Dear all,
Happy Friday! Today we can enjoy a little symmetry; we have completed 5 weeks of virtual learning and we have 5 left this year. Next week is a short week with no school on Friday. (Friday 1 May is no school, so a 4 day week. Monday 4th May will be a school day.)
Don’t forget tonight there is an ES Trivia Night! Join the link at 5pm tonight.
I am sure we all can agree that at times, Zoom and screen time can be intense! This great article helps find balance with this screen exhaustion as well as ways to stay connected.
Feedback on Virtual Learning
We know that approving and commenting meaningfully on Seesaw posts is an ongoing task, and we thank you for your commitment to this! We have received some comments from parents, particularly from those in the younger grades, requesting more feedback on Seesaw. To support teachers and help parents understand the context and moderate their expectations, this statement about “Feedback on Virtual Learning” has gone into today’s parent notes.
What does this mean for you?
- Consider highlighting activities as Evidence activities, if they are the main item for the week.
- Be sure to give meaningful feedback on these items - similar to a conference think of feedback as a compliment, a teaching point and a next step
- Feedback should be given on 1-2 pieces per core area of math, literacy and s/ss per week (Feedback should include written feedback for at least 1 piece )
- Specialist teachers should also aim to provide feedback on learning weekly or at least every other week
- **If you notice children/parents are not reading or responding to feedback, design tasks for that subject that specifically direct the students to the feedback and ask them to engage with it.
Feedback on Virtual Learning - message to parents
Thank you to the parents who have expressed their thoughts about how much feedback children get on Seesaw posts. This gives us an opportunity to share some of the strategy behind our design of continuity of instruction learning for ES students.
When teachers are designing a module of learning some lessons are “learning activities”, when students are practicing and learning a skill, and others to be “assessments”, when teachers can gather evidence of learning. Of course, in a classroom environment, we have a lot of overlap between these two, since teachers can observe students directly. However, in the virtual learning environment, teachers are using one or two “major” activities per week as evidence.
For these “evidence” activities, students can expect a comment from teachers that refers to their achievement and growth. For learning activities, while often teachers will comment, they may also just “like” the activity or approve it, which confirms that the work is received and acceptable. Teachers can also send back an activity to students and give them feedback to improve their work.
If you or your child needs more guidance on a lesson, consider using the coaches’ help desk hours posted here, or reaching out to the teacher via Seesaw message for more information about a topic.
Students Leaving Chennai
If a family from your class is leaving Chennai, or has already left, and you are aware of this, please ensure that you remind them to inform Hazel or Padma in the ES office, and also share this information with the office yourself too. This is very important for our records.
Optional Specialist Enrichment Lessons
Specialists will be using the times below in yellow to run live enrichment sessions. Please help by encouraging any children who you believe could benefit to attend; and if you notice a child/family is overwhelmed, then the opposite - ensure they know it is optional! Starting next week, each grade level will have at least one chance to participate in open sessions.
|
Morning Meeting
|
Morning Office Hours
|
Specialist Hours
|
Open Specialist Sessions
|
Afternoon Office Hours
|
EY
|
8:00 - 8:45 a.m.
|
10:00 a.m. - 10:45 a.m.
|
1:00 - 2:00 p.m.
|
N/A
|
2:00 - 2:45 p.m.
|
KG
|
8.15 - 9.15 a.m.
|
9:30 a.m. - 10:40 a.m.
(Zoom in small groups)
|
1:00 - 2:00 p.m.
|
11:30 - 12:30 p.m
|
2.00 - 2.45 p.m.
|
G1
|
9:00 - 9:30 a.m.
|
9:30 - 10:30 a.m.
|
1:00 - 2:00 p.m.
|
11:00 - 12:00 p.m
|
2:00 - 2:45 p.m.
|
G2
|
8:30 - 9:15 a.m.
|
9:15 - 10:00 a.m.
|
1:00 - 2:00 p.m.
|
10:00 - 11:00 a.m
|
2:00 - 2:45 p.m.
|
G3
|
8:30 - 9:15 a.m.
|
9:45 - 10:30 a.m.
|
11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
|
1:00 - 2:00 p.m.
|
2:00 - 2:45 p.m.
|
G4
|
8:30 - 9:15 a.m.
|
11:00 - 11:45 a.m.
|
10:00 - 11:00 a.m.
|
1:00 - 2:00 p.m.
|
2:45 - 3:30 p.m.
|
G5
|
8:30 - 9:00 a.m.
|
11:40 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
|
10:00 - 11:00 a.m.
|
1:00 - 2:00 p.m.
|
2:50 - 3:30 p.m.
|
Faculty Meeting Next Wednesday
All those in an MSA team, they will meet to complete that work.
Anyone not in a MSA team, then we ask you to please work together in your teams on the curriculum map/pacing guides for 2020-21.
- Find each grade level curriculum map in this folder
- Copy over units from this year
- Update any modifications to all units that have occurred over the year.
- Determine the order of the units of study (Sci/SS/Math/LA)
- *Please know that units need to alternate between Sci/SS in case we are faced with virtual school at any point next year and so children have balanced experience with both subject areas.
- Reach out to coaches if you need any support with completing curriculum maps.
- Each map needs to have all units outlined; specialist and homeroom core subjects.
- Due date for all curriculum maps is Friday 15 May.
Free Online Mental Health First Aid Course
We are close to two months into the COVID-19 pandemic, and while we cannot control much in this crisis, we can take action to help manage the challenges of day-to-day life. That’s why the American Red Cross has developed a free Mental Health First Aid for COVID-19 course that can be taken online in less than one hour.
The course is designed to help anyone impacted by COVID-19 to build resilience and lend support to others during and after this time. Topics, developed with the expertise of the Red Cross Scientific Advisory Council and the Canadian Red Cross, include recognizing stress as well as caring for yourself while supporting your family and coworkers. We encourage you to take advantage of this free course – and share it with others.
Children Not Engaging (repeat announcement)
If you notice children are not engaging at all or with a particular subject area, please direct email the parents. It is important they realise this will be reflected on the report cards. The following steps are outlined to support you with this.
Step
|
Details
|
Step 1
Direct email parent
|
‘Dear Parent,
We understand virtual learning can be challenging for families at home, and we appreciate your support with this.
However, X has shown very little engagement in math and science throughout our virtual learning. It is important that you are aware that unless they begin to engage with the learning we are sharing that this will be reflected on their report card.
If there is a reason for why X has been unable to engage, please let me know as soon as possible so that I can help solve this problem with you.
Sign off,
Teacher
|
Step 2:
Admin follow up
|
Still no engagement?
Reach out to inform Dave
Dave follow up with parent
|
Step 3:
Report card
|
Still no engagement?
Report card to have following statement
‘X has shown very little/no engagement in the area of X during virtual learning. Therefore there is insufficient data to assess their growth at this time.
|
End of Year Report Cards (repeat announcement)
These will look different to previous years end of year report cards, and will reflect the learning we have been able to observe and assess as submitted in a virtual learning environment.
- Report cards will have reduced commenting for all core subject and specialist subjects
- No individual standard assessments.
- Templates will be shared asap.
- Homeroom/EAL teachers will write one overall PSE comment and assess learning habits as meeting/working towards as observed in a virtual learning environment. Specialists can contribute to this
- All subjects will have a 2-3 sentence narrative comment - teams/teachers can begin working to determine how they will need to structure tasks to obtain any assessment evidence to be able to write this.
- We went over this further at our faculty meeting on Wednesday at 3:45 p.m.
Virtual Report Card Timeline (repeat announcement)
Wednesday 06 May
|
Familiarise yourself again with a refresher read of the style guide
|
Thursday 14 May 8:00 a.m.
|
Report comments due to faculty proof readers by 5:00 p.m.
|
Monday 18 May 8:00 a.m
|
Colleague proofers finished proofing, tag admin proofreader
|
Wednesday 20 May
|
Comments returned to teacher by admin. Accept changes as indicated.
|
Friday 22 May, 8:30 a.m
|
Comments entered into powerschool
|
Friday 22 May 8:30 a.m
|
IT team run reports, final checking
Sherriden and IT team begin printing from 2:00 p.m (hard deadline)
|
Thursday 28 May
|
All printing/editing complete, final corrections made
|
Monday 1 June
|
Reports given to homeroom teachers, final check (if printed if back on campus, place in envelopes)
|
Tuesday 2 June
|
Reports go home to parents
|
Have an enjoyable and relaxing weekend!.
Keryn, Dave, and Calley
