Parent Pride
April 13-17, 2020
Principal's Message
To the BEST PARENTS EVER,
Can you believe it? We are beginning our 4th week of virtual learning. It has been a roller coaster of a ride, but we are finding our way and making the best of it! The best thing is how the teachers ensure that learning takes place every day. Students are able to attend virtual classes, receive assistance from teachers as needed, and interact with their peers and teachers all at the same time. I think it is safe to say that this experience will change the way we view education. Teachers will become more innovative with assignments and students will become more familiar with using technology for their educational growth. The uncertainty of our immediate future affords us the opportunity to be creative. Thank you parents for embracing the creativity within the new norm!
Last week sent a Family Check-In/Parent Survey. The purpose of this survey is to check in with all of our families to see how you are doing and to see if we can assist with any needs that you and your family may have. The survey also gives us a view of how you feel about the work we are doing at Holland. We will begin calling and providing assistance (where we can) tomorrow. As of today, we only have 26 parents that have completed the survey. We would love to hear from YOU!!! At your earliest convenience, please complete the survey at this link: https://tinyurl.com/Spring2020ParentSurvey. In addition to the parent survey, we have a Question & Concern form that you may complete at the following link: Question & Concern Form. We want you to know we are here for you and our scholars! #HOLLANDSTRONG
While the campus is closed, our entire faculty and staff is working day and night to ensure our scholars' educational, social, and emotional needs are being met. Should you still need assistance, feel free to contact us at 972-749-1900. You may also contact me directly via email at shamcdonald@dallasisd.org. We miss each of you and can't wait to see you again! #HOLLANDSTRONG
Educationally Yours,
Principal McDonald
Assistant Principal's Message
Parents, I expressed it last week, and I will say it again; thank you so much for going above and beyond during this time to help your students get connected and complete their work! You probably didn't think that you would end up being teachers when your kids started the school year, but here you are. The teachers and I are grateful that you have been there to assist them in holding the students accountable. The fifth six weeks just ended and we are very happy with the work that the children have be doing virtually! I was able to observe some classrooms this week and saw children learning and happy to be interacting with their teachers and peers. We are starting a new six weeks, and we are asking for your continued support in the education of your children.
One important positive has come out of this entire negative situation; overall, we have more parental involvement and communication than we have seen all year, and it is an amazing thing to witness! It is incredible to have so many parents reaching out to teachers and staff members. We appreciate the communication, whether it is a positive or a concern. As a school, we WANT to know exactly what we can do to make the school even better for your child. We published a parent survey earlier in the week to get your feedback on how to make Holland better. We would love to hear what you think, even if it's negative! Truthful responses help us find ways to grow as a campus. On the same link, there is also a family check in. We want to know how your family is doing during the time and if there is anything that we can help with. Please take the time to fill out the survey! If you have had any problems with reaching out to the teacher or have an issue with technology, please contact the school immediately so that we can try to address it.
In reviewing the survey responses, I noticed that some parents are running out of things to do with the kids. I mean, here is only so many board games you can play to pass the time! I've included a couple links to creative ways to spend time with the kids during the quarantine.
https://parade.com/1009774/stephanieosmanski/things-to-do-with-kids-during-coronavirus-quarantine/
To close, I want to thank each and every one of you again for taking the time to be so involved in the lives of your children and working with us to make sure they are successful. Once this is all said and done, I know that we will have much stronger parent-school relationships and participation. I appreciate what you do, and I am always available to speak about any concerns that you may have. Let's make the best of the time that we have at home, and we will make it through this together. Let's make this a great week for everybody as we work together to bring Excellence for ALL!
Coaches' Corner
Greetings Parents;
Thank you for your support thus far! We are all learning during this “Stay at Home” mandate how to manage home, work, school, and play. We want to provide you with Instructional tools to help your day go a little smoother. Below you will find two sample schedules to help your child or children plan their day. Creating a daily routine helps us stay aligned to our daily tasks.
Please adjust schedule according to your child/children grade level!!
At Home Game Board
Penny Toss: Using a penny have your child or children to toss the penny on a square. Wherever the penny lands, your child must complete the assignment.
Tic-Tac-Toe: Play the game of Tic-Tac-Toe. The winner will complete each activity.
Mathematics Tips for Parents
Math is no mystery
Is that 16oz. can of tomatoes a better bargain than the 12oz. can? You make dozens of calculations in your daily life, from balancing a checkbook to figuring how long it will take to drive to a cross-town soccer game. That’s math at work.
As a parent, you can help your child be a whiz at math, even if it wasn’t your best subject. Here’s how:
Be positive about math. Express confidence in your child’s ability to do math. Don’t stress either your own fear of math or how difficult math is or how much you admire anyone who can do math. Remember, everyone can and does use math all the time.
Show you kids math at work in their world. Get your kids used to math by thinking out loud when making calculations. Then, let your children work out some real-life puzzles themselves. For example:
· Let them measure when you bake.
· Ask them to figure out how long of a hose you need to reach from the faucet on the side of the house to the garden.
· Let your child figure out how many miles you’ll be driving on your next trip by using the information on a map.
· Sort silverware by knives, forks, and spoons. Sort cards by suit or numbers.
Make math a game
Math games are fun and inexpensive. They are a wonderful way to get your kids to enjoy working with numbers, as well as improve their number skills. Here are a few suggestions:
· Many games that we take for granted are excellent math lessons. “Go Fish” teaches counting and grouping in sets. Games that use play money teach how to make change. Board games that use dice teach addition and counting. Backgammon teaches addition, subtraction, and strategy.
· Beans, stones, or marbles can be used to play number games. Let your child develop his or her own games by sorting beans into different sizes or types, setting up the rules for a counting game, or using different types of pasta to make a picture.
· Give your children a geometry lesson by letting them create a collage of circles, squares, and triangles. Challenge them to come up with as many different shapes as they can using only triangles.
· Play store with the items in your cupboard.
· A pan of water and some jars or cups of different sizes will amuse a child for hours while teaching capacity and volume.
Beyond 1, 2, 3, 4…
Encourage creative problem-solving. Problem-solving is the basis of good mathematical thinking, and the problems don’t have to involve numbers.
· “How many different ways are there to walk to school?”
· “What’s another way to arrange the furniture in this room?”
· “How many different ways can I measure flour to get half a cup?”
Try to come up with more than one solution for everyday problems.
Choose gifts that develop problem-solving skills. Blocks, building sets, geometric tile sets, puzzles, board games, weather stations, maps, puzzle books, calculators, strategy games, scales, and origami are just a few of the gifts that will give your child pleasure and knowledge at the same time.
Math Resources:
Free math lessons - Math.com offers free math lessons and practice for pre-algebra, algebra and geometry.
Advice for Students - Advice for students on studying, how to handle math anxiety, and more.
Teaching Math at Home - Homeschooling or just doing a little extra for your kids, articles and expert advice on teaching math.
Homeschooling - Resources for homeschooling.
Counselor's Corner
The Counselor’s Corner
Hello Holland Parents!!!. Thank you for partnering with our educators to ensure that our scholars continue to learn. I will like to share this article that I think will be beneficial as we adjust to the new norm.
7 Guiding Principles For Parents Teaching From Home
Understanding the “why” behind teaching practices can help parents create meaningful and effective at-home learning opportunities during the pandemic.
As millions of students across the K-12 spectrum shift to at-home learning because of the coronavirus threat in the United States, parents are scrambling to understand their new role as surrogate teachers. It will require equal parts patience and tenacity. “This is going to be messy,” wrote educational leadership professor Jennifer Weiner in The New York Times, before giving parents and teachers permission to try and fail “and that is OK.”
But messy doesn’t have to mean inadequate, nor does it have to be a permanent condition. While you’ve probably seen a sudden glut of online resources offered by nonprofits and educational institutions—including excellent new opportunities such as Mo Willems leading daily drawing activities or Dolly Parton reading bedtime stories—a library of amazing resources alone won’t do the trick. Learning is not just about exposing a child to interesting content.
Here are some basic principles, grounded in research and science, that provide an overarching structure to your approach and make the learning more productive and long-lasting—whatever the learning materials in your home.
ESTABLISH A ‘FLEXIBLE LEARNING’ SPACE
The fluid, open spaces that allow today’s office workers to be more productive can also be useful for students, says teacher Kayla Delzer. “Flexible classrooms”—learning environments that provide a variety of choices for how and where a student might elect to learn—have become increasingly common in schools throughout the country.
CHECK IN EVERY MORNING—AND THROUGHOUT THE DAY
Starting school each morning is about more than laying out the academic benchmarks for the day. Decades of research reveals that a sense of belonging, well-being, and connection is a crucial precursor to learning: If your child is upset or lonely, for example, the research suggests that they simply won’t be as productive as learners.
ALLOW FREQUENT ‘BRAIN BREAKS’
For parents and students, a back-to-back schedule of activities is overwhelming. The good news? Neuroscience supports frequent “brain breaks,” and teachers pepper them throughout the day so students can process the information they’ve learned more effectively. How do brain break work? Studies show that brains at rest—also called the ‘default mode’—are still busy processing information below the threshold of consciousness, cleaning up what they’ve learned and moving critical information from short-term memory to long-term storage.
FIND A RHYTHM THAT WORKS
When schools announced closings, a plethora of suggested schedules popped up across the internet, but a rigid, static schedule won’t serve a student’s needs. Best-selling author and researcher Daniel Pink says 15 percent of people are “larks,” or morning people, and another 15 percent are “owls,” who perform best later in the day. Younger students perform best on analytical tasks earlier in the day, according to research cited by Pink, so parents may want to schedule activities like math in the morning. For the teenage brain, a later start and more sleep can mean better memory and retention. The American Academy of Pediatrics advises starting an adolescent’s school day no earlier than 8:30am.
CONSOLIDATE LEARNING
One misconception about teaching is that its primary function is to help students retain information, but retention is just the first step. Effective learning requires that students retrieve information frequently and then make new meaning of it. This process, called consolidation, is often reinforced in traditional classrooms through reviews and quizzes, or through multi-sensory practices like drawing, composing a song, or building a model about what has recently been learned.
ENCOURAGE PRODUCTIVE STRUGGLE
Encourage kids to engage in productive struggle by giving them difficult assignments and praising them for their persistence. Research shows that when students solve problems that are challenging, but still within their abilities, they deepen their learning. Allow students to wrestle with problems before intervening.
CONSIDER PASSIONS AND PLAY
In many parts of the world, schooling at home will continue for at least several months. Help students move beyond a compliance mindset—"I’ve completed my work; can I go now?"— by building in time for passion projects and fun. You want kids to have intrinsic motivation to keep working hard, so use school at home as an opportunity for deeper learning where kids use their environment to explore different subjects Finally, in the hustle of academic work, don’t forget the importance of play. Not only does it provide a respite for the brain after taxing analytical tasks like math or science, but decades of research shows that exercise can actually alter brain structure in ways that improve memory, attention, mood, and cognitive function. Unstructured play with few rules and lots of room for imagination is recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics because it gives kids a space and time to practice social-emotional skills and creative problem-solving.
Nurse Morgan's Virtual Clinic Time on Zoom
Please contact me for the following NON-EMERGENT issues:
- Preventive care and wellness information
- Local physician and hospital resources
- Answering medical questions
- Make referrals
- Help separate fact from fiction regarding the prevention & spread of COVID-19.
- If you have a medical emergency, please call 911 immediately!
I look forward to speaking with you and assisting you with your medical concerns and needs.
Sincerely,
Nurse Morgan, RN, BSN, WHNP-C
North Texas Food Bank Mobile Food Pantry
2020-2021 Pre-K Registration Information
2019-2020 Dallas ISD Student Calendar
- Friday, April 10
- Monday, April 13
Virtual learning will resume on Tuesday, April 14.
H I HOLLAND VIRTUAL LEARNING SITE
At-Home Learning Plans
Links to Grade Level/Department Pages
Links to Helpful Resources
Holland PTO Information
April Birthdays
April
April 13-Jamia Caldwell
April 14-Keene Molina
April 14-Jose Vera
April 15-Derion Butler
April 16-Jacquelyn Padron
April 16-Deonta Robinson
April 16-Nick'O Whitley
April 17-Kaylee Felder
April 18-Angel Buendia-Guerrero
April 18-Lamari Lane
April 19-Gerardo Corona
April 19-Faith David
Dallas ISD's Vision, Mission & Goals
The GREAT SOC 8's Ignite Excellence 5!
Holland Vision, Mission & Motto
Vision
Holland seeks to be the PREMIER urban elementary school in Dallas ISD.
Mission
Holland Elementary--where we provide a PREMIER education for ALL students to ensure they are college and career ready.
Motto
Learners today...Leaders tomorrow...Excellence for ALL!
H. I. Holland Leadership Team
Laurencio Tamayo, Assistant Principal
Demetrica Aldridge, Reading CIC
Roenia Snowden, Math Interventionist/CIC
Edith Johnson, Counselor
Holland Elementary School
Email: shamcdonald@dallasisd.org
Website: dallasisd.org/holland
Location: 4203 South Lancaster Road, Dallas, TX, USA
Phone: (972) 749-1900
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HollandElem/
Twitter: @HollandAtLisbon