Students on School Grounds

As the weather becomes nicer, hopefully we'll all feel more motivated to get outside! Just a reminder that students may not be on school grounds unless they are participating in an activity with Indian Hill faculty or coaches. We would love for our BVA students to join face to face building teams and clubs, if that fits with your family's health considerations. If participating in face to face activities is not a good fit, consider taking advantage of Stephan Field, Camp Denison Memorial Park or the other natural park spaces in our area!

A Chance to Dream

I can think of nothing better to inspire all of us than to learn about human achievements in space exploration. Kids of all ages tend to get a little geeked out at the possibilities and excitement generated from imagining our continued exploration of the final frontier.

With the landing of Perseverance, we have an opportunity to stoke that awe and wonder in children that leads to meaningful learning driven by curiosity and joy. This week, I've included a few resources that might be fun for you to explore with your children this week! Let me know if we find any new future astronauts, engineers, inventors, or science fiction writers in our crew!

Online Learning & Teaching Practices

Each week, Brave Virtual Academy teachers and I discuss our core principles at the heart of BVA.

• Personalization: providing unique learning pathways for individual students
• Agency: giving learners opportunities to participate in key decisions in their learning experience
• Authentic Audience: giving learners the opportunity to create for a real audience both locally and globally
• Connectivity: giving learners opportunities to experience learning in collaboration with peers and experts locally and globally
• Creativity: providing learners individual and collaborative opportunities to make things that matter while building skills for their future.

Student Agency in Our Learning Community

Today's resources are to help families understand our video conferencing policies. One of our core principles in Brave Virtual Academy is helping students to build agency over their own learning. Agency allows students to have ownership over their own learning through the incorporation of developmentally appropriate choices, clearly articulated learning goals, and strategies students can choose from in order to grow.

One way agency has been a part of our traditional classrooms has taken place through the shift from classroom rules (minimal expectations of what NOT to do) to building community agreements of how we want to be treated and how we want to treat others in our learning environment (conditions creating the environment we aspire to learn in).

Rules are important for students to understand. Rules keep us safe and make sure we understand boundaries. An overreliance on compliance in schools, however, can lead to diminishing returns for learners. When we help students to make good choices based on community norms and personal goals, students take ownership of their space, and of their learning. If we want to help learners grown into the innovators and solution finders we need in the future, focusing on providing students with the skills to navigate complex situations is a must.

With the additional layer that "Zooming" into class meetings has brought, BVA teachers have done an excellent job of teaching students to use the tool in a community setting appropriately (clearly articulated learning goals) and to offer more choice in how students use this tool as they grow older (developmentally appropriate choices).

It may seem like BVA should be requiring students of all ages to have their cameras on while in class at all times. There are many benefits to cameras-on in terms of relationship building and engagement. The problem comes when we make "camera-on" behavior a requirement rather than a choice. Rules can't dictate student engagement. Building student agency and supporting students to make good choices can.

I've linked to some articles that talk about the pros and cons of camera use in shared spaces to help you discuss choices with your child.

If you have concerns about your child's video conferencing strategies, contact his or her teacher to see if his or her use is impacting the classroom community and/or impacting his or her learning.

NO SCHOOL

March 8th - District Calamity Day - Teacher Vaccine Recovery

March 15th - District Calamity Day - Teacher Vaccine Recovery

March 19th - Teacher Professional Learning Day

March 22nd - March 29th - Spring Recess

Indian Hill School District Master Calendar

School Photos + Yearbook