Inspire Insider
Bringing families together, one newsletter at a time!
Monday, April 13, 2020
Quote of the Week

School News and Important Dates
- Teachers will still be available to meet you virtually and will still be monitoring student progress
- EOS orders will still be approved and processed
- Curriculum and Technology orders will continue to be processed
- CPA will still continue to offer learning opportunities for high school
- HQT's will hold office hours for high school students and families
- High school students, particularly seniors, are strongly encouraged to keep up with their school work and completion of assignments
- A special website of open and free resources is available at this link
- Support videos, lessons, and tools compiled by our intervention team are available here
Inspire Virtual Art Fair
Click the link below for the full details.
Virtual Homeschooling Coffee Chat with Your Family Liaisons
Zoom link

New Resource Site For All Parents
We worked together to create a resource site for our families and for parents who are now faced with homeschooling their children. Please share with anyone who you feel could benefit from the site!

Community Connections
Check out the newsletter for workshop days and times: https://www.smore.com/z7m6j

High School
Classes and Curriculum
Most of our popular curriculum providers remain open and students can access classes and continue learning. Some of our curriculum providers are offering free resources during this time:
Language Bird
Chirp Room availability for students to enter a chat room moderated by Language Bird teachers to converse in the language they are studying: Chirp Room Link
ASU Prep. Digital
Resources at no cost such as virtual field trips, library access, video lessons, and much more: ASU for You
Shmoop and Rosetta Stone are offering free student and teacher accounts while families are distancing during this time. Please contact your HST if you are interested in learning more.
High School Counselor Support
How about a little career exploration while you are held-up at home?
Here are some fun and free, online tools to help you get started:
Road Trip Nation: Wondering what to do with your life?
Career Exploration: See careers come to life through stories and advice from people who’ve been in your shoes.
Video Interviews with professionals: Watch videos of leaders talking about themes that matter to you.
Journeys Map: You will be provided personalized roadmaps to explore life’s possibilities.
California Career Zone: Learn about yourself, the employment options available to you and the training that will prepare you for them.
How do students turn in their Concurrent Enrollment forms now that community colleges are closed? (Orange County)
Attention Juniors and Seniors:
College Admissions Updates:
AP/SAT/ACT Resources & Updates:
8th Grade High School Transition Information Sessions
Student Support
Open to Parents/Guardians: Intervention Support Website
Exciting News!
On April 14th, all students will have access to our recorded outstanding direct instruction (ODI) classes on our Intervention Website! Parents/Guardians can sit with their students and watch as our teachers guide them through the lessons.
Reading videos focus on: beginning phonics, decoding, blending and Reading & Comprehension classes
Math Videos focus on: foundation skills, operations, multiplication and division, factors, multiples and fractions, expressions and algebra.
Office hours will be posted soon on the Intervention Website!
English Learners
English Learners Newsletter
Please read this resource to find a wealth of information about English Learners and the programs we offer to support our students.
Special Education
Hello parents, as we are working through these challenging times, we wanted to provide you an update regarding the educational support and services we are providing your student(s). Please see below for the many ways we are supporting students:
- We have instructed all virtual related service providers to continue providing services per your child’s IEP (ex. Speech, OT, etc.). For most of our students, they will keep the same service time. You will be contacted individually by your provider if there are any changes.
- With guidance from the county department of health, and with our strong desire to protect the health of our students, families, and staff, we will be offering virtual services in lieu of in-person services at this time. We will maintain the level of instructional minutes within the IEP to the best of our ability and will continue to provide the necessary support for each child.
- Your child’s virtual Specialized Academic Instruction (SAI) are taking place this week. Your child’s case manager should have emailed you last week to share the SAI schedule. Services will likely occur at a different time, as our teachers had to rearrange their schedules due to adding additional students on their caseloads who now receive virtual services, taking care of sick family members and/or to accommodate for their own children being at home. This is requiring some adjustments for everyone, so we ask for your continued patience and understanding as we work with your students.
- You may also be receiving (if you haven’t already) information from your child’s case manager about additional learning strategies and supports during this time. There are a variety of great resources that can be utilized by parents that we would like to share with you.
Thank you for your continued support of our school. Again, we know this is a difficult and trying time, and we will do our best to be a steady and consistent force for positivity in your child’s life.
Special Education Parent Newsletter
This month's Parent Newsletter content includes:
- Understanding the Special Education Processes
- Homeschooling and State Testing
- Using Notebooks in Instruction
- Calming Strategies

Enrichment
Enrichment Ordering System: Amazon Punchout
A new Amazon Punchout system should be launched very soon, which should greatly reduce turnaround times on order processing and help you receive your educational materials sooner!
This week, the system is being tested by a small handful of families, in order to work out any issues. As soon as all of the bugs are worked out, it will be released to the school as a whole.
Please feel free to review this video tutorial, so that you can see how the system will work.
Please keep the following things in mind when placing Amazon orders through the punchout system:
Item prices are locked in for 7 days from the date the order is created
If items will not ship within 30 days, they will be cancelled
If item prices increase by more than 20%, they will be cancelled
These safeguards will help ensure that you receive your materials in a timely manner, at prices that you are comfortable with.
Please don’t hesitate to reach out to your Homeschool Teacher with any questions!
Inspiring Parents
Coming up the first Wednesday in April, our featured speaker is Maria Kirkbride, who is the Director of Teacher Training. Maria will focus on basic computer literacy. Learn how to organize the deluge of info you receive so you can find it when you need it. We will share more tips to help you work smarter, not harder. Parents and students are welcome to learn with us on April 1st, from 1-2 p.m. by clicking this link: http://bit.ly/InspiringLink
Don’t worry If you missed the Inspiring Parents webcast earlier this month which focused on writing. The first hour, we learned a simple to follow method to teach writing. The second hour zeroed in on middle and high school writing curriculum and toured a free website featuring a growing number of writing tutorials to support all grade levels through high school. Just sign up to request the recording at either of the links below.
Easy to Use Elementary Writing Strategy
http://bit.ly/Elementary_Writing_Strategy_Recording_Sign_Up
Middle to High School Writing Strategies
http://bit.ly/Middle_HighSchool_Writing_help_Recording_SignUp
Academic Video Library
Instructions to access Academic Video Library can be found here.
Educational Tools
Cosmic Kids Yoga
"More than a million kids do yoga, mindfulness and relaxation with Jaime on the Cosmic Kids YouTube Channel.
Parents and teachers report significant improvements in self-regulation, focus and empathy.
But the videos are BRILLIANT FUN so kids love doing them!
Find out how our yoga adventures meet physical activity guidelines here.
Read our Teacher Survey results to learn more about the physical, emotional and learning benefits of Cosmic Kids."
Access Cosmic Kids Yoga for free on their Youtube Channel!
Take the Eco Challenge! by the Discovery Cube

Free Audible Books

Free Access to Logic of English Online Resources

Homeschooling Advice
The Ultimate Guide to Working While Homeschooling
"Do you homeschool and work outside of the home or have a work-from-home job? It can be hard to work and homeschool! But the reality is that many moms have jobs (other than everything else we already do as moms!!), and many working moms want to be able to homeschool too!
Recently we polled our Hip Homeschool Moms Facebook Community. The group is made up of over 35,000 moms who either homeschool currently or are considering homeschooling. While the majority of homeschool moms categorized themselves as stay-at-home moms, a whopping 70% of the moms polled were working homeschool moms. With so many in our community trying to juggle homeschooling while working, it only made sense to search out the best resources we could find to help these moms along their journeys.
We began our research by asking moms from all over the world for their best advice for homeschooling while working. Homeschool moms love to help each other out, and soon we had all the information we needed for one article. So, we compiled all the information into one Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling While Working. If you are considering working and homeschooling, below are the all the tips working homeschool moms gave us."
Read the rest of the article here.
Your Orange County Team

Community and Connection
Join Our Orange County Facebook Community
Please note: There are three questions that need to be answered in order to join. The group is for currently enrolled families only.

Instagram Page
Orange County Parent Resource Site
Ladan Rashidi - OC Family Liaison
Shaemanique King - OC Family Liaison
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