Are you doing the weekend blitz? Started already…two prompts… 
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Missed it - will join. Soooooo many Zoom calls yesterday & today.
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Still so many masterboards being made! I’ll host a masterboard swap as soon as we get the a-okay for general swapping to begin. In the meantime, keep making and practicing!
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First 16 of 86 postcards to my students. Marabu art sprays for backgrounds, Dina Wakley stamps and a few pigeons for fun. These are for the Pre-K class - I’m asking them to make a postcard to send to school. It can be for any teacher or to send to their grandparents or neighbors.
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Prepping birds for the 4 year old class’ postcards. The paper is the overspray from making the backgrounds. This bunch will be 24 cards.
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Oh, I love these! They are so bright and beautiful!
Thanks. I thought an old school
approach to counteract all the digital content going out.
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There is zero digital content going out here yet. If I don’t stand over the children and make sure they are doing something, they are not doing anything educational at all. My daughter who is in 7th grade was doing kindergarten math the other day. Ugh! I hope the board sends some mandatory something out soon!
She did write letters to 5 friends though. We send a lot of mail here 
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OK those people stamps are awesome! I gotta get them
The postcards are so pretty!
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If I got a postcard from my teacher like that I would be so happy! Good job!
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I had planned to make another masterboard today for this weekend’s blitz, but school stuff got in the way today (still texting with some people). I even got up early today to get stuff done before my first meeting. So, I’ll do it tomorrow, and while it’s drying, I can plan my cards.
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I can’t believe that the teachers aren’t sending stuff. My older sis teaches 3rd grade and she Zoom calls each student all 5 days. She is only sending out 1 lesson per day because some of her kids would finish the whole curriculum in a week. My younger sis is a special needs teacher assistant so she is helping her coworkers with their output - but most of their work is hands-on so who knows what affect it is having. And I’m a preschool director so I am helping all 4 classrooms but I don’t really have a direct role in making content - hence the postcards.
Thanks. I love those quirky stamps too but while digging thru my box of Dina Wakley stuff, I rediscovered the birds and the hearts
And shhhhh, don’t tell anyone, but I ordered the sprays. They are supposed to arrive today!
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Thanks!
We’re getting a lot of mixed messages from above. First it was “Load them up with work!” but “Make sure it’s only review!” Then it was “Don’t grade it but it can be extra credit!” Soon followed by “It can’t be graded at all. It’s only enrichment.” Now we’re at “You can give them credit for it… but not an actual grade… and if they don’t do it, it doesn’t count against them,” and “Give them their work for the week, but no more than 20 minutes a day, and try to limit the online time… and stagger your content so they don’t get all subjects at once.” And finally, “It’s okay to give them new content… but you’ll have to reteach it all when we go back!”
So we’re still trying to figure out a balance using what we have available, keeping in mind the A) limitations that families have with technology (especially with multiple kids at home and/or parents who are working from home) and B) stresses that many families are under by being out of work, worrying about family members etc. and C) challenges that some kids have academically and trying to find a way to engage them without overwhelming them. It’s much harder than I expected to navigate the situation. I’ve adopted the attitude of “Here’s work, and if you can do it, that’s great. If not, I’m assuming there’s a reason beyond my control (and I have so little of it right now). We’ll sort it all out eventually…”
We also can’t use Zoom because of privacy issues, and we’re not allowed to do a Google Meet with individual students- it has to be a group. And, originally we were told we couldn’t even do that because of the age of our students (middle school). It’s very hard not to be frustrated by the almost daily changes (parents are frustrated, too). But, I have to remind myself that the administration is figuring this out right along with us, and they’re waiting on instructions from the state, and then have to interpret things for the district. Some of those state communications are a bit vague, at times.
It’s definitely a challenging time in so many ways…
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I am fine with work being assigned, then I can just be the checker to see it gets done, I don’t have to plan everything. Those kids don’t want me telling them what to do, it’s enough I am the boss of when they get up, what they eat, when they shower, etc. They will not also take a lesson plan from me. Somebody else has to assign that work. It doesn’t have to be in person, video chats or whatever. A list would be grand and a link to some actual work. Khan academy is an unpleasant maze, ugh.
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It’s definitely unfair for teachers to expect you to come up with the work! We have to be available to answer questions, and I even provided a phone number for my students to use if they have questions (so far, only a couple of parents have called me). We have an online learning “database” that we can use, but for science, it’s not a perfect match, so I can’t rely on it as my mode of instruction. This weekend, I have to put together my plan for the week to “teach” the kids about weather fronts. But, I need to figure out some things that they can do while not being on the computer.
Fortunately, I can use the upcoming ATC Blitz to give me a break from that!
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We have nothing so far, it’s so demoralizing. Especially for the teenager who was doing his last 3 credits before grad.
That makes me sad. We’re still getting paid, so we have ean expectation that we’re providing work and interacting (on some level) with our students. Can you reach out to the school principal?
It’s created such turmoil for graduating seniors at the HS and College levels. Our 8th graders are disappointed that their trip to Washington DC was cancelled (our 6th grade trip was also cancelled), and it’s possible that other things will be too. It seems inconsequential, but in their world, it’s a big deal.
I will get the winner for the tm challenge shortly!
Can yall remind me of some other artists we had talked about doing future challenges of. I’d like to do one of the artists who paints ladies faces a lot. I can recall the names. Dina walken or something like that.
I also stumbled across this artist and her very simple tutorial https://youtu.be/JE33nt13sbI