The Rookery

At the end of three weeks, it feels like things have settled in.  I am so impressed with the Herons – they are approaching this with energy and good humor.  I love seeing them every day.  We have completed our first culminating event and we're ramping up for our on-line projects.  Thank you for your patience as I try new things out and put some systems in place.  Here is where we are right now:

• Morning Schedule Overview Meeting 8:05 – Live on Zoom (I turn the room on at 7:50 for hanging out and connecting).  A recording is available on Herons at Home by 9am.  I go over all of the work for the day and encourage kids to do optional work.  I basically sell the day of.learning.  I answer questions after I go over the schedule and send kids off with a wave and a smile.
• Zoom Room – I remain in the Zoom Room all morning to answer questions and, when I'm lucky, teach!  I love when kids come to me with things they are encountering on Kahn or in CommonLit that are new to them.  I often also do mini-lessons explaining elements of the day's work.  Times for mini-lessons are shared on the Daily Work Record and in the morning meeting.  They are optional unless noted.
• Daily attendance question and daily work. All Herons are engaging with these!  The attendance question helps me know who is here.  I (or someone from the office) track down kids I haven't heard from or seen on-line that day.  The Daily Work Record lays out all of the work for the day with links to each assignment.  Kids often keep this open on a tab as they work so they can check things off.  The Work Record also has the Zoom Room schedule and opportunities for optional work.  Work Records are returned to me by the end of the day and I comment on each one and return it.
• Daily 1:00 zoom meeting. This is the highlight of my day. I am keeping this mostly social. I give kids time to chat in breakout rooms, I share announcements and take questions, students share anything they wish, and we play a game.  Often, we have very silly dance parties.  It's our chance for the Herons to be Herons.
• Language Arts
• Read Aloud: I am reading Out of My Mind on FlipGrid.  Kids are posting comments.  I miss the spontaneous discussions that our read alouds often engendered and am looking for a way to capture some of that.
• CommonLit I assign articles from CommonLit about three days a week (we took a break this past week as we introduced Book Clubs).  Most of the articles are non-fiction and they have comprehension questions.
• Book Clubs We are currently in book clubs.  Students have assigned reading every week and they are recording vocabulary, authors' crafts and discussion questions as they read.  We are meeting on Friday morning to chat about the book and set the goal for the coming week.
• Writing Circles We have established a writing circle routine.  On weeks when we do writing circles, students choose a topic, write, record on FlipGrid and then share feedback.
• Independent Reading If your child has run out of books, let me know.  Many students have gotten free accounts with Epic which has many, many on-line books to choose from.
• Math
• CueThink I am assigning one problem of the week on CueThink.  I do a zoom mini-lesson walking through the problem each Monday for kids who need help getting started.
• Khan Academy Course mastery is working pretty well for most students.  It enables kids to move at their own pace through content – reviewing what they know by jumping to a unit test and learning new content by watching videos.  I encourage kids to come to the Zoom Room when they come across a new concept.  I would love to teach it to them "face to face."
• Theme – We just completed our Chindogu theme and have been working to transfer our projects on-line.  I am deep into the work of translating the Village experience to distance learning, too.  Phenology and forest school are continuing as well.

• Optional Google Classrooms: All students are welcome to join 4/5 Math Circles classroom and the 4/5 Reading Room classroom. These are open to all 4/5s, and they are places for students to go who want more interaction and/or more challenge or engagement. I offer a lot of math choices in her room.  I lead a daily math exploration at 11am in our zoom room. The reading room is just getting started, and Cathy has asked kids who join to let her know what they are interested in reading and discussing.
• Hamlet - I sent an e-mail to kids seeking kids interested in doing a readers' theater of Hamlet every day.  This will be another opportunity for us to connect face to face in a very Heron-like way.
• Wonder-fulls - kids are doing mini-projects and posting them on FlipGrid.
• Serendipitous learning – one of the things that I miss the most is the spontaneous conversations and questions and explorations that we get to have in the classroom.  It's starting to happen more.  Kids are coming to the Zoom Room and connecting with others to do a math game or an escape room.  I'll continue to look for more chances for this to happen.