Virtual Support for Distance Learning

Contact Information

Email: kbond@pps.net

Phone: Connect with me via Remind

Thursday Virtual Office Hours via Google Meets for students:

Period 1: 10:00 am - 10:30 am

Period 2: 10:45 am - 11:15 am

Period 3: 11:30 am - 12:00 pm

Period 4: 1:00 pm - 1:30 pm

Period 6: 2:30 pm - 3:00 pm

Distance Learning Materials and Assignments:

Weekly Assignments:

Students, as they are able, should continue to follow any updates and assignments posted in our Google Classrooms.

Currently for Math the students are expected to...

1. Complete three video lessons or similar activities that teach the new skills and concepts for the week.
2. Choose 4 activities from the Choice Board of 6 activities which offers students the opportunity to practice applying the new skills and concepts.

Each day I check-off student's participation of these activities by assigning 1 point if they successfully complete the activity. I regularly check for past assignments that may have been completed because I know that students are all working at their own pace.

Since we are not providing grades, students do not receive a 0 or any other penalty for not doing the assignment. Most assignments are auto-correcting activities so students get instant feedback on if they're understanding the concepts correctly. For the few activities that are not auto-corrected, I go in and correct the assignment and offer feedback on common errors being made.

How can I check that my student has completed the weekly assignments?

All of these assignments and the points associated with them are being housed in Google Classroom. If you want to follow your student's progress through their math assignments your student should log into their Google Classroom for Math and navigate to the Classwork tab. There they can show you a header that states: DL (Distance Learning) Assignments for the Week of ________. Under that header are the video lessons or similar assignments, and the Choice Board assignment. See the video below for a quick tour of what the posts of these assignments look like for a typical week in math.

Also on this Classwork Tab students have an icon on the top left of the page that looks like and ID badge and is labeled, "View your work". Clicking this link will show all the assignments for math whether they are turned in or not and if it was returned with a grade. Returned means that I have seen it, assigned the grade and they are done with that assignment.

Math, Mrs. Bond and Growth Mindset

You teach middle school math...are you crazy?

I hear questions like those above frequently. One of my biggest goals and reasons for working with middle schoolers is to help them see that they are capable of doing math AND it is possible to LIKE math. This is not an easy task, but I think middle school is an important pivot point and steering them to see their self as a capable mathematician is vital given that math is in every aspect of our lives!

Our math team is putting a lot of emphasis this year on helping our students to build a growth mindset as we all work together to improve our mathematical understanding. I was reading an article recently and found the picture below with the quote from Helen Hayes. I think it so perfectly captures the process of developing mastery over a skill or concept. If you are curious about how you can help your student develop a growth mindset then you may be interested in reading the article, Top 10 Growth Mindset Resources for Parents to get a few ideas on where to start.

"The expert at anything was once a beginner." ~ Helen Hayes