Greetings Families,
I'm not sure if you noticed, but I changed the way I titled this post, I went back to the way I used to title them. My intention is to communicate that we are moving forward though things have changed. This week, we start something new--Google Classroom. When you head into your child(ren)'s Google Classrooms this week, you will notice that we have significantly reduced the work for this week. We did this because we expect the transition to an online platform to be difficult. Therefore, on Monday, students only have to do a Spalding and math lesson in fourth grade.
This will helpfully create the time necessary for them to learn (and likely for you to learn) how to create PDFs of their work and how to upload the packets. I used Apple's Notes application on the iPhone to create PDFs of my children's work tonight. There was a page limit, so I had to create multiple files. Inside of Google Classroom, I've uploaded a video provided by Ms. Trahan using a different application. It is time-consuming scanning every page, but it wasn't too difficult.
We've (the fourth-grade team) have tried hard to reduce the amount of scanning they will need to do in the weeks to come. Most of their work will be something they can do on a computer and submit, or do on paper and then copy onto a Google Form. You will see what I mean once you get into the classroom, and I've created a tutorial for you to use. However, some things will need to be scanned and uploaded. Each Spalding lesson will be this way, and I suspect the specialists will have things to print and scan. If you allow your child to use tablets and phones, they will likely be able to learn how to do it so you don't have to be as concerned with them. Our hope is for fourth graders to be as independent as possible because of the workload parents have to do with the younger students, and fourth-grade families seem to have a lot of younger siblings.
Zoom Meetings
We have two Zoom meetings this week like last week. There is a community-building Zoom meeting on Monday, tomorrow, at 1:30 p.m. and a math tutoring Zoom meeting on Thursday at 1:30 p.m. The invitation information for this meeting is in Google Classroom. There is now a password, so be sure to read the invitation carefully. We are not allowed to put the invitation on the blog because we want to keep it private. I've put it in the Google Classroom so that students can learn to access the Zoom meetings independently.
Google Classroom
You should have received a specific email for your child to get you logged into Google Classroom. If you didn't get an email, please let us know as soon as possible. Once you are in, you will see a brief message and a video. Then, you will go to the classroom tab. Once you are there, there is another set of tutorial videos that I discussed above. The first task for tomorrow is to upload their week 1 and 2 packets. Then, they will go into the day's work. I'm hoping the tutorials help make sense of what they are supposed to do, but don't hesitate to email if you need something. Be sure to email Ms. Johnson and me because I'll be in meetings, handing out packets, and packing up students' belongings much of tomorrow. (There is an important message about how to retrieve your child's belongings at the bottom of this post.)
Lessons
Math: This week's math lessons are meant to be pretty streamlined. Each day they have two word problems and eight dividing with decimal problems. There is a video that goes along with each day. There is a document students can download and print if they like, but they may also just do the work on a piece of paper. Students may submit the work as a PDF if they like, but there is also a Google Form for them to put their answers in. This is the preferred method.
Spalding: There is a Spalding lesson each day. Each day, the students will learn three new words. There is a video that goes with each day. The directions are in Google Classroom. For this assignment, there is a paper that can be printed out, but students may complete their work on lined paper. This will need to be scanned and submitted.
History: Students will read two chapters over the span of the week and answer questions about the text. There is also a writing prompt for the first chapter they read. There are videos to support the learning this week. There is a PDF that can be downloaded and filled in, but the preferable way is for students to type their answers into a Google Form.
Writing/Grammar: The only assignment for this category is the writing prompt in history. There is a space for this to be typed into the history Google Form, but students may also handwrite this and submit it as a PDF or image in the history assignment.
Science: We are moving to history one week and then science the next week. There is no science this week.
Literature: Students will read one chapter over the span of two days and then write their summary on Thursday. There are videos of the reading of the chapter to support the student's learning this week. The summary may be written on lined paper and submitted as a PDF or image, or it may be typed into a Google Form. We prefer the Google Form to reduce the amount of support parents need to give.
Use of the Blog Going Forward
Now that so much of what we are doing is computer-based, the goal will be to start moving away from the blog and to putting most of the information in Google Classroom. I recommend that you download Google Classroom to your mobile device (which will also be important for submitting PDFs and images) so you can check in on your child's work while they are using a computer (I recommend that students do most of their work on a computer if possible, though I know it may not be possible for all families). On my wife's phone, once I added both of their accounts, it was pretty easy to go back and forth between the two accounts to check what my children would need to do this week. Once they complete an assignment, they will click "Mark as Done." You will be able to see what work they've completed and what they still have left to do. As I noted before, my hope is that once they get used to Google Classroom, they sit down with their computer or tablet and, with almost no help from you, they have their work done and submitted within two hours, give 10 or 15 minutes here or there.
Answer Keys
I wanted to let you know that the fourth-grade team will be moving away from answer keys. Now that we are providing videos to support the students and because the work will be uploaded daily on most occasions, we want your child to do most of the work independently so we know where help is needed. You are still welcome to support your child as you see fit, but we want them to be as independent as you think is appropriate. We will be basing your child's success not on the accuracy of all of their work, but on are they showing a good effort to complete the work with their best effort.
For subjects like history and science, which have seemed to be the most difficult subjects thus far during the at-home work phase, if a student cannot find the answer they are 100% sure about, they should simply put their best answer. We will let them know if they are wrong. Because we aren't grading these for accuracy but effort, getting one wrong won't be a big deal. We often learn best when we hear the answer to a problem we couldn't solve. It sticks with us because we are like, "Oh, I can't believe I didn't think of that." However, if we find that most of the answers are wrong, that is good for us to know as well. That likely indicates that our materials are not appropriate or there is a specific learning challenge for that student (or those students).
Thank You
Man, I can't believe how much work teaching my children other people's lessons is, and my wife does most of the work. This year, I've tried to a couple of times, which isn't enough, thank you for allowing me to partner with you in your noble duty of raising your child. You have graciously allowed me to be your child's teacher this year. I've been wonderfully blessed to teach your child something about math, science, history, and English this year and to help, I hope, form them into individuals ready to move on to the next stage of their life in fifth grade both intellectually and morally. However, now, you are doing a great deal of the work that was intended for me. Out of almost nowhere, you have taken on this enormous duty you had once shared mostly with me and with the expectation that I would be doing most of the burdensome tasks. Now, instead of supporting your child with a bit of homework each night (okay, it's fourth grade, a lot of homework), you are now the primary shepherd of your child's education in work and not only in importance.
All of that to say, thank you. Thank you for the huge sacrifices you are making to support your child's educational pursuits. Thank you for the way you are enduring your child's struggles and fears. Thank you for how you are celebrating your child's educational victories. Thank you for the way you are enduring something you likely weren't trained for in the way you are teaching them the things they need to know to be happy in life. You are amazing! You've always been amazing. I just want to make sure you understand that now more than ever. Thank you!
Best,
Michael Naaktgeboren
P.S. Please read this important message from Melody Pati regarding how to retrieve your child's belongings and to return library books if they have one at home. This was emailed to families today.
I'm not sure if you noticed, but I changed the way I titled this post, I went back to the way I used to title them. My intention is to communicate that we are moving forward though things have changed. This week, we start something new--Google Classroom. When you head into your child(ren)'s Google Classrooms this week, you will notice that we have significantly reduced the work for this week. We did this because we expect the transition to an online platform to be difficult. Therefore, on Monday, students only have to do a Spalding and math lesson in fourth grade.
This will helpfully create the time necessary for them to learn (and likely for you to learn) how to create PDFs of their work and how to upload the packets. I used Apple's Notes application on the iPhone to create PDFs of my children's work tonight. There was a page limit, so I had to create multiple files. Inside of Google Classroom, I've uploaded a video provided by Ms. Trahan using a different application. It is time-consuming scanning every page, but it wasn't too difficult.
We've (the fourth-grade team) have tried hard to reduce the amount of scanning they will need to do in the weeks to come. Most of their work will be something they can do on a computer and submit, or do on paper and then copy onto a Google Form. You will see what I mean once you get into the classroom, and I've created a tutorial for you to use. However, some things will need to be scanned and uploaded. Each Spalding lesson will be this way, and I suspect the specialists will have things to print and scan. If you allow your child to use tablets and phones, they will likely be able to learn how to do it so you don't have to be as concerned with them. Our hope is for fourth graders to be as independent as possible because of the workload parents have to do with the younger students, and fourth-grade families seem to have a lot of younger siblings.
Zoom Meetings
We have two Zoom meetings this week like last week. There is a community-building Zoom meeting on Monday, tomorrow, at 1:30 p.m. and a math tutoring Zoom meeting on Thursday at 1:30 p.m. The invitation information for this meeting is in Google Classroom. There is now a password, so be sure to read the invitation carefully. We are not allowed to put the invitation on the blog because we want to keep it private. I've put it in the Google Classroom so that students can learn to access the Zoom meetings independently.
Google Classroom
You should have received a specific email for your child to get you logged into Google Classroom. If you didn't get an email, please let us know as soon as possible. Once you are in, you will see a brief message and a video. Then, you will go to the classroom tab. Once you are there, there is another set of tutorial videos that I discussed above. The first task for tomorrow is to upload their week 1 and 2 packets. Then, they will go into the day's work. I'm hoping the tutorials help make sense of what they are supposed to do, but don't hesitate to email if you need something. Be sure to email Ms. Johnson and me because I'll be in meetings, handing out packets, and packing up students' belongings much of tomorrow. (There is an important message about how to retrieve your child's belongings at the bottom of this post.)
Lessons
Math: This week's math lessons are meant to be pretty streamlined. Each day they have two word problems and eight dividing with decimal problems. There is a video that goes along with each day. There is a document students can download and print if they like, but they may also just do the work on a piece of paper. Students may submit the work as a PDF if they like, but there is also a Google Form for them to put their answers in. This is the preferred method.
Spalding: There is a Spalding lesson each day. Each day, the students will learn three new words. There is a video that goes with each day. The directions are in Google Classroom. For this assignment, there is a paper that can be printed out, but students may complete their work on lined paper. This will need to be scanned and submitted.
History: Students will read two chapters over the span of the week and answer questions about the text. There is also a writing prompt for the first chapter they read. There are videos to support the learning this week. There is a PDF that can be downloaded and filled in, but the preferable way is for students to type their answers into a Google Form.
Writing/Grammar: The only assignment for this category is the writing prompt in history. There is a space for this to be typed into the history Google Form, but students may also handwrite this and submit it as a PDF or image in the history assignment.
Science: We are moving to history one week and then science the next week. There is no science this week.
Literature: Students will read one chapter over the span of two days and then write their summary on Thursday. There are videos of the reading of the chapter to support the student's learning this week. The summary may be written on lined paper and submitted as a PDF or image, or it may be typed into a Google Form. We prefer the Google Form to reduce the amount of support parents need to give.
Use of the Blog Going Forward
Now that so much of what we are doing is computer-based, the goal will be to start moving away from the blog and to putting most of the information in Google Classroom. I recommend that you download Google Classroom to your mobile device (which will also be important for submitting PDFs and images) so you can check in on your child's work while they are using a computer (I recommend that students do most of their work on a computer if possible, though I know it may not be possible for all families). On my wife's phone, once I added both of their accounts, it was pretty easy to go back and forth between the two accounts to check what my children would need to do this week. Once they complete an assignment, they will click "Mark as Done." You will be able to see what work they've completed and what they still have left to do. As I noted before, my hope is that once they get used to Google Classroom, they sit down with their computer or tablet and, with almost no help from you, they have their work done and submitted within two hours, give 10 or 15 minutes here or there.
Answer Keys
I wanted to let you know that the fourth-grade team will be moving away from answer keys. Now that we are providing videos to support the students and because the work will be uploaded daily on most occasions, we want your child to do most of the work independently so we know where help is needed. You are still welcome to support your child as you see fit, but we want them to be as independent as you think is appropriate. We will be basing your child's success not on the accuracy of all of their work, but on are they showing a good effort to complete the work with their best effort.
For subjects like history and science, which have seemed to be the most difficult subjects thus far during the at-home work phase, if a student cannot find the answer they are 100% sure about, they should simply put their best answer. We will let them know if they are wrong. Because we aren't grading these for accuracy but effort, getting one wrong won't be a big deal. We often learn best when we hear the answer to a problem we couldn't solve. It sticks with us because we are like, "Oh, I can't believe I didn't think of that." However, if we find that most of the answers are wrong, that is good for us to know as well. That likely indicates that our materials are not appropriate or there is a specific learning challenge for that student (or those students).
Thank You
Man, I can't believe how much work teaching my children other people's lessons is, and my wife does most of the work. This year, I've tried to a couple of times, which isn't enough, thank you for allowing me to partner with you in your noble duty of raising your child. You have graciously allowed me to be your child's teacher this year. I've been wonderfully blessed to teach your child something about math, science, history, and English this year and to help, I hope, form them into individuals ready to move on to the next stage of their life in fifth grade both intellectually and morally. However, now, you are doing a great deal of the work that was intended for me. Out of almost nowhere, you have taken on this enormous duty you had once shared mostly with me and with the expectation that I would be doing most of the burdensome tasks. Now, instead of supporting your child with a bit of homework each night (okay, it's fourth grade, a lot of homework), you are now the primary shepherd of your child's education in work and not only in importance.
All of that to say, thank you. Thank you for the huge sacrifices you are making to support your child's educational pursuits. Thank you for the way you are enduring your child's struggles and fears. Thank you for how you are celebrating your child's educational victories. Thank you for the way you are enduring something you likely weren't trained for in the way you are teaching them the things they need to know to be happy in life. You are amazing! You've always been amazing. I just want to make sure you understand that now more than ever. Thank you!
Best,
Michael Naaktgeboren
P.S. Please read this important message from Melody Pati regarding how to retrieve your child's belongings and to return library books if they have one at home. This was emailed to families today.
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