The Plug In
Super Charged Information for Super Charger Families!
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"Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly." - Robert F. Kennedy
Spirit Day is on Monday 12/14! Wear your craziest hat or wackiest hair!
Administrator Coffee Chat with Linda & Shannon
Stop by to ask any questions, or just pop in to say hi!
Thursday, Jan 7, 2021, 12:00 PM
Zoom Link below
Winter is coming... HIP HIP, HOORAY! NO SCHOOL 12/21-1/3.
We will see you back on Monday 1/4.
At HOA, we work on building our Character muscles. This month, were going to feel the burn of our Kindness muscle!
KINDNESS (Kind-Ness) The quality of being friendly, generous and considerate.
Here are a few examples of ways to grow your Kindness muscle!
- Help someone in your house with a chore.
- Give someone an encouraging shout out.
- Is someone in your house having a bad day? Maybe you could make them a cup of tea or bring them a yummy snack.
Here is our favorite Kindness song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H98Rfljxmsc&feature=youtu.be
"Kindness costs nothing, but means everything."
November Parent Connect Recap
We had our Parent Connect Meetings last week. It was wonderful to see faces, share experiences, and connect with other parents. Parent feedback is vital! Thank you parents for sharing and offering helpful feedback, we value you. Here’s a brief recap with some of the resources shared. Our next Parent Connect December 15 (K-2) and December 17 (3-6), see you then!
Kinder - 2nd Grade
Students love Reading Eggs and Epic - supplemental curriculum available to all students.
Parents report that ELA can be overwhelming at times - please reach out to your student’s teacher. They may be able to condense assignments and help eliminate some busy work.
Possible to turn work in an alternate way? If a student is getting overwhelmed with seat work, consider completing the assignment a different way. For example, do writing work with sidewalk chalk, shaving cream, white board, take a picture and send it to your student’s teacher.
Reminder of “soft” due dates.
Busy Boxes for younger toddler or preschool siblings.items that are “special” and only come out at a special time. You could have a different box each day.
Busy Box items: favorite snack, stickers, sticky notes, band-aids, washable markers and paper, playdough, pipe cleaners, tape, Legos, Magtiles
3rd - 6th Grade
Concern over incorrect information presented in Odysseyware - If misinformation is found, please let your student’s teacher know right away. We are working with Odysseyware to make corrections. We will also be communicating with parents when incorrect information is found.
Math not challenging enough?
Utilize Moby Max to supplement
Communicate with teacher
Possible to skip lessons a student has mastered
Testing at HSD for TAG
Motivating students is challenging at times. Here's some ideas shared: use student’s currency as leverage, utilizing the “teacher says” card for external motivation, do hard subjects during the student’s best time of day, chew bubble gum during hard subjects. Use a visual schedule so students can check off.
Ideas to help kiddos who need to move while doing school. Lay on their belly, standing at the counter, wobble seat, chew bubble gum, and make sure there are plenty of brain breaks.
Parents report that writing is a challenging subject at times. Suggestions and resources shared by others:
Request for teacher clarification in writing assignments
Voice to text in Google Docs
Read & Write with Chromebooks
Grammarly program to help with more in depth grammar support.
Explanation of Proficiency Grading
In the Hillsboro School District we use a proficiency-based grading system. The purpose of grading is to let all stakeholders—parents/guardians, children, educators, and community members --understand what students know and how they perform in relation to expected learning outcomes.
Proficiency-based grading encourages students to take ownership of their own learning. ... It assures that final grades communicate more accurately to students and parents the degree to which the student is proficient in clearly articulated standards and objectives.
Proficiency is the documented evidence that a student has met the required level of skill and knowledge set by benchmarks. Either a student meets this requirement, or the student falls short and must continue to work until they do meet the required level.
- Exceeds =4 90-100% above and beyond meeting the standard (connecting to other
concepts, deeper depth of knowledge skills shown)
- Meets=3 80-89% = Grade level standard met Proficient
- Nearly Meets=2 70-79% =Close to meeting standard
- Not Yet=1 below 69% =Not yet meeting standard
We understand that at HOA in the Florida Virtual (K-2) and Odysseyware (3-6) curriculum you are seeing 0-100% scores. The curriculum self grades many of the quizzes and lessons. For these you will see just percentage scores. There are also many teacher-only graded assignments. You may wonder why your student is getting a 100% on a computer lesson and only an 80% on a project or writing assignment. That is because these two types of grading scales do not necessarily match each other. However, an 80% grade given by a teacher means that your student has met the standard that is being taught and is proficient. They pass with a Meets. In order to get an Exceeds the student would have to go above and beyond what is expected in the assignment. If your student came from a brick and mortar school last year they are aware that they get graded with NY, NM, M and E and not percentage grades. This is what is represented on the Hillsboro School District elementary report cards. So, the teachers will take what they see in the HOA curriculum as a score for each standard on the report card, along with their own graded work and samples of student projects, and they will decide if the student has Not Yet Met, Nearly Met, Met or Exceeded a standard within the curriculum being taught.
If you have any further questions regarding grading, please feel free to reach out to me. I am happy to be a support to you. My email is freudens@hsd.k12.or.us.
Sincerely,
Shannon Freudenthal
Assistant Principal, HOA K-12
How much help is too much help?
One of the main concerns that we are hearing from staff is that they don’t know how much of the school work turned in was done with help from a parent in the house, or if it is truly student work. This makes it very difficult for a teacher to know where the student’s “Holes” are in learning a standard, so that they can help fill those holes before they get too deep as the student moves up grade levels.
Please let your students struggle and it is ok if they fail. Failure leads to growth. This can be very hard for parents not to jump in and “save” a student from failing, however, it is the perfect opportunity to coach your child that they need to try on their own, turn it in and learn from the teacher what the mistakes are. This is how they will grow in their academic knowledge.
Tips for parents
Show an interest in your child’s schooling but avoid being more interested in their schoolwork than they are – or it risks making it “your thing” and not “their thing”.
Set rules about homework (when and where it should be done), particularly in their younger years.
Try not to offer your help before they ask; let them ask you. This will boost their confidence in completing schoolwork without constant adult help.
Make sure you are coaching and not doing. Don’t fix every mistake or act as an editor. Get older children to ask you specific questions only, like, for example: “Is my conclusion clear?”
In junior school, get homework done before fun things. Then prompt rather than remind them, eg: “What needs to be done before you watch TV?”
Every year, reassess what you do for your child and whether your actions stop them developing important skills, such as responsibility and autonomy. For example, you should start to withdraw your reminders for homework early in their schooling, including gentle reminders such as, “Do you have much homework?”
With this must come the child accepting responsibility for homework and teacher-delivered consequences should they forget to do homework or to bring it to school. Remember these remain a reflection of your child’s current organisation and motivation, not your parenting.
Finally, remember a golden rule – your actions as a parent should not be primarily about making them successful now, but about building the life skills that will enable them to be successful in the future without your help.
Full Article if you wish to read: https://theconversation.com/too-much-help-with-homework-can-hinder-your-childs-learning-progress-54052
Don't forget to download our Remind App!
Be a hero and Mask Up for safety!
Student/Family Help Desk
(Please ask your teacher, too!)
Absences and Attendance
Hillsboro Online Academy
Email: hillonline@hsd.k12.or.us
Website: www.hillonlineacademy.org
Location: 452 Northeast 3rd Avenue, Hillsboro, OR, USA
Phone: 503-844-1050