Hi families,
This is a long, but hopefully thorough and helpful email!
I appreciate hearing from all of you. I took all of
the information that you provided to devise a plan following input about what
needs to be included from the district. I want to start out by saying
that I recognize that not everyone might be happy with the framework I am
putting out, but I am willing to work with families around the times of things
that I can control.
Here are some of the common trends that emerged from all of
the parents. First, there is a strong desire for less screen time and
more paper and pencil tasks. Second, there was a desire that whole group
meetings on zoom be more interactive and less kids sitting and watching.
Third, there were far more cons than pros to using seesaw. Fourth, there
are concerns both about social and academic needs.
I want to pass along to all of you that I feel like I had success
this past spring remotely. I have reflected heavily about what worked for
me and what I want to enhance. My number one priority is to create
something sustainable. I know that the plan, as of now, is for remote
learning to end on October 2nd. If we have to go longer, I
want to make sure that we have a sustainable system so that your children don’t
feel defeated about schooling and learning. My second priority is to
limit screen time. I want to make clear that I said limit and not eliminate. I
am a firm believer that remote learning doesn’t equal online learning. I
have created paper and pencil tasks for each day until October 2nd.
If a return to the class occurs these paper and pencil tasks will be a familiar
task which will make a return mildly smoother.
Each day I will send an email to parents. In this
email, I will include a link to a daily interactive morning meeting done on
zoom and a link to a video of me modeling some work for students to work on
throughout the day. During the daily morning meeting, I will work on
modeling some of the work and making sure that kids are engaged. This
daily meeting for all first graders will be at 8:30 AM and the district is
requiring me to take attendance. In the video I send out, I will model
some additional work kids can work on, do a read aloud, and provide some
answers to work that kids can check out after completion.
It is my hope that twice a week first graders come to a
small group time. I plan on having the kids work on a writing task which
will also facilitate a social situation. I plan on creating the small
groups based on what works for families. While my small group times on
paper are during the school day hours I am open to creating a small group time
in the early evening (maybe even Sunday afternoons) as I have a feeling that could
help some families out. The small groups that I have during the school
day will be on Mondays, Wednesdays, or Fridays with time slots throughout the
day. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, instead of me hosting small group times
there will be other school staff hosting groups. I, personally, found it
important to have students be able to interact with many staff members
remotely. I think if students are interacting with a larger audience will
allow for a more sustainable situation.
There will be tasks that first graders can complete
independently (after initial setup) both on and off screen daily. I don’t
plan to use seesaw or another platform. I will utilize my school blog as
a place to access information. I am thinking that I would have students share
completed work with me. I am also considering the logistics of picking up
work weekly from outside homes so that I can give written feedback. There
isn’t a teacher that likes to write “keep up the good work” on an online
picture of a student’s work. I think it would be better to have some
written feedback for kids. I am still working on the logistics part of
this.
Starting this Thursday the 27th at 1PM, I am
hoping to meet with first grade families individually to orient them to all of
this. I want all kids to (re)meet me and I want parents to feel (relatively)
at ease with the circumstances. I will be in the classroom until 3 on
Friday the 28th. I can easily stay later in the evening or
over the weekend to make life easier for you. On Monday the 31st,
I will be hosting a whole class zoom at 8:30 to kick off the first day of first
grade. I will then give kids a task to work on. I will do the same
on Tuesday the 1st. Also on those two days, I will make myself
available for orientation times for students with their families.
I don’t want a free for all of families coming.
Please send me a day(s) with time(s) and I will make a schedule for times for
first grade orientation. I anticipate roughly 30-45 minutes per
family. Any time between 6:30 AM and 7:30 PM is realistic for me.
On Wednesday the 2nd, I will add in more work and
start small groups/office hours as it is my hope all kids and families will be
oriented by then.
Mr. Lindemann communicated this afternoon that families
would here from classroom teachers Wednesday afternoon. So if you have children in other grades stay
tuned! I am also posting this on my school
blog which can be found at https://sme-stevenson.blogspot.com/ Feel free to subscribe for updates!
If you made it this far thank you! Please go put your
feet up. I am sure there are plenty of questions so feel free to ask
them.
Sincerely,
Andy Stevenson
