#AESStayingConnected
April 13-17
Updates from Mrs. McClure
I want to continue to stress the phrase, "give grace," to both our staff and families. Our teachers are working hard on creating common lesson plans and expectations for students in their grade level teams. However, some of our teachers are juggling teaching with caring for their own families, some with very young children. You may see some of their own little people (or big) popping into a Zoom mtg or interrupting a video lesson (multiple times). These same teachers may also be experiencing connectability issues which is not allowing them to upload videos or activities correctly and/or moderate a Zoom meeting for their class. I have experienced this first hand and have been booted out of numerous Zoom meetings over the past few weeks. We also understand that some of our families are managing working from home and guiding their children through virtual lessons and are experience connectability issues as well. Remember, it is okay to pick times during the day that work best for you and your family to participate in the virtual lessons and activities. Let's use this time to extend understanding, grace, and support for one another. We are in this together and will come out stronger because of it!
Behind the scenes, we are still working out details for various things that have been impacted and how to roll them out to staff, students, and our families. Here are are a few big ones:
- End of Year Activities, Celebrations, Field Trips, and More: It is with a heavy heart that all school events from now until the end of the year are cancelled. More information will be coming from Dr. VanderJagt on cancelled events. My hope is that we will still be able to do something special for our fifth graders to recognize them and send them off to the middle school while also allowing all AES students an opportunity to say goodbye to their classroom teachers and friends.
- Personal Items at School: We have had a few requests to pick up students' personal items that were left in the building. A district wide protocol for this is in the works. More information will be coming in the next couple of weeks.
- Refunds: We are working on details for getting families refunds for 5th grade camp, run club, and other field trips/activities that have been paid for. Please be patient as we work out the best way to do this safely and correctly.
- Paraprofessional Support: We are working hard to provide our students with additional support from our amazing paraprofessionals. More information on this will be coming soon!
- Library Zoom Mtgs: Mrs. Fellows and I are working on creating a schedule for our students to participate in Zoom library meetings. This will be an optional activity for our students to participate in while trying to bring about some normalcy to our virtual learning and replicate what we offer our students at Alward.
Please remember that we are here to support you and your families during this time. Don't hesitate to reach out if you have any needs, questions, or concerns-please take a moment to fill in the AES Family Check-in doc. We miss seeing everyone in person, but are loving the time that we get to spend with our students via face-to-face meetings! Until we can meet again in person, air hugs to all!
Stay safe and well!
Mrs. McClure
This Update Includes...
- Family Check-in
- #staying connected, Let's SOAR Together, Community Outreach Project, & Updates from Dr. VanderJagt
- Something to Smile About
- Virtual Learning Updates
- The SOARce Newsletter: Social, Emotional and Mental Health Support for ALL HPS families!
- Breakfast and Lunch Information
- Lending Library
How are you doing? AES Family Check-in April 2020
#StayingConnected
April 13-17
Let's stay connected virtually!
- Monday-Facebook Live Bedtime Story 10 AM
- Tuesday-Facebook Live Read Aloud @ 7 PM
- Wednesday-Facebook Live Wacky Science Wednesday @ 10 AM
- Thursday-Facebook Live Music/Movement Challenge @ 10 AM
- Friday-Facebook Live SOAR Champions for the Week @ 10 AM
Library Zoom Mtgs with Mrs. Fellows: Coming soon! Stay tuned!
Community Project: AES Heart Challenge
If you follow any forms of social media, you have probably seen the heart challenge where families across the world are cutting out hearts and taping them into their windows. Maybe you have joined in on the fun already. Today, I read, In My Heart: A Book of Feelings for a Facebook read aloud. This book does a great job of validating all of the feelings that your heart can have for our little people as well as our big people. On the last page, the book talks about how our heart can be proud. I am proud everyday to be a part of such a caring, supportive, and loving school community. This book has inspired me to join the heart challenge to help spread a little bit of happiness, joy, and love through our amazing community! I am challenging all of our families to take some time this week to cut out some hearts to put in your windows. The hearts can be a simple design or make an elaborate picture. If you don't have paper, use different objects to make some hearts. Or, look around you and you may just find something heart shaped in your "world." Email me pictures of your heart creations or found hearts! I will be putting them together in a fun video! Feel free to post them on our Facebook page or email them to me at mmcclure@hpseagles.net. Let's send some love out to our community and maybe make a few more people smile this week than last.
Let's SOAR Together: Alward Champions in Our School Community and Beyond
- Please help us recognize students, staff, families, and community members that are Championing for our students, schools, and community! There are so many going above and beyond in creative ways that we would like to recognize them for their efforts. Please fill out the attached google form. We will recognize them on Fridays at 10 am during our Facebook Live event and in the next weeks school update. I will also send them a card of thanks from our school community!
- This quote really exemplifies the times we are going through and where we need to turn our eyes to during these difficult times. "When I was a boy and saw scary things on the news, my mother would say to me, 'Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.'...I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers - so many caring people in this world." --Mr. Rogers
Updates on COVID-19 from Dr. VanderJagt
- Check out the HPS page for COVID-19 updates and steps that our district is taking to help support our families, staff, and school community.
Something to Smile About
Some Good News with John Krasinski
Jim Gaffagin in Quarantine
Overview of Virtual Learning Opportunities
AES Communication to Families
Dear Alward Families,
As a district, we have developed a common platform for ALL parents to access learning opportunities for your children, for all grades K-5. In this email, you will find information on how to log into your child’s email account and classroom teacher’s Google Classroom, how to connect to learning opportunities for specials’ classes (ART, MUSIC, PE and STEAM STUDIO), and an overview of the weekly schedule for all learning opportunities.
How to Log into Gmail and Google Classroom
On Friday, your teacher sent you an email with your child’s email address and password information. Here is a video that you can watch to help you log into your child’s gmail account. This video also explains how they will join their teacher’s Google Classroom.
How to Connect to Learning Opportunities for Specials’ Classes
Here is a video that will show you how to join our specials’ Google Classrooms. To join their classes, you will need the following codes:
PK-2nd Grade Specials' Codes
Art: 3ppimuw
Music: akv3wr3
PE: ve7uwwz
STEAM: 5mx3urt
3rd-5th Grade Specials' Codes:
Art: 47g3l47
Music: mf7jvye
PE: yjw2ucw
STEAM: All 3-5 students already are in Google Classroom. Please email Mrs. McClure if your child is not in a STEAM class.
We are an amazing school community that will rise to the occasion to do the best we can for our children and families! Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you need help or support. Thank you for all of your support, encouragement, grace, and understanding during this time! We really appreciate all of you!
Warmly,
Mrs. McClure & the AES Teaching Staff
Schedule for Learning Opportunities
Overview of the Weekly Schedule
Once again, we know some parents want MORE than what we provide and some parents will be overwhelmed by what we provide. I cannot stress this enough: please do what works for you and your family. These are optional learning opportunities for our students to engage with their classroom teachers and classmates (staying connected) while also keeping them exposed to some content. Our number one priority is still our families’ social/emotional health and well-being. Please do what works for you and your family.
The format of the schedule is meant to be flexible and adaptable for all schedules. Currently, we have some teachers doing more than what is described below. The minutes listed below are maximum daily instructional minutes starting on Monday! Remember you can do these lessons at any point in your day. They are not scheduled for certain times.
What will this look like?
What Monday may look like for your learner.
Students will log into their Google Classroom and click on their classroom teacher’s Google Classroom.
Classroom teachers will post an activity for the subject of the day. Some activities will have a mini lesson video for the students to watch prior to completing the activity. The activity might include solving some math problems or working on a website (Study Island, ExtraMath, Prodigy).
Students will then go to their STEAM Google Classroom. STEAM will have an activity posted for kids to participate in that will take no longer than 15 minutes.
The total amount of instructional minutes per day will be at most 45 minutes for the next couple of weeks. Once again, please do what works best for you and your family!
Social, Emotional, and Mental Health Support for ALL
The SOARce Newsletter
Online Resources Available
Intro. to Nurtured Heart
Tuesday 3-31 or Thursday 4-2 from 1:00-2:00 EST Zoom.com Mtg ID: 324 942 3677 Password: greatness.
The Nurtured Heart Approach is a relationship-focused parenting strategy for helping children (and adults) build their inner Wealth to use their intensity in meaningful ways. This workshop is casual and comfortable and loaded with authenticity, grace, and humor. The 3 Strands of NHA will surely transform your heart and home.
Parenting and Brain States
Are your children a little less calm than normal? Are little frustrations causing huge chaos. Join us on Thursday to talk about how our the crisis is impacting our emotional state and how we can regulate ourselves as parents to help our kids better manage their emotions.
Please join my meeting from your computer, tablet or smartphone.
https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/255183125
You can also dial in using your phone.
United States: +1 (224) 501-3412
Resilience in Parenting
We are living through unfamiliar times with a lot of uncertainty. This can bring about fear and intense emotions. Parenting is already challenging and adding the stress from the current crisis can make it even more difficult. Join the Arbor Circle team on Monday at 8:30 pm for a chance to talk to hear ideas for building resilience in our parenting, chat with other parents experiencing the same thing and connect as we all work to adjust to our current reality.
Please join my meeting from your computer, tablet or smartphone.
https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/327542973
You can also dial in using your phone.
United States: +1 (872) 240-3412
Access Code: 327-542-973
Informal Services
Update from Mrs. Nagelkirk and Mrs. Wybenga
Breakfast and Lunch is Served!
Lending Library is Stocked!
#stayingconnected
Email: mmcclure@hpseagles.net
Website: https://alward.edublogs.org/
Location: 3381 Port Sheldon Street, Hudsonville, MI, USA
Phone: 616-669-6700
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AESEaglePride/
Twitter: @AlwardElem