2020-2021...A school year like no other!

 

Dear nearly second grader,

          Thank you for letting me be your teacher.  I hope that you feel like you learned a ton, didn’t feel bored too often, appreciated me being tough to help you learn, and had a small amount of fun in first grade.  It was always my job to help you become awesome first graders and I think we (mostly you) did it.  Be sure to spend the summer having lots of fun by reading and math doing what you enjoy plus listening to your parents!?!  See…I used the word plus so you are off to a great start. 

          This year was challenging and rewarding to me.  There was a lot of figuring out new things for me this year.  I had to figure out how to get you to wear a mask properly on ninety minutes of sleep on more occasions than I want to admit.  To see how far each of you progressed socially and academically is the largest highlight for me.  I am so very proud of the awesome first graders you are.  I really didn’t want this year to end because you guys were really figuring things out as learners. 

          This upcoming year should get you excited as I know some of the exciting things that we should be able to do again at school.  It will be your job all over again to become awesome second graders.  I believe that all of you will.  Our first grade classroom will become a preschool classroom which means the new first grade classroom will you allow to walk by me each morning as second (and third, and fourth, and fifth) graders.  Be sure to always show me that you know how to look and act in the hallway as you become the cool big kids at SME. 

          This summer I am sure I will run into many of you around town(s) as I will be toting Baby Gemma all around so that she can take in the exciting world that we live in. All of you car rider dismissal-ers may even see me waving at your parents (who will look odd trying to figure out who is waving) in the cars that you get picked up in.  In the future, if you need something feel free to reach out!  Over the weekend, I added some pictures to my blog on the school website from this year.  Most of pictures on my phone are of the baby so I didn’t have as many as I thought I did. 

Love,

Mr. Stevenson

Our first or second day in person meant the return of sitting and not having to be on zoom:

We loved playing in the snow at recess on our snowball bus:

Some days you unexpectedly have X braids with a classmate on the same day:

For St. Patrick's Day, we created leprechaun traps and the sneaky leprechaun was able to acquire all but one of our shiny keys:

On April first, the first graders weren't trying to stump me when they told me that Gemma was born in November:

On Saturdays, Gemma would come to the classroom with me so Mrs. Stevenson could get some sleep:

On the last full week of first grade, the Stevenson Family took some awesome people to get ice cream: 

We had a blast wearing our different team colors on Field Day:

We all worked hard to make a video about The Story of Magic e: click here

Approaching the holidays!

Hi,

Below is thank you picture for our mask holder:

The best kind of recess is post snow day powder recess:

Baby Stevenson helped supervise her dad creating bags for remote week:

Click here for a video where Mr. Stevenson explains what will happen for first graders the week of January 4, 2021.

How is it the middle of November?

Hi first graders (and I am sure many others),

A quick video from Mr. Stevenson and Gemma: video

What a time it has been to be a teacher!?!

This year started fully remote for all kids which went better than expected!  There were some definite kinks along the way, but the kids met my goals.  My goals for remote learning were to create something sustainable and for everyone to have fun.  Once October arrived, things completely changed as we prepared to have kids back in person.  This brought a lot of feelings out for a lot of people, but ultimately it has been a success.  From a teacher perspective, the challenges have been balancing what the kids actually need (social vs. academic), creating a schedule where there are lots of time to wash hands that fits into the framework of a shortened school day, and giving these first graders a sense of what it means to be a student at school.  Over the first weeks of being back in class, the kids were faced with the challenge on how to function independently and work on building up their academic endurance.  The kids were provided authentic times to learn and have fun!  They have made their teacher very proud.  

After 13 years, I am still doing many new things in the classroom.  One thing I never thought I would do, but recently did, was answer my phone in front of all of the kids.  I knew that my wife was at a doctor's appointment and I had some definite husband guilt.  What I heard from Mrs. Stevenson prompted me to call our principal.  What I told Mr. Lindemann was very short but probably not the sweetest!  I told him that "I need to go...now!"  This occurred as kids were wrapping up snack and getting ready to start math.  Now wrapping up snack in a COVID-world classroom requires a lot of hand washing and disinfecting!  Within a few minutes, adults from school were told what I needed for the kids to do to finish out the school day and I was moving down the highway and dodging college students in the crosswalks to Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center!

Within minutes of arriving and coming eye to eye with a first grade parent (who must have been confused to see me during the school day), I found Mrs. Stevenson in the Birthing Pavilion Triage room. In what seemed like seconds later, about five or six doctors came in and told us that the best course of action was to induce labor.  Now Mrs. Stevenson was nearly 36 weeks pregnant so the doctors felt that the baby would be safe!  After getting settled into a room and being reassured I wouldn't miss the birth, I headed home to grab some clothes for the soon to be "Stevenson Party of 3" and to school to lay out plans for first graders that would keep them learning at the same (I would argue higher due to no crazy Mr. Stevenson) level for a few weeks.  Being the prepared person that I am all of this was very quick as I had everything pretty much ready to go!  

After many tense and sleepless hours, our daughter, Gemma Mae Stevenson, was born on November 7, 2020 at 8:59 AM.  All of us are doing well despite being exhausted and we have adjusted to being home.  All three of us can't begin to describe how grateful we are for all of the positive words, meals, books, and other random things that have been dropped off on our porch!  We moved here to raise a family because the community is truly wonderful!  I look forward to watching Gemma grow up in this community.  This has been a hard year for a lot of people but because of a lot of people we have had many moments of positivity mixed into a hard year.  Thank you all!  

I look forward to being back in first grade on Monday, November 30, 2020, but in the mean time have a safe and meaningful Thanksgiving!

Getting ready to have kids back in the classroom

Dear Families,

On Monday, October 5th send MATH BOOKS and SNEAKERS!

As we transition from remote learning to in person learning, I want to say thank you for inviting me into various rooms in your homes!  It has been very interesting for me to see how your kids are at home.  I don't normally get this perspective.  I have seen them with their pets, under their bed covers, and get various levels of support from others at home.  As we come to school, in person, we will be adjusting to new policies.  I feel like the kids will adjust smoothly to these new policies as I will make them feel like part of getting routines down in their new classroom.  I do worry that some kids may take extra time to adjust to being away from the comforts your homes provide.  Chances are if over the next few days your child says that school is "bad" it is because they are missing something from home.  If this happens give  them a hug and let me know.  I really feel like my job is to make magic happen.  I will figure out something to make them feel better.  

It has truly been amazing to see how caring siblings have been towards their first grader.  It has been enlightening (as a soon to be first time dad) how many grandparents have come to the rescue to help out!  It has been challenging for me to watch as parents struggled with balancing their work and their kids.  It has also been rewarding to see parents figure out balancing work and their kids.  If some parent or grandparent wants to babysit or provide daycare for Baby Stevenson (I am only partially kidding) let me know!  

Here is a link to a video where I (truly) ramble about what the first grade classroom currently looks like.  As always, any questions please send me an email!

First video of the year!

I made a video https://safeYouTube.net/w/eR2V that hopefully gives an overview of some of the things I plan to discuss when I meet with you for orientation.  I am a bit rusty at making videos so it may seem like I am rambling. 

I have heard from some of you about orientation.  I am open to schedule something between Thursday afternoon and Tuesday the first.  Let me know what works for you.  I plan on meeting you outside and I will have a mask on.  Walk towards the bus loop and I will have some signs to direct you based on the current weather situation.  I  hope to be thorough but come with questions.  I look forward to hearing from and seeing you!

Kicking off the 2020-2021 school year remotely

 

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 2^nd.  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 2^nd.  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 27^th 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 28^th.  I can easily stay later in the evening or over the weekend to make life easier for you.  On Monday the 31^st, 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 1^st.  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 2^nd, 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

Dear Nearly Second Grader,

          Thank you for letting me be your teacher.  You have helped me recall that I can be an okay teacher.  I appreciate you all trusting me and for exceeding my expectations.  I look forward to seeing and hearing about all the great things that you will do in the future. 

          This was not a normal school year.  We didn’t get to end things in a way where we were together and that is something that many of us struggled with.  I feel lucky that I got to know who you were in the classroom and then get to see what you were like in your home.  For this reason, I feel like I grew closer to all of you than I have with some of my past classes.

I want you to know that I am willing to help you out with whatever you may need anytime.  Your families know how to get in touch with me and I can find a way to help you.  Just let me know what you need, and I will work hard to figure out a solution…not just now, but forever!

I know there are a lot of questions about next school year.  I don’t have the answers you are looking for right now, but I do promise that I will work hard as part of a team to come up with a realistic plan to keep us all safe.   Like I said on the first morning of first grade— it is my job to keep you all safe.  Learning that I am going to be a dad has helped me evaluate the decisions that are being made.  What I want for my new baby is the same as I want for my students…a place where all are safe and can prosper. 

I hope this summer you can visit the places and people that you want.  Take it easy on your family members because they have been taking on more jobs lately than ever before.  I have what could be the busiest summer of my life with fun stuff like moving into a new house and getting married, as well as not so fun stuff (like figuring out what insurance plans we should use and setting up new accounts for living in a new state)!  Keep making me proud!

Love,

Mr. Stevenson