Welcome to Room 16’s Distance Learning Classroom
Dear Room 16 Families,
Welcome back to school! I hope this letter finds you and your loved ones well and acclimating to our temporary norm of staying safe while at home. I was so saddened to hear that we would not return to school buildings this year, but my goal is to proceed with continuity of learning for our students. The McKinley teachers have been working hard to create online learning classrooms and attending trainings on how to utilize tech tools to support distance learning.
I acknowledge that distance learning cannot reasonably replace daily in-person instructional learning, but I’ll strive for learning to continue in developmentally appropriate ways, while being mindful of students’ health and wellness. I’ve included in this packet information about students participating in live Zoom learning sessions with the 3rd grade teachers, details about lessons/assignments provided through Google Classroom, parent communication, and IB unit focuses throughout the year. I am looking forward to a rewarding year with you and your child.
Let me introduce myself! My name is Katie Wagner. This is my 12th year of teaching. My first year of teaching was at McKinley back in 2009. Then I taught at Marshall Elementary in City Heights for four years, and then came back to McKinley in 2013. Before I began teaching, I worked as a Special Education Assistant in San Diego Unified School District.
I’m the proud mommy of three boys! My twin boys, Brendan and Drew, just turned six. They are in Kindergarten at McKinley. My older son, Cole, will be nine in a couple of days, and he is actually a 3rd grader at McKinley. My husband is a middle school Physical Education teacher in Vista Unified. Our family loves visiting the zoo, going to baseball and soccer games, watching hockey, and going to the beach! We are a very sporty family! I can’t wait to get back to an NHL hockey game.
I am so pleased to be your child’s teacher and we are going to have a great year. I love my job and it’s very important to me to build positive relationships with families. I completely understand that distance learning brings added stress into your household in which parents are concerned about their child’s academic, emotional and social development. I’m right there with you. Always feel free to contact me.
The 3rd grade team is exceptional, and we will plan together daily to provide an excellent education for all third graders. You and your child will get to know the other 3rd grade teachers at McKinley as well. You will learn about our wheel/rotation schedule soon. Below is an overview of what lies ahead for your student. If and when we return to school, I will send out a letter that addresses classroom information. Thanks!
Room 16 Information
Curriculum:
3rd grade teachers utilize a balanced language arts program, which includes reading, listening, writing, and oral language. A strong emphasis will be on reading fiction and non-fiction literature while learning new strategies and comprehension skills.
Students will have an understanding of large numbers, and practice adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing whole numbers. In addition, students will be learning about fractions, measurement and data, and understand the relationships between plane geometric figures.
The Social-Science units we’ll cover this year are: Geography, Community History, Government and Citizenship, and Understanding Economics. The Science units we’ll cover are: Forces and Motion, Organisms and Life Cycles, and Weather and Climate.
3rd Grade IB units: More information will be sent out about each IB unit in our monthly newsletter, but here are the topics that will be our focus for each unit:
* Who We Are... IB Learner Profiles
* How We Organize Ourselves... Economics
* Where We Are in Place in Time... Geography and Weather
* How the World Works... Heredity
* Sharing the Planet... Social Justice (our class focuses on People with Disabilities)
* How We Express Ourselves... Performing Arts
Communication with Families:
- Weekly Emails- I will send out at least one email a week with reminders about Zoom meetings, upcoming events, pacing guides, etc.
- Monthly Newsletter- The 3rd grade teachers will send out a monthly newsletter (around the first day of the month) that highlights our focus in each curricular area (i.e. Reading, Writing, Math, Science, Growth Mindset).
Daily Schedule/Assignments:
The week of August 31st will be a week of teacher and student training. During this time, students will only meet with me on Zoom from 9:45-10:45 for our Morning Meeting. The rest of the day will be spent in training sessions. All students will be trained in accessing sites and using platforms before we begin our formal instruction.
The week of September 8th, students will be ready to begin daily distance learning. Students will be introduced to 3rd grade schedules, and assignments in reading, writing and math. They will also be introduced to the extension activities.
The week of September 14th, students will begin rotations with their reading, writing and math teachers. I will be teaching writing, Mrs. Phillips will be teaching reading, and Ms. Chavira will be teaching math. All third grade classes will be rotating according to their “home room” schedules. I will share more information on this as we get closer to September 14th.
Below are two different daily schedules for Zoom and Google Classroom. Specific details about assignments will always be in Google Classroom. I will spend the second week of school getting the kids familiar with both technology tools, explain how to submit work, and paper vs. digital options.
Zoom Expectations:
Having lots of Zoom meetings can be mentally draining for both students and teachers, but hopefully with a consistent routine this Fall, students will be comfortable with the daily routines and understand how important it is for live learning sessions with the 3rd grade teachers. As a class we will establish our classroom rules or “Essential Agreements” collaboratively and each student will be expected to honor these agreements. Here is a list of Zoom rules that will be discussed:
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to be part of your child’s life. Children are our future and I take that responsibility seriously. I look forward to meeting each of you and welcome your participation in our classroom activities. I’m looking forward to a happy, fun, and productive year.
Sincerely,
Katie Wagner