**Please check the Meeting Schedules (in the sidebar) and the calendar at the bottom for information regarding this week's meetings and events. Laptops are not required unless requested. Thank you for leaving them in your classrooms.
***Please bookmark the Mindset link so you can access it easily.
September
28- PD Day for teachers (School is closed)
October
03- ES PSA Breakfast and Conversation
05- EC Big Sing
05- Walk the Wish
~from the Innovation Lead (Nate Ruhter)
We have received all current student Parent Permissions and Agreement forms. Please review the spreadsheet sent out by Barbara (Parent Permissions and Agreement Response). We highly recommend you place the document on your bookmarks bar so you can check it regularly and familiarize yourself with parent responses for your class as well as the 'Non-agreements MA-5'. Please do not print or copy this document. If you are unable to find the original email please, write to Barbara and she will resend it.
Seesaw Philosophy - from the Guidelines and FAQ
"A purposeful and reflective collection of authentic student-curated work across disciplines that illustrates progress and learning that is reflective of the Learning Identities."
Below is the information you need to get started with Seesaw - please don't hesitate to contact a member of the LI department if you have any questions.
- Classes have been set up, and Encore teachers assigned to their appropriate classes. If you have any missing students or student's with misspelled names, please let the LI department know.
- Seesaw does not recognize accents over letters - if you need help removing any errors in student names, please let Nate or a member of the LI department know.
- Students in your class may have various images set for their profiles. This is student specific and carries year to year. Instructions on how to change them can be found here.
- Teachers and ATs should only approve student content that was created for their class (e.g. Music approves students posts relating to music).
- Log into Seesaw with your AISB credentials. You can click "teacher sign in with google" to speed up the sign-in process. Student's also log in with their AISB credentials under the student menu.
Folders for the learning identities have been created for you - these will be standard for all classes and students going forward. Teachers can create additional folders beyond the 5 learning identities. A single post can be put with multiple folders for later sorting. Information on creating folders can be found here.
Hiding posts for use during conferences
Seesaw offers this option for all students/classes. If you want to keep a post hidden from the parents to use during conference time, you can assign it to the "Private" folder. Here are instructions on how to do that.
The LI Team will be attending grade level meetings to go over how this is done.
Grade 1 & 2 (iPads)
Please don't hesitate to book a member of the LI department for support as you begin using Seesaw with your students.
We will begin signing the students into Seesaw on the iPads starting Monday. It has to be done manually on each iPad. When your students first use Seesaw to take a photo or make a video/audio recording they will need to tell the iPad to allow access to the camera and mic. There will be a popup asking for access - they should click yes. Here are instructions on managing this.
Grade 3, 4, and 5 (laptops & iPads)
Please don't hesitate to book a member of the LI department for support as you begin using Seesaw with your students.
The first time students use Seesaw on their laptops, they will need to set their security preferences to allow Seesaw to use the laptop camera and mic. Look at the instructions here for doing this in Chrome.
When using the iPads, students should not sign in, but should use the class QR. Instead, print off a class QR code and post in in your room. Please print and post only one. Please don't hesitate to ask for help setting this up.
~Written by ES DTL (Leigh Miller)
On Tuesday, Sep. 25, we will have our first Curriculum/EC/AT/SS/Encore Meeting. What does this mean for you?
Curriculum Conversations: Grades 1-5, designate 1-2 team members to attend each focus area, depending on size of team.
Literacy: A120 (Leigh's Office) Bring a completed student reading assessment and a writing or spelling sample by one of your students. Please also bring your lovely laminated language arts power standards chart.
Math: A123 (Ashlee's room) Bring at least one graded mathematics benchmark assessments.
Unit of Study: A106 (Heather's room) Bring some CLAIMS from your current UoS either made by teachers, class, or individual students.
Early Childhood Teachers and ATs: A012 (Catlin's room) Bring laptop and teacher ipad.
Assistant Teachers (Grades 1-5 + Paul/Vlad/Ildiko/Krisztina) meet in room A125 (Piroska's room) and bring your laptop.
Encore/Student Support: A067 (Ana Maria's room) No laptops needed.
~Written by ES DTL (Leigh Miller)
The Encore/LS/EAL form for providing Learning Identity feedback throughout the year has been updated. Investing time in recording your feedback regularly will save time come report writing in December.
~Written by ES DTL (Leigh Miller)
Thank you for your efforts in inputting all student assessment data (F&P, Writing, Math, LSS, WIDA) into the data dashboard by Friday, Sep. 28. If you do not see Concept 4 under the Math Benchmark Assessment, please clear your cache and log-in again. Ask Leigh or anyone from the LI team for help if needed.
~From the ES Literacy Lead (Kathy Cromartie)
Looking for an inquiry-based, authentic way to integrate grammar instruction into your day? Try Language Dives! They are short inquiry sessions focused on a single sentence or chunk of text chock full of teachable language moments. Students analyze, ask questions, engage in purposeful discussions, and apply their learning in writing. Watch a video to see it in action or read more about it here. Interested in giving it a go? Reach out to Kathy for support.
Please review at your SLC between September 24- October 2 in preparation for the Faculty Conversation on October 2.
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Student Resources that Might Interest You
~from the LI Team Rube Goldberg Machine A Rube Goldberg Machine is a collection of different simple machines and materials of any variety set up to create multiple reactions. These machines require creativity, attention to design, quick thinking, problem solving, patience, trail & error, and, when working as a team, cooperation and communication. We like to provide our students with the opportunity and resources to push their creative and innovative thinking to the limit! |
A Brief Guide to GDPR for Schools and Teachers
Data protection is essential: it means privacy and respect, and freedom from manipulation. Nonetheless, some anxiety has followed the European Union’s GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). Do schools need to adjust their record-keeping? Which information is considered delicate? Can you still carry school data on a portable device? This tutorial will put you in a better position to safeguard your students’ data – and understand what happens with your own. Click here to learn more and try out the game.
~from your ES Librarian (Karen MacMeekin)
Math in the Library!
Using picture books to support math lessons gets children excited about learning math in a different way. Marilyn Burns, author of The greedy triangle and a math teacher for over 30 years, stated that "using picture books created a real-world context for my students and also enticed those children who were not particularly strong in mathematics."
The ES Library has a great collection of math-related picture books and biographies. Here are a few resources from our math collection - come check them out!
- A million dots - by Andrew Clements
- The boy who loved math: the improbable life of Paul Erdős by Deborah Heiligman
- The grapes of math - by Greg Tang
- Ada Byron Lovelace and the thinking machine by Laurie Wallmark