In Language Arts today the students finished signing up for the technology we will be using in class this year. At this point, the students should be signed up for the class blog, Google Classroom, Quizlet, iLearn, Moby Max, and Read Theory. If students had an electronic device with them, they signed up for Remind as well. All students were given directions for Remind and encouraged to sign up their electronic device at home as well as have an adult who helps them with school sign up too. Remind is an app (the students do not need to download this for it to work) that allows me to send text messages to students about what is going on in class. Fake numbers are created through Remind. I do not have the students’ cell phone numbers and they do not have mine. I encourage each family to sign up for this as well. If your student forgot to bring home the directions today, I will have them available at Open House next Wednesday but I will not be posting them to the blog for privacy purposes.

The students also spent time in class learning what the word advocate means and how they can advocate for themselves in class. At Bryant, we work really hard to help the kids learn to be responsible for their needs and their own learning. This can be a challenging transition for sixth graders. If your child has a question or a concern about something at school, I encourage all of my families to have the students email or talk to the teacher first. They learn to be more responsible and organized when they do the problem solving themselves as opposed to having someone else do it for them. Of course, if it is not working, then we encourage families to get involved. Together this year, I am confident we can help them take responsibility and ownership when they have a need in the classroom!

We spent the remainder of class time discussing what our classroom rules will be. I will be taking the students’ ideas and making them in to a poster for everyone to sign tomorrow.

Have a great night!