Dr. Johnson's Reading Blog

Thank you to all parents during this time! Your support has been a blessing!!! Because COVID numbers are really going up, I am going to really emphasize to students the importance of continuing with staying at their seats, cleaning their hands, and keeping masks over their noses. We all want to make sure we are healthy especially before we head to the Christmas Break in a few weeks. You should have heard by now that Dec. 21 and 22 will be virtual. During those two days I should be in California (it's the only time my kids get to see their grandparents), so I'm looking forward to doing some live Google Meets from the Central Valley. I'm hoping to show them where our food comes from and how it's grown, oil pumps, and if the air is clear, showing them the geography of the Sierra Nevada mountains. Of course, who know what will happen in the next couple of days, so I may end up staying in town. On Wednesday, we will start a mini simulation of the Stamp Ace, Sugar Act, Townsh

I made a quick video that shows what the physical space looks like in our classroom.  

 As we move into Phase 2 next Wednesday, November 4, I wanted to send out some reminders, and some new information: All students returning to school should bring their school supplies. All school supplies will remain separate and used by only the child. Supplies will be kept in their cubbies and/or backpack. Here is a list of school supplies: a pair of scissors 4 composition notebooks (reading, writing, science, social studies) Spiral bound notebooks are fine 4 folders (any color) Art Supplies Crayola Markers Crayola Pencils Crayola Crayons (I don't remember if you need multi-colored construction paper) Multi-colored set of Sharpies Multi-colored white board markers and eraser (I use these for my mini whiteboards) 2 packs of pencils Colored highlighters pencil box (to keep personal  supplies  in) (optional) Mechanical pencils (.7 mm or larger) with extra lead if you get mechanical pencils for your child, then you don't need to bring in packs of pencils All students are required

Now that we are half-way through the first quarter, I will be emailing an interim report letting you know how your child is doing with virtual learning so far. I am spending this week meeting one-on-one with students, discussing the interim. If you have any questions please let me know.

 Since there were some who were unable to attend our virtual curriculum night, and I neglected to record it, here is a link to the Google Slideshow I presented.

 Here is the link to our Regions Project. Regions Project

 We got our first full week completed using an our all-day schedule. This week we learned the following: We completed our read aloud of Skinnybones . We are going to move to our first major reading aloud called Blood on the River . This is the story of the formation of Jamestown - the first successful English colony in America. If you don't have a copy of the book I still have a a few paper copies. If not I will be broadcasting the book on Google Meet using the Kindle Cloud reader. It's not necessary to have the book but being about to read along with helps with reading skills because students can see the text as I read just like a book on tape. It will be imporant that ALL log into our read aloud for this. We are still learning how to turn in work using Google Classroom. Many students complete their work but forget to click on the big green "Turn In" button when finished.   In math students learned / reviewed the value of base-10 block then transferred that informati

We completed our first week of virtual testing. YEA! I am having a great time getting to know everyone, even though we have only met virtually. I am having a lot of fun with this group. We worked on and accomplished much this week. Besides getting used to various routines and or schedule, we also worked on the following: Learned how to meet as a class through Google Meet Everyone is linked to Google Classroom and Khan Academy Learned how to download and use Chrome extensions Learned how to turn in assignments through Google Classroom Learned how to meet in break out rooms Learned how to create bookmarks and organize the bookmarks bar Learned how to find and use the same document multiple times While next week many are MAP testing, students will start getting used to navigating Khan Academy. I will use Khan Academy to give student additional math work (Khan Academy is also great for learning other topics). The following week will begin to look more like our normal learning schedule. Our

Next week is MAP testing. Students who are testing virtually will do so on Tuesday (ELA) and Wednesday (Math). Those students that are not testing will follow a morning schedule of independent reading, completing their online reading journal, completing a Google Slides presentation, and explorations or outside time. MAP testing will start at 9:00 and should be completed by 12:00. The test should take about an hour to test, but everyone is different so testing time will vary. For Thursday (ELA) and Friday (Math), several students have signed up to come to school to complete their MAP testing. On those days the schedule flip-flops. We will meet as a class using Google Meet at 1:00 and will end the day at 3:00. The 3:00 time will be our normal time for ending the day. Here is the MAP testing schedule for each day next week.  ⌛ Tuesday, September 8 ⌛ Wednesday, September 9 ⌛ Thursday, September 10 ⌛ Friday, September 11 I have a lot of information for the parents of students who are testi

 Before tomorrow's first day of virtual learning, I wanted to send out a couple of reminders and thoughts. School starts at 9:00 am. Each day when students get on their Chromebooks they will click on this link to enter our Google Meet. This link is also found at the top of our Google Classroom page. That link will be used for ALL virtual meetings (synchronous learning). This week (8/31- 9/4) I am ending the day at 1:30 pm, but I will be available after that time to help parents and students navigate all the technology. At CFI we believe in building community and relationships! The next two weeks will focus on this through virtual morning meetings and synchronous teaching. The next two weeks will also focus on helping students gain some independence on their Chromebooks. I will help students organize the different websites they will need to use, organize their classwork, and hopefully develop a way for them to organize their passwords. Hopefully this will help students and parents

During virtual learning teacher are expected to take daily attendance. I wanted to highlight how attendance would work. A student is considered "Present" if he/she: participates in synchronous leaning OR completes and submits the Daily Participation Assignment (DPA). For our classroom, the DPA will be a Google Form Exit Slip that students will fill out at the end of the day. Each day's Google Form Exit Slip will be located on our Google Classroom . Students will fill out the exit slip and submit it for each day. A student is considered "Absent" if he/she DOES NOT: participate in synchronous class lessons OR complete and submit the DPA (Google Form Exit Slip) 🙏Virtual learning is complex and personal for each family. There might be particular days in which students are unable to meet for live meetings; there might be particular hours of the day when virtual learning just might not feasible for whatever reasons. There might be days when we just need to take a na

During virtual learning, communication between myself, parents, and students will be more important than ever. Being at CFI we are all so used to simply "popping in" the school when we have questions. Virtual learning will make this difficult unfortunately! Parents: Feel free to email ( scjohnson@richland2.org ) any time throughout the school day, but know I may not be able to immediately respond. I should be able to respond when I'm not engaged in synchronous learning or working with small group and individual students. Most emails will be responded to during my office hours between 3:00 - 4:00. (Honestly, I'm usually pretty good about responding quickly since I hate having my inbox full.) If you send any email after 4:00 pm, I will try to respond when possible. Last year I didn't allow myself a clear deadline for responding to emails or text messages so I felt like I was constantly available. If you need to call (803-699-2969) into the classroom to contact me, p

 I know that we have a few weeks before we officially start the virtual school year, but I want to start reaching out to everyone. So . . . WELCOME TO THE NEW SCHOOL YEAR! I am excited to be working alongside you and your child for the next two years. Instead of sending out long emails with lots of information, I thought I would start sending short, succinct emails that would provide information you might need to start the year (I will also copy these emails and post them to my classroom blog so you can refer to them if needed). Little by little I'll be contacting you with information on virtual learning, goals for the year, the different ways I will push information to you, etc.

We got through our first week of E-Learning. It feels that most of this week was figuring out how things work such as Khan Academy. As I have told students, I'm assigning work through Khan Academy so it should show something under their "Home" page. I am not having them do random review work (though that may come later towards the end of the year). All assignments have a start date and due date. If students do not finish by the due date, they may not be able to go back and complete. I'm noticing that Khan Academy does this. Because of this, I have several students who have not completed their work. Please help me out by checking your child's Google Classroom account so you can see their progress. There have been several students who have failed Khan Academy quizzes. They can retake a quiz as much as they want, but some take the quiz once even though they failed the quiz. I'm trying to catch those students and will send emails the child and parent to retake

When students log onto our Google Classroom page  , they should now see a CFI announcements page. Each morning Mrs. Watson will share the morning announcements and thought for the week. The work in the district-created packet should be completed by April 9 (I still do not know about where, when, or who they will need to be turned into). Spring Break begins Friday, April 10. There will be work due on these days. I am attaching the school work schedule for April 20 - April 24 and the school work schedule for April 27 - May 1 (May 1 just in case).This schedule is to help you and your child stay organized with their assignments. This schedule is about 90% completed. The assignments are not available on Google Classroom yet. Each day's lesson will only be available on the day its assigned so students do not try to move on (if they want additional work they can work on the MAP skills or Khan Academy). You will see that there are assignments for all subjects each day. The assign

Ok everyone! During this Corona-break, I would like everyone to move from using MAP skills and move back to Khan Academy. MAP skills always used Khan Academy as a resource, and since we are no longer MAP testing, it makes sense to move back to Khan Academy. With Khan Academy, you don't have to constantly ask me for new work. I can also assign you specific lessons that look just like the math we are doing in class. For instance, when we left off school we were going to start volume. I have assigned you volume work for Khan Academy (without all the fluency skills, application problems, etc.). If you have problems logging into Khan Academy please let me know. It should be easier to login than MAP skills. Also remember, the packets have been extended to April 9. At that point I do not know when, where, or who to turn those packets into. Hold onto them until I find out. So . . . . for supplemental work, if you finished your packet, or you want additional math work, start logging into Kh

I'm going back to using the blog to collect the wide variety of information I'm getting so I can send it out to all of you. The information may be random, and out of order, but I'm getting so much info I'm not sure how to organize it. 1) Chromebooks will begin going home next week starting April 1st.. Dr. Mueller will send out a message as to who those will be picked up. 2) Spring Break is still on. 3) Online learning will OFFICIALLY begin April 20th - April 30th. That's 10 school days of instruction. I have posted some additional work can work on if they finished their packets.  It's going to take me some time to start posting information. I have been inundated with information I have to sift through, then start creating online lessons. I've never done it but I'm looking forward to trying. 4) I will make Google Classroom the hub of all information. Through Google Classroom I will link to our blog or post information directly. Students will rece

I wanted to share some information I have so far this week. Over the next coming days you will be sent additional information concerning your child's learning at home. I am going to share some abbreviated information so you know what to expect over the next couple of days. The district put together learning packets that each student is expected to complete. Through the packet, each day's work should account for about 3 hours of work in all academic areas (e.g., reading, writing, science). Your child completes the work, the parent signs off on the appropriate spot, and the packet will be returned at the end of the two weeks. This packet work will begin on Friday. All the material in the packet will be review, except for some math items on volume which we haven't covered. Your child should be able to quickly find the information on how to solve those problems. There may also be information your child will need to review. Some time this evening you will receive an email (m