Tuesday March 31, 2020

Hi all,

Spring hopes eternal
 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_OQ2mTwf8zb2NtCgfYWXDRcnb44B5yBDi33_KwmCauk/edit?usp=sharing   check out the pictures of spring

Again, because of the delay in forwarding the blog to email and twitter, I will post two days ahead of schedule, so today I will post Wednesday and Thursday. Please understand that we update the Google docs, so it could change if you open it too soon. It will be fully updated by 8 am on the day at the top of the schedule.

Wednesday schedule
Thursday schedule

News from Physical Education

We meet tomorrow at 9 am for CPR and Friday, we will meet at 10 am to try to accommodate some students who cannot be there at 9.  Ms. Lamb is still working on the small group meetups. Hopefully, those will start Wednesday.

Tomorrow is April Fools Day...which reminds me of the Fools Fest in Burlington (not happening, of course) but I found this cool video of Cirque du Soleil.
Recommended watch
Cirque de Soleil

Song of the day

Monday, March 30, 2020

Team Aurora has a new blog post!

Hello Aurora,

I just mistakenly published Tuesday, before Monday...so that is why you may have received a blank blog. Anyway....

I swear we maintained 6 feet or more apart the whole time.

Here is the schedule for Tuesday AND here is the schedule for Wednesday. It seems the blog comes late, so maybe I should post two days at a time. Just remember, the google doc gets updated up until 8 am the day it is for.

We had another great CPR this morning.

We discussed:

No more in-person school this year 

How we need to start more social meetups, so please send your ideas our way

Ms. Lamb is working on 4 person meetups for book talking...stay tuned for that

Emails went out Friday for missing work for Ms. Lamb...please check so you don't fall too far behind

A bit more on passion project ideas

Math exit tickets are due today (Monday). 

Ms. Roberge will start to put together small group meetings to help with Investigation 1. 

The new challenge of the week! :) Rube Goldberg Machines

Our next CPR is Wednesday at 9.

This week in LA we will be reading Harbor Me together (Ms. Lamb reads aloud, kids think and respond.) Ms. Lamb sent out a google form today about good times to meet as a small group for book talking (both about Harbor Me and the books you are reading on your own.) Kids, stay tuned on emails for more information.

District administration is meeting to give us more guidance on distance learning until the end of the year. Right now, we have no more information than you do. We just know it is happening. We know that there will be no SBAC tests and for right now, the goal is to keep reading, keep in contact and keep progress steady in math. We do not want anyone to be bored or stressed out, so please contact us if that is happening.

Reminder, I still have checks to return to folks for deposits paid for Ottawa. They are sitting safely at school, uncashed. I'm not sure when I can get them back to you, but your accounts will still have the money. If you paid cash, I might be able to get that back to you. Let me know.

Song of the day

Friday, March 27, 2020

Team Aurora has a new blog post!

Hi Team,

We are all reeling a bit from the news from the governor that we will not meet again in person this year, but the sunshine is helping, plus I participated in a huge Nest Wars Emergency Meeting argument which sounded a lot like I imagine the Constitutional Convention of 1783 sounded like, and I feel a lot better today.

Ms. Roberge and I are about to go for a ten feet apart walk in the intervale, so we will try to take an appropriately socially distant photo to post.

We are getting so good at meeting up and supporting each other. Please reach out to Ms. Roberge or me if you (kids or parents) are feeling overly stressed about any of the work on Seesaw or otherwise. We are very amenable to meeting with students on google hangouts or giving more time on assignments. So far the posts are amazing and the teachers' videos are getting better.

We will continue to make Thursdays a catch-up day. We also plan to do individual check-ins with kids next week.

Please have a restful weekend.

Here is a link to Monday's schedule.

Song of the day

Thursday, March 26, 2020

Team Aurora has a new blog post!

Hi Aurora!

If you are feeling overwhelmed by emails from google classroom (it emails every time a new thing is posted) you can turn off those emails. We try to post everything here and not email parents. We do send a daily email to the kids with the schedule and notes for the day. They can also reply with anything (question, joke, hello) to that email.

Hello Folks~

As you may be aware of already via the numerous email alerts which you can shut off by:

~ going to the classroom

~clicking on the three small lines in the top left corner

~ clicking on settings at the bottom 

~and then turning off email notifications on the top.

If I don't get around to posting on the blog until 8 pm (which happens sometimes), I have noticed that the email comes rather late...many hours later. Remember, you can always access the blog by going to the BRMS website, clicking above on classrooms and going to Aurora. Our classroom website is the blog. If you want to get super geeky, you can put it in your bookmarks bar.

As I mentioned yesterday, today was a catch-up day.  I will be reaching out to students that have not posted anything for the first three lessons of LA.  Students who were all on top of everything could spend more time on their passion project. Here is a cute video that some other teacher made, but sums it up perfectly.

We had an outstanding meet up this morning. Our next CPR meeting up will be Monday, March 30th, at 9 am. Kids, check your calendar for the invite if you have lost it or not seen it. First, open google calendar, go to the date, find the item, open it, click on join video meeting.

Adults, we are here for you too. Please feel free to email us with any question you have. We may not know the answer, but we will do our best.

Be careful out there.

Passion Project Video thankyou Ms. Wilson, whoever you are...

Song of the day

Wednesday, March 25, 2020

Team Aurora has a new blog post!

Hi Aurora,

Today we had our third online lesson for LA. Tomorrow will be set aside for catching up and working on our passion project (choice learning.)  I will be contacting anyone who is not finished something to see if I can help prod you along.

Codes to know:
dlp1546  - Epic books
crownclam4  - Scholastic
you have to email me for Biblionasium - each person is different

Now we feel more seriously homebound with the Governor's new restrictions.  I know some of you are running out of books, so check out the online sites.  Today, I was able to pick up a copy of Harbor Me, by Jacqueline Woodson, which will become our first read aloud novel (by melodious me as narrator). That was my library's last day of curbside checkout.

Here is a fun idea that Ms. Nicolle found. You might like it along with any other kids in your home.
Lunch Doodles with Mo Willians

Reminder to kids: we have a meetup at 9 am for CPR. I hope you can make it.

Parents and caregivers, remember that breakfast and lunch are available Monday through Friday for curbside pickup at BRMS and Jericho Elementary. This is for everyone.

Contact us right away if your computer is giving you issues. The helpdesk will come to the rescue, usually by trading computers with you at the lunch pick up station.

Here is tomorrow's schedule.

Happy home staying.

Song of the day

Tuesday, March 24, 2020

Team Aurora has a new blog post!

Hello Aurora,

Today we had a new required lesson in LA and Math. Students got to see Ms. Lamb and Ms. Roberge attempting to look normal while talking to a camera. We assume we will get better at this as time goes on.

It was wonderful to see so many shiny faces at our CPR meet up this morning. We had 25 kids and 3 teachers. I invited Mr. Nick for our meeting on Thursday, so maybe we will have 4 teachers. Mr. Nicholoson is our other CPR teachers and I'm sure he misses us as well.  We came up with some guidelines for these meetings (to make them go a bit more smoothly - like mute your microphone) which were sent to students by email.

One student claimed he was out of books (and knowing this student, I'm sure it is true,) so I will be talking with Mr. Hamilton and Mrs. Thompson about the possibility of some curbside novel pickups. My library in Burlington is doing this as is Deborah Rawson Library (click on the hyperlink for more information.) Don't forget about Epic, Sora and Audible choices as well.

Ms. Lamb and Ms. Roberge are currently wrapping up our phone calls to parents to check in and see if you are okay and answer any questions or concerns you may regarding online learning or the report card that just came out. If we don't hear back from you, we will reach out again by phone or email. It was lovely to talk with you and hear your bright and enthusiastic voices. We have quite a team.

Here is a note from Ms. Gomez (Art Teacher to the Stars)

Hello all, 

I hope you are all doing okay. 

This email is to notify you that I have created an art page for students.  You can add this to your blog or weekly newsletter.  The webpage contains class level pages as well as an optional projects page that I will continually add to.  It can be accessed on the BRMS main page under CLASSROOMS or here - BRMS with Ms. Gomez.   

Please be aware that Mr. Hamilton does not want kids to feel that they have to spend a required amount of time on art (even if they are in Quarter 3 with me); he would like art to be optional and it is the student's choice to participate at this time.

Hang in there...

Here is tomorrow's schedule


Song of day
What the World Needs Now Coronavirus prompts 70+ Berklee College musicians to collaborate on rendition of ‘What the World Needs Now’ (Video)

Monday, March 23, 2020

Team Aurora has a new blog post!

Hi Aurorians!

Today we got to have our first CPR. It was only moderately successful as, even though I carefully went through my list inviting everyone by email, some didn't get the email. Then, after I google-searched adding a list to Meet, I found out you do it through google calendar, so every one of the kids should have an invite for tomorrow at 9 am (trying an hour later to see if more can come.) It was so good to see faces again.

We started calling all parents today. We will get to you tomorrow if you haven't heard from us already. Mostly we are calling to check on parents. This isn't easy.  Here are some things to think about:

What if my kid spends all day google chatting on hangouts?
Maybe suggest a ten-minute break at the end of every hour to do google hangouts. Sometimes, it is helpful to contact someone to discuss the work, so check to see what is going on.

My student thinks they have so much more work than their siblings in other classes.
Haha. We all think we work harder than everyone else, so that is just your perspective. Remember, we are a bit ahead of the curve because we already had online systems in place. Other teachers are still setting things up, so their work will come. Also, you are just lucky that your teachers think so highly of your abilities. Ms. Roberge and Ms. Lamb are giving a couple days for people to finish assignments in the beginning. We contact you by email if you are not showing up. We contact parents after that.

How long should my student be working?
We expect about a half-hour on math and LA assignments, a half-hour of reading and up to an hour of choice time.  There is also a science moon journal. Ms. Roberge is trying to download an instruction video, so stay tuned for that. She said there was a video on Friday that could be watched and notes taken from.  I'm not sure how much time per day, but I think 15 minutes to 30 minutes per day.

What if I have a problem with my school computer?
Contact us and we will contact the helpdesk (you can also contact the helpdesk directly helpdesk@mmuusd.org)

Remember, we send out a schedule each morning by 8 am. Ms. Lamb and Ms. Roberge can be reached on email each day between 8 and 11:30 (quickly) and after 11:30, when we get back to it (we may be working on projects, giving feedback or eating lunch or on our own movement breaks, so feedback may be less prompt.) Kids and adults are welcomed to contact us.

Stay well. Wash your hands.

Tomorrow's schedule (will continue to be updated through the evening - maybe even into morning)

Song of the day
When Will I See You Again? - The Three Degrees

Sunday, March 22, 2020

Team Aurora has a new blog post!

Hi Aurora,

I hope you got outside today. I did. It definitely helps. I have also mastered the home practice yoga studio, so that is a good thing.

Ms. Roberge and I are meeting soon to plan the week. I will contact all kids at 8:00 am tomorrow. Here is the schedule (might be updated) for tomorrow that kids will get at 8:00. We will also invite any student who is available, to join us in a Google Meet at 8:15.

Here is a Biblionasium.com tutorial.
https://www.biblionasium.com/video

I'm going to watch this. I would love kids to join me if they want to,


https://www.cbsnews.com/news/steve-hartmans-kindness-101-online-class-on-the-road/
We'll show some of my favorite "On the Road" stories and talk about the lessons within.

Here is some news from Mr. Hamilton:

Please remind families that the district is providing lunch and breakfast
to any family in need of support.

              Food Service Pick up/Delivery Plan

.

Greg and Jenn have reached out to families and will be available to support any students who
might be struggling during this closure.  Please contact them if you have any concerns about a student’s
emotional needs.

greg.martin@mmuusd.org

jennifer.wisniowski@mmuusd.org

Students who are having issues with access should contact the tech department at helpdesk@mmuusd.org
                                         

Be well.
I wish you nothing but the Rockin Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu
Song of the day https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvJ78hYI6wk

Saturday, March 21, 2020

Team Aurora has a new blog post!

Hi everyone,
Since I am a writer at heart and always imagined myself starting a blog, I figure this is as good a place as any to start.

Even though it is the weekend, you will still get thoughts from me. Here goes.

Yesterday I moved much of my classroom to my home. I have whiteboards,  whiteboard eraser, whiteboard markers, colored paper (for inspiration), my journal, all my plants, my water bottle, and my favorite cup. It feels sad, but I'm not crying. Ms. Roberge tried to hug me and I had to yell at her "no hugging!" and we bumped elbows. Protocols are different now.

The sun is out today, so that is good. I will go for a walk and change my perspective. Then I will organize my office and take a picture.

Did you know:
-We will send out an email every school day at 8:00. It may have an invite to a Google Meet. It will have a suggested schedule for the day.
-You don't HAVE TO follow our schedule, but in order to count as a school day, you have to do the LA lesson, read and report on biblionasium, do the math lesson and do the surprise lesson of the day which will be either science or social studies. Each lesson is designed to take about a half-hour and you can do it any time during the day.
-We will also initiate fun meetups and activities, keep checking your email
-Most work is on seesaw.com and google classroom
-Everything you are trying your best at is good enough
-We will get through this
-We are here for you by email


song of the day Jon Gailmor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvIMdSWZ0Tc&fbclid=IwAR0xNzSL0ZlXU0WpY7RDLKJ0rz61t4GzKKDTsTqmuwWMMvkYyRE1ZkRn-z4

Audible just made a lot of titles available for free. Check it out
audible.com

Friday, March 20, 2020

Team Aurora has a new blog post!

Hello, my lovely online learners and families.

Today was our kick-off first day of online learning. If it didn't go perfectly, it's okay. We will get there.  Ms. Lamb and Ms. Roberge are planning to call everyone to check-in and we can hopefully answer questions. Please remember you can always email us. You can even email us and ask us to call you to figure something out.

Both Ms. Lamb and Ms. Roberge posted our first lessons today. They are all posted on seesaw.com, although math lessons need to access google classroom as well.  The first LA lesson was The Other Side - kick-off to social issues book clubs. Students were asked to watch the video read aloud and respond to the question. The answer length expectation is 100-300 words (don't count - just look at the examples already there.) There is also a math assignment and a science assignment. The lesson lengths will usually be about a half-hour including watching the lesson and responding.  Students should also be reading their own books (hard copy on Epic or Sora online or listening to audio) and posting on Biblionasium.com in the log and putting books on their virtual bookshelf and writing reviews. I had several questions about this today, but we are slowly working it out.

Now, students have the entire weekend to catch up on this. You can all continue to email us questions, but it is the weekend, so we may or may not get back to you right away.

School will not be easy to get into next week, so Ms. Roberge and Ms. Lamb spent some time there today getting anything we might need to teach at home and bringing home the fish and all the plants.

We will continue to send out a suggested schedule each morning. Students are welcome to adjust the schedule. We hope to start meeting for CPR with a group Google Meet. Students don't have to join. We will try to record it and keep it up all day.  Ms. Lamb will send out the schedule at or near 8 am each day.  Today a few students chatted with us on google hangouts and we had a couple of google meet meetings. I hope students continue to call each other and hang out on google hangouts.

We know this is stressful and we will be here for you virtually.


Song of the day

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FG1NrQYXjLU

Thursday, March 19, 2020

Team Aurora has a new blog post!

There is a lot of news today.

Tomorrow, we start our online learning. Students should make sure they have joined the Aurora online learning class. Codes were sent by email. Students need to remember to click the response button on the assignment before they respond. Otherwise, their answers will be hard to find, but they will be there.

Here is a link to a suggested schedule that we shared with students. The times are just suggestions. Students may adapt times.

After we get up and running, next week, we will start asking students for meetings using google hangouts. Occasionally we will post a live feed on Google Meet. We will tell the time, but we will also record it and students can watch anytime. The benefit of joining the live session is that students can add comments in the chat feed and we can answer them.

Ms.  Lamb and Ms. Roberge will hold regular "office hours" from 9 am to 11:30 am.  This means if you contact us by google hangouts or email at this time, we will reply to you within 15 minutes. Other times of the day, unless you have set up an appointment, you may not get such a quick response, but we will check periodically. The exception to this is tomorrow when we will be travelling to school at some point and will be away from the computer for at least a half-hour.t

Ms. Roberge and Ms. Lamb will be calling each of the parents over the next few days. If you haven't heard from us by Tuesday, please email us. We will not be calling on the weekend. If you are not in when we call, we will set up a time on email when we can chat. We will discuss the online learning plans and answer any questions you have about report cards. Ms. Lamb is calling the first half of the alphabet and Ms. Roberge the second half. If you really want to talk with the other teacher, you can let us know and they will call you soon.

As you may have surmised, we will not be able to go on our trip to Ottawa in June. First of all, the border is closed right now, the University is closed right now and we do not know when we will be back in school.  None of your checks were cashed and will be returned to you. Those who paid cash, that is also set aside for you.  We will be working on some virtual tours and hope to plan some splendiferous events for the future.

Take care of yourselves!
Ms. Lamb

Info From Mr. Lee in the Design Lab...

"Current, past and future Design Tech Education students please check the following site for information and news regarding DTE work.  I will be posting vids and work for current students as well as challenges for any student who wants to do some design work on their own during our school dismissal.  Stay well." -Mr. Lee

BRMS Design Tech Remote Learning Page

Song of the day

Wednesday, March 18, 2020

Team Aurora has a new blog post!

Hi Team,
Here is Ms. Lamb, reporting from home. This is our "day off" before all the teachers get together to plan our distance learning. We will be at BRMS tomorrow meeting in groups of less than 10.  I think we are in a pretty good place because we already know how to use Seesaw.com and many of us joined our Google Meet conversation on Tuesday. Tomorrow I will work on inviting families to Seesaw.com, so you can look forward to that.

We will also work on a schedule to send to you and students that may help with organizing your day. We will also be sending students a daily email, so students should look there as well.

Luckily, the sun was shining today and it was pretty warm. I hope you got outside for some of the day.

We are still planning to check in with parents individually starting on Thursday.  It would be great if students could join to Aurora online classroom on Seesaw. All students were emailed directions for this.

Here is the song of the day.

The Galaxy Song - Monty Python

Tuesday, March 17, 2020

Team Aurora has a new blog post!

Hello Aurora,
This is Ms. Lamb reporting from home after our last day of human contact at school for a while.  Thank you so much to our Aurora Warriors who came today and helped Ms, Lamb and Ms. Roberge practice their distance learning projects.  Ms. Roberge had us try out a digital lockbox for math (warning - it's challenging but doable) and Ms. Lamb created her first video read aloud to kick off our social issues unit for reading. Both of these assignments will be posted on seesaw.com, which will be our digital platform. These will be our first Friday assignments. The classroom is called Aurora online learning and the code for kids to join is GYAO QFJG. I will also send this in an email.

Also, a big thank you to Aurorians at home that joined our meet conversation. We learned about a few problems with that which we will try to solve on Thursday. It was wonderful to see your faces.

I hope to post on this blog every day, so you can plan to look here. You can also get this in your inbox by signing up over on the right-side panel of this blog. Also, look for tweets.  I also plan to post pictures on our team Aurora Instagram which kids can see as it is public.

This is going to be new and not always easy. Here is a song for the kids out there.

Parents, we haven't forgotten about conferences, which were supposed to be this Friday. We will make every effort to connect with all of you by phone or email.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3hnKqWrSBw
I'll write to you tomorrow.
Ms. Lamb

Friday, March 13, 2020

Team Aurora has a new blog post!

This is certainly a stressful and uncertain time and we wish that you and all of your loved ones remain well. Due to all of the community closures due to the potential spread of the COVID-19 virus, we took the initiative to send home evidence binders, two novels, and instruments with students today.

Please find student evidence binders in their backpacks.  We spent a lot of time working on our reflection papers. Students should read that with you and go through the evidence in their binders. Make sure to look at the website online. We welcome any questions or comments. You can write them down in the binder or email us. Just let us know to look for the comments if they are there.

Next Friday, March 20, is the one half-day we have set up for parent conferences by the district. We will invite a few people to come meet with us if we have a concern or a follow up to discuss from earlier in the year.  Otherwise, if you can get by with an email conference update or phone call, please consider doing that. Contact us by email to set this up.

We began our social issues book study this week. Students took a pre-assessment using the story "What Are You, Anyway, by Lawrence Hill." This same assessment will be used at the end of the unit.  Students chose two social issues novels to read over the course of the unit. We will also be working in book clubs reading the same book and using some read aloud as well.

We have a new word study this week.

We presented our NHD websites on Wednesday. Students have access to all websites and can share with you. Students may make changes and upgrades on their websites until Wednesday when Ms. Lamb will assess them all.

We celebrated Pi day in math today (3.14 tomorrow.) In science, we continue with electromagnetism.

Please check your email for some information regarding report cards, which were mailed home today. Remember, expectations have risen.

Stay safe out there and look for emails from us soon.
CL/KR

Friday, March 6, 2020

Team Aurora has a new blog post!

Hello Team Aurora,

This short week flew by. We had two assessments, one in math on Thursday/Friday, and one in LA on Friday. This wraps up the second trimester.  You can expect report cards in the mail starting on Saturday, March 14th.

We will be making some specific invitations for parent conferences on March 20th, between 12 noon and 3:45.  If you feel a strong need to meet with us, we will be happy to arrange some day after school between 2:45 and 3:45.  Everyone will be bringing home their evidence binder next week with an extensive reflection. Please take some time to look these over with your student and let us know if you have any questions.

We are currently collecting a $40 deposit for our field trip to Ottawa on June 4th. Please try to have this in by Friday, March 13. Please let us know if you are having any problems with financing.

Coming up next week:

Word study is due on Thursday and a new one begins
National History Day websites will be presented on Wednesday
Moby Max: 30 mins each week
Math Menu items: Math pages in Variable and Patterns