Updates from Mrs. Froning
September 5, 2020
Looking Towards Week 2
It was so great to see so many of you this past Thursday during our materials distribution! You are an amazing community and I am so thankful for your partnership. Your kind words of praise and encouragement mean the world to me (and our staff) as we work together to create the very best learning situation for our students during such difficult and challenging times. Thank you so much for your support and patience during this first week of remote learning. I know there were various glitches with technology and My Path timelines that caused stress for you and your student. Your communication of your needs and concerns will continue to be critical to ensuring we get things moving as smoothly and quickly as possible. The very best way to get the needed tech help is complete the Tech Support Submission Form (I have linked it below). In most cases, members of our IT team are able to address questions/concerns within 24 hours.
During the first week, a tremendous amount of time was spend on building relationships, establishing routines, and ensuring that your children understood remote learning protocols and virtual classroom rules. We will continue to build relationships and solidify our classroom routines and protocols in the coming weeks. As the teaching and learning process evolves and students are engaging in more direct instruction, we understand we also need to cognizant of screen time concerns. We will be working with our grade level teams, district curriculum department, and administration to ensure that every child has the best learning experience. We are looking forward to talking with you more about this during our upcoming curriculum night events.
Beginning this Tuesday, September 8th, we will begin our FAPEs (Fine and Performing Arts Education) classes with interactive, teacher-lead physical education, art, media, and music. The FAPEs teachers will be sharing zoom links that will be posted in the chat box of our Zoom sessions, so your children will only need to click on a link to join their classrooms and also return to our classrooms. Our teachers will be sure to post FAPES links in our google classrooms as well in the event there is a technical glitch out of our control.
Due to changes in staff in our Art department, we will have several teachers supporting the Art program at Oakley Park:
Kindergarten- Mrs. McCarthy
1st & 2nd grade-Ms. Starler
3rd grade- Ms. Bitzinger
4th & 5th grade- Ms. Starler
*Mrs. Todd will (continue) to serve as the Art Department chair and her teaching responsibilities will be focused on the Art instruction for our My Path learner.
Thank you again for your partnership and patience as we are all experiencing something we have never done before!
Material & Supply Distribution was a SUCCESS!
- Fisker (blunt) scissors for grade K - 2nd
- White boards and dry erase makers grades 2 - 5th
- Larger pencil sharpeners- Kindergarten
*If you were unable to pick up materials this past Thursday, please stop by Oakley Park between 9:00 - 3:00 asap!
I cannot thank our PTA enough for their generosity and dedication to ensuring ALL Oakley Park students have what they need to begin this school year! Thank you to Mrs. Karen Clark for her extraordinary efforts to ensure cost efficient pricing and working to expedite the delivery of items in time for our pick up day! Finally...a HUGE thank you to Mrs. Laura Iaquinto for carefully labeling and organizing/loading of over 375 bags!
(We do anticipate future distributions of materials as we continue to support our students virtual learning. Dates/times will be communicated in future editions of my Updates to Families as well as via email blasts.)
Below is a suggest list of items that would be helpful to have on hand to your students experience in Art, Music, Physical Education and Media. Many of the items on the list can be found around the house!
My Path Updates
The information below has been taken from a letter sent this past Thursday from the My Path administrative team. (The complete letter is linked below.) We do understand there was a fair amount of confusion regarding the start up of My Path. Beginning last Monday, My Path teachers have sent several emails to help families in hopes of helping all to better understand the time.line and program. Please contact either your assigned My Path teacher or Kristin Froning if you have questions regarding the My Path.
Oakley Park My Path Teaching team:
Kindergarten- Mrs. Kristin Squires
1st & 2nd grade- Mrs. Lorena Hawkins
3rd & 5th grade- Mrs. Shellie Avery-Franz
At this point, you should have had contact from your child’s mentor teacher, received materials and the student demo to peruse the lessons, try out the curriculum and get familiar with the Edgenuity platform. Our teachers were so excited to have some live meetings with students and families and felt a wonderful connection getting to know you! Our FAPES (Fine Arts Physical Education Specials) teachers created a wonderful welcome with lessons to get started in Art, Music, Physical Education and Media which teachers should also have shared with you.
Edgenuity is setting up our K-5 platform with all the student and teacher data and informed us that they will be communicating student logins to us either Tuesday, September 8th or Wednesday, September 9th. Your My Path teacher will then share this information with you. Workbooks that accompany the lessons were shared in PDF form with you so you can feel free to begin some of the lessons with your child. The actual physical workbook is on backorder but Edgenuity has shared that those should be arriving a few weeks from now.
Some families have asked about iReady as this is another familiar online learning tool students have used to reinforce math and literacy in school. iReady is locked for all students (also those in Our Path) until students take the diagnostic assessment which will take place in mid-September. After that, all students in My Path will have access to iReady to practice math and literacy skills. Your My Path teacher will share more about iReady as we get closer to the middle of September and the testing window opens.
Family Chromebook Troubleshooting
1. It is very important to fully shut the Chromeboook down. T
To do this:
- Go to the bottom-right corner and click on the clock.
- Click on the power button (looks like a circle with a little line)
- Allow the machine to shut down completely
- Turn it back on and log back on.
(See picture s below)
2. Sometimes the Chromebook needs a “hard reset” to clear out the resources (these are not powerful machines). To do this:
- Follow the steps above to shut the Chromebook down.
- Hold the power button down for 45 seconds.
- Restart the Chromebook.
3. If your child is wearing headphones (on a Chromebook or personal device) and the teacher cannot hear them, they have to change their microphone settings to tell the device to use its mic. To do this:
- Go to the microphone icon on the left bottom of the Zoom screen
- Click the arrow next to that icon
- Change their microphone settings to "same as system."
(See picture below)
4. When the entire class is unmute, there is bound to be sound reverberations. As a norm, please keep your mic muted unless it is your turn to talk.
Reminder: Student Login Credentials
Parents can now access their child’s Google login information via Skyward Family Access. It can be found on the Report Cards tab as the very top report. If you still do not see it, please email Mrs. Froning. kristinfroning@wlcsd.org.
Reminder:Virtual Grade Level Curriculum Nights
*links will be sent at a later date:
Wednesday, September 9th
- 6:00- 7:00 Kindergarten
- 7:00 – 8:00 5th Grade
- 7:00 - 8:00 Shapiro, Tubbs, Maxwell, and Rosenbaum
Monday, September 14th
- 6:00 – 7:00 2nd Grade
- 7:00 – 8:00 3rd Grade
Tuesday, September 15th
- 6:00 – 7:00 1st Grade
- 7:00 – 8:00 4th Grade
Attendance
Despite the fact that we are starting the 20-21 school year remotely, attendance must continue to be a priority. It is extremely important for students to log in on time, be present in the remote setting, and remain engaged throughout the entirety of the school day. Please be reminded that our teachers will take AM and PM attendance as well as record tardies. If your child will be absent or late, or will need to end the remote day early due to illness or a scheduled appointment, you must call the attendance phone line and leave us a message to tell us. Every teaching and learning moment is crucial and we appreciate your partnership to ensure good attendance and participation.
We recognize that there will be a learning curve during these first few weeks and we promise to be flexible and understanding as we all become comfortable with the digital platforms of Google and Zoom.
Attendance Line: 248-956-4190
New Staff Members at Oakley Park
Ms. Lindsey Rosenbaum
It is with great honor that I write this letter of introduction to you as the new addition to the ASD teaching team. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to work with such a wonderful community.
After graduating from Michigan State University in 2016, I left for New York City to study at Teachers College, Columbia University. In New York, I took advantage of all the learning opportunities to best gain experience, knowledge, and skills that I intended to gather and then apply in my own classroom as I returned to Michigan. In 2018, I earned a Dual Masters in Arts in Early Childhood Education and Special Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. While I attended Teachers College, I worked in various classroom settings and neighborhoods throughout New York. After graduating, I began my teaching career at The Windward School in Manhattan serving students with language-based learning disabilities. I participated in intensive teacher training programs and taught students in grades 2, 3, and 4 for two years.
I am excited to continue to gain knowledge and experience from all my new colleagues, and I look forward to work with you as a partner to ensure all student’s needs are met. I can’t wait to begin this memorable and exciting new school year with you.
Mrs. Ashley (Statfield) Gilliatt
It is a pleasure to introduce myself as the school social worker for Oakley Park Elementary. I will be servicing Oakley Park four days per week and am very excited to be part of the Oakley Park team!
I graduated with a master's degree in social work from Wayne State University and have a bachelor's degree in music therapy from Eastern Michigan University. I have been fortunate to work with all grade levels although I have to say, I truly enjoy working with elementary students! Last year, I had the opportunity to complete my field work at Oakley Park and am very excited to be back!
A little about me... I recently got married this summer. I am a huge animal lover and adore my Goldendoodle puppy, Sonny. I am also a musician; I am a classically trained pianist.
I look forward to getting to know each of you and your children this year. This may not be the typical way to start the school year, but we will make the best of it!
Mrs. Molly VandenBosch
My name is Molly VandenBosch and I am the new Literacy Interventionist (31a) at Oakley Park!
I grew up in the Grand Rapids area until I went to Western Michigan University and received my Elementary Education degree in 2002. I moved to the Metro Detroit area shortly after and taught 3rd grade for 1 year and 2nd grade for 10 years. I then took the interventionist position for the following 2 years.
In 2010, my family and I decided it was best for me to be a stay at home mom to our 3 boys. We have a 5th grader and twin 2nd graders at Glengary Elementary. After staying home for almost 6 years, I decided to go back into the school. I have been an overage paraprofessional at Glengary for the past 2 years in 3rd and 2nd grade. While I loved being in the classroom, I missed the small group sessions from various grade levels.
I am very excited to get to know all of you and work with your kiddos!
Mrs. Tara Hill
Hello Oakley Park & students in room 41!
My name is Mrs. Hill and I will be one of the para educators here at Oakley Park! I previously worked at Loon Lake elementary and also at Walnut Creek Middle.
I am married and have a 14 year old son that just started high school! I also have a dog named Harlow that just turned 11. That is 77 in dog years!! I love to read and have a big library filled with books! Maybe I can read some of them to you soon!
Some of my favorite things to do are hang out with my family and friends, cook, read, listen to music and watch movies. I can’t wait to get to know all of you and I am really excited to help you learn and grow this year!
Wednesday, September 23rd was previously posted as a 1/2 day. It will be a full day.
Friday, September 25th will be a 1/2 day. This change is reflected on the calendar linked here.
Contact Information
Karen Clark, Principal Secretary
Kim Waling, Building Secretary
Main Office: 248-956-4100
Attendance Line: 248-956-4190
Email: kristinfroning@wlcsd.org
Website: http://wlcsd.org/schools/elementary/oakley-park/
Location: 2015 Oakley Park Road, Commerce Charter Township, MI, United States
Phone: 248-956-4100
Twitter: @OakleyPark1