalie's "Why should you knock first before opening the refrigerator?" "Because the salad might be dressing!" Thank you for all that you have been doing! Take care, stay healthy, and keep in touch! -Miss Sonneland Hi everyone,
I hope you and your families had a great week and are continuing to hang in there. It was so fun to see so many of your students on Zoom and SeeSaw this week! There is a lot of information in this week's newsletter, please be sure to read all the way through. Changes to At Home Learning Starting 4/20 As I hope you've already seen, there are going to be some changes/shifts for at home learning starting April 20th, after we "return" from Spring Break (feels a little silly to say). If you didn't get a chance to read the At Home Learning Update from our Superintendent Ron Thiele please read it here. I will be filling you all in as we begin to learn more about what this will look like for your student in the near future! Until then, we will continue using the Emergency Education Learning Plan (EELRs) provided by the district. ISD 2nd Grade EELR Week 3 As I mentioned above, we will continue using the EELRs provided by the district until April 20th. You can find the online Wakelet here: https://wakelet.com/wake/55a7ef3f-9254-4c60-9e77-23aed0e7b562. Continue using these to help guide your student's instruction for the week. The word document version is attached to this email, and will be uploaded to my website along with a .PDF version. If you use a Mac and don't have Word, this can still be downloaded and opened with Pages. Class Zoom Meeting For our check-in this week, students should be ready to share about what their favorite part of this week was, and what's one thing they wish they could change about this past week (similar to the Friday Reflections we'd do each week during school). After everyone has shared, if your student would like to stay a little after and have a moderated joke/riddle time they're welcome to (and even though we're not in school, they still have to be school appropriate 😊)! Just like last week, I will email a reminder about the meeting and resend the link. SeeSaw While our district is still determining what exactly At Home Learning is going to look like, I wouldn't be surprised if SeeSaw is a platform we start using more and more! SeeSaw is a great platform, and one that all of your students have used/are familiar with from class. If your student hasn't had a chance to access SeeSaw yet, I'd encourage them to login and try responding to some of the assigned activities this week. I also know there are some AMAZING videos/activities from Mrs.Stempson, Ms.Bryant, and Ms.Wilkinson. I've assigned a new activity for this week called: Reading Fluency. Instructions for completing the activity can be found on SeeSaw. I know new technology can be a little daunting, but here's a resource for accessing SeeSaw for the first time at home (if you haven't already): https://wakelet.com/wake/ce6b8252-a745-4c3e-beac-aa6f99be3900 Teacher Tip: Student Choice in Routine As you are encouraging your student to work at home and establishing routines, one thing I can't emphasize enough is the importance of student choice in their learning routine. One successful way I've seen parents using this at home is by using a "Checkout Chart" (like Ms. Tapper talked about in her latest E-News) or a "Choice Board". With both of these systems, students have some choice over which academic activities they'd like to complete and when/what order they'd like to complete them in. For families where both parents are currently working, a Checkout Chart could an incredibly helpful tool as students can be a bit more self directed with this system. **For those those of you who don't use Word/Powerpoint, these files can still be downloaded and then opened through the equivalent program you have on your computer (i.e. for Mac you can open these with Pages/Keynote) for editing. Have a wonderful week! Let me know if there's any way I can help you. -Miss Sonneland |
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June 2020
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