From Now Until Forever

Date
Posted by
Comments0

I’ve been meaning to update this blog for quite some time. For years, I would write daily posts here to detail classroom experiences, explain lessons, highlight student successes, and share resources.

This 2020-2021 school year has been a true growth experience for myself as an educator. Sudden shifts in how education must be delivered forced me to change my approach to delivering content online. I began to distance myself from daily blog updates as my time became consumed with navigating the rapidly evolving digital world through the eyes of an educator.  At the same time, I was forced to respond instantly to new local restrictions as wave after wave of illness descended on my tiny Ontario community.

This season of change and learning has been both the best and the worst experience of my career and perhaps of my life.

As I type this today, my vaccination date is fast approaching and I am well. I have weathered this difficult season and am emerging whole. I am wiser, happier, and more motivated than ever to use what talents I have to make a difference in the lives of those around me.

This leaves me at the point of reflection. How can I move forward? How can I best use what I’ve experienced and learned in the last year? How can I capitalize on the opportunity this pandemic has created for education to be reinvented?

I haven’t found the answers to these questions yet, but I’m getting closer.

In the meantime, I haven’t forgotten the joy this blog brought me. Nor will I soon forget my most treasured lesson with my class of 2020-2021: “If you want to change the world, go home and love your family.”

I haven’t stopped wanting to change the world, and I will continue to do so. Just as I will forever remember that at the end of the day, the most important thing I can do is simply to go home and love my family.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

The Last week of January: Check Out Notes and Learning Gallery

Date
Posted by
Comments0

Check out meetings are how we end a week of learning in our classroom. Everyone has a chance to share a learning memory from the past week and we sometimes have time to share learning wishes too. I pay attention to the things that stand out in student memories, and I try to make learning wishes come true. These are the notes from our check out meeting on Friday January 29th, 2021

Learning Links:

Sight Word List A

Sight Word List B:

Numbers to 200:

Writing Checklist:

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

The Third Week at home: Meeting Notes

Date
Posted by
Comments0

Check out is how we end a week of learning in our classroom. Everyone has a chance to share a learning memory from the past week and we sometimes have time to share learning wishes too. I pay attention to what things stand out in student memories, and I try to make learning wishes come true. These are the notes from our check out meeting on Friday January 22nd, 2021.

Team 2’s Top 5 links in 2021:

Join Eastdale in showing support for frontline health care workers. You can display blue hearts in your window to show you care.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

The 3rd week at home: Gallery Post

Date
Posted by
Comments0

Social Studies

Language

Math

Science

 

I’ve learned… 
MATH
  • I can measure anything! I can measure with standard units or non-standard units. I always put the number and the unit
  • I can use hundred charts or a number line to add double digit numbers.  I can use my own way too.
  • I can say big geometry words like: quadrilateral, parallelogram, rhombus, trapezoid
  • I know that 2D means 2 dimensional.
  • 1D is one dimensional. It is a line.
  • 2D is 2 Dimensional. It has lines in more than one direction.It is flat.
  • 3D  is 3 dimensional. It has lines in 3 Directions. Is solid.
  • It is the 79th day of school. It is the 13th day of learning from home in 2021
Language
  • I can read a book that is a slide presentation.
  • I can read a book from the reading portal.
  • I can choose books from EPIC.
  • I can hand in my work! I just upload it to the classwork tab.
  • I can tell Miss Versteeg about my work when I am having a hard time with handing it in.
  • Quotation marks show when some one is talking: “Get to work!”
  • Alliteration means words start with the same sound: Cool, Creative, Calm Clubhouse Crew.
  • I can do a form to tell my teacher what I think about when I am reading
Science
  • I know ways that humans harm the air in the environment.
  • I know ways that humans can help the air in the environment
  • I learned that masks work from Mystery Doug
  • I learned why snow is white from Mystery Doug
  • I learned where the coldest place on earth is from Mystery Doug
Social Studies
  • I know that continents are LARGE and I live in North America.
  • I know that a map needs a title, a compass and a key.  It needs to be neat, and I can use a ruler for lines and I can colour important things.
  • I know that oceans are LARGE
  • I know that the North Pole and South Pole are COLD.  I know that the Equator is HOT.  One reason that people from different areas have very different ways of life is  the different temperatures.
  • I know that I have a personal family history
  • I know the first and last names of my parents, and I will try to learn the first and last names of my grandparents and great-grandparents
  • I will ask my family to see if there are countries other than Canada that are important to our history.
Music
  • I can sing! I know the new words to O Canada “In All of Us Command”
  • I learned about new kinds of music, and what a famous singer named Dolly Parton sounds like.
  • I learned about instrument families, including brass, woodwinds and strings.
  • I helped make up new words to the McDonalds song so it would be about Listowel!
Health
  • I am staying safe at home.
  • I am waking up to go to school and taking breaks for activity and meals.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

January 11-15, 2021 Check Out Meeting Notes

Date
Posted by
Comments0

Check out is how we end a week of learning in our classroom. Everyone has a chance to share a learning memory from the past week and we sometimes have time to share learning wishes too. I pay attention to the things stand out in student memories, and I try to make every wish come true. These are the notes from our check out meeting on Friday January 15th, 2021.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

I Will Try My Best and I’ll Forgive the Rest!

Date
Posted by
Comments0

It’s blurry and It’s beautiful. It’s my Clubhouse Crew!

“I Will Try My Best, and I’ll Forgive the Rest!”

My class and I created a shared new year’s resolution for learning together in 2021.  “Try your best, Forgive the Rest”.

We’re only two weeks in, and every day of learning online proves to me that this was the perfect goal to set.

I’ve tried my best every day, and I’ve ended each day with many mistakes to forgive myself for!

Using Google Classroom has been a whirlwind learning experience for myself, my students and for their parents.  No one, myself included, had special training, and we’re figuring things out together. I make a lot of mistakes with Google Classroom every day.  But I get better at it every day too. So does my class.

I’ve  found it easy to forgive myself for making so many errors this week, many of which I probably don’t even know about.  Here is why: I work with an awesome Team. I work with a team of children and parents who care about me as much as they care about learning. And I feel the same about each and every one of them.

This week has shown me that on this special team, true caring and heartfelt understanding truly go both ways. My heart is full!

**Agenda writing is an end-of-day routine my class and I started on the first day of school in September. We are continuing to write short updates every day at home. I do not often share what I write, but I thought I would today.  It’s a little messy, but so was the week!

My Agenda writing January 11-15, 2021

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Check Out Meeting Notes: Our first Week Learning at Home

Date
Posted by
Comments0

We did it!  I think I’ve already learned more about teaching this year, than I did in the last five. The parents and guardians of my clubhouse crew are sure to say the same thing!

This week’s checkout notes are structured differently. I’ve created a gallery of memories, and captioned the images with names of students in attendance this week. These students were able to help helped me create the remainder of the captions.

A heartfelt thank you goes out to anyone who supported my students and I in any way this week.  We will certainly need you next week too!

Love, Miss Rebecca Versteeg, Clubhouse Coach

Check Out Gallery:

Idea Gallery

BONUS: Bentley showed us a special drawing before Drama class today. He taught me how to find the tutorial at Check Out. Thanks Bentley!

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Blue Jay House Day #1, Safehouse Day #3, Clubhouse Day #69

Date
Posted by
Comments0

Miss Versteeg, Mr. Heimstra, Mrs. Bakker and Dakota

Team 2 has been learning from home all year! That sounds like a long time, but because it January 8th, 2021 today, all year is only is only 3 days!

Today was best day of the year 2021. We had a Blue Jays dress up day. We even invited a guest speaker from the Toronto Blue Jays Baseball Team!

Our guest speaker, was Mr. Rodney Heimstra (heem-straw). He explained that the Blue Jays team includes more people than baseball players. It includes coaches, owners and media people like him!

Our Google Classroom Spaces from learning time today are full of new classroom memories and resources from Mr. Heimstra and the Toronto Blue Jays Team.

Team 2 knows that it is important to say thank you when someone does something kind. So we wrote Mr. Heimstra this letter together right after he left our classroom:

Thank-you!  Thank you! Thankyou!

Here are a few more images from the best day of school this year: We will write captions for them at our Check Out meeting tomorrow afternoon!

 

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Hello 2021! Clubhouse Day #67 – – Safehouses Day #1

Date
Posted by
Comments0

Hello 2021: Clubhouse Day #67 – – Safehouses Day #1

Happy New Year Team 2!

Wasn’t the first school day of 2021 awesome? Do you still feel like 2 million bucks? Happy Birthday to Divya, who turned 7 over the winter break and to Lauren who turned 8 yesterday.

Enjoy the special story I shared above, and the following gallery of JOY!  The photos have no captions. I want to let Team 2 to look at this link instead of reading captions: Indigo Staff Picks Ages 6-8

 

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Goodbye 2020!

Date
Posted by
Comments0

The last week of 2020 clubhouse learning was an awesome one!

Happy Merry Everything!

Monday was the 62nd day of school. We dressed up in red and green clothes. We learned how to use a Mira in math class to trace a symmetrical reflection.  We read Measuring Penny on Google classroom, and I read the class a book about human teeth. In social studies, we talked about traditions and we each shared a tradition that is important to our own families. We had a surprise alarm in the middle of the day, and we did lots of reading and writing in the afternoon.

Tuesday was the 63rd day of school. We wore Christmas socks. We spent our morning doing math again today. We investigated perimeter and area, and even drew our own shapes to measure. We read an e-book called Families, and I shared my own family tree with the class.

 Wednesday was the 64th day of school. We wore Christmas hats. We measured lots of things today! We used our rulers to measure centimeters accurately. We drew lines of different lengths, and then drew more shapes to measure the perimeter in centimeters. In music, we listened to a variety of seasonal songs and Marlo played the piano for us. In social studies, we learned the names of the continents, and then made our own continent maps.  We also explored google earth. Everyone wrote about their family in their writing books today.

Marlo

Thursday was the 65th day of school. We dressed up in Christmas sweaters and ties.  We found the area We started to clean the clubhouse, so there would be less to take home on Friday. We learned the names of the oceans in social studies and labelled another map. We wrote a list of everyone’s last learning wish for 2020, and we found Christmas books to read on EPIC.

Today is the 66th day of school. We dressed up in our PJs today.  Everyone was here today! Mrs. Lovell asked every student to do two jobs today. Everyone was expected to log into Google Classroom. Everyone was expected to take home all of their personal school supplies.  These supplies can spend the holiday in student bags and come back to school next year.

For math today, we walked around the perimeter of Eastdale, and we played our number guessing game with the 200 chart. In music, we learned Rocks for Christmas, and Norah and Mackenzie played piano for us. In Science, we went on a “Frizzle Field Trip” to learn more about the water cycle. We ended the day with a different checkout. Everyone wrote me a letter and I wrote this post!

There will be no school for the next 2 weeks. Have a safe and happy holiday with your families Team 2. See you in 2021!

Happy Merry Everything!

Print Friendly, PDF & Email