Good morning, I just wanted to write a quick note to say that I don't think I will be updating the blog each weekend anymore. You should be receiving regular updates from your child's teacher. We are working hard to be in frequent communication with our students and families. Please do not hesitate to reach out with your questions. Our day-to-day looks so different working and teaching from home. We spend our time in Zoom meetings with the fourth grade team, with the whole faculty, and with our students. We answer emails throughout the day, we lesson plan, prepare documents for Google Classroom, scan everything so we can make the packets, and we are frequently in the recording studio (as I like to call it)! I'm having to charge my computer multiple times throughout the day! It's definitely not as fun as teaching to a live audience of energetic students! I hope you are enjoying them, since we can't!

One thing that I wanted to make you aware of, if you haven't already heard from your teachers, is that we want to start listening to the students' recitations of the last 4 stanzas of Paul Revere's Ride. You can record into your phone, or they can take videos, whatever works for your families. There will be a spot on next week's Google Classroom for you to upload these files.

Another thing that has changed is that GH told us that we will no longer do Spalding in 4th and 5th grades during the at home learning time. Instead, we will be teaching an extra science and history lesson. We were also given permission to make longer videos, instead of just 5 minute introductory videos. So we will include those with our science and history lessons.

Finally, we are going to try to make it easier for families by converting our documents to Google Docs, so that the students can just open them, complete them online, and then submit! No paper! We are working on learning how to do that this week. Our goal is to minimize the number of physical packets that are needed by providing these documents online. Even things like making a journal entry will be done online through Google Docs. I think you will be pleased as we move forward with this.

So, I think that's it. Nothing new and exciting in the Maza house. I am doing a ton of puzzles in the evenings with my daughter. We are listening to Keeper of the Lost Cities (we're on book 4 already!) and cranking through puzzles! Thankfully, my mother has been giving me puzzles every year for Christmas, so I had a stash of them upstairs that I'd never done. I'm going to run out next week though. Guess I'll have to order some online. My playing cards should come in next week! Have fun with all this unexpected family time! Thankfully, we live in Arizona and can get outdoors and enjoy the weather! We miss our wonderful Archway community!