Greetings Star Lake Families,

Here we are in November! I want to send a heartfelt THANK YOU to each of our families for your support and partnership as we are navigating remote learning!  It is exciting to see our students reading, participating in breakout room conversations with their peers, and solving math problems using a variety of strategies!  I love when they tip their cameras down or hold up their whiteboards to show their work.

We also appreciate the help you are giving your children with keeping supplies organized. Every day students will need to be able to use paper, pencil, whiteboards and markers and have their iReady math book handy.  In addition, students in K-2 classrooms need their phonics journals, and 3-5 students need their EL packets, spiral notebooks and books close at hand.  Having a box or bag that students put all their supplies in every day will help them to be ready.  Every time a student needs to leave the zoom session to wander around looking for supplies, they miss valuable instructional time.  Being organized is a valuable life skill!

I want to thank our parents and students for the continued great attendance trends we have been seeing here at Star Lake! The majority of our students are joining zoom sessions every day!  Our daily average attendance is 95% for Mon, Tues, Thurs, and Fri.  On Wednesdays, that rate drops to about 85%, so I want to remind families that students need to log into Canvas every Wednesday and engage in the asynchronous work that teachers are providing on their homepages. This combination of zoom live instruction and student independent work and READING at home every day, is the best plan to help students learn and grow in this remote setting.

We are working to build independent scholars here at Star Lake.  Students can earn Star Lake Way tickets for time on task in iReady math and reading lessons and for successfully completing lessons.  Attendance at zoom meeting is fabulous, but is not enough to facilitate the growth students need to make this year.  Students have to spend time outside of zoom sessions reading a good fit book, completing assignments, competing assessments and working on iReady lessons.  This is the application part of instruction.  Teachers are teaching and helping students practice skills during zoom sessions, students need to continue that practice and application during asynchronous time.

Our next parent zoom meetings are TONIGHT, Thursday, November 19th at 6:00pm and Wednesday, December 9^th at 10:00am.  Please join me to hear about our move to elementary 24, student led conferences, and to share your feedback with me.  Your voice is so important!

I hope you all are healthy and happy, and wish your family a safe Thanksgiving break.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions or feedback you may have.

Kris Rennie, Principal

253-945-4007