OVS Weekly Update
September 1,2017 Edition, Volume 39
Mark Your Calendars!
IMPORTANT: NO ONLINE LESSONS ON MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 4TH DUE TO THE HOLIDAY
September 5-7th @ 9:15/2:15- Common Sense Media: Keeping Your Kids Safe Online
11:00am- K-5th grade Art Overview with Mrs. Barry
September 8th - K12 Learning Coach Bootcamp
- 1:00 - 2:00- 6th-8th OLS
- 2:15-3:15 - K-5th OLS
September 19th-21st @ 9:15/2:15- Office 365 OneDrive Training (cloud/online document storage)
September 14th from 6-8pm: OVS Open House and Synergy Meeting
Principal's Corner
I hope by now you feel like you have partners in your students' education. If you need anything, please reach out to your teachers, Ms. Sechrest, or myself. I hope you take some time to enjoy the long weekend with your families. Remember, no online classes on Monday!!
Thank you for choosing our school. We are glad you are with us.
~Wendy
Learning Coach Training: Office 365 and OneNote
This week, our Tech Trainers Eileen and Melissa came to share information on accessing Office 365 and OneNote. If you were unable to attend a training or would like a refresher, check out the videos below:
Getting Started with OneNote Notebook
Our district tech trainers will be coming once a month to provide training on the tools your students are using in the classroom. If you have any suggestions for future trainings, please reach out to Ms. Sechrest.
Next Tech Training: September 19th-21st on OneDrive
K12 Platform Bootcamp!
From 1:00 - 2:00 Mr. Gamble will lead a session on the 6th-8th OLS. Topics will include navigation, assignments, discussion boards, and assessments. You will have the opportunity to ask questions about the platform and become more familiar with the middle-school system.
From 2:15 - 3:15 Ms. Seachrest will lead a session on the K-5th system. Topics will include navigation, attendance, assignments, and assessments. You will have the opportunity to ask questions about the platform and become more familiar with the elementary system.
We look forward to seeing learning coaches there!
Beginning this week: Art & Physical Education
P.E.
PE class will meet Tuesdays or Thursdays from 6:45-7:45pm. Students are only required to attend one session per month. We ask students attend the same day every month to build relationships with their peers. During the first
Here is the schedule of P.E. courses. Students enrolled in P.E. received an email this week for them to sign up for a face-to-face time each month.
9/5 or 9/7
10/3 or 10/5
11/7 Only due to PT Conferences (all students attend)
12/5 or 12/7
ART
Art students will receive a pacing guide this week with instructions on how to proceed with lessons. Students will only need to complete ONE designated lesson per week. All other lessons are optional. K12 will still populate the lessons so learning coaches can mark them skipped or not complete them. Only do the lessons assigned by Ms. Barry.
Independent Study Lab and Skills Support
Next week K-5 will begin Independent Study Lab and Skills Support time. Independent Study Lab will run from 1:30-3:30 on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. They will be held in two separate rooms and will have different expectations.
Independent Study Lab
Independent Study Lab (ISL) is a room where students can work independently on K12 Lessons. There will be a teacher facilitating the Independent Study Lab to support students. We know that many of the Kindergarten and 1st grade lessons require reading to students. If you are wanting your K-1 student to work with Ms. Rogers, please sign up for a Skill Support time, link below. Learning Coaches are welcome to work with their students during this time. There will be a separate ISL room for K-5th grade students and 6-8th grade students.
Skill Support
Skill Support is provided by teachers to support individual students or small groups of students who need additional support in order to master a skill. Teachers may recommend that a student attend skill support OR Learning Coaches can sign up for 30 minute blocks. Students are limited to one block per day and no more than two blocks per week.
Ms. Rogers Skill Support Schedule Sign up
Mr. Dowling Skill Support Schedule Sign up
Mr. Jamshidi Skill Support Schedule Sign up
6th - 8th Grade
Office hours are 1:30 – 3:30 on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. This time is divided into two 1-hour blocks. These will be held in different rooms and have different expectations. The first block will be Independent Study Lab (ISL). This will be a time for students to work independently, yet receive help with content as needed. Either Mr. Gamble or Ms. Blackburn will attend daily to assist with K12 coursework.
The other room will offer skills support for students in need of individualized assistance focusing on Math with Mr. Gamble or ELA with Ms. Blackburn. These 1-hour blocks will alternate with ELA and Math switching times to allow varied times. These times are targeted for students requiring more focused attention.
Online assistance will still be available during office hours, but students must be patient and may need to wait. If teachers are engaged with students face-to-face, they will be with you as soon as possible.
10 Things For Parents to Know About MAP
Synergy Corner
There are some vacancies on the Synergy Board. The following positions are open:
- Vice President
- Secretary
- Co-Treasurer
- Co-Secretary
If you are interested, self-nomination period runs until September 13th where interested parents can complete the online nomination form with a brief bio and picture in preparation for voting that will take place on Sept. 14-17.
If you have any questions regarding board positions or Synergy: omahavirtualschoolpto@gmail.com
There are also committee openings in events and fundraising.
Classroom Happenings
Come support Ms. Roger's and her fight
This summer, I was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer and am currently undergoing chemotherapy treatment. I know that this process is going to be long but I am so grateful and thankful for our OVS team and families. Everyone has been so supportive and I really appreciate that! If you would like to join my team for the Race for the Cure on October 8th or donate to help find a cure for breast cancer, please join here. Again, thank you for all of your support!
Ms. Rogers
Ms. Roger's Classroom
Week in Review:
This week we continued to review classroom expectations and logging into student's computers. Students worked in station rotations and used Teach Your Monster How to Read from the Symbaloo page, matching letters and spelling sight words, and continued from our Monday Online lessons during ELA. During Math rotations, we practiced writing numbers and played a small group game with Numbers 1-20.
Looking Ahead:
Next week AM classes will have Art from 10:15-10:45. During rotations, students in Blue ELA will work with the article "Everyday Exercises" and students in Green ELA will continue to learn about legends. Math rotations will include the use of Prodigy, a math game from the Symbaloo page and work with Shapes and Attributes for those in Blue Math. Green Math will continue practice with telling time.**Remember no Online Lessons on Monday, September 4th.
Resources
Mr. Dowling's Classroom
Week in Review
It was great to see the students come in and remember classroom procedures. We will keep reinforcing these procedures as the year goes along. We were able to introduce the students to 2 programs this week- Edutyping and Prodigy Math. Students can access both of these programs from home. We were able to get into a practice session of Class Connect and get a better feel for the tools we will be using. Our first Math Online lesson on Friday was a success! Please have them work on their Exit Ticket for the lesson in their OneNote.
Looking Ahead:
Next week our 2nd Graders will be continuing with standard and nonstandard units in Math. Our 3rd graders will be reviewing odd and even, and pattern recognition. Both classes will be asked to learn their basic addition and subtraction facts to twenty. Please practice these at home as well. In Language Arts, our 2nd graders will be continuing with Main Idea and supporting details. Our 3rd graders will be diving deeper in different genres.
Please make sure your student knows their K12 username and password. If they don't know it, please write it on a notecard and stick it in their laptop sleeve. We may need it for an impromptu Class Connect session.
We have Art for the first time this week. So excited!
**NO ONLINE ELA SESSION ON MONDAY DUE TO LABOR DAY**Mr. Jamshidi's Classroom
Week in Review:
Last week students were introduced to two great learning tools, EduTyping and Prodigy Math. Within our Language Arts stations, 4th graders were introduced to journals and began brainstorming topics they might want to journal about. 5th graders were introduced to memoirs, where they also started to brainstorm topics for their memoirs. Both 4th and 5th grade math was related to reasonable numbers, where students reviewed rounding and estimating to solve story problems.
Looking Ahead:
No Monday morning online lessons***
This week students will continue working through their journals and memoirs. Both 4th and 5th graders will begin the process of outlining the elements of their journals and memoirs. 4th grade math students will start to add whole numbers up to the millions, while 5th graders will continue to estimate sums and differences in story problems.
Mr. Gamble's Classroom
Week in Review:
The class worked through various math concepts from their K12 curriculum and completed Exit Tickets related to the content.
Looking Ahead:
In class we will work on varied science concepts from their curriculum focusing on aspects we see in our everyday lives.
- Earth Science: Analyze data from charts and graphs and identify the relationship between two data conditions and how they affect each other.
- Life Science: Classify varied organisms through the usage of the taxonomy system.
- Physical Science: Present information or findings to a group of peers using proper presentation methods.
Resources:
- Kids do Ecology has information on data in science for students to understand and work with.
- Ducksters has information on the levels of taxonomy classification with examples of each.
- Classroom has information and examples of a checklist to use for oral presentations for middle school students.
Weekly Online Math Lessons:
Each week I am teaching the current math lesson, per the pacing guide, for each subject online via ClassConnect. These sessions are mandatory and students will learn the concept through interaction with the teacher. Upon completion, students will take their check-up and be complete with that lesson.
- PreAlgebra: (Friday @ 9:30) Problem solving.
- Algebra 1: (Friday @ 10:15) Replacement sets.
- Geometry: (Friday @ 11:00) Transformations of shapes.
Ms. Blackburn's Classroom
This week: NO ONLINE LESSONS ON MONDAY (Labor Day!) Students will individually need to do the assignment that would be explained online and submit to K12. Of course if you are taking the day off to relax, students can do it anytime next week.
Here is an update for the next couple of weeks so you can be in the loop!
Sept. 5th - 7th - Students in a k12 history course will need to bring their projects. All students will get to explore artifact trunks from Ancient Egypt, the prairie, and Vietnam. All students will get to create a project on Minecraft depicting an era in history.
Sept. 12th -14th - Students need to bring a paper copy of their rough draft story to class. If you don't have a printer, please have students come in during office hours the week before to print. We will be peer-editing in class. Students will need to type a final draft at home. The final draft will be due in class on Sept. 26th - 28th, where students will read their stories to the class.
Sept. 19th - 21st - Students will be engaged in project-based learning. They will learn about Mars and the expedition NASA will conduct in 2026 to colonize Mars. Students will brainstorm and design a prototype of a colony. They will build it out of recycled materials. Please send your child with as much recycling as you can the next three weeks. Bubble wrap, foam, felt, pipe cleaners, Popsicle sticks, buttons, or any other craft left overs you have at home would be greatly appreciated. If you have a hot glue gun that your child can use, please label it with your last name and send it to school. It will come home with your child.
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