OVS Weekly Update
December 8, 2017 Edition, Volume 53
Mark Your Calendars!
December 19-21st @ 9:15 & 2:15- Attendance party!!
Other Important dates:
December 20th at 3:00pm--Infosession for interested families
December 22nd--NO ISL for Middle School Students
January 9th--2nd semester start for students --NO ONLINE LESSONS ON JANUARY 8th
January 17th at 1:30pm -- School Picture Makeup day
January 23rd-- STEAMFEST
Principal's Corner
This school year, we met our enrollment goal of 200 students. Our highest enrollment is in the middle school class with 80 total students. Because of this spike in enrollment at the middle school, we are searching for an additional teacher to help support our middle school team. We will always strive to hire the best teachers for our program and I will keep you posted on this hire. This additional support will help make the 2nd semester experience for middle school students the best it can be!
Elementary School
During the first semester the K-5 team used a pacing guide to help communicate to parents the lessons/units that the learning coach is responsible for and which lessons and units the teachers were going to cover during online and learning time at school. Although this was a nice plan so that all of us are on the same page; feedback from parents, students, and teachers was that this caused a disjointed experience for students, especially in math. For 2nd semester, teachers will focus on the "You Need To Make A Choice" unit for Language Arts and will focus on number sense and skills that tie into the math units that students and learning coaches will cover at home.
What does this mean for K-5 learning coaches?
Language Arts
Skip the You Need To Make A Choice unit. Your student will still be reading the books in this unit and may need to do reading at home, but they will be engaged in discussions and activities in class based on the skills that the MAP scores identified as a need for students. Those skills are:
K-1st- Concepts of Print and writing
2nd-3rd Vocabulary and Inferencing
4-5th grade- Vocabulary and inferencing
Math
Continue working through ALL math lessons with your students at home.
Social Studies and Science
LCs will continue to work with students on K12 lessons with support and enrichment at school.
Pacing Guide
Your teachers will send home a pacing guide for the 3rd quarter, but it will look different and focus on what the course goals are for the quarter. By staying on track with the course goals, learning coaches and teachers are working together as students will be getting additional practice and strategies at school to support their work on K12.
Questions/Concerns-Please contact your teacher.
9th Grade
We are wrapping up our first semester of the high school program. We have 13 students in our freshman class and the high school team is striving to create a learner-centered environment for students by giving them voice/choice in their learning. We are accepting new students at semester. 9th grade new student orientation is on Tuesday, January 9th. For the 2nd semester, the 9th grade students will be turning in the HP Streams and will receive the 612 tablets.
2nd Semester Experience
We are working as a team along with parents and students to determine what our needs and areas are improvement are in order to continue to improve our program. Please stay tuned to our newsletter for upcoming enhancements to the student experience. And remember that your suggestions and feedback are important as they help us drive our decision making as we strive to create a learner-centered environment at OVS.
New student recruitment
We have one more infosession on December 20th from 3-4pm, for interested families who would like to start their student at the start of next semester. Please spread the word and encourage families to attend this session to learn more about our program. New student orientation will be on Monday, January 8th, so all enrollment paperwork should be turned in as soon as possible.
Still Time to Order at B&N and Support OVS
Didn't make it out on December 7th? Order online and enter the Book Fair ID #12273033. Parents and family members have the opportunity to order for five days following our book fair online.
Synergy Corner
Spirit Week Don't forget the second week of each month is OVS Spirit Week and students are encouraged to wear BLUE or their OVS shirts with pride! Go Ocelots!
Boxtop Collection Please start sending your clipped BOXTOPS to school. Ms. Roger's class won in November with 147 box tops! They will receive their prizes next week.
Filmraiser The fundraiser has been extended through December. Purchase your movie tickets for Wonder using by clicking HERE and OVS will receive $1 per ticket. Please share this link with friends!
Be on the lookout for Ocelot paw prints We have asked our teachers to let us know of any classroom needs. They will keep posting these items on the Learning Coach Lounge door. Please consider adopting a paw print! You can then return the items directly to the classroom teacher. THANK YOU!
Synergy Board Vacancy The Synergy board is still seeking a treasurer. Please contact us at omahavirtualschoolpto@gmail.com if you are able to help serve our community.
OVS T-shirts Available: We still have grey and blue t-shirts available for sale. There are limited sizes and quantities. The blue shirts are $10 and the grey shirts are $17. Here is what is available:
- Blue Shirt: Youth Medium (2) and Youth Large (1)
- Grey Shirt: Youth Extra Small (2), Small (3), Medium (3) and Large (5), Adult Small (2) and Adult Medium (2)
Assembly Message: How to Change the World
NEXT WEEK: DECEMBER 11-15 IS OVS SPIRIT WEEK-WEAR YOUR OVS SHIRTS AND/OR BLUE. THE CLASS WITH THE MOST SPIRIT (BLUE AND/OR OVS SHIRTS) FOR THE WEEK, DR. LOEWENSTEIN WILL PUT 100 PENNIES IN THAT CLASS JUG!
Classroom Happenings
Ms. Roger's Classroom
This week Kindergarten and 1st grade completed #hourofcode!! Students enjoyed being able to try out different coding application and apps on our iPads. In Math, we completed Unit Assessments for Data & Graphs and Addition Strategies. We practiced beginning and ending sounds in Osmo Words.
Looking Ahead:
Next week, we will continue our work with number sense in Math! We will work on seeing and showing numbers in multiple ways. In reading we will focus on reading and writing sight words.
Penny Wars continue next week! Students will also receive a prize for our class winning BoxTops for the month of November!
Keep working on mastery and progress in K12. Our goal is to be at 50% completion at the end of 2nd quarter.
Mr. Dowling's Classroom
Ms. Nommensen's Classroom
This week, students participated in An Hour of Code and they really had a great time! You are still welcome to do the tutorials. If you just go to code.org, you can do any of the tutorials! I’ve heard such wonderful things coming from them!!
In Reading, students continued working on their personal goals and are really making progress! In Writing, we were introduced to a new graphic organizer that the kids were able to fly through. I encourage you to use the graphic organizer in all areas of writing as I think it will help them get their thoughts in order and they can focus on other areas of writing! In Math, the students have done a fantastic job on angles and decimals and we are now building the foundations for algebra; which will start in January. I have a great program to teach algebra that I think the kids will enjoy!
This week, I will be gone on Tuesday and Wednesday because our house is finally complete and it’s moving day!!! I’m only moving about 4 miles from my current home, but we’ve been working on this for 2 years! There will be a substitute teacher on Tuesday and Wednesday, so please be prepared to help her out any way you can.
Mr. Gamble's Classroom
Ms. Blackburn's Classroom
Week in Review:
Looking Ahead:
9th Grade
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Mission Statement
Omaha Virtual School
Email: virtualschool@ops.org
Website: ovs.k12.com
Location: 3215 Cuming Street, Omaha, NE, United States
Phone: (531)299-0269
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OPSVirtualSchool/
Twitter: @OPS_Virtual