Greetings Star Lake Families,

Welcome to the start of the 2020-21 school year!  And what a different start it is, right?!  We just finished two days of orientation with families and students discussing remote learning, schedules, expectations, procedures and how to navigate technology.  I hope the information shared by our district, our teachers and me was helpful.  As always, please be sure to reach out to your child’s teacher, to our office staff or to me if you have questions about instruction and technology.

Here are a few reminders to help make these first days of school smooth and productive:

1. On Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday our teachers are engaging in TWO live sessions of instruction through zoom each day. If you chose the AM session, your child will join the zoom session from 9:00am-12:00pm, if you chose the PM session, your child will join from 12:30-3:30pm
2. To join LIVE zoom sessions students must log into Launchpad to Learning:  Go to learn.fwps.org and enter your child’s student ID# as user and Password1 as the password
3. When the dashboard opens, click on the icon that says “Canvas”
4. When Canvas opens, click on the square tile that lists your child’s teacher’s HOMEROOM
5. On the home page that opens up, go to “Week at a Glance” and click on the ZOOM link icon
6. All zoom sessions have a waiting room as security. Please wait in the waiting room for your child’s teacher to let them in.

On Wednesdays, and during the school hours when your child is not in a live zoom session, they need to be working on the asynchronous (independent) activities provided by teachers on the Canvas page. Remember students need to log into Launchpad to Learning on Wednesday to have their attendance count.

Students can be reading, practicing math facts, letters, power words, playing instructional games, doing assigned math pages in their iReady math book, doing online iReady math and reading mypath activities and other instructional activities provided by teachers.  Please help your children to know that we are providing FULL days of instruction, some with their teacher, and some on their own to help them build and practice essential skills.  The great thing about Canvas, is that you can access these activities when it works for your family.  Maybe you would rather read as a family in the evening, or access iReady lessons when you can sit down with your child and help them.  Or maybe students want to independently do this work right after their zoom meeting with their teacher.  Any of these plans will work!

Parents and guardians, older brothers and sisters, aunties and uncles, and grandparents and caregivers we know you are ALL working hard at home to help our students be successful when they are not here in the school building with us.  We are grateful and thank you for your partnership.  Together we will provide great instruction for our students!  Please remind your children to come to our zoom sessions EVERY day and work hard independently EVERY day so that we can achieve the best possible outcomes as we are engaging in remote learning.

I wish all the best to your families and hope that you are all well and healthy.  Please contact me with any questions you may have.

Kris Rennie, Principal  

krennie@fwps.org  

253-945-4007