Grade 3 Update

Here we are at the beginning of the fourth week on Remote Learning. Thank you so much for your cooperation and patience through this online experience. I have tried to make this experience as positive and interactive as possible for all of the students. Sigal and I are in our meets throughout the day to keep the students on track and motivated. I cannot even begin to imagine how difficult it has been to navigate work and the children’s school schedules. We can meet with your children 1:1 during the outdoor play period to help them with any work or assignments. Please send us a quick email, or have your child ask for help.

Each week I hope that this will be the last week, and each week I find myself back at the computer. Let’s hope the school reopens soon. I will be sending out a survey to gather feedback about our current schedule. Should we find ourselves in an extended period of remote learning, we welcome any feedback you may have.

                                                                  Student Blogfolios

We are about to launch our student blogfolios this week. I am as excited or possibly even more excited than the children. I know that the students will put more effort into their writing when they know more people will get a chance to read it. It is one thing to write a paragraph or story for the teacher. Writing somehow becomes more important when you share it with a greater audience. Grade 3 writing skills will improve! I have seen this happen with the class I worked with last year.

                                                                  Digital Citizenship
We are continuing our journey to becoming good digital citizens. We are practicing; in Google meets, Google Hangouts, and commenting on blog posts. I am happy to announce that the Grade 3 classes will be creating Public Service Announcements about digital citizenship.

                                                           Global Digcit Impactor Cohort

I am part of a global Digcit Impactor cohort. The purpose of this cohort is to bring educators from around the globe to learn and collaborate with the sole purpose of helping students become good digital citizens. It seems our Livestream presentation in the fall caught the attention of the founder of the Digital Citizenship Institute, Dr. Marialice Curran, and the CEO Belouga, Evin Schwartz. I met with Evin Schwartz in the fall, to talk about the wonderful things we were doing at OJCS.

Fast forward to the present day and I find myself a pilot project spearheaded by these inspiring individuals. For the past three weeks, I have been attending morning conferences and connecting with educators around the globe. We are sharing projects we want to do and ways we all collaborate. Dr. Marialice has been coaching me and she will come to coach our class one day soon on being good digital citizens. I am excited because even young students can become leaders and make a difference in the world. Our Public Service Announcements will hopefully include Hebrew, English, and French. These announcements will be seen by a worldwide audience. GO OJCS!