Better Together
Geist Montessori Academy@GeistAcademy
Volume 19, April 19, 2020
So much to Chirp About!
Dear GMA School Family,
The birds’ lively chatter fills the air with the excitement of a new day, new growth, and new perspectives. As we head into another week of eLearning, may your spirits be lifted knowing that you are that encouraging chirp which is supporting our students on this continuous learning path.
It has been so refreshing to connect with many of you and your students this week.
I continue to be amazed by the creativity, synthesis of knowledge, and authentic application that is occurring in your nests. Thank you for valuing the lifelong love of learning and the incredible love and support you are providing on this new educational journey, better together.
Wishing you a week of spread wings and new heights,
Cindy Schuler
Executive Director
Geist Montessori Academy
(317) 813-4626 cschuler@gma.k12.in.us
"The greatest gifts we can give our children are the roots of responsibility and the wings of independence." - Maria Montessori
Community of CAre
Our GMA students are spreading their wings and lifting others up with their gifts and talents. Chloe, pictured here, worked over Spring Break to make much needed masks for the hospitals. Many others have been creating inspirational messages on sidewalks, sending notes, having care parades, and making crafts /videos of support and love. Thank you for being such a community of care and spreading sunshine to others!
Fly into The Land Of Stories Chapter 2 with Ms. Meagan
Schuler Scoop
Please join me for the Schuler Scoop!
Cindy Schuler is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Schuler Scoop
Time: May 1, 2020 02:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/128598036?pwd=OUIyR0hnRjJZRXJTZTAxaS94aXhldz09
Meeting ID: 128 598 036
Password: 1SoZDU
FRee MOntessori materials and MORE
3 month FREE trial for Rosetta Stone
Does your child enjoy learning new languages?
Check out this great parent recommended resource:
Talent Show: Spreading wings and sharing gifts and talents
We miss you all so miss and hope to connect with you through GMA's First Virtual Talent Show.
Students can spread their wings and soar to new heights, while uplifting and inspiring others with their artwork, writing, dance, musical talent, special skill, and so much more.
Students should submit entries by May 5:
https://form.jotform.com/201083498959166
We can't wait to see them shine!
The Virtual Talent Show will be Friday, May 8.
Notes from the nurse
Dear GMA Families,
As we end the current school year and look ahead to the beginning of next school year, I wanted to bring to your attention the need to get all students up to date on vaccinations. I have been reviewing all immunization records and there are students that need to be brought up to date. I will be making contact with those students once I have all information pulled from their files, but in the meantime, I would like to have your help in assuring that your child is up to date.
Please review this letter and the immunization table for the next school year. This information was provided by the Indiana Department of Education and Indiana State Department of Health. ALL students must comply with these minimum requirements unless there is a valid religious objection or medical exemption from a physician on file. In order to attend school in the fall, the child must be current on immunizations. You can obtain immunizations at your pediatrician’s office, minute clinic, or the health department. I know that we are under pandemic restrictions now and some offices are not open and the health department may be on limited hours. This is just to give you a heads up in order to start working on updating their vaccines once clinics are back open.
Please note, that these immunization requirements are mandated by the Indiana Department of Education and your child will not be allowed to attend school if he or she is not completely up to date on immunizations or has a religious objection or medical exemption on file. There is also a new Hepatitis A requirement, which I have attached the letter for as well, which mainly affects the older students and those ready to attend high school. The best thing you can do at this time is to review this immunization requirement table and assure your child is up to date and if not, make arrangements once the clinics are available to get these taken care of. All students will be required to present a new, updated record of vaccinations as part of enrollment and entry to school. For those that have a religious objection or medical exemption, please make sure we have this on file as well.
If you have any questions regarding this, please contact me and I would be happy to assist you. My email address is jsterrett@gma.k12.in.us.
Thank you for your help,
Nurse Joy
Enhance Thinking Skills with puzzles and more
The following downloadable thinking book is for you!
Promote divergent thinking and problem solving skills with these fun activities.
Visual Writing Prompts prompt thinking
THOUGHT-PROVOKING AND REFLECTIVE WRITING
Visual writing prompts are thought-provoking, encourage higher level thinking, and reflective writing.
Help bring your child's thinking to the next level with this strategy:
A word from the woods: Recess with ms. jeanie
Captain Tom in England turns 100 years old this month so he went out to his garden (that’s what they call the yard in England) and walked the perimeter (the outside edge) of his garden 100 times!
How old are you? Could you walk the perimeter of your garden/yard that many times? Try it!
While you are out there, look at the plants you see. They have three main parts.
Starting at the bottom of the plant, they all have roots. You hopefully don’t see the roots of your plants. Roots are supposed to stay in the ground. There are two kinds of roots.
Woody taproots anchor the plant so it doesn’t fall over. Except for our neighbor’s tree during a storm! Oops!
The other kind of roots are fibrous. They have to be soft and hairy to absorb oxygen, water and minerals like nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and many others from soil. If your parents can find a weed in your yard, ask if you can pull it up and see what kind of roots it has. If you couldn’t pull the weed out, were the anchor roots doing their job?
Here are some of the roots that I found in my yard. Are they taproots or fibrous roots? The fern on the left has so many fibrous roots that it took me a while to wash away all the dirt! The long taproot on the middle plant broke and left some root in the ground. That dandelion will regrow!
Most plants have stems. Stems hold the top of the plant up. They let the leaves get closer to the sun, higher than other plants. Point to the stem on my neighbor’s pine. It was about 50 feet tall. It used to do a fine job of holding the leaves above my butternut tree. Woody stems on trees are made of carbon. The carbon comes from the carbon dioxide that the leaves pull from the air. Some of the plants in this picture have stems. The two on the right side do not. Do the plants in your yard have stems? If you have a tree, how much carbon do you think it is storing in that woody stem? How heavy do you think it is?
Plants also have leaves. One function of leaves is to gather energy from the sun. They have green chlorophyll that can change sunlight into food. Making food from light is called photosynthesis. Animals can’t make food from sunlight. So, animals eat leaves to get energy. Have you seen cows do this? Did you eat any leaves today?
There are so many different kinds of leaves, but not many right now. Do you remember why not? Here are some of the leaves I did find in my yard today including false strawberry, fern, pine, lilac, daffodil, grass and dandelion.
Could you take a picture of a leaf you have in your yard? Please don’t take the leaf off of the plant unless it’s a weed. You could send the picture to me if you want, to see if I can guess what they are ( jwiesler@gma.k12.in.us ).
Another function of leaves is to breathe in carbon dioxide and breathe out oxygen. They use some of the carbon dioxide to make chlorophyll and send some carbon to the stem.
I hope you enjoyed recess today and all the roots, stems and leaves in your yard. I hope you can do it again tomorrow.
-Which part of a plant do you think is more important? Tell your parents why.
-Can a plant exist without roots? Why or why not?
-Why don’t some spring ephemerals need stems? Remember that they grow before the tree leaves come out.
-Branches are part of the stem. Birds look for certain kinds of branches that are good places for nests. Do you see any nests in your yard?
-What do plants breathe in and out? What do we breathe in and out? Don’t you just love plants!
-What will happen to my butternut tree now that the neighbor’s pine is gone?
Fun facts: Plant roots use helper fungus to make their root system bigger. The plant trades food for water and minerals from the fungus.
Photo information: Captain Tom’s photo is from inews.co.uk. All the others are mine.
Enrollment scheduled for late may
Resources to stretch thinking
Digital media collections
Library of Congress (LOC) Digital Collections has endless primary source documents for students to explore.
PBS Learning Media has tens of thousands of state curriculum-aligned digital learning resources. Integrates with Google Classroom and Remind.
Literature comes alive with Kidlit TV
Kidlit TV has videos and podcasts with authors and illustrators. The site also provides activity ideas, including the annual nationwide video contest, 90 Second Newbery Film Festival, which is open to students of all ages.
Open source books and online libraries featuring works from around the world.
Project Gutenberg Free Online Library Open the works in html and right click for Google translations of anything from Ancient Greek texts to classic Norwegian literature.
International Children's Digital Library Explore tales, fables, and stories from around the world in over 59 languages.
Reading lists by grade
Mensa for Kids Excellence in Reading Program is a free program open internationally to any and all readers under 18 years of age (Grades k-12), their teachers, and librarians. The program encourages students to read to the level of their ability or interest, regardless of age or grade level.
Virtual museums and operas
Click here for a list of museums throughout the world who have opened a google virtual tour.
Metropolitan Opera: Free Nightly Opera Stream provides free streaming of different encore presentations from the company’s Live in HD series.
National Association for Gifted Children
NAGC has compiled an extensive list of eLearning resources for the gifted learner, family, and teacher.
Online courses and video lessons
Crash Course, an online youtube channel started by Hoosier native John Green and his brother, Hank, has 15 courses with up to 75 video lessons for each. Lessons are geared for the middle and high school student.
Crash Course for Kids follows the same format as Crash Course but with elementary level content.
Thinking skills practice
Prufrock Press At-Home Student Activities & Worksheets offers a free eBook of Thinking Skills Activities for Grades 3-8
Industry outreach and virtual connections
Nepris has an incredible selection of videos from industry experts.Counselor's Corner
Hello GMA Families!
I hope everyone is doing well during this trying time. I've received so many great career assignments. Keep up the good work!
We are starting to reach the end of the year! During this time, we need to do our best to motivate each other. I know eLearning is much different than being in the classroom, but we need to be sure we are positively reinforcing the hard work that each student is doing. Simple compliments go a long way, and please reach out to me if you need anything. We are in the home stretch for finishing the school year, so let's do our best to finish the year off strong!
Keep up the great work everyone!
Mr. Michael
Social Emotional Resources:Social Emotional Learning Resources related to Covid-19
Resources to support you and your family:
- See this link for information on hospitals, Community Mental Health Centers, and other local supports: https://www.in.gov/issp/2422.htm
- Trauma and ACES: https://developingchild.harvard.edu/resources/aces-and-toxic-stress-frequently-asked-questions/
Summer School and Summer CAmps
With new guidance about gatherings being such a fluid process, we hope to be able to announce a definitive schedule with days, times, and course details very soon.
Continuing the learning Journey
Here is a list of free education resources that you and your student can use to continue the learning journey when classes are cancelled. As long as you have an internet connection, you can use these online resources to unlock hours of learning:
At Home Activities:
Khan Academy (https://www.khanacademy.org/) – Khan Academy offers free courses of all grade levels to help students master subjects and accelerate their learning. Through these courses, Kahn Academy allows students to personalize their learning and learn at their own pace.
PBS LearningMedia (https://www.pbslearningmedia.org/) – PBS LearningMedia provides students with free lesson plans, videos, and games aligned with standards they are learning in the classroom.
TEDEd (https://ed.ted.com/) – TEDEd brings lessons to life for students through animation. TEDEd’s goal is to ignite curiosity among learners. To do this, TEDEd collects the best teacher lessons around the world. Then, it turns them into shareable animated videos for students.
PowerMyLearning Connect (https://powermylearning.org/learn/connect/) – PowerMyLearning Connect offers curated learning from a variety of online platforms. K-12 students can access free content in all core subjects and many electives, with the ability to choose standard aligned lessons.
BrainPOP (https://www.brainpop.com/) – BrainPOP provides animated interactive lessons, quizzes, and games for core subjects and a variety of electives.
Lumosity (https://www.lumosity.com/en/) – Lumosity offers free brain games to keep student minds actively engaged. For example, the games use problem solving, critical thinking, and memory to keep students on their toes and strengthen their skills.
Duolingo (https://www.duolingo.com/) – Duolingo helps students keep up with foreign language skills. Duolingo offers 30+ languages so students can start learning a variety of languages that interest them. Or, students can use Duolingo to practice the foreign languages they are already learning in the classroom.
EVERFI (https://everfi.com/partners/k-12-educators/) – EVERFI offers free supplemental lessons for the whole student in areas of Finance, SEL, Health, College/Career Readiness, and related topics.
Here is a list of free education resources that you and your student can use to continue the learning journey when classes are cancelled. As long as you have an internet connection, you can use these online resources to unlock hours of learning:
The Smithsonian Learning Lab ( https://learninglab.si.edu/distancelearning)-offers teachers and parents access to millions of digital resources from across the Smithsonian's museums, research centers, libraries, archives, and more. Includes pre-packaged collections that contain lessons, activities, and recommended resources made by Smithsonian museum educators. Includes self-directed learning modules for teens and tweens.
Ranger Rick (https://rangerrick.org/)- The National Wildlife Federation has opened all articles behind its paywall through June 30. This includes Educator’s Guides and Ranger Rick, Jr. Parent Reading Guides in English and Spanish.
Stories Around the World (International Children's Digital Library) Explore tales, fables, and stories from around the world in over 59 languages.
Free tutoring with Rose-Hulman (AskRose) has extended their free tutoring service hours for middle and high school students.
The Encyclopedia of Life (http://eol.org/)- an online database of over one million species and counting, provides a platform for the scientist and citizen-scientist alike to collaborate on scientific information for every living thing on Earth. This “open-science” website aggregates information from over 180 scientific organizations and scientists and as a result, provides rich and detailed text descriptions, photos and video clips, sound files and links to research and associated research.
Department of Defense: Learn about careers in STEM fields
Department of Education National Center for Education Statistics: Kids' Zone
Department of Energy: Games and Activities; Virtual Field Trips to National Energy Labs
Environmental Protection Agency: Games, Quizzes, and Videos about the Environment
The Library of Congress: Presentations and Activities to Help Students Learn about History
NASA: Interactive Lessons about Space, Earth, Solar System and Universe; Lessons from Astronauts about Living in Space; STEM Activities for Students of All Ages
The Kennedy Center: Lunch Doodles with Mo Willems; Tour the Kennedy Center with The Pigeon
The Smithsonian: Free Smithsonian STEM Games and Simulations; Meet the Animals of the National Zoo; 3D Exhibits and Virtual Tours; Smithsonian Magazine Ten Museums You Can Virtually Visit; The Museum of Natural History Virtual Tour; Digital Smithsonian American Art Museum; Distance Learning Resources
NOAA: Use Real-Time Ocean Data to Explore the Environment
USGS: Learn from Home About Physical science, Geography and MapsResources from Indiana Department of Education: https://www.doe.in.gov/elearning/2020-covid-19-remote-learning#family%20resources
- Resource from World Health Organization:https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/helping-children-cope-with-stress-print.pdf?sfvrsn=f3a063ff_2
- Parenting Tips and COVID-19:https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public/healthy-parenting?utm_source=mailchimp&utm_campaign=030096d2e1f0&utm_medium=page
Technology How to:
How to use Zoom: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCjksPhTlyE
Microsoft family guide: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/distance-learning-with-office-365-guidance-for-parents-and-guardians-89d514f9-bf5e-4374-a731-a75d38ddd588?ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=U
Intro to Seesaw video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzlrtDR84KY&feature=emb_log
Special Populations Resources
English Language Learner
- eLearning Resources - English Learners - This hub features resources for both teachers and families of English learner students. Included are links to other EL-specific resource hubs, such as WIDA’s, links for effectively connecting with multilingual families, and instructional programs and supports.
- eLearning Requirements and Supports for English Learners - IDOE’s guidance on the requirements for providing services, communicating with families, and assessing English learner students.
High Ability
Special Education
PTO News
The teacher appreciation committee aims to have a Back to School Appreciation/Welcome Back celebration when we return in the fall. Therefore, we encourage families/students to write emails to their teachers at this time or make recordings. Classrooms probably still need items and everyone is in a different scenario during these unforeseen times. Since large groups of any kind will be unacceptable until the COVID phases are seen through and many parents/families are maxed out at this time, they can connect with teachers as they need.
We hope that you are all well,
Anne and Abby
Thank you GMA School Board
A possible virtual School Board Meeting will be held in May, so please stay tuned for more details.
http://gmacademy.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/GMA-January-2020-Board-Meeting-Minutes.pdf
Padlet to Share Ideas
We have already been receiving so many incredible ideas and adorable pictures of amazing projects/learning at home. As such, I have decided to create this Padlet for our GMA School Family: Better Together: Padlet to Share Ideas/Learning
Please feel free to share photos, ideas, or other positive items to this site. You can upload items by clicking on the + sign. This is a fun way that we can all stay connected as a supportive and caring community. I look forward to the posts, and thank you for sharing!
Connectivity is Key
Charter Communications announced on March 13, 2020 that for 60 days the company will offer free Spectrum broadband and Wi-Fi access to homes with K-12 and/or college students who do not already have a subscription. Installation fees will also be waived for these households. Enroll by calling 844-488-8395. Charter will also continue Spectrum Internet Assist, a program offering low-cost broadband internet of 30 Mbps for low-income households without school-aged children.
Comcast, which owns Xfinity, will offer 60 days free and increased speeds for new families who join the Internet Essentials program, an internet access program for low income families that is normally $9.95 a month.
AT&T announced on Friday it would not cancel service and would waive late fees for any wireless, home phone, broadband residential or small business customer experiencing hardships because of the coronavirus pandemic and can't pay their bills. Qualifying low income households can apply for $10 a month internet access through the Access from AT&T program. Fixed Wireless Internet and Wireline customers can use unlimited internet data. AT&T will also keep public Wi-Fi hotspots open.
Comcast offers free service: https://www.internetessentials.com/covid19
Free public wi-fi locations include: McDonalds, Starbucks, Panera, Public Libraries, Lincoln Pancake House, and Meijer among others.
working together for the better!
Meet Geist Montessori Academy's Executive Director: Cindy Schuler
Email: Cschuler@gma.k12.in.us
Website: gmacademy.org
Phone: (317)813-4626
Twitter: @GeistAcademy
New Phone Number: (317) 813-4626 and Address
Please take note; our new school family has a
NEW PHONE NUMBER:
(317) 813-4626
NEW ADDRESS:
6058 W. 900 N.
McCordsville, IN 46055
s'more Newsletters
Better Together Newsletter, Volume 1
Better Together Newsletter, Volume 2
Better Together Newsletter, Volume 3
Better Together Newsletter, Volume 4
Better Together Newsletter, Volume 5
Better Together Newsletter, Volume 6
Better Together, Newsletter, Volume 7
Better Together Newsletter, Volume 8, 1.26
Better Together Newsletter, Volume 9, 2.2.2020
Better Together Newsletter, Volume 10, 2.9.2020
Better Together Newsletter, Volume 12, 2.23.2020
Better Together Newsletter, Volume 13, 3.1.2020
Better Together Newsletter, Volume 14, 3.8.2020
Better Together, Volume 15, 3.15.2020
Better Together, Volume 16, 3.22.2020