Remote Learning Next Week

Good afternoon parents!

We had a great Zoom meeting today and the kids did a great job finding and even writing their own poems to share out today! I shared the poems I read and one that our classmate, Rayanna, wrote on Dojo if you haven’t yet seen them. We’ve had a very productive 4 weeks! I’m so very proud of all the work, student participation, learning, and teaching taking place at home! THANK YOU, parents, for being my partner in education.

Beginning next week, students will be held accountable for completing weekly assignments. I won’t share out what the grading looks like just yet, but it’s something along the lines of meeting/not meeting. It’s really just about completing the work and making sure they are continuing to learn at home so our students don’t experience a “slide”.

There will be some slight changes as we move forward, one being as I mentioned above, grading based on the completion of weekly assignments. Because of this, one new tool I am going to add is the use of Google Classroom. Submitting some assignments through Google Classroom makes it easier for me to read, check, and give grades back. We will mostly be utilizing this to turn in writing and math assignments. Google Classroom is awesome because it lets the kids create docs and slides right through it. Before we left on break, the students created their first doc where they typed a 5 paragraph compare and contrast on frogs and toads and inserted pictures. So, they are familiar with the use of Google Docs a bit. Not everything will be done here, some still on Seesaw, but some now using GC.

Also, there will be a lighter workload. It is recommended that students in Grade 2 spend a minimum of 45 minutes on school work a day, with a max of 90 minutes. You will see only 1 writing assignment a week, that I will pace out daily for them. I want them to spend time brainstorming, organizing, writing a rough draft, editing, revising, and publishing. You’ll now only see 2 Math lessons a week, with watching the video lesson one day, to completing the Problem Set/Homework the next day, with Zearn as optional enrichment time on these days. The lessons are lengthy therefore I’m breaking it up.

Lastly, I will be switching over to Google Hangouts instead of Zoom beginning next week. I love Zoom, but the district prefers us to use Google instead. When I create the next meeting I will give instructions on how to access and use.

So, these are some of the changes, I hope for the better! I will try to add in as much fun as I possibly can throughout these next weeks and schedule Google Hangouts so we get a chance to see each other’s faces and have group discussions. I am going to send you the code on Dojo to join Google Classroom, if you could join sometime before Monday would be great! If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to message me on Dojo or send me an email.

Thanks again for your partnership, I know this isn’t easy, I too have 2 boys to teach at home and it’s been a struggle. It’s hard to find the balance and we are all learning this new way of life. It will never be the same as being in school and it’s a hard adjustment on our kiddos. I appreciate you all and if there’s anything I can do to help, I will always try my best.

Stay Healthy and Take Care,

Mrs. Izbicki