ISY Elementary School Faculty Blog

For Keeps

Mike Simpson

May 28, 2021

Here is another article that is worth reading as we think about how schools might come out of this year stronger… For Keeps

QUARTER 4 SCHEDULE

Here is the Quarter 4 Specialist Schedule from May 17 to June 16.

There will be no specialist classes on our last day, Wednesday, June 16. Next week, we will confirm the time of our end of year assembly.

QUARTER 4 PLANNING

IMPORTANT: In the last couple of days we have had a few parents tell us that they are moving into time zones that do not work for synchronous learning. We expect that more students will move into such time zones during up until the end of the Quarter.

These students will still get their work from their current synchronous classes but Jordan (Grades 4 & 5) and Mike (Grades 2 & 3) will meet with them online during the week to help them with the work.

This is manageable if we do the following important steps:

1. Grade 2-5 students will get all assignments from Google Classroom.

2. All assignments must include simple instructions on how to do the assignment plus links to all online resources that they will need to complete it. These do not need to be long – simple is best.

3. Specialists are also to post what they are doing each week to Google Classroom as an assignment. 

4. Please post assignments in this manner from next week.

Because of this change, we will not be requiring learning summaries on Fridays in Quarter 4. We will just send out a short email with the offline learning activities attached. If we do not need to use our current offline learning activities, we will need to update our offline activities for Friday, April 23.

5. Homeroom teachers within the same grade level should be assigning the same assignments to make this easier on students from different classes to work together with Jordan and Mike.

This quarter’s interdisciplinary theme is PARTNERSHIPS.

Here is a link to a summary of the PK-1, 2-3, and 4-5 Enduring Understandings and Essential Questions that we will use to connect learning in all subjects.

Here is a link to the Q4 PARTNERSHIPS SCOPE & SEQUENCE document from which all planning will be linked. Please complete this scope and sequence for your grade level by the end of Friday, April 9. It is ok if you are finishing up Quarter 3 up until Friday, April 9.

We have purposefully chosen EUs and EQs that allow teachers in all subjects to focus on whatever skills and knowledge that you feel the students need to either learn or revise before the year ends.

In all grade levels we are basically focusing on partnerships and how we work together and this interdisciplinary focus can be maintained while teaching anything. This will minimize the need for interdisciplinary planning meetings and detailed scope and sequences.

On Monday, we will provide more guidance on how we can record our planning. For now, just think about how you can incorporate a partnership theme into your subject over this last quarter.

HERE is a link to a folder with all of the slides that were created for Quarter 4 last year. These may or may not be of use this year. 

Students Leaving Yangon

If you become aware of a student who is planning to leave, please email Patty, Nimmi, and I and we will follow up with the parents. Please email us even if you have just heard this from the student and you are unsure if this is true.

Students withdrawing from ISY:

Students who are withdrawing from ISY are obviously no longer our responsibility from their date of withdrawal. These students will no longer be attending Zoom classes and teachers will no longer be providing feedback on their learning. These students will be removed from Powerschool.

However, given the extraordinary circumstances under which these families are leaving, we will keep them enrolled in our Seesaw and Google Classroom platforms until the end of the year. We will also keep them on other platforms such as RazKids. This will allow them to access learning should they wish to. This work is not for teachers to give feedback on and assess. We are unable to disable the chat and messaging functions of Seesaw and Google Classroom for individual students. We hope that this is not a distraction and if this becomes an issue with a withdrawn student, please let me know and I will reach out to the parents. 

These students will be asked to return their Chromebook or iPads and library books before they leave Yangon.

ABC WEDNESDAY SCHEDULE 

ABC Schedule: Wednesday, June 2

On Wednesday afternoons, Grade 1 to 5 students will get to choose two fun activities to do. They will be able to choose between fun Art, Body (PE), and Communication (Technology) activities.

Above in this Wednesday’s schedule. Students will click on the Zoom links in the activity description to join the activity. Homeroom teachers can share this schedule with their students however will be easiest for the students to join the activities.

QUARTER 4 REPORTS 

Extra Notes on Report Writing…

We have confirmed the students on the ES Reports: Quarter 2 & 4 2020-2021 Spreadsheet who we do not need to report or (name is highlighted in green and crossed out) and who we need to report on but have not attended regularly in Q4 (highlighted in green with notes next to name). 

Please let Mike know if you are having problems reporting on any student. If you have any students that you are unable to assess (UA) please let Mike know and we will decide what to do.

As always, if you have students that you might be giving a ‘1’ or a lower grade that might surprise a student or parent, please reach out to the family this week if you have not already.

If you assessed something in Q2 that you have not assessed again (e.g. a writing genre or science domain), please carry forward the grade from Q2 to this Q4 report card. 

If you haven’t already, please fill out this quarter’s common subject comments ASAP using the documents below:

Common Grade Level Subject Comments:

————————

ES PK/KG Report Instructions: Q4 2020-2021

ES G1-5 Report Instructions: Q4 2020-2021

The instructions are kind of wordy but they are basically the same as for Quarter 2 so if you do what you did for Quarter 2 all will be good.

This has been a real up and down year and the students have gone up and down too. This report is intended to give a final indication on what a student has shown themselves to be capable of – they might have shown themselves capable earlier in the year and then stopped producing as they lost motivation online. If we use the data that we think is most reliable to be reflective of what they are capable of (whenever that was in the year…) then we will be giving the fairest and most accurate report that we can.

Summary of the report writing timeline:

  • Wednesday, June 16: Quarter 4 Ends
  • Monday, June 14 @ 8am: All comments copied into Powerschool and all grades entered.
  • June 16: Reports go out to families

INCLUSION SHARE OUTS

Active Reading

Active reading takes place when students are proactively involved in the reading of a text. Active reading is about more than reading words in black and white and answering questions afterward. Student engagement is important in order to optimize learning. The more engaged/involved the students are in what they are reading, they are more likely to better understand the meaning within the text. More information in the link below:

Active Reading

Previous Elementary School Posts

Elementary School Faculty Blog – October 23, 2020

Elementary School Faculty Blog – October 23, 2020

Oct 23, 2020 |

In case you are wondering why you are tired, we went online 219 days ago. This is the first chance we have had to rest for a very long time. Your work up until this point has set us up for the rest of the year and the rest of the year can wait for week!