Ms. Karen's Blog

Hello Families!

I hope that you are all well and that you know how much I miss and care for each of you!

New Packets

New packets are available to be picked up during office hours.  Please come by and get the final packet for your child.

Student Items

Please pick up your child’s items from the school.  They are in bags lining the front hallway.  Items will be donated or thrown away soon.

Turning in work

Please send me a picture of your child’s work chart as documentation of work completed.  These should be turned in every Friday.  You can email me the picture or send it through Remind.

Conferences

Please visit Track it Forward to sign up for a time to hold a Zoom Conference meeting with me!  These are held on May 19-21.  If there is another time that is more convenient for you than the ones listed, please contact me and we will schedule a time.

Zoom Meetings

Zoom Meetings are held every Tuesday and Thursday.  Please see the following attachment:

Topic: Class meeting
Time: May 5, 2020 01:00 PM Mountain Time (US and Canada)
Every week on Tue, Thu, until May 21, 2020, 6 occurrence(s)
May 5, 2020 01:00 PM
May 7, 2020 01:00 PM
May 12, 2020 01:00 PM
May 14, 2020 01:00 PM
May 19, 2020 01:00 PM
May 21, 2020 01:00 PM
Please download and import the following iCalendar (.ics) files to your calendar system.
Weekly: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/tZ0td-yoqjIoG90fFizibGMtUaBimfPayXLM/ics?icsToken=98tyKuGhrjsvGtCcshiORpx5AoigZ_TwiFhBjfoNmjnsGSlRRS7iA-NgO795INnJ

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89005049219?pwd=OVNNaEd6eGFZcjlNVUtjc2U2NlR5UT09

Meeting ID: 890 0504 9219
Password: 4VtcdN

Hello families!

Our Governor, Gary Herbert, has released a video addressing Utah students. Please view this link.

Hello Families!

Here are a few updates for the coming week.

Zoom Meetings:

The survey indicated that 1:00 is the best time for most families.  We will have two zoom meetings, Tuesday and Thursday, at 1pm.  These meetings will be every week until the last week of school, when Conferences are scheduled.

End of Year Conferences: 

Conferences will be held on May 19-21.  Please visit Track it Forward to sign up for a time.  We will conduct Conferences over zoom or the phone, please list your preference when you sign up.

3rd grade bridging:

Our community is the process of developing plan to honor our students who are bridging to the next level.  We will make those plans known to you as soon as they are finalized.

Phone/ zoom appointments:

You can sign up for a phone/zoom appointment on Track it Forward.  These are one on one times for you or your child to get support in any way.  It’s also a great chance for me to check in!

Packets:

A new packet will be available for you to pick up next week.  Please follow procedures in the MMA Montessori Moments and remember to pick up your child’s belongings if you have not already.

MMA Montessori Moments:      Please visit this link to view the most recent school newsletter.

Most Important!

Please take good care of yourself!  You are working hard and your work makes a difference!  Your children are always learning and right now, they are learning from your example.  It is so powerful to demonstrate for them how to pair hard work with breaks and self care.  If your family needs anything, please contact me!  I am so happy to help.

Thank you so much for your hard work and support.  As always, you can reach me through email or Remind.

Hello dear families!

I hope that you enjoyed Spring break!  My family and I started a new tradition of making Easter houses (like gingerbread houses).  Here is my springtime farm: 

We also planted flowers and cleaned out the garage!  

As the threat of the coronavirus comes closer to our community, my thoughts and prayers and with my students and their families.  There are also so many families who are experiencing difficult circumstances in addition to our shelter in place order. As a classroom community and family, please join me in sending them thoughts of peace and love.  

Items of business: 

1. Heggerty– Videos made by the teachers are available on the lower el blog: http://blogs.mariamontessoriacademy.org/lowerel/ There is a video for each day of the week.  Students have been doing these exercises since the beginning of the year and are capable of following the teacher independently.
2. Packets and student items- Packets for students are in a file box outside our classroom door.  There are also bags with each child’s name on them full of student belongings. Please check the lost and found basket for any items that may belong to your child.
3. Phone calls- Please sign up on https://www.trackitforward.com/user for a phone call.  I can answer questions, check in, and even chat with your child!
4. Work charts- students are not expected to turn in work.  Instead, please take a picture of their workchart and email it to me or turn it into the school.
5. Zoom meetings- We will hold a zoom meeting on Thursdays at 2pm.  This is a chance to check in, say hello to friends, and reconnect with our community.  I will send out further details through Remind.
6. Remind- If you have not gotten into Remind, please contact me.  Remind is an app that allows us to communicate through text.  

Finally, please take good care of yourselves!  I am eager to help in any way I can. Our school counselor is also available.  There is a section of the most recent MMA Montessori Moments with directions on how to contact her and how she can help you and your family. She is an amazing resource!

Thank you for your support!

Ms. Karen

March 25, 2020

Dear Wonderful MMA Lower El Families,

We hope this email/post finds you and your family well. As your teachers and as a school, we have been thinking about you and working hard to support you as you undertake this new distance learning adventure with us. Thank you for all your hard work and patience as we get everything figured out and put together. Your continued support is greatly appreciated and does not go unnoticed. So thank you.

As a lower elementary team, we are sending this to give you updates and reminders about what we are doing for your child’s education at this time. Please continue to check our lower elementary blog for online resources to use with your child. The blog site is http://blogs.mariamontessoriacademy.org/lowerel/. Here you will find the main digital resources we are utilizing as a team to monitor your child’s work and progress. The main ones we will monitor are Imagine Learning Reading and Math, Reading Horizons, and Khan Academy. We encourage you all to take advantage of these as much as you can. You can find all the login information under the Language Arts and Math tabs at the top of the blog site. You will also find lots of other great resources under the other tabs. 

While we are excited to use these sites, we also understand that for many of you there are limitations in regards to technology use. We know that some of you only have access to one computer to share among many children or have limited access to the internet. To help with this, we are also providing hard copy packets for you to work on with your child. These include math, reading, writing, and other fun ideas. With the news of our school continuing soft closure until May 1, we will be making packets for the month of April. At the beginning of last week, you were asked to let your teacher know if you wanted one of these packets. A new packet for all 4 weeks of April will be made for all who already requested a packet. We are working hard to have these packets available for pickup starting this Thursday, March 26. If you are able to pick up your packet this Thursday or Friday, that will be great. Otherwise, you can get it after spring break. As a reminder, school office hours are Monday-Friday, 9 to 11 a.m. and 4 to 6 p.m.

If you did not respond in needing a hardcopy packet and have changed your mind, please email your teacher. If this is the case, your packet may not be ready until after spring break.

We have also created a new work chart that will be included in the packet and will be posted on the blog. We are not asking that you turn in any of your child’s completed work but that you mark off on the work chart when they have done a work. We have also included a suggestion of how many times a week to do the work as well as a suggested amount of time for it. You can turn these in every two weeks by bringing them to the school and putting them in your teacher’s basket, taking a picture and emailing or sending it to your teacher via Remind, or just sending a message with the works your child has done. This is how we as a lower elementary team will be keeping track of your child’s completed works as well as monitoring online progress. Just be mindful that as teachers we are not going to be in the school daily so we may not get your hard copy work chart the day you turn it in. Please use the work chart to guide which works you use from the hard copy packet.

We will also be touching base with you weekly to provide you and your child with feedback. Please watch for an email or blog post from your teacher as to how they will be doing this. It may be through an email just to you or even a phone call. Each teacher will decide the best way for them and your class.

As always, we are available to support you through email and the Remind app. If you contact the teacher with a question or concern, you should hear back from them by 4:00 p.m. during regular school days. Since next week is spring break, we ask that you as parents take a break with your child and allow for time to relax. As teachers, we will not be available during this week so please do not expect replies or feedback until the break is over. 

As always, thank you for all you do. Stay healthy and safe. 

Sincerely,

Lower Elementary Team

Hello Everyone,

I hope this post finds you well. I know things have been stressful in this unknown time with new things that we have never experienced. It is definitely a strange and even stressful situation we are in. I hope you are all able to take some time to relax and take care of your families.

With our temporary school closure, as a lower el team we have put together some amazing resources for you and your child to help ensure that they can continue learning and progressing as they have been this year. As a lower el team we have created a blog that will have all the digital resources for you to use at home. Please take advantage of this and use it daily. We will also use this blog to update you on any info we have and any new resources we have. The link for the blog is: http://blogs.mariamontessoriacademy.org/lowerel/. Please register for the blog using the Subscribe to this blog link to the right of the page. You may still receive updates and emails from your teacher via their personal blog, but during this time of school closure, this will be our main way of communicating. 

For those of you that also requested physical works to do with your children, you can pick those up beginning tomorrow, Wednesday, March 18. You can pick them up between 9 and 11 a.m. or between 4 and 6 p.m. These are the times the school will be open during regular school days. 

Please utilize the workchart to track the work you are doing with your students. This is something we use at school and will help keep them slightly normalized through all this chaos. We appreciate all your help and work with this. 

Take care and stay safe and healthy.

Ms. Karen

Please visit this link for the most recent MMA Montessori Moments.

It’s time to order your yearbook!  Please check out this flyer that contains a link to order online.

GET YOUR YEARBOOK NOW (1)

Every student took home a form with the following letter.  Please know that I am so grateful to work with your precious children and will support any decision you make that you feel is best for your family.  Please contact me if you decide to keep your child home so that we can formulate a plan of support.

Take care and stay healthy!

Ms. Karen

Hello dear families!

March 12, 2020

Dear Parent and or Guardians,

Today Governor Herbert held a news conference about state guidelines regarding Covid-19.  The following were recommendations:
*Groups should be restricted to under 100 (social or religious).
*Compromised health groups of 20 or less.
*Good hygiene practices should always be followed.
Followed by the State Superintendent of Schools that recommends the following for schools:

*Schools should be a case by case decision for closure after consulting with local health officials            (Weber Morgan Health Department)
*School trips should be cancelled for a minimum of the next two weeks. To be evaluated later after   the two weeks.
*Schools should emphasize and model good hygiene practices.
Maria Montessori Academy will continue to have school as scheduled.  We respect the rights of parents to decide what is the best health practice for your family.  We will work with you regarding your decision.  We will be cancelling or rescheduling the following:
*All field experiences – ie Alliance Redwoods, Junior High Intersession, 9th grade field trip, Ritchey    Science Fair, Regional History Fair.
*School events – ie  MMA Gala, March 21, 2020 @ the Timbermine Restaurant.
If children are sick, please do not send them to school.  If they come to school and express they do not feel well, they will be sent home immediately, without repercussion of absence.
If you are in a position to do so, we would gladly accept donations of additional hand sanitizer, tissues and disinfectant wipes.

Best regards.

Mike Geilmann
Director
Maria Montessori Academy