Hello and welcome to our new learning space- the online world.
We are very excited to be connecting with our prep Community again, in this very new and uncharted territory. Excited, nervous and yes even a little unexpected. We are inquiring teachers who love nothing more than a real opportunity to research our practice and learning. This new situation provides plenty of provocations for us all. We want to inquire into this learning environment together as a team. A team of teachers, learners, mentors, experts, parents and community. We have much to gain from staying connected, listening carefully and responding to each other’s learning needs.
We are going to attempt to maintain as many of the daily routines we had begun to establish throughout Term 1. For the next couple of weeks we will be posting learning experiences in the following format:
Morning Routine Announcement – This will be just like the beginning of the day in the old Prep Neighbourhood. Your homeroom teacher will greet you and make any announcements for the day. She will also take a moment to introduce new sounds, review old sounds or focus on a number concept or practice counting.
Morning Meeting– This will be hosted by a different teacher each day and will be a place for us as a community to share, question and challenge each other’s learning. Perhaps a little like our daily documentation board that was in the courtyard.
Provocations-Every day we will post a selection of provocations. We will keep our same focus on open-ended activities that inspire curiosity and questioning with inspiration from our main Neighbourhood spaces, Performance, Learning Commons, Construction and The Studio. We will post 3 or4 provocations each day. It is our expectation that every child will engage and upload a response to 1 of these provocations every day, however, we are very happy for children to choose to engage with more than 1.
Workshops– Every day we will post 1 Literacy (Reading and Writing) Workshop and 1 Numeracy (Mathematics) Workshop. It is our expectation that every child will engage with both of these workshops and upload a response.
Mindful Movement– Every day we will be uploading 1 mindful or movement activity for the physical and mental well being of all. This is a very important aspect of our online learning and our expectation is that all children will engage with it daily.
The children will be expected to post their responses to these daily learning experiences in their home group on SeeSaw.
An Important Note – Kindness
We have noted our expectations for every child each day, however, we as professionals and members of this learning community understand the times in which we are operating are unprecedented and unknown. It is a time for kindness and for understanding. We will all work together for the best outcome for each family’s unique situation. If the expectations we have set each day seem too much or not enough let us know and as we work through this together we will adjust as needed. We also understand that each day brings different situations. We aim to be as flexible as possible. If you or your child is unable to engage with the learning experiences on one day then you can always go back to them the next day. If your child is deeply engaged by one Provocation for the entire week then that is wonderful, let them. We aim to be flexible and always in communication with each other. We understand that all children are individuals and as such have unique learning pathways. We will be differentiating our online learning. However, as we get started, we are focusing on making sure all children are connecting with us in this new space and that everyone becomes proficient with the technology. So bare with us for the next 2 weeks. Once we are all connected and confident you will begin to see the learning experiences being more targeted and personalised.
Kindness
We are beginning this term with some thoughts and provocations from last year’s Preps about kindness. It just seemed so perfect and perhaps a meaningful way for us as a Prep Community to begin to make sense and question our current situation. We would love to invite the parent community to also engage with this provocation. Here are the provocations posted to the Morning Meeting on Kindness this week. (Week 1)
What is Kindness?
Who needs Kindness?
How can we share Kindness?
Nellie, Amy, Jess
P.S Some of you have let us know that you were unable to access our little video, so we are posting it here.