Tech Update - We were able to get on our chromebooks successfully using new Clever badges. Students have one badge here at school (labeled "new-school") and brought home a second badge (labeled "new-home") in their book bag. PLEASE throw out any old Clever badges you have laying around the house to avoid confusion.
I gave an online assignment tonight on BrainPOP - it's a short video + online quiz for review about the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I assigned it not only for the content, but also to get everyone on their device at home successfully. Please make sure your child completes this tonight and do email me if you run into any problems logging on with the new Clever badge. Tomorrow, Wednesday, we will begin the midyear i-Ready diagnostic assessment in math and reading. Students decide which subject to do first. Once everyone in class has completed both subjects, I will send the reports home in the Thursday folder, along with a homework update. However, as soon as your child completes one subject, the i-Ready lessons assigned to them will automatically reset to match their current levels of mastery. I've revised the seating chart. Some students are happy with their new seats, some not, and others so-so. Pretty much what I'd expected. Be sure to ask your child how they feel about their new seat/new table mates. Our tech issues are MOSTLY fixed, but I couldn't find where I wrote down my new passwords (ridiculous of me) and so was on and off the phone with ETIS (district tech support). Seems I was not the only teacher to be in this position and they were swamped.
I was able to print a new set of Clever badges for the class - actually, two sets - one for school and one for home. But by then it was the end of the day and we did not have time to try them out on our Chromebooks so students were instructed to tell their parents, "one more night without i-Ready." We should be back in business on all our accounts tomorrow. (fingers crossed) I am updating the Homework page on this website next, followed by the Upcoming Dates page. Math - We are in the process of finishing up Topic 4 (Use Multiplication to Divide: Division Facts) as we couldn't quite get there before winter break. I will be giving the Topic 4 assessment on Friday morning and plan to return them in next week's Thursday folder. Remember that there are multiple review/reteach pages at the end of the topic, as well as a version of the assessment (pp. 229-232) AND a Performance Assessment (pp. 233-234) in which students use all they've learned to solve a big problem. Keppel Library - Mrs. Dow has a LOT of catching up to do with regard to books checked out as a result of the total tech shutdown before winter break. Many students SEEM to have many books checked out so if you find a Keppel Library book at home, please return it to school. Mrs. Dow allowed every student to check out one book today because we couldn't yet trust the inventory. That book only is due next Tuesday, January 16 (Monday, January 15 is holiday in observance of Martin Luther King, Jr.) There have been so many events going on lately, and I want to make sure all families are aware of all that's coming up.
Tomorrow, Wednesday, November 8th, is the last day of school this week - for students, at least. The school will be open on Thursday while teachers are given a day to finish up report cards for trimester 1, which will come home in next week's Thursday folder (on November 16th). Next week is the annual Scholastic Book Fair in the cafeteria. Our class will not visit the book fair until Friday, November 17, at 8:05-8:45am. However, the book fair is open daily 8am-3pm so families are welcome to shop after school every day and 8:00-9:00am on Thursday. Please note that students must have an adult accompanying them in order to be admitted to the book fair. I welcome any/all adult family members who want to shop with our class on Friday, November 17th at 8:05am. Please check in through the front office. Next week is also our first field trip to the Los Angeles County Arboretum. If you have not returned your child's signed permission slip and/or $1.00 donation, it is overdue! School is closed for the Thanksgiving holiday the entire week of November 20-24. Finally, please plan to attend our Theatre performance of How the Stars Fell Into the Sky on Thursday, November 30, at 10:00am in the Hoover High School auditorium. If you have not figured out your child's costume, please make that a priority this weekend. It has come to my attention that some students in our class are communicating online from their personal devices (cellphones, tablets, laptops, desktops) in a manner that is unkind, at best. There are reports of name-calling and and other unkind comments. Some instances are occurring directly between two students while others are triangulated (two students texting unkindly about a third student). Some of these communications are happening via text while others appear to be occurring in the Chat function of online games that multiple students are playing together at the same time.
Some students excuse this behavior as "roasting" - and therefore, harmless in their eyes. This behavior is NOT harmless and it is spilling over into the real word of school, both at recess and in our classroom. Students who are distracted by what others have said or texted to them or about them are less able to focus on our lessons while sitting in the same room with those same kiddos. It is interfering with your child's learning and with my teaching. EMPATHY - the ability to understand and share the feelings of another person - is not always a child's (or adult's) first response, but it's the one we are trying to foster here at Keppel. Please carve out some time tonight to review what your child does and does not have access to from their (and your) devices. Make sure that your child/security settings allow you to review everything they are texting/posting, and review their online actions on a daily basis. Then review with your child your family's rules for online behavior. These rules should be the same the rules for face-to-face interactions - if it's not acceptable to say something to someone standing in front of you, then it's not acceptable to text or chat it online. Thanks in advance for your prompt attention to this important matter. As always, you may email me with your questions or concerns. No academic homework tonight, but kids wrote a couple of reminders in their planners today:
Math - The Topic 2 math test is this Thursday. We have already begun Topic 3 - multiplication & division/more of the same - so we are continuing to reinforce the same skills as we continue. Students will take this test on their own, unlike the Topic 1 test, which was a guided activity. That said, I will read any problem to any student. As I tell them, it's a math test, not a reading test. These results should give both student and parent a good idea of what the student can do on their own, without help. As with all enVision math tests, the form of the test I will give in class closely resembles the assessment/test in their consumable math book, so that's a great review activity. Watch for the Topic 2 test to come home next week in the Thursday folder. Regarding Halloween - This morning we had fun with Spooky Sentences - an activity created by my friend and former colleague, Jenn Consalvi (she used to teach 4th grade at Keppel). The lesson involved adding sensory detail to our writing to make it come alive for our readers. The content today was spooky stuff, but the writing strategy is transferable to our personal narrative writing. Students read (and some also listened to) an article in their Newsela app entitled "Tricks for enjoying Halloween candy." This opinion piece is adapted from an article in The Washington Post, written by a Registered Dietitian. Then students completed a 4-question quiz to check their understanding. Depending on how they allotted their time this afternoon, some students also had time to watch a short movie in BrainPOP about Halloween and then complete the 5-question quiz. Be sure to ask your child what they enjoyed today and what new information they learned. Wishing everyone a safe and happy Halloween tonight. I gather from the kids that a number of you went outside on Saturday morning to safely watch the partial eclipse (technically, it was only an annular eclipse for those lucky folks within the Path of Annularity). Kids were abuzz talking about the "bite out of the sun." Thanks for making it a priority in your family. SAVE THOSE GLASSES! - I will ask that they be brought back to school in April for the partial eclipse during the school day on April 8th.
About half of 1321 families have registered their child online for the upcoming Splash & Dash fundraiser and event. If you haven't done so, please do it now. It's easy! Just go to mybooster.com and register. There is no obligation to make a donation but this is a fundraiser to raise the funds needed to pay our teaching artists, so please make a donation as you are able. Principal Tonoli and Assistant Principal Dr Hakopian met with all the 3rd grade classes in the cafeteria before morning recess today to discuss behavior expectations of all students on campus, especially at recesses. Here are the highlights:
Heads up: I will be out of the classroom this Wednesday and Thursday while I attend professional development at the district level with a team from Keppel. The Internet was back up today and we watched a great Google Slides presentation all about solar eclipses. I HOPE that the first thing your child did this afternoon was to show you their green eclipse folder. Inside is information they can use to teach the family about the three kinds of solar eclipses. They also have a model they made, a color diagram or
how an eclipse happens, and their own pair of eclipse glasses. As they will have told you, in Glendale we are not in the Path of Annularity, but we will be able to see a partial eclipse starting at 8:08am on Saturday. The maximum coverage/eclipse/obscuring will occur about 9:25am and the sun will be back in fun view by 10:50am. Your child should log onto Google Classroom (from their Clever page) to access the Google Slides. I'm also linking the same presentation in PowerPoint here if you prefer that platform. Fun Fact - You can see multiple images of the eclipse by using a colander! Just put a piece of white paper on the ground in front of you, while you stand with your back to the sun. Hold the colander up over your head. You will have to play around a bit to get the right angle to get the images on the paper - helps if it's a large piece of paper! Good luck! Have fun! DON'T LOOK DIRECTLY AT THE SUN!!! Well, that's not entirely true, as I used my personal iPhone as a hotspot - still am in order to post homework and this blog. It turns out that the scheduled work that was done on Keppel's WiFi network last night didn't make the grade ... at least for the third floor of the main building! I just got an update from ETIS (district tech office) and the company is coming back to Keppel tonight after they fix the problems at RD White.
But it's been another heck of a day. After one too many soccer-at-recess problems, Principal Tonoli has removed soccer as an option for all grades - for the time being, at least. Students reported that the basketball courts were especially crowded as the soccer crowd needed to find a new activity, but no problems were reported. Families - if your child plays sports on a competitive team, please have a discussion with them detailing the ways in which their soccer or basketball team is different from playing a pick-up game during recess at Keppel:
Annular Solar Eclipse Coming on Saturday Morning! - Did you know that we will be able to see a partial eclipse from Glendale? Did you know that you can permanently damage your eyes if you look at the sun without eclipse glasses? Did you know that Mrs. Bamberger will send home a pair with each student tomorrow/Friday? We started learning about solar eclipses with the help of Bobbie, Alexandra, Ryan, and Anthony. Tomorrow we will continue learning and we will also practice with the glasses. Students will bring home paperwork that you will find interesting. Hoping they've got our WiFi fixed, otherwise I'll need to get Mrs. Janoyan in the office to print out the handouts. Field Trip to the Arboretum on Tuesday, November 14th - Most students have returned their yellow permission slip and $1 donation (thanks, PTA, for covering most of the cost). Please return your child's tomorrow - I sent another copy home if it's missing. If you would like to serve as a Parent Teacher (yes, you will have a group of students to monitor), please email me. You must have a current (within the last 4 years) TB clearance on file in the school office. Nurse Greta will be out tomorrow, but you can check with her on Monday about this. I still owe you Catching Up - Part 2! If you don't know what I'm talking about, be sure to scroll down to read Part 1. It's been far too long since I've posted to this blog - I really need to write SOMETHING everyday (talking to myself here)
Homework Clarification - I apologize for some confusion about the homework, especially on nights when I assign an i-Ready math lesson to all students. There are two places to look for homework:
Students are given time to jot down their nightly HW in their spiral planner at the end of the day, but cannot check each student's planner. So, I post a more detailed listing of nightly HW. In addition to HW in the planner (typically reading and math + occasionally other things, like practicing lines for Theatre tonight), parents should refer to Homework Guidelines section of this website. Here I've listed the week-in/week-out routine including:
I think the confusing part is when I assign "one i-Ready math lesson" in the student planner to all students. I do this on days when we do not have a HW page from the enVision math book to go home so that students are getting some useful math practice each night. For students who are already assigned 45 minutes of i-Ready math lessons each week, my nightly assignment counts towards that total. i-Ready advises that 45 minutes per week, per subject (math/reading) is the optimal amount of time to spent. More than 60 minutes per week has not been shown to produce anymore student growth than 45 minutes per week, per subject. The caveat here is that those minutes must be one during which your child is actively engaged in learning, not just staring at the screen. Also, students should not stop in the middle of a lesson unless absolutely necessary. Lessons completed over multiple days often produce poor results. Room 1321 Constitution (a.k.a. our rules) - We have (finally) completed our class rules to live by this year. Using the U.S. Constitution as our model, we've revised the Preamble to suit our purposes and we've sorted our rules under the Keppel 3 (+1) Be's:
Slowly but surely, we are establishing our classroom routines. Restroom visits during the instructional day are still excessive by some students. Students are working toward the privilege of walking themselves up to the classroom after morning and lunch recesses. We've got a long way to go, however. Writing - I feel like we are finally making some progress on our writing! We have been collecting small moments in our black writing NB. Tomorrow, students will choose the small moment that they will work on and take to publication. Yesterday, Tuesday, we joined elementary classrooms from around the district on a live Zoom presentation hosted by Franklin Elementary. They had invited acclaimed author & illustrator Dan Santat. Dan was awarded the Caldecott Medal for The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend. Yesterday, he shared another of his books, Dude. We all loved it! Tomorrow's Thursday folder will have the drawing activity that Dan led. We are looking forward to a special assembly tomorrow morning when the Glendale Elks arrive with a dictionary for every third grader! This is an annual event and we are so grateful to the Elks for bringing this program to Keppel once again. . . . to be continued |
AuthorDebbie Bamberger is thrilled to be a part of the Keppel team and honored to share this year with twenty-six amazing children. Archives
May 2024
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