Administrative Update VAAC
Newsletter- February, 2021
Dear Families,
We are so grateful to have you here at VAAC. Thank you for choosing to be a part of our program and allowing us the opportunity to support your child's learning this year.
We have begun our second semester!
We are still working with districts on finalizing first semester report cards and those will be shared with you soon!
Monthly newsletter and (sometimes) weekly updates are sent through S'more and posted to our website, here.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Ashley K. Leneway
Count Day 2021
Family Sensei
Otsego Families
Here is a link to the recording of the zoom parent meeting held last night on 1/28/21 at 6:30pm discussing the details of the third trimester transfer. If you did not attend, we recommend you watch this before you fill out the survey. The passcode to the recording is: Passcode: O=E=j^3A Here is the survey link. Complete by Wednesday, February 3, 2021.
Final Week of Benchmark Testing K-8
Your local school districts may be reaching out to you to schedule a time for your child/ren to complete the district's benchmark assessment either remotely or on campus. You will communicate directly with your districts about the district benchmark assessments.
Here is the tool that will guide you through testing! Please make the time to read through this resource. I recorded the parent meetings I conducted about Exact Path and the video is at the bottom of that resource. Click the button below!
Whole Program
VAAC Calendar
Our VAAC school calendar is available on our website, here.
The end of our second semester and our school year is June 4, 2021
February Dates for Virtual School Closed
Friday, February 12, 2021
Monday, February 15, 2021
K-5 Families Literacy Support Series
We kicked off a new series of monthly informational meetings for our K-5 VAAC families around literacy. Our first was scheduled for January 28th at 8am and 7pm. We had 10 VAAC families attend. We raffled off two VAAC sweatshirts! Winners will be contacted on Monday, February 1.
If you missed this, no worries, all the resources and the video recording of our meeting can be found here. Our next meeting is about writing and we welcome all families to join us on February 18 at 8am or 7pm via Zoom. ZOOM LINK (for all meetings): Meeting ID: 867 9813 3133 Passcode: VAAC
Opt In to Share Contact Information for Family Monitored Play Groups
We at VAAC understand that need and importance for students to have social interactions. We have been asked by a number of families to set up a way to share information, safely, with other students and families in order for VAAC families to be able to communicate and for the families to independently set up social opportunities to Zoom/Skype/Facetime for social interaction. Here is an OPT in form https://forms.gle/kBBZvQBqrp1iB9LM7
Social Lunch Groups
We know there has been much frustration about lack of opportunities for students to engage socially with their peers. We are so excited to start the process of putting together lunch groups for students to socialize via Zoom. Please understand, to make this happen on a large scale, we will need lots of volunteers! If you are unable to volunteer but you know an awesome adult or community member that would help, share the sign up form with them! All adults hosting will need to be background checked (many adults have completed this requirement in their home district already, typically background checks are good for two years) and will need to attend a virtual training meeting with Ashley prior to starting the lunch group. Please complete this student form to sign up for a lunchtime social group: https://forms.gle/5HQTHhzFTRkGQGfP9 Please complete this adult volunteer form to sign up to host a lunchtime social group: https://forms.gle/RSM2dr1qu4tReDaV7
I will be reaching out to volunteers and working on organizing those who have volunteered the week of February 16. More information to come!
Yearbooks
Thanks to those of you who have waited patiently for information about yearbooks. VAAC families will purchase yearbooks through your home district. We will be sharing photos of students at VAAC with districts for candid shots of students learning from home. If you have any photos you would like to share, please email them to your teacher/mentor or upload them here. For more information, please contact your home district!
Positive Behavioral Interventions & Supports (PBIS) at VAAC
PROUD certificates contest & PROUD Certificates and student recognition
Our staff will be looking for, nominating and celebrating student displaying the attributes of PROUD virtually here at VAAC. Teachers will submit student names to me weekly and I will mail PROUD certificates, created by our very own VAAC students, to your home in celebration and recognition. We look forward to recognizing our hard working students and sharing those celebrations with your family.
Longevity and Sustainability Group
We have established a group of parents and staff who are interested in the sustainability of VAAC. We will meet monthly until after the new year and then decided how we wish to progress from there. The meetings will be held the 1st Thursday from 7-8pm and the 2nd Friday from 1-2 pm. Here is a list of the meeting dates in full.
Virtual Talent Show
Do you have a talent, a gift or skill? Share it with us! We are asking students to share a video (up to 5 minutes max) of them performing a talent of their choice. Submit virtual talent show entries here https://forms.gle/Q2AwkUGE4dbveVWq8 Pease upload your entry by February 19, 2021 by 11:59pm.
Random Acts of Kindness
Join us in participating in Random Acts of Kindness! Here is a link to learn more about this annual tradition. #ExploreTheGood #MakeKindnessTheNorm #RandomActsofKindnessDay
If your child or your family spreads kindness, share a photo with us! https://photos.app.goo.gl/RxokdiZYTFA8AMXp6
Tutoring/Support
GVSU Free Virtual Tutoring Services
Begins October 5th for K-12 students
Sign up at gvsu.edu/k12connect
The Michigan Learning Channel
The Michigan Learning Channel is now available through your antenna on WCMU, WGVU and Detroit Public TV. A statewide public television partnership offering instructional content to support the education of students and to provide alternative resources for families and teachers. https://www.michiganlearning.org/
Here is the schedule for February 2021
Welcome- Katalina Hicks!
Katalina is from Fennville and double-majored in biomolecular science and Spanish at the University of Michigan. After graduation, she worked in Peru as a public health educator with the Peace Corps. She spends her professional life primarily within healthcare and education, where she emphasizes offering individualized support to her patients and students. This fall, she will return to formal education to obtain a Doctor of Medicine and Master of Public Health degree. Outside of work, some of her favorite pastimes are eating delicious food, drinking good coffee, spending time with loved ones, and exploring nature by hiking.
She has graciously offered to support students and tutor in her free time before starting medical school. We are so grateful to have her helping our VAAC families.
Office Hours:
Tues 4pm to 7pm
Wed, Thurs 12pm to 3pm
Cell: (616) 256 6156
Email: kmhicks@umich.edu
Attendance, Truancy and Engagement
Plan to spend one hour per day per course to stay on pace. If you are behind, increase that to 90-120 minutes per course daily.
Students in grades K-12 are required to participate in at minimum 2 two-way contacts per week with their mentor or classroom teacher. Parents and Students in grades K-5 can work collaboratively with the VAAC mentor teacher to accomplish the 2 two-way via zoom, email, or phone call. This means, the teacher initiates contact (via Seesaw (K-5), Remind (6-12), Google Classroom (6-12), Zoom, email, text message or phone call) and the student responds, then the teacher responds (teacher-student-teacher). These two-ways will be logged, and two per week must be completed for a student to have positive attendance marked. Students & parents need to be on the watch for contacts by their mentor and respond to all contacts.
Students will submit an assignment every Wednesday.
Students will login regularly (5 out of 7 days per week) to the appropriate Edmentum platform (Calvert, Exact Path, Courseware) and be working toward completion of their coursework.
If 2 two-way communications are not completed Wednesday to Tuesday, the local district is contacted, they are maintaining attendance records. Students who are consistently missing that communication or who are not completing and submitting coursework online will be considered truant. Here is the link to our truancy documents that have been shared.
Technology Support
Edmentum Language
All of the curriculum products we use are Edmentum products. Edmentum Calvert is our K-5 program. Edmentum Exact Path is our K-8 virtual assessment and learning pathway. Edmentum Courseware is our 6-12 program. It helps our team out immensely if you can clarify which Edmentum program you need support with and helps to streamline the troubleshooting process. Thank you!
Our tech team can be reached Monday-Friday during business hours at (269) 512-7756.
If you're needing help outside of business hours, please complete this form, https://forms.gle/EKkQ8PddXdP5QupX6, and our tech team will respond once they're back in the office.
Parent Feedback
Virtual Academy of Allegan County
Email: ashley.leneway2@alleganaesa.org
Website: http://virtualacademyac.org/
Location: 310 Thomas Street, Allegan, MI 49010, USA
Phone: (269) 512-7755
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/virtualacademyac/