The Week of August 16
A NOTE FROM YOUR PRINCIPAL
“We see the figure of the child who stands before us with his arms held open beckoning humanity to follow”
Dr. Maria Montessori Education and Peace
Dear Charles Ellis Montessori Academy families,
I am excited to begin a new school year with all of our children, families and staff.
Dr. Montessori always directed Montessori guides to “Follow the Child” and that is what I encourage you to do as we travel these byways and highways of learning. At times we may feel that we are on a high speed autobahn, but as we start our travels I think it is critical to begin with a stroll, hand in hand, down a quiet country lane. As we take this slow walk, it is important that we take time to stop and truly observe the developing child and young adult. Can you see the “wheels turning”? All learning begins with the curiosity of the mind, and it is our job as adults to introduce our children to the wonders of our world.
On a logistical note, it is our intention to slowly integrate itsLearning over the course of the next several weeks and we will be here to take this journey with you, hand in hand and step by step. We feel that by doing so it will make our back to school experience more pleasant and instill confidence in our children and community stakeholders. We are excited to transition into full integration of the Learning Management System as we work together to learn the powerful features and supports/resources in the itsLearning platform. Please see below the letter from your teacher with instructions on how to connect to your learning community on the first day of school.
I am grateful for your continued support of our staff as we work to serve our children. Together we must maintain faith in the child to guide us towards a peaceful tomorrow.
Peace,Ms. Tanya
A NOTE FROM YOUR TEACHERS
Hello Families!
The first day of school is fast approaching and we know that many questions remain! Prior to the first day of school, we are offering a Meet and Greet this coming Monday, August 17, 2020 5:30-6:15 via Zoom. The link for the meeting will be sent out via email. This is for parents and students to come and meet/see their community. If there are any questions or concerns, we will do our best to answer them during this time. We do ask that you remain muted and if you have a question or a comment that you simply use the “raise your hand” function in Zoom and we will call on you. This will help us mitigate a chaotic meeting. We are looking forward to The Learning Community Meet and Greet!
As Ms.Tanya mentioned above, we are giving information on how the first day of school is going to look for The Learning Community. We will not be logging in to itsLearning for at least the first few days , if not the first two weeks. Once we have more information on student login usernames and passwords, they will be sent out to families. We will be sending out a Zoom link via email and Remind, that will be our recurring morning meeting link for the remainder of virtual learning, unless we have to change it for some reason, and we will let you know if that happens. Eventually we will be adding all Zoom links in the itsLearning platform so that everything is in one place and easy to access. The first day of school morning meeting, at 8:30, will consist of a whole group meeting, and then at least three breakout rooms where the children will be split up into three groups with a teacher facilitating each of the smaller group meetings. The meeting/meetings will consist of ice breakers and community building. We anticipate this first meeting to last about an hour total. We will come back together in the afternoon at 12:15, via another Zoom link, for a whole group read aloud. Here are some links to different activities your child can engage in while not in meetings with us:
Rules of the Digital Classroom
Below, we are posting the amended daily schedule that will begin after the first two weeks of school. Please keep in mind that your child will not necessarily be on the computer the entire work period. You will be able to view weekly expectations on their ItsLearning platform a week ahead of time so that you know if they will be needed in live Zooms or not. Some students will have standing “appointments” with Ms. Kathy and/or Ms. Carolina, and those will be posted ahead of time as well.
Patience will be crucial for our success with a new learning platform and new expectations. We understand that scheduling work/school will be a challenge for many families and we will be happy to work with you, on an individual basis, to negotiate the best plan for your family we can. Please keep us abreast of any issues or questions that you have throughout these first few weeks so that we can work together to make this the finest educational experience possible for all involved. Please know that we are not withholding any information from families. We are giving out information as soon as we receive it and are able to process it into a cohesive plan. This is a rapidly evolving situation we find ourselves in, please trust that we are doing our best to keep you informed! We look forward to seeing you on Monday!
Please click on the link to view the amended schedule!
The Learning Community Virtual Learning Schedule
No comments:
Post a Comment