Week of April 3rd

Welcome, for the time being, to the new normal (in reality there is NOTHING normal about any of this). You are looking at a screen shot I took from our whole class Zoom meeting on Friday. I used this as an opportunity for all of us to stay connected, and to check out some fun hairstyles and jerseys. We each had a chance to say hello and talk about our choice of style. I will continue with a single, whole-class Zoom each week to provide end-of-week closure and an opportunity for us to all see one another. I will also continue the small group weekly check-ins I began this past week. These check-ins have little to do with academics (although I would certainly address any needs or concerns) and are meant to focus on the emotional well-being of your child. It is my sincere hope that the consistency of another adult checking in on them will add another layer of security, routine, and COMFORT to their upside down world.

I hope you have had the chance, and the time, to see how we as a fourth grade team are delivering instruction to your child. My eLearning Google Classroom is the main avenue for me to disseminate information. Each morning at 8:30 your child receives the day's plan in the form of a Google Slideshow. Ozzie (my dog) and I have a personalized morning message for the kids that preps them on the day and outlines a few expectations. The kids are to watch that first, look through the slideshow, and decide the order in which they want to tackle the work. We ask that they do their best to complete all the work (or as much as they are able to complete) but they are welcome to do it at any point of the day and in any order. I STRONGLY suggest developing a routine for your child if you have not done so already as it goes a long way to getting the work completed and to providing much needed structure for your child. As teachers, our marching orders from the State Board of Education and our own district administration is to pare down the lessons and to focus on the most important and meaningful learning objectives for any given standard. That is exactly how the fourth grade team has proceeded and acts as our guiding principle as we design our day's and week's of lessons.

Last week, we provided reading and writing lessons focusing on paired texts. This is an important and relevant skill that kids need to learn. For the most part, to date in their education, they focused on the information provided by a single resource. It takes a slightly different approach and mindset to be able to synthesize information from multiple texts and to provide textual evidence from the proper text to answer a specific question. It is a work in progress but I was generally pleased with the effort and responses from the kids. Our math unit is focusing on tables and graphs. We will present multiple ways in which to interpret and present a table of information. The good news, as it pertains to math, is that while we were still in the building we were able to teach and cover the vast majority of the stated 'units of concentration' and we are now moving into units with lesser importance as defined by our district.

I really want to take a minute to personally thank each of you. I know how my life has turned upside down and I am currently an empty-nester. The challenges you are facing keeping up with your own home, jobs, responsibilities and now children are probably nothing you have experienced or wished you had. I fully understand you are not teachers yet you are likely the first resource that your child turns to. So, just do your best on the educational end. Cut yourself some slack, keeping your household up and running and full of love and emotional support is MUCH MORE IMPORTANT TO YOUR CHILD than next week's reading lesson. To that end, I am so grateful that ROOM 213, and all of the fourth graders, were able to spread kindness throughout the neighborhood through our Central Kindness Rocks initiative. Go FOXES!