Division 5 Update May 12th — Remote Learning Summary

Hello Everyone!

I just want to say how proud I am of all Division 5 students for making the adjustment to online learning. While it isn’t the same as our classroom, everyone is making an effort to make it work and continue their learning. We are working away on projects and learning of key content from our unit about needs and wants.

And I have noticed the positive, kind ways students have been reaching out to both me and to one another. Thank you to everyone for your efforts and kindness during this strange time. Thank you, also, for your creativity, as everyone has been using their MAKER, SERVICE, and GENIUS hour in amazing ways each week to continue independent learning. Great work!

Each day, I am having conversations with students on MS Teams, as we discuss topics or students complete challenges in our MS Teams Channels. Everyone has been very respectful contacting me for help, and between 8:30 and 4:00 I spend the day responding to email requests, having one-on-one meetings with students who ask for them, providing feedback on work, and checking in to make sure everyone is on track. I meet daily with multiple small groups to go over curriculum content and to discuss inquiry questions from our unit. We meet as a large group once a week, as well as during our daily read alouds in the afternoon, to gain connection. I know that is the part we miss the most about school — the social connection with peers!

Language Arts / Literacy: 

Each week, students have been completing Quick Writes, as we were doing in class before the break. Our focus has been to keep practicing creative writing skills, adding descriptive vocabulary, and editing carefully for conventions. I have been giving a lot of feedback on how to use commas, punctuation in dialogue, and conjunctions in complex sentences. Students also watched an online lesson I created about commas, and they are participating daily in writing challenges designed to get their creativity flowing and to practice advanced vocabulary.

In connection with ADST, we have also been learning about PODCASTS. What are they? How are they used? What makes a good podcast? We experimented with SoundTrap online, and now we will apply creative writing and storytelling skills to create a Podcast of our own!

I am proud of how much reading students are doing in this challenging time! Whether using EPIC, Audible, or public library ebooks, everyone is finding something they can read for INDIE READING TIME!

Math / Numeracy:

Through our small-group discussions, we have discussed financial literacy topics and economics, covering things like supply and demand, budgeting, savings, taxes, having a job, doing math with money, percentages, and the impact of current events on our economy in Canada. Everyone was given a pretend job with a salary, and they had to create a personal budget, taking into mind the actual costs of the many things they would have to pay for if they lived on their own. Many students independently learned excel skills and applied those to their work, creating spreadsheets with formulas. We will continue our discussion about money topics each week, talking about interest, how to make a business, entrepreneurship, and other financial literacy topics.

In connection with ADST, students are making a product they will advertise on their podcasts, complete with a brand name, slogan, or jingle. They will also be presenting the product to our Sharks (like in the show Shark Tank), asking for an investment of cash to increase their distribution and sales. I look forward to their creative thinking and presentations!

Socials:

We have had great discussions about how we get our needs and wants fulfilled. Money is a key part of it! Also, where do we find the resources to make the things we need and want? We brainstormed needs and wants, identified key renewable and non-renewable resources, and then looked for these resources in our homes. After discussion we concluded minerals are one of the most used resources in our houses. Where do we get the minerals?

We also talked about our toilet paper shortage, which led to great discussion about supply and demand, the forces at play in an economy, and how government plays a role in making sure supplies are available and that everyone has the money they need to purchase supplies, too.

Students are participating in TED Ed’s Earth School series, which presents videos about our Earth. We are focusing on the videos addressing how we get our resources, how the availability of resources is inequitable, and how people in the world are using creative ideas to address resource shortages and sustainability.

Each student has now chosen a topic to research further from our unit. They are working in groups set up on MS Teams Channels, sharing resources and creating a mini PowerPoint together to present to other students. We are all doing different topics so we can learn from one another.

Science:

If we know we use a lot of minerals to make the things we need, how do we find them? We have been exploring geology, the science related to finding these important resources. What are the different types of rocks? What is the rock cycle? What is the geological history of BC and how does that help geologists find the minerals we need? What is the difference between a rock, mineral, and element? What happens when minerals are broken down with water into a solution? What happens when a solution with  minerals in it cools? Lots of science content around geology and chemistry to talk about!

Ms. D has been posting daily pictures of rocks from her own collection, as well as the geology-related photographs from her family, which is full of rock hounds. Students have to guess what the rock is, what type, where it is found, and what the geological story is. Thank you to everyone who has joined in these MS Teams discussions! We have also had great talks about rocks and the rock cycle in our small-group meetings, and students have read about geology concepts in Geology of the Pacific Northwest and other resources from EPIC or online resources posted on the blog.

Some students have chosen to learn more about topics in this area, so their inquiry projects in MS Teams are about minerals, mining, and the periodic table! We will all be talking about these things as a group over the next few weeks.

ADST, Music, The Arts:

One thing psychologists have said is important for this time in isolation is to CREATE and to do something MEANINGFUL. For this reason, many students have been continuing their learning of instruments or spend time making new things using our optional activities list.

We are also learning about photography techniques, and each week students are working on a specific challenge designed to help them see the different ways photography can be used to change our perspective or to tell a story. Thank you to students for your creative efforts!

Some students have created music on SoundTrap and have shared it with me, with other students, or with Ms. Fletcher. Some have tried out the many activities on Ms. Fletcher’s blog, as well. I look forward to seeing our creative thinking skills as we make a podcast on SoundTrap, add music and a commercial, and use creative voices to make it interesting. And our MACC Mall requires everyone to find some materials at home and think about how they can make a useful product to present to Shark Tank!

Independent Project:

Everyone is finishing their research on their projects, and everyone has informed me about what they would like to do for primary research (first-hand research). If anyone needs help with this research, please let me know. Some students have asked for one-on-one meetings, and I am also following up with any student I know is having difficulty making a decision about what to do. Remember, primary research can be an interview, a survey, the making of something (document it with reflection and pictures), the learning or experiencing of something (document it with reflection and pictures), or a science experiment (document it with a lab report like we learned to do earlier this year and pictures). If you can’t think of something or run into difficulties, I am here to help!

By the end of this week, I have asked students to let me know how they would like to present. We will not have an in-person presentation, of course, but we will present independent projects virtually. I will be creating a page only accessible to those we invite (parents, advanced learning, Suncrest teachers and staff, other MACC students) on the blog. Each student will be creating something that can be accessed via a link. Examples are: PowerPoint, Book Creator (we have a class account), Written Essay, Slideshow with audio, a speech recorded on video, a mini-movie, or anything the student would like to do that can be shared.

IP Bibliographies are due June 1st. IP Presentations are due June 10th.

Amazing work, everyone!

I think you are all doing great work as you adjust to online learning. I enjoy hearing your voices in MS Teams. Keep up your efforts to join in our discussions, to make contact with your classmates, and to use a schedule each day, so you can keep doing something with purpose and meaning. This is important for our mental health — the connection and the meaning. If you need help or want to talk, I am always here. You can always request a one-on-one appointment with me. Or, come to the daily read aloud and hang out for a bit afterwards, to ask questions. Thank you for everything you are doing. I know it is not the same as MACC was in the classroom, but you are showing some amazing personal awareness, critical and creative thinking, communication, and social responsibility through your daily participation in our online learning.

Many thanks from Ms. D.