Virtual Academy - Week 1

Virtual Academy - week 1 was a tremendous success overall. Everyone had abbreviated schedules and had lots of time to get organized and settled into new platforms and use new tools.

Alex spent time of Google Meets meeting his teacher, friends, and principals. He got to work independently on a few activities and was introduced to seesaw - a wonderful platform for doing work.  We did a drive-thru supply pick-up and his bag was absolutely bursting with FUN!  He has math manipulatives, white board, playdough, bubbles, tracing pages, playdough mats, craft kits, backpack filled with goodies from PTA, math and EL packets in addition to the supplies we had ordered from EduKit (crayons, markers, folders, notebooks, etc.).  

Anna got very good at hopping on and off google meets, doing work independently and submitting online, accessing new websites and setting up her accounts and communicating with her teacher by email.  It was an incredibly organized week of introductions and laying a strong foundation for the the schedule and tools they will be accessing throughout the year.

 

Max and Kate worked through their whole schedule, meeting all their teachers, "switching classes", drive through distribution, virtual Meet the teacher, organizing their emails, binders, google docs and planners, setting up their google classrooms and going through their drive-thru distribution.  Kate was selected by her homeroom teacher for the "Twitter Challenge" so she got her name posted on the MPMS website (very exciting moment in our house).

In our down time from school, we were able to organize binders and supplies, go to our schools for drive-thru materials distribution and do drive-by drop-offs of homemade cookies to our friends' porches.  All this gave us a chance to "see" our friends and teachers and holler to them from a distance - all of which got everyone pretty excited about the start of the school year!