Long-winded teacher alert!
There is a lot to cover in this week’s update, so grab a seat, make a cup of tea
and settle in for a spell. Sorry! I think it’s a lot of good stuff you should
know about, so hopefully it won’t be so bad.
First, as always, so we
are all properly oriented, this is Week #9 of remote learning. The overview of
this week’s new work is in the “Remote Learning Week #9 Parent-Caregiver
Guide,” available as a PDF file here. Also, this
message and all the previous weekly Remote Learning Parent-Caregiver Guides are
always available on my class blog at bssroom302.blogspot.com.
NEW THIS WEEK
* New Creative Writing Group Offered
Carrie Foley, our fourth
grade special education teacher, will offer a new, weekly creative writing
group open to all Bridge street fourth graders. This optional group will meet
for 30 minutes on Fridays via Zoom or Google Meet videoconference. The writer’s
group is based on a method called The Friday Notebook Project, and aims to help
students begin to see themselves as writers.
* Class Zoom Meeting – Special Theme and General Approach Explained
We will have another Zoom meeting
for the kids this week. We will have a theme for this week’s meeting: wear a
silly hat, or make your hair look silly. The call will take place Tuesday May
12 at 10:00 am. Like our first meeting, the agenda will be to say hello, do a
quick share (always optional for a child), and play some sort of a
Zoom-friendly game. Generally speaking, I would like to reserve our class-wide Zoom
meetings for a more social-emotional well-being focus. I hope that keeping the meetings
lighter, with lower stakes and hopefully more fun, will encourage all students
to participate. I think the meetings can provide students with a valuable,
positive connection to school. I will post the new meeting link in our Google
Classroom “Specials, Talk with Mr. Z and Other Cool Stuff” where the kids can
access it on their own.
* New Math Focus – Renewed Emphasis on Happy Numbers
The most important
takeaway from last week’s update to the state and district remote learning plan
(Phase III, for those keeping score at home) is that teachers now are to
present previously uncovered grade-level content, a change from the previous phases’
focus on review and practice. In particular, we are to focus on those not-yet taught
skills and concepts that are most critical for student success in the next
grade. For our class, this mainly means deepening and extending the work on
fractions and decimals that we started just before the school closed on March
13.
I spent a few days
exploring various options for covering this new material remotely, and am
convinced that the Happy Numbers website, while by no means perfect, is the
best choice under the circumstances for continuing this learning. It presents
fractions concepts in a well-designed sequence that is consistent with our
school-based curriculum, while providing an effective visual representations of
the concepts.
I have adjusted the Happy
Numbers accounts for all students so that the site delivers a customized
learning path for our specific goals related to fractions and decimals, and for
students’ learning needs individually. I encourage you to have your student
continue working with the site regularly, or if you have been using other math
resources instead, to give Happy Numbers another try. Now, when your student
logs in to Happy Numbers, the first lesson(s) they will encounter will provide
practice with the multiplication facts he or she specifically left off on at
school, generally the 6s, 7s, 8s and/or 9s. This multiplication fact work
should take at most about one to three hours. This work is critical for 5th
grade success. Once the multiplication fact work is complete, I have configured
Happy Numbers to then deliver the fractions and then later decimals lessons.
One last point about this
new plan: it is okay to choose other resources for learning fractions and
decimals at home if they work better for your child. My recommendation of Happy
Numbers is not required nor will your child be penalized in any way for not
using it.
* Social Studies – Regions of the United States
Our learning about regions
of the U.S. was another fourth grade learning standard that got interrupted by
the school closure. To resume moving forward in this area, I assigned in Epic! a
non-fiction book about the Midwest region of the U.S. I am tying in this
non-fiction reading to our Bud, Not Buddy
historic fiction unit we started two weeks ago. Bud, Not Buddy is set in the Midwest.
OTHER IMPORTANT NOTES
* I have been chatting
regularly via phone, text message and email with many parents and students.
Often times our conversations revolve around specific school work or how I can
better support an individual student or family. Sometimes the kids and I just
have some fun and silly banter, like discussing genius typing cats, other cute
pets, or a love of crusty bread. Please do not hesitate to reach out to me with
questions or just to check in. I am available every week day between 8:30 am
and 4:00 pm. I do have some weekly staff meetings, so it might take me a few
minutes to reply. We can also schedule a time to talk if that works best for
you. My phone and text number is (413)
342-1490. Email is jzyskowski@northampton-k12.us
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