Thursday, April 9

"No School" Friday, Ha, ha

Tomorrow is a No School day and staff is encouraged to take it off. 
We'll start regular messages to the kids again on Monday. I will continue to google meet with them on Tuesday and Thursday 9:30 -10:00 and post activities on google classroom..

You may be getting plenty of this kind of stuff, but my daughter-in-law forwarded this to me.  It's a good reminder to be gentle with ourselves!
I don't know the source. Cut and pasted from another post that didn't cite source. Still: good stuff.
THIS IS SO GOOD!!
From a School psychology specialist:
*Dear parents with school aged children who are about to start day one of remote learning from an educator and mom:
You might be inclined to create a minute by minute schedule for your kids. You have high hopes of hours of learning, including online activities, science experiments, and book reports. You’ll limit technology until everything is done! But here’s the thing...
Our kids are just as scared as we are right now. Our kids not only can hear everything that is going on around them, but they feel our constant tension and anxiety. They have never experienced anything like this before. Although the idea of being off of school for 4 weeks sounds awesome, they are probably picturing a fun time like summer break, not the reality of being trapped at home and not seeing their friends.
Over the coming weeks, you will see an increase in behavior issues with your kids. Whether it’s anxiety, or anger, or protest that they can’t do things normally - it will happen. You’ll see more meltdowns, tantrums, and oppositional behavior in the coming weeks. This is normal and expected under these circumstances.
What kids need right now is to feel comforted and loved. To feel like it’s all going to be ok. And that might mean that you tear up your perfect schedule and love on your kids a bit more. Play outside and go on walks. Bake cookies and paint pictures. Play board games and watch movies. Do a science experiment together or find virtual field trips of the zoo. Start a book and read together as a family. Snuggle under warm blankets and do nothing.
Don’t worry about them regressing in school. Every single kid is in this boat and they all will be ok. When we are back in the classroom, we will all course correct and meet them where they are. Teachers are experts at this! Don’t pick fights with your kids because they don’t want to do math. Don’t scream at your kids for not following the schedule. Don’t mandate 2 hours of learning time if they are resisting it.
If I can leave you with one thing, it’s this: at the end of all of this, YOUR KIDS’ MENTAL HEALTH WILL BE MORE IMPORTANT THAN THEIR ACADEMIC SKILLS. And how they felt during this time will stay with them long after the memory of what they did during those 4 weeks is long gone. So keep that in mind, every single day.

Monday, April 6

Bette's Class!

Hi Class!!
 
Well, this was the weirdest spring break I’ve ever had. Talk about stay-cation! I really appreciated, and needed the break from learning new approaches to guiding your learning, particularly the technology, but I missed checking in with you and I am looking forward to checking in with each of you this week. 

I will continue to present activities for you to do, so keep an eye on Google classroom and email. Tuesday we will get together on Google Hangout Meet 9:30-10:00 to check in with each other. You can send me an email anytime you want and let me know if you want to meet individually.

I have come up with some new activities for the next couple of days. Go to Google Classroom to see what they are. Always continue to read daily.

From Bette


I hope you are all well and finding a new normal with the stay home, stay safe mandate.

Well, this was the weirdest spring break I’ve ever had. Talk about stay-cation!  I really appreciated, and needed, the break from learning this new "virtual school", particularly the technology, but I missed checking in with the kids and I look forward to meeting with them and hearing what they are up to.

I will continue to present activities for students, so remind your child to check Google Classroom and email. Tuesday I will hold a class meeting on Google Hangout Meets 9:30-10:00.

You and/or the kids, can send me an email anytime. I will be at my computer 9:00-10:30, I guess we're calling them office hours.

I have come up with some new activities for the next couple of days. Your child can go to Google Classroom to see what they are. Students should always continue to read daily.