Whitney's Jungle Journal
Mr. Stacho's Newsletter - August 18, 2020
Wild About Whitney!
A Note From Mr. Stacho:
Hello again! Typically, I try not to inundate you with emails as sometimes people "tune out" if they get too many emails. Please bare with me as I try to clarify questions that I am getting from parents. Throughout the year, you will get ONE newsletter per week from me and an occasional special message.
Please check your emails regularly.
You should have received a "School Messenger" containing a link to sign up for your one-on-one time with your child's teacher. This went out today.
We have some staffing changes this year:
* Mrs. Hopp is on leave for the year. Our new Kindergarten teacher is Mr. Bryan Voit.
* Dr. Abboud retired last Spring. We are excited to have Mrs. Rachel Dlouhy back in Kindergarten with us!
* Mr. Doyle moved to 3rd Grade. We welcome Miss Lily Makee to our 1st grade team!
* Ms. Amari is now teaching at Surrarrer. We are excited to have Mrs. Bongers as our new 5th grade teacher. She's just new to us. She's been in the district for many years.
* Mr. Hanes - Intervention Specialist - is "on loan" to Muraski this year.
* Mrs. Boodheshwar - 4th grade teacher - will be out for the beginning of the year. We are happy to welcome Mrs. Shokalook as her long-term substitute teacher.
CLARIFICATION ON REMOTE LEARNING
*The blocks of time in the students' schedules provide structure for the day and ensure academic content is taught. It is NOT the intent that students will be watching instruction/videos all day long on their chromebooks. Just like in person school, a portion of each indicated block will be used for LIVE direct instruction from the teacher. The balance of the time in each of the blocks may be used for small group instruction, one-on-one support, student activities, student work time, etc. The "LIVE" instruction will be recorded so that students who can not log on at that time will be able to access the instruction at a time that fits with families' schedules.
Students First Week
August 24 will be our first official day back for students. During this week, we will bring students and one family member, one at a time, to school for about an hour to meet their teacher, pass out any materials students will need for remote learning, assign Chromebooks and help students and family members log on. This will also be a one-on-one opportunity for your child’s teacher to start building a relationship with them and assess their skills prior to the start of our Remote Learning 2.0. Students who work with an Intervention Specialist will be hearing from their child’s IS starting Monday, August 17 to schedule parent meetings.
You will also be receiving an email from your child's teacher sometime prior to Monday, August 24th with important back to school activities to complete remotely during the week of the 24th while we are meeting one-on-one with each family.
These activities may include: "Get To Know You" activities, Lexia placement assessments, Think Central/Go Math assessments, etc. We are hopeful that families that may not have yet picked up their chromebooks during the week will still have access to a device at home to be engaged in these activities.
Some teachers may also be preparing copied packets of activities for students. These packets will be available in a bin outside the main entrance door similar to how we provided materials in the Spring. Whether or not there are packets to be gotten or not and when they will be available will be communicated by individual teachers.