Seabury Middle School - Digital Parent Night part 2

How to Upload a Math Assignment Using the Google Classroom app and Smartphone or Tablet with Camera

Some students are still struggling to post math assignments correctly. This is the easiest way to do it.

Ways We Can Communicate

The following video is just a reminder of all the ways you and your student can communicate with us about assignments, worries, concerns, and to get help.

Seabury Middle School: A Digital Parent Night - Post 1

We thought it might be helpful to share some information about what digital school looks like and some tips that might be useful to parents when navigating the at home aspects of digital schooling.

Thank you!
First and foremost, thank you for everything you are doing to help digital schooling run smoothly. We are so appreciative of your communication, your time, and your patience. Thank you, thank you, thank you! We are so fortunate to be in this together.


How to Help Your Child(ren) Make Daily Schedules/Manage Their Time

1) See if they can do it on their own--this is a great learning experience, and we are here as a safety net. They might have some missed assignments and meetings, but better to learn how to mange their time now than later. They will be okay. We are being really flexible during this transition.

2) They have made the transition pretty seamless and are mostly managing their time well in terms of assignment completion.

3) Google Classroom connects to Google Calendar, and that is a great tool!

If the video does not work, I am also sharing it as a Google Drive link:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=16GbIpZRnF-J0kylWJWk3Bvnr5sASoPLK


Attendance and Flipgrid

1) Flipgrid is an app the teachers are using, but that students do not need to download (unless they are using it on a phone or ipad instead of a computer).

2) The only people who can access our Flipgrid our people with seabury.org email addresses.

3) Right now, students are using flipgrid to post "morning talkings," which we are using in place of morning journaling. We will likely also use it for classwork in the coming weeks. In the past, some students have used it for current events assignments in social studies, for example.

4) Attendance: We are checking students in each day by whether or not they having completed morning talking by noon. It would make things a little easier if they could try to make sure they do that. If they do not submit it by noon, Jenn and Gabrielle will contact you and them.

5) Students should not share any other students' images or videos from flipgrid without explicit written permission from the other students' parents.

6) Here is what Flipgrid looks like:

Prioritizing Deep Thinking and Skill Building

Right now, we are trying to lower students' workload as compared to before the school building closures: they do not have homework in addition to school work, and they should have a little less than a full day's work load. In part, that is because sometimes assignments take longer at home. In part it is because families have a lot going on right now, and some students are spending a good portion of each day helping younger siblings with their work or doing tasks for their families.

At the same time, we want to make sure our students are still feeling challenged and having opportunities to engage in thoughtful and meaningful learning. We are also highly aware of the skills they need to continue moving forward academically. As we continue with digital school, we continue to prioritize necessary skill building and work in accordance with best practices in gifted education and learning sciences.

If you feel like your child is taking an extremely long time to complete work or is overwhelmed, please email us and let us know (or have them do that!!!). It is possible that a quick conference with us can help them with time management and focus. It is also possible that your middle school aged child is extremely adept at switching between a game screen and word: we have become experts at identifying the signs of screen switching. Perhaps you will too! Remember: this, too, is a learning opportunity.

Tune in for post 2:

Turning in Photos of Work (Mostly for Math): Tips and Tricks

Avenues of Communication

Dystopian Literature

In a recent conversation with a middle schooler about the role of the teacher in a project based learning school, the student said, "So, you are the back seat driver to my education."

The more I think about it, the more I feel like he hit the nail on the head.

As we have worked to make school remote, that conversation has been in the back of my mind. How are we, as teachers, coaching the students to continue being in the driver's seat. What opportunities are we giving them to discover themselves as learners. Where do we need to push and where do we need to let go a little?

Teachers should consider themselves life long learners, and this national switch to digital schooling exemplifies the strength of the teaching community: teachers who love technology have embraced the switch and gone out of their way to provide resources and assistance to novices. Novices have put their toe in the water and slowly waded in. The national teacher community is modeling project based learning for students on an enormous scale.

In an exploration of new tools and technological resources, I have made a commitment to expand my digital repertoire and learn some skills I have always wanted to learn because they seem like they would be so helpful to students.

Over the course of the past month, students have inductively identified major characteristics of dystopian stories. While reading "Harrison Bergeron," watching Wall-E, and reading Fahrenheit 451, the students observed common characteristics. Then, through discussion, they honed their ideas. Today, I asked them to post their findings. As the posts came in, I realized that their collective ideas deserved more than to just sit in our class notes document waiting to be used as a resource for when the students write their own dystopian stories.

To that end and in the spirit of being a lifelong learner, I learned how to make an infographic. I used a design rubric that an art teacher friend made with me years ago, and I set to work.

Now they can see how professional their trend assessments look when presented in this manner, they can use the information more easily when crafting their own stories, and they have a starting point to use when creating their own future infographics. I have no doubt that they will surpass me.

Made with Visme Infographic Maker

Out and About in Tacoma: A Recess Walk to the Spanish Steps

At Seabury Middle School, we have the chance to be out and about in Tacoma, and now that spring is springing and the weather is pleasant, we sometimes take walks during recess.

This week, we visited the Spanish Steps, and students asked questions about the Spanish Steps in Rome. Last week, we went to the Bridge of Glass, but I forgot to take photographs (sorry!).

It was a beautiful day for some sunshine. The walks are also a healthy way to add movement into our day and give students space to think and interact outside of the school's walls.

They have the chance to enjoy each other's company,

and talk with their teachers outside of academic contexts.