Good evening, Parents and Students!

Thank you, parents, for “meeting” with me today!  I hope I was able to put many of you at ease about what is going to be expected of your children in the upcoming weeks.  They have been learning and working all year long on how to use their time wisely and to work independently.  They can do this!!! I suggest that you have your children walk you through their student portal and have them show you the following apps: Google Classroom (where I will be posting their assignments), Google Drive (where they may have to create a new document to submit into Google Classroom), Think Central (Go Math – where they will find their assignments for the Personal Math Trainer), Synergy (where they will check their emails and see their grades), HMH Sam (Reading Counts), IXL (practice for math, reading, science, social studies), McGraw Hill (Wonders – where they will find their assignments for the stories that they are working on).

Also, I heard today that a teacher was having a Zoom meeting with her class and someone hacked into the meeting and started shouting profanities at the teacher.  Somehow people are getting access to Zoom links and passwords.  Please do not share these links and passwords with anyone.  I also hope that students can either have their names or their parents names on the screen so that I can allow them into the meeting.  When there are nicknames or generic names (ie. iPad, iPhone, etc.) I cannot tell who that is and I will not allow them into the meeting.  I don’t want to risk the chance of allowing someone into the meeting that doesn’t belong.  I hope that you understand that this is for the protection of your children.  I will also lock the meeting as soon as it is scheduled to begin, so please have your children get into the habit of being ready at least 15 minutes ahead of time.  I usually begin the meeting (on my end) about 15-20 minutes ahead of time so that students can get situated.  Surprisingly, there are students ready to enter the meeting.  I love that punctuality mentality!!!

We will have our optional Funny Friday Zoom meeting tomorrow and students can wear their SL spirit wear (if they would like).  Students can share 2 funny jokes or riddles, or they can just hang out and listen.  Students did an excellent job practicing their Zoom Expectations on Wednesday.  Next week is Spring Break, so we will not have any scheduled Zoom Meetings. We will resume our optional Zoom Meetings the week of 4/13 – 4/17 and we will meet at 9:00 am.  We’re going to practice for the real thing which will be happening the following week.  Yikes!!!

When your children need to access their portal, please make sure that you are signed out of any gmail accounts.  This will make it difficult for students to log into their accounts.  The easiest way for students to gain access to their portal is through the Stone Lake homepage at http://blogs.egusd.net/stonelake/ and scroll down a bit. You’ll see a blue box on the lefthand side that says “Class Link Portal” and you’ll click on that box.  Students will then be prompted to provide their information.  This is the same information that they have been using since 3rd grade, so they should have it memorized by now.  If they don’t, please contact me.

Some families have been asking about books for their children to read.  Students have accounts through a site called Epic (online library) which I set up for them, so an email was sent to you inviting you to create an account for them at home. Please make sure that you check your junk mail for the email. Hopefully this will help with the book issue.

I think that I have covered a lot already and I am so sorry that many of my emails have been long.  I just want to keep all of you as informed as possible.  I want this transition to be as smooth as possible for everyone involved, especially my students.  If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me.