From Your Administrative Team |
Greetings Connect K-8 and High School Families!
We hope that a few mornings of cooler, foggy weather are welcoming you into the fall season!
We want to celebrate you for all that you've accomplished this year, much of which happened in the last couple of weeks! In October alone, you have supported students in completing our first round of MAP testing, participated in and supported your students through their first Student Led Conference of the year, AND completed your first Learning Log of the year, using our new google classroom format! Whew. That is A LOT. Often times October points to one of the most difficult times of the year for educators (for a variety of reasons), and whether that resonates with you or not, you deserve the recognition for all that you've accomplished and continue to do to support your learner and family.
It is important to remember that rest and self-care are important, especially for care givers. It is not in addition to or to recover from work, it is part of the work. Rest IS productive. Please move rest to the top of your priority list as we move through fall and into the holiday season.
Thank you for all that you do!
Michelle, Marc, and Kaitlin
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Please note that Veteran's Day will be observed on Wednesday, November 11. This is a non-school day. Thank you, Veterans! |
Learning Log #2
If you have not joined your teacher's Learning Log #2 google classroom and started entering into your learning log, please do so ASAP! Reach out to your classroom teacher for any questions/support necessary.
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DV Connect Resource Site
Have you visited our Resource Site recently?! It has historically been facilitated and maintained by our FAN families, and has recently undergone some re-vamping! First, the site has now been changed to www.dvconnectresources.org to inclusively represent our K-12 population.
We have also password protected our resource site: DVConnect2021
A few (of many!) special things you'll find on this site:
- The standards for each grade level divided by learning logs for the entire year! (updates in process)
- Our School directory! This is how you can directly contact families in your student's classroom to connect...plan socially distanced play dates, virtual social connections, shared homeschool experiences, etc.!
- Resources curated by families for families that may be especially helpful during these times, including Nature-based resources and social justice resources!
- Archived blogs and newsletters
- A (soon to be) updated calendar of events
- Much, much more!
A HUGE thank you to our FAN families, Jen, Tasneem, Ahnnya, Lachmi and everyone who has contributed to the success of this resource site--truly a resource for parents, by parents!
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DV Connect Netflix Party Event: FAN’s Kindness Movement's Halloween Movie Night!🎃👻🍿
Lights...Camera...Action...and fun, spooky times ahead! Please join DV Connect's FAN’s Kindness Movement for a night at the movies presenting the sweet, animated films, Room on the Broom and Spookley, The Square Pumpkin for our younger kiddos, and the action-packed movie, Goosebumps 2 for our older kiddos!
*Room on the Broom is based on Julia Donaldson's picture book, telling the story of a kind witch who invites a collection of animals to join her on her broom, though her cat thinks it will be too crowded. Her new friends make themselves useful, however, when the witch is threatened by a fearsome dragon.
*Spookley The Square Pumpkin is about a friendly scarecrow and a spider duo who help an odd-shaped pumpkin overcome his feelings of feeling different from everyone else! Dare to be square!🎃
*Goosebumps 2 is rated PG and is about two best friends named Sonny and Sam. One day, they meet, Slappy, a mischievous talking dummy from an unpublished "Goosebumps" book by R.L. Stine. Slappy kidnaps Sonny's mother and brings all of his ghoulish friends back to life - just in time for Halloween.
We'll start the night on a Zoom Call on Friday, October 30th at 6:00 pm where we will have a Halloween sing-a-long with some favorite Halloween songs: "This Is Halloween" and "Ghostbusters" in this Zoom Room:
Netflix Halloween Party Movie Night Zoom Room:
Zoom ID: 739 1118 8084
Passcode: VT4HCF
The Netflix Halloween Party Movie Night Zoom Room will start at 6:00 pm, and then we will send everyone out to their movies and Netflix parties.
Grab your popcorn, get dressed in your Halloween costumes, and cozy up with our DV Connect community for this fun and interactive movie night for the whole family!
Hope to see and sing with you all there, and have a very happy and safe Halloween!🎃👻🍿
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Seeds of the Future Project
Calling for Volunteers!
The Seeds of the Future project is in need of volunteers who are available to support students in our Election Day Lighthouse. We are getting closer to our goal of supporting at least 90% of our age-eligible DVX student population to register and vote in this election! The Lighthouse is a Google Meet page where volunteers will commit to a 30-minute time slot to provide basic voting information to students and families. If you are interested in volunteering, there will be a Lighthouse training Tuesday afternoon from 3:15 - 4pm. Here is the Zoom link for the training.
Join Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 202 239 0007
Passcode: Habits
Our volunteers have created a wonderful Voting FAQ for volunteers to use during their lighthouse shift, and for YOU to share with your community! We want all voters to have the support they need on (and before!) election day!
As another way to share your support for our (many first time) voters at DVX, you can share your "I voted" sticker selfies with us on instagram! Use the hashtags #ivoted #dvx2020 and tag us @dv_connect to have your photo featured on our stories!
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Student Led Conferences (SLCs)-- HS families!
October 26-30
Please refer to your child's teachers/ information shared on Back to School Night for more information
We are so excited for the opportunity for students to "show what they know" with their families! SLCs are a signature practice that take place at all Da Vinci Schools and are also mandatory for all students. Even though we are living in a different and trying time, SLCs are so valuable that we are making space for them to be done well. Please look out for a separate blog post explaining how SLCs will work at the K-8 and the high school.
Please remember that SLCs are student led, so this means the focus is on student learning and sharing. This is different from a "parent teacher conference" where adults talk about students. At SLCs, students are encouraged to talk about what they are learning, where they feel strong, where they have room to grow, and reflect on how they feel about their learning. Dates below and more info coming from individual teachers:
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For K-8 Parents: The Parent Center at Da Vinci Connect
Google Classroom (Code = w3yytj2)
- There is so much useful content for families in the GC. Please share the code again! Sections include:
- Supplemental Curriculum offerings + links and login credentials
- Curriculum resources like webinar/workshop recordings, quick start guides and lesson planning tools
- Workshop dates/times and sign-up links
- Podcasts
- Links to articles and webinars + so much more!
Office Hours for 1:1 Meetings with Theresa
Workshops
- The following workshops have been held in September & October. Recordings have been posted in The Parent Center Google Classroom:
- Science 4 Us (K-2)
- ThinkCERCA Onboarding + Benchmark Assessments (6-8)
- ThinkCERCA Middle School Parent + Student Jam (weekly meeting on Thursdays from 1-2) hosted by parent educator ThinkCERCA “Champions” Laura Caputo, Lena Garcia & Jahmal Durham.
- Reflex Math (2-6)
- Gizmos Science & Math Simulations (3-8) - I am waiting to receive the recording from ExploreLearning
- Beast Academy Online + Data (Grades 3-5)
- MAP Scores 101: A Beginner’s Guide to Understanding Your Child’s MAP Scores
- Guided Reading Demystified (Grades 3-5)
What’s Coming Up on the Calendar?
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ThinkCERCA Middle School Parent + Student Jam (weekly meeting on Thursdays from 1-2) hosted by parent educator ThinkCERCA “Champions” Laura Caputo, Lena Garcia & Jahmal Durham. This will be an on-going space for parents and students to collaborate on writing using the CERCA Framework and the ThinkCERCA platform
- Use this link to attend the next meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87917820269?pwd=dmhIT3FpOWVjR0JLM1I2VEJwU3V5UT09
- Meeting ID: 879 1782 0269 and Passcode: thinkcerca
- Check out the Middle School Collaboration Padlet for details https://padlet.com/tleone8/gbrx4b6k32awqfcb
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ThinkCERCA Teaching Tune-up (monthly meeting for middle school parent educators to refine their ThinkCERCA skills, first Wednesday of each month)
- Theresa will host this meeting with our ThinkCERCA School Success Manager, Lauren Ross
- Upcoming meetings: Wednesday, 11/4 from 10:30-11:30am – repeats monthly
- Here’s the link to sign up: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C044BA8AF2EA0F85-thinkcerca5
- How to Create a Calming Plan: A tool from Happily Family
- This one-hour workshop will present Happily Family's tool to create a calming plan for the entire family. As they say, when counting to ten isn't enough we all need to have a protocol in place. The key is to work together when everyone is already calm to put a plan in place.
- Participants will have the opportunity to create a Calming Plan for their entire family, as well as learn strategies to implement it to support every member of the family in the just-right and just-in-time way!
- Use this link to sign up https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c044ba8af2ea0f85-howtocreate
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Student photos Ready Soon!
Thank you for your patience!
Within the next week, you will receive an e-mail containing a link and unique password to your child's individual photo gallery if they took a student photo with our photographer, Stacee Lianna! Please consider purchasing your child's photo! This not only supports a beloved small business owner, but it allows us to continue to use a professional photographer for all our student photos, events, etc.!
If your child did not take a school photo but you want them included in the yearbook, you will be able to submit a photo of them through our yearbook portal--more info coming soon!
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Yearbooks!
We have an incredible team dreaming up this unique year's yearbook for our K-12 students! Please provide your feedback on yearbook format and ideas HERE
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Wellness Wednesdays!
In celebration of Wellness Wednesday’s we have two Dare to Share challenges for parents and kiddos!
Share your favorite Exercise!
Physical activities are an important part of having a healthy brain..
Show us how YOU stay healthy!
~Challenge~
Create a 90-second workout routine!
~also~
Join us on our Dare to Share 'Padlet' and ‘Flipgrid’ video link to post something special about YOU! Take an opportunity today to break away from the madness and share a personal inspiration. This is the perfect time to be kind to yourself, by sharing something special about you!
Padlet:
Flipgrid:
password:
Dare2020
*Please Join our Google Classroom for upcoming Connect activities: z4vwsju
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Receiving our Blog?
We've entered parent email addresses to our K-8 and High School blog so you should now receive blog emails periodically (we've sent out 2 to each group so far). They arrive in your inbox like an email from "Da Vinci Connect" and the subject line is "Da Vinci Connect Updates" (K-8) and "Da VInci Connect High School Updates" (HS).
If you aren't receiving them, check your spam/clutter/junkmail box and if there's nothing there, try subscribing directly on our blog site (you can check back here periodically as well). Connect HS Blog found HERE and Connect K-8 Blog found HERE. |
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Connect with us on Facebook! |
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Have a great week!
~ Your DV Connect Team
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