Whittier Weekly
April 24, 2020
Principal's Note
Parents, Families, Guardians:
THANK YOU for all of your work with your students during this crazy ride we are all on. Your support and partnership with our teachers has been amazing, and it is reflected in the amazing learning that continues to happen while our building is closed.
We completely understand that despite your great efforts, many of you, and your students, are still feeling overwhelmed by this at home virtual learning environment. That is why Whittier, along with the rest of the School District of Waukesha, will be only pushing out new content Monday-Thursday, allowing Friday as a day to catch-up. This change will begin next week, Friday, May 1st.
Teachers and staff will still be available, meetings with students will continue, bonus or challenge ideas will be provided for families that want/need it, but no new subject area content will be provided. It will be a full day for your student to catch up on assignments from the rest of the week, dive into a passion project, research something they are interested in learning more about and/or to reach out to teachers for help.
We hope this helps to alleviate some stress for the remainder of the school year. Remember, you are doing great, and we are here to help!
We are honored to work with your children everyday.
Brandy Hart
Whittier Principal
Blessings in a Backpack
iPad Public Service Announcement
Update from last week: The below message is very relevant. We continue to have kids on their WebEx each night between 11pm - 3am. This is not good for sleep in our little ones! Help your little one sleep better by taking the ipad away at night.
We DO NOT want or expect your students to be online all day long. When your children are at school, they are not on their ipads all day either (don't let them fool you!).
One thing I have seen that I am hoping you can help with is kids taking ipads to bed with them and staying up chatting with their friends at midnight or even later. This has been happening and it's not great for the kids. What can you do? You could try to have a space in the house (not in bedrooms) that the ipads charge at night. The kitchen is a great spot for this. Try this if you are up for it, it will be a great help!
Stay strong & ask if you need help!
Technology Support for you!!
Four simple steps:
1) Log into the SDW Website https://sdw.waukesha.k12.wi.us/Page/1
2) Next, click on the yellow VIRTUAL LEARNING box.
3) Then, click on PARENT RESOURCES
4) Finally, click on ONLINE HELP DESK
You can start a live chat or leave your information and someone from the Technology department will get back to you.
Data from recent Parent Survey
15% of families took the survey
Do you feel supported by teachers and staff at Whittier during virtual learning?
48.4% of families feel extremely supported
38.7 feel supported
6% - selected other - left supportive comments for staff members
3% - unsure
3% disagree to feeling supported
Most common app or program to them at this time(select all): Class Dojo -81% Google Classroom - 84% Epic - 53% DreamBox and/or Matific - 68% WebEx Teams - 61% Other general use of the ipad - 52% Biggest struggle at home: Overall work completion - 42% Staying organized - 19% Going stir crazy - 38% ****With 42% of our families struggling with overall work completion, I am hopeful that having Friday as a lighter day with no new content, allowing for a day to catch up, we can feel more success in overall work completion. ****
I need more...
Learning Outdoors Newsletter - get great ideas to do outside with your family!
Literacy Connections
Here is the link: https://mrskslvirtuallbrary.blogspot.com/
Whittier Mission Statement
Whittier School Hours: 8:30am-3:40pm
Email: bmhart@waukesha.k12.wi.us
Website: https://sdw.waukesha.k12.wi.us/WhittierES
Location: 1103 South East Avenue, Waukesha, WI, USA
Phone: 262-970-2800
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WhittierElementarySchoolPto/
Twitter: @WhittierWire