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Monthly Archives: August 2020

August 31st, 2020 – Welcome to Week #4

Hello Families,

I hope you are doing well, and got a chance to enjoy the nice weather this weekend!  I’m really looking forward to school this week, as three more Zoomers are joining the class.  I’m looking forward to “officially” meeting them!

Reading

This week is Unit 1, Week 2 in reading.  We’ll practice sequencing, visualization and context clues through a variety of realistic fiction stories.  We’ll also take a practice test at the end of the week to get the kids acclimated to taking a test on a computer.  The kids will have a spelling list come home on Monday, and we’ll have our weekly test on Friday.

Math

In math class, we’ll continue to build fluency with 2s and 5s in both multiplication and division.  We’ll also explore 9s and 10s later in the week.  I anticipate we’ll have homework on the following evenings.  However, if things don’t go well during a lesson, this schedule may be adjusted.

Monday-Homework 1-6

Tuesday-No Homework

Wednesday-Homework 1-7

Thursday-Homework 1-8

Friday-Homework 1-9

Remote Learners

Thank you so much for helping your child become a successful remote learner!  I know this is hard task, but I feel like things are continuing to improve.  If you haven’t heard, the weekly pick-up dates have changed.  The next pick-up day will be Friday, September 4th, and will be every Friday going forward.

As stated before, please don’t allow your child to work ahead on any assignments.  There are more papers in their kits than we will likely get to during the week.  Simply have them turn in any work they complete, and save any unfinished papers for potential future use.

Remote Learners Resources

I hope you have had a chance to explore our class web page!  If you have, you probably saw there are lots of handy resources.  For example, spelling lists are posted, should you ever need one.  There is also a tab for Remote Learning.  There, you will see weekly schedules, as well as a new tab called “Chromebook Tips.”  The kids access a number of different resources each day, and that tab lists several different “How To” pages to help them!  These are especially handy if you’re at home trying to help your child access one of the resources.

Well, thanks for reading, and thanks for helping this year go as smoothly as possible, so far.  I have great faith in things working their way back to normal, and this “new normal” becoming more and more comfortable for everyone.

Have a great week!

Eric Wachter

August 24th, 2020 – Zooming into Week 3!

Hello Families!

Wow…that was an interesting week!  As worried as I was about meshing in-class and Zoom-in learners, I think everything went about as well as it could have gone.  I hope everyone at home felt included, as I think I got progressively better at making connections at home as the week went on.  I have also enjoyed getting to know the in-class kids, too.  Hard to believe, but week three is already here!

Reading and Spelling

This week we will begin our regular curriculum in reading with Unit 1, Week 1.  Our stories this week will focus on visualization and character traits, as we read a variety of fantasy stories.  We’ll also practice synonyms, and continue writing proper sentences.  We’ll also start spelling this week.  Your child should bring home a spelling list with them on Monday, and we’ll have our test on Friday.

Zoom-in learners will have two lists in their weekly packets.  The blue list is an “On-Level” list, and the green list is a “Beyond Level” challenge list.  Please have your child look over both, and make a decision as to which list he/she would like to try this week.  Eventually, I may assign a list to each student, but for now they can choose their list.

Math

In math class, we’ll continue exploring multiplication and begin to explore division.  The kids did an awesome job last week learning their 5s multiplications, and this week we’ll explore 2s. The first handful of lessons in Unit 1 are two-day lessons, which means the kids will have homework after day two of a lesson.  This week I anticipate homework on Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings.

PLC Tuesday

On PLC days, Zoom-In kids will not rejoin class remotely after lunch.  The reason being, we’ll end our PLC days doing Interventions and Guided Reading, which they would not have rejoined us for on a regular day.  Instead, they will have a couple of assignments posted in their Google Classroom to work on independently.

Zoom-In Schedule-August 24-28

JaMarkus Gooch Zoom-In Schedule August 24-28

Zoom-In Kits

Hopefully you can pick up the Zoom-in kits for your child fairly early on Monday, as there are a few items they may need during school tomorrow.  However, we can make adjustments if necessary.  You will likely find many more items in their kits than we might even get to in the next week or two.  I really made an effort to over plan and over supply those kids with potential work items.  Please just hang on to the unused items for future lessons.  Not going head is also important, as many items in their kits are layered for different, future lessons.  Lastly, please turn in any assignments your child worked on when you pick up your new materials.

I guess that’s about it for this week’s update.  I hope you are all doing well, and make an effort to stay cool this week, as I hear it’s going to be a hot one!

Eric Wachter

August 17th, 2020 – Zoom! Here we go!

Hello Families!

I hope you all had a nice weekend, and your children are ready to start a new week of school!

This week, we will continue to ease our way into the school year with more “get to know you” activities and procedural lessons.  It will be VERY interesting seeing how all of this meshes with in-class and out-of-class learners being together for the first time this week.

Please, please, please be patient with me as I learn this process.  There will no doubt user errors, connections problems, glitches, etc.  But, we will figure it out! 🙂

Below are a couple of links that will hopefully help you and your child navigate the week.

Joining a Zoom Meeting

Parent Quick Card

If your child is a Zoom-In learner, I can’t wait to see them!  The link below is a general framework for the weekly schedule.  If your child has an extra class like speech or ELL, I will likely put a separate link for their schedule here, as well.

Zoom-In Schedule-August 17th to 21st 

JaMarkus Gooch Zoom-In Schedule-August 17th to 21st

Tomorrow morning at 9:00, have your child follow these steps (also provided at the top of their schedule) to begin the day…

1) Go to Portal

2) Click on StudentVUE

3) Click “Join” button for Mr. Wachter’s class meeting

From there, I will admit them to class.  It’s that simple!  Okay, famous last words.  But it should be simple.  Ha!  Again, we’ll figure this out as we go!

I think that’s it for now.  Please don’t hesitate to email me if you have any questions.  Thanks for reading and have a great week!

Eric Wachter

August 7th, 2020 – Welcome to the 2020-21 School Year!

Hello Families!

Thanks for stopping by your chid’s class web page!  Please take a tour, click on the tabs, and see what resources this site has to offer.  I will do my best to update the site weekly throughout the year, so you might consider bookmarking it for quick reference.

Welcome Video

Welcome Letter

Enjoy the last few days of summer, and I look forward to seeing your kids next week!

Eric Wachter