Hello,

I hope everyone is doing well.  This will be my last communication on the blog for awhile.  I request that all families start checking their Synergy email at least once a day.  I sent an email to all families via Synergy.  If you have not done so please check that email ASAP and have your students accept my invitation to join my google classroom.  I will be training the class how to do distance learning in the next week or so and they need to be on my Google Classroom to participate in those trainings.

Good morning,

I sent out an email using Synergy to make sure I have your correct email addresses.  Please look for that email on your school Synergy account in ParentVue.  I will be touching base with you from email only soon and not this blog.  I already have parent email confirmation using my Synergy address from:

• Isabella, Ava, Nick, Caleb, Miguel, Ghianna, Jackson, Aidan, Tyler, Lena, Niko, Alijah, Xavier, Stanley, and Jude.

Good morning,

I sent an email to confirm everyone’s email addresses.  I have only heard back from 8 families.  It is important that you let me know that I have a way of contacting you because I will be communicating via email and not this blog shortly.  Please look for that email and respond.  Thank you.

Hello,

I hope everyone had a chance to read the email from the district. Let me know if you did not receive it. I know this is a challenging time for everyone and I can’t forecast what is to come with our children’s learning through the rest of the year. That alone can send families into a tailspin. Just know I have your back. My number one goal is to make this as stress free as I can. Take a deep breath as we move through this together. Your children are dear to me and I will be looking out for both their educational and emotional wellbeing.

PS Alliance money will be refunded. I do not know when this will happens. Thank you for you patience.

Hello everyone,

A very important email is being sent to you from the district.  If you do not receive it tonight or early tomorrow please let me know. The letter sets a calendar for the rest of the year. We will be on a Traditional calendar for the remainder of the year. It also has information about distance learning. I have no other information about what this will look like other than what your see in that email.  I am sure more information will be coming soon.  I have a lot to learn in the next several weeks before we start.  Wish me luck….. and of course hug you children for me.

Hello everyone,

I hope everyone is doing well.  I wanted to let you know that we are going to switch gears a bit. I am going to hold off on any recommending any new school work.  As you you know these assignments were not mandatory or going to be apart of your child’s grade. The district is hard at work designing distant learning that is equitable for everyone. As you can imagine this is a large endeavor and takes time. Please be patient and trust that our students are our number one concern.  I will be checking in on everyone and feel free to check with me via email.  Stay healthy.

Hello everyone,

A great math site for the students is Khanacadamy.org.  It is user friendly. It has designated grade level math lessons. It even has video tutorials for students to watch.  I would recommend only doing math standards that we have already learned until they are familiar with the site. Please start with ratios.

At this time students do not have AR access at home. I would like students  to start doing a running reading log.  Utilizing google docs, they can make an entry each day. They should read for 30 minutes a day. For the first entries this week I would like them to state the main idea from what they read that day. Please tell them to write the date and page numbers they read above each entry. I will be asking for them to send their reading logs to me in about a week so I can see how how they are progressing.

I am waiting for directives from the district about where we are headed with remote learning/teaching. I know they are working very hard to get a comprehensive program up and running. The ideas I am sharing with you may change as we progress. As with everything right now, it’s fluid.

Here  are a few of the science standards that I referenced in my previous blog. I have them very simplified so you don’t need to look them up:

GRADE 6
• How energy sources cause water to cycle through Earth’s systems. Convection currents.
•How the weather changes when air masses move and interact.
• Tectonic Plates and how the move on earth and types of volcanos.

Hello families,

I wanted to reach out and check in with everyone. I do not have a lot of information, but I have been feeling like I needed to see how everyone is holding up.  The kids are heavy on my mind.  I am sure they are enjoying the extra time off, although I am sure some of them are a bit worried too.  Alliance and school start up Monday are big question marks.  In the meantime, this could be a great time for students to gather some AR points and/or work on past math skills. The Go Math site is working  and ready for them to explore. If you need anything please reach out to me at cecastil@egusd.net.  I am checking my email several times a day.  I have faith this will all stabilize.  Tell the kids I am thinking of them and miss them.