mrsjaffe14

Dear Families:

On the eve of a much-deserved long weekend, I wanted to update you on a couple of changes you will see in the ebb and flow of your child’s work.

All this week, we have been working toward an essay-writing assignment that is due next Friday, May 29. The essay topic is to compare and contrast two stories that we have listened to online more than once. Kids have received numerous preparatory materials to support them in completing this assignment. 

In addition, kids have started to plan for a second long-term assignment for which they will make a public service announcement (PSA) on a topic related to health, safety, or the environment. That assignment is due Friday, June 5. I have provided research links for kids to use for fact gathering.

The reason I want you to know this is because your child will have fewer daily assignments that need to be submitted to me. The focus will now be on these two long-term assignments. The exception will be math. I will continue to meet with your child for a math lesson twice a week, and the daily assignments for those lessons will still need to be completed. 

What this means is that kids now have longer stretches of time to work on these two projects, but there is not the same “pressure” of daily deadlines. I’m hoping if you are aware of this, you can check in with your kids and inquire about their progress.

Because the work in the next couple of weeks will be more open-ended, I feel I need to be more available to your kids, as well. Therefore, starting next Tuesday — and until these upcoming two projects are completed — my live office hours will be Monday-Friday, 1:30-3:00. I hope you will encourage your kids to take advantage of my increased availability and check in with me about their essay or their PSA research.

As always, feel free to reach out to me with questions. I hope you all have a lovely weekend!

Regards,

Mrs. Jaffe

Dear Families:

Each year, the Burlington Science Center holds a vegetable-growing contest, and this year cucumbers are the chosen veggie! Normally, the setup for the seed-growing would be delivered to school, and your child could bring it home, directly. Given our current circumstances, the Science Center has come up with an alternative plan.

The Science Center staff has arranged for a SAFE, NO-CONTACT pick-up procedure tomorrow, May 19, from 2:00-4:00 p.m., at the front circle of the Burlington High School. You can pick up pots, soil, and seeds, along with a contest entry form and information about growing the seeds. The contest is part of the upcoming remote learning family science challenge called “Plants: What Do They Need to Grow?”

If your child is interested in entering the contest, here is a link to the Burlington Science Center blog with more information and a short informational video. 

Happy growing!

Regards,

Mrs. Jaffe

Families:

This is just a reminder that all Fox Hill fifth graders have a 9:00 a.m. virtual meeting tomorrow morning with Ms. Perchase, Principal of Marshall Simonds Middle School. I will post the link and password for the meeting tomorrow morning in your child’s Google Classroom folder along with the regular assignments/links for the day. 

We will follow that meeting with our regular morning meeting.

Regards,

Mrs. Jaffe

Dear Families:

We continue to navigate uncharted territory, and here’s the next leg of our voyage together!

On Wednesday, May 13, at 9:00 a.m., there will be a fifth grade “move up” Google Hangout for all Fox Hill students with the Marshall Simonds Middle School principal and other members of her team. I told kids about this today, but I want to make sure you know, as well, given that it starts at 9:00.

During this meeting, Ms. Perchase will talk to fifth graders about what they can expect in sixth grade. I don’t have any information beyond that at this time. When this meeting took place last year, it happened at Fox Hill, and kids were able to ask questions. I don’t think that will be possible this Wednesday given that the meeting will take place virtually. However, we will have our regular morning meeting right after this middle school meeting, and kids can ask me their questions at that time. I will, then, pass the questions on to Ms. Perchase.

To join this meeting, kids will find an assignment in their Google Classroom folder. That assignment will contain the link and password to join the meeting. They seemed to understand that part of this plan perfectly well today!

I will send out a reminder tomorrow night so that your kids are prepared to be up earlier and ready to join the meeting at 9:00.

Thanks for your support!

Best,

Mrs. Jaffe

Dear Families:

I hope you enjoyed your weekend; and mothers, I hope your kids were helpful, kind, and good to you today! I was happy to spend time with our younger son who visited with us today (at an appropriate social distance) on our back porch! This was the longest visit we’ve had with him since mid March 🙂

Tomorrow marks the beginning of a change in our remote learning. You will see evidence of this right away in math. Your children are aware of when they are meeting with me in small groups, and you each received an email from me about these times last Friday. Tonight I will post a formal-looking schedule for kids to access in Google Classroom, but I think they will get used to it pretty quickly. 

Since clarifying some confusing emails I sent some of you (sorry!), I have made one additional change to the schedule. I think it will make most sense for kids if I am available every day for an “office hours” check-in time. So, starting tomorrow that time will be 2:00-3:00 p.m., Monday-Friday. As of right now, I am not having them sign up for a time to meet with me; we’ll see how that goes.

On the horizon, there are a couple of other new content objectives that have to be completed by the end of the year, one in reading and one in writing. Here’s my thinking: By the time we hit the end of this month, it will become increasingly hard to keep kids focused on completing assignments that represent NEW LEARNING. I am already seeing signs of kids not submitting “must do” assignments or finishing their work late into the evening. These are habits that will get harder to break as we move into the final weeks of the school year, be that as it may. Therefore, I am going to do my best to cover the remaining reading and writing objectives by May 29. Anything we accomplish together after that will be icing on the cake. 

I recognize that as things get more difficult for your kids, they also become more difficult for you. I am asking for your support to help keep your kids focused on completing their required school work during this next few weeks. None of us has any leverage other than continuing to appeal to kids’ sense of personal responsibility. Let’s just accept that, and we’ll all do our best. If for some reason your child is not going to do his/her work on any given day (e.g., your family is going to be away for the day or some other personal event trumps his/her school work), please communicate that to me so I don’t continually check Google Classroom wondering why nothing has been submitted. 

I am confident that the work I have planned for kids is doable and engaging and will help them feel more prepared for sixth grade.

As always, if after reading this you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to me.

Best,

Mrs. Jaffe

Families:

After sending you all emails about math instruction starting next week, I needed to rethink when “office hours” will be scheduled. Let me clarify that I will be available on MONDAYS and FRIDAYS from 1:00-2:00 for students who need some extra help with math or anything else we may be working on 🙂

Sorry for the confusion. This turned out to be more challenging for my brain than I imagined 🙁

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Jaffe

Dear Families:

Last week, the Commissioner of Education issued additional remote learning standards that include direct teaching of new grade-level content. The intent is to focus on what is most important to prepare students for the next grade. Burlington’s highest curriculum priorities are math, reading, and writing … in that order. 

Beginning next Monday, there will be some changes in our class schedule and the expectations for your child’s work completion. We will still have Choice Boards, but some work on it will represent new learning and is expected to be completed. Some things are clearer in my mind than others, so I’ll start with what is clearest — math.

Starting Monday, I will begin teaching the remaining math lessons fifth grade has been told to complete. This is not ALL of the remaining math in our text, only the lessons/topics that have been deemed the highest priority. Anything we have been told to skip will be made up next year. Happily, we have only six math lessons to cover. 

How will these lessons be covered, and how will teaching/learning time be scheduled?

We will complete two math lessons a week. Just like in school, students will meet with me in small groups. The three groups we had in school will be expanded to four so I can keep their size small. Two groups will meet with me in a Google Hangout for 20 minutes on Mondays and Wednesdays, and the other two groups will meet with me for 20 minutes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. As in school, one lesson will be covered a day.

On their assigned day, students will be expected to complete the classwork for each lesson; on their”off” day, students will be expected to complete the homework for each lesson. On Fridays, I will hold “office hours” to be available to any student who needs additional support from me.

Prior to meeting with me, students will be assigned, and asked to view, a short enVision math video that introduces the skill for that lesson. This video can be accessed from their Google Classroom math folder. Once they join me in their math group, we will practice some problems together. Then, students will complete and submit to me the independent portion of the lesson. This will be done electronically and will also be accessed from the Google Classroom math folder.

Many students are already comfortable with the digital version of our math lessons, so completing this work will not be that different for them. I understand that other students who have less comfort with the digital platform will have a steeper learning curve (I will  help them!). Since students don’t have their math workbooks at home, this is my best solution. 

No tests will be given, and no grades will be issued, but I do expect that students will complete this work as it will make their transition to middle school math that much smoother. 

On Thursday, I will send you a personalized email with your child’s small-group day and time schedule. I have no way of knowing if this will present a problem for you if you have multiple children at home; if so, please reply back to me so I can work out any kinks. 

I have not discussed this with your children yet. I will be going over this tomorrow morning, but I wanted you to have time to digest the information.

One other piece of good news is that we have only one major reading and writing standard to complete this year. The district has decided that this will best be done in our homeroom classes instead of with ELA teachers. I will send you another email about reading and writing. I don’t envision that what we have to accomplish in those areas will require much additional virtual meeting time with me. For next week, I just want us to get used to the new expectations/routines for math.

Please reach out to me with questions or concerns!

Best,

Mrs. Jaffe

Dear Families:

I have a meeting first thing Monday morning that will make it hard for me to keep to our regular morning meeting time of 9:30. I told the kids today that our meeting on Monday will be at 10:00 instead. I wanted you to know, as well.

Have a great weekend!

Best,

Mrs. Jaffe

Dear Families:

It’s likely that none of us was surprised to learn yesterday that school buildings will not reopen for the rest of the year, but the news is still staggering. There is very little about sheltering in place that gets easier with time. At best, we are all just developing better coping skills.

Today’s morning meeting with your children lasted longer than usual. Much of the time was spent grieving the fact that they will not experience the end of fifth grade and their time at Fox Hill the way they had hoped. Needless to say, they had many, many questions that I could not answer. One of the most challenging aspects of this experience for me is the inability to see farther ahead than a few days or, at most, a week at a time. 

One thing I made clear to your children is that the basic structure of their work requirements will remain pretty much the same from now until May 8. That said, I am asking for a bit more of a minimum time commitment from them in reading and math. There are still the same if not more choices in those areas, but the “minutes” I expect is increased. I have chosen to move in this direction because I am somewhat confident that after May 8, the district will increase learning expectations. Therefore, I’m working your children up to being ready for that.

Other questions that your children had I cannot answer at this time: returning iPads, cleaning out their desks, finding out about their sixth grade teachers — the list was endless! Certainly as information is passed on to me, I will keep you in the loop.

A couple of things I wanted to make sure to reinforce:

1. Some kids have mentioned that they are running out of books to read! I want to remind you of a link I sent you a couple of weeks ago to sign up for free online books through Epic! books. If you use this link, you will have free access to their digital library through June 30.

2. Your children were happy to learn that they will still receive a Fox Hill yearbook and graduation t-shirt.

• There is still time for your child to submit a portrait-oriented drawing on 8 1/2 x 11 paper for the cover of the yearbook. The color drawing should include the year 2020 and the Fox Hill School “fox.” The drawing should be emailed to: foxhillyearbook2020@gmail.com. The deadline is Wednesday, April 29. Note that this is optional.
• You received an email yesterday about sending a picture of your child’s signature (first and last name; it doesn’t have to be cursive) to the yearbook committee at foxhillyearbook2020@gmail.com. PLEASE be sure to do that by Wednesday, April 29, as well. Students’ signatures are part of the design of the graduation t-shirt. 

3. I so appreciate that some of you responded to my survey asking for your feedback on remote learning. If you did not submit it then, feel free to do so now. Here is the link to the survey. 

Finally, starting next week I will be setting up a time for a weekly, one-on-one check in with your child. I will schedule three a day, and they will follow the morning meeting so your child can use that same day’s meeting code to conference with me. I think this will be an added way to ensure I have a personal connection with each child.

As always, please feel free to reach out to me with questions, concerns, or comments: jaffe@bpsk12.org.

Warmly,

Mrs. Jaffe

Dear Families:

One of the pleasures I get during our morning meetings is the way kids are trying to help each other solve problems they’re having accessing assignments or dealing with “glitchy” technology. This came up this morning when some kids said they can’t see everyone’s image on their screen at the same time. 

I want to re-share some information I sent you a few weeks ago that may help your child. This is a “fix” that only applies to Chromebooks or laptops; it does not apply to iPads:

• • Google Hangout will work best if your child is on a laptop or Chromebook.
  • The screen view will be greatly enhanced if you download a Chrome extension onto your laptop. I did this last night, and I was able to see all the kids on my screen at the same time. Here is a link to the Chrome extension. Once there, just click on Add to Chrome (takes five seconds!). This is not a requirement, but it does enhance the Hangout experience.

If your child is using a Chromebook or laptop to participate in the daily morning meeting and you have not downloaded the Chrome extension, I highly recommend it. Use the link I have provided above.

Regards,

Mrs. Jaffe