Distance Learning | Teacher Homepage

While completing your lesson plans for week three please employ the following strategies:

1. For grades 3-12, note that this is a four-day week due to Easter weekend. Friday, April 10th and Monday, April 13th are days off due to the holiday.
2. For all essential (required) subjects/courses, organize your lesson plans in three sections: “Overview”, “Actions to Complete”, and “Items to Submit for a Grade.” You may choose to add a fourth section under the heading “Optional Enrichment” if you would like to offer supplemental or complementary activities to deepen or extend the big ideas of your lesson plan. Also, abide by all other formatting requirements articulated in the strategic update for week two.
3. For grades K-6, recommend a particular pacing for your “Actions to Complete.” For each action you list, begin by naming the day on which you suggest the action being completed. For example, instead of writing “Watch this video…”, write “Tue: Watch this video…”.
4. Double check your links in Google Docs to make sure they are functional.
5. Attempt to minimize emails to classes that offer edits to your lesson plan by only sending emails of this kind if absolutely necessary. If you need to send an email to your class and have the option to do so via Parent Square then please do so. Otherwise use RenWeb to copy emails then send a class email via Gmail with all emails listed under BCC.
6. Grades K-6 teachers should avoid using links to YouTube videos. Instead link to video lessons recorded via Loom.
7. Grades 7-12 teachers may link to external videos but should strive to use videos available at Vimeo rather than YouTube.
8. Set your preferences in Zoom to automatically record and download all of your video conferences.
9. Never meet with a student 1:1 via Zoom. Instead aim to include at least two people in addition to yourself in every Zoom video conference such that there is always a total of three or more people on the call. The third person can be a supervising parent.
10. Carbon copy (CC) at least one parent on every email you send to a student. In an effort to be beyond reproach we are no longer giving parents the option to opt out of being CCd on emailed.

A Special Notice from Zoom regarding Virtual Waiting Rooms:

As of April 2nd, the Waiting Room feature in our account will be automatically turned on by default to enhance the control that you have over your virtual classes. Going forward, you must admit your students to the virtual classroom. How do I admit participants into my class? It’s simple. As the host, once you’ve started the meeting, you’ll begin to see the number of participants in your waiting room within the Manage Participants icon. Next, select Manage Participants to view the full list. Then, you’ll have the option to admit participants individually by selecting the blue Admit button next to their name or all at once with the Admit All option on the top right-hand side of your screen. To learn more about managing your waiting room, watch this two-minute video breaking down how to manage participants or read this blog post to learn how to better secure your virtual classroom.

During our first week of Distance Learning we learned new ways to refine our approach. There are three areas that we are aiming to improve for Week Two: refining formatting rules for Google Docs, organizing lesson plans into three common sections, and compiling PDFs whenever possible.

Formatting Rules for Google Docs

In order to increase the efficiency of publishing Google Docs content to the website please abide by the following rules:

1. Use Arial size 11 plain or bold black font for everything you put in this document unless you are a Latin or Greek teacher trying to enter Latin or Greek words. Do not italicize any text. Do not underline any text. The one exception to this formatting will be links that will naturally appear in blue and be underlined.
   Do not use any bullets or ordered lists (like this one). Instead use the return key to create space between items.
2. Use the tab feature to indent text and resemble an outline-like format.
3. Write in complete sentences with correct grammar, spelling and punctuation.
4. Instead of listing a URL and then linking to the URL, embed the link in your sentences. For example, write “Watch this video explaining the Law of Cosines” instead of writing “…of Cosines, https://www.loom.com/share/fe402c11e89b4102b00455adf6de60e7 .” Also let the text appearing in the document describe or be the actual title of the file or video you are linking to.

Organizing Learning Plans Into Three Common Sections

Please organize your content within Google Docs for week two so that there appear only the following three sections:

Overview: This should be a single paragraph describing the big ideas(s) and goal(s) for the week.

Actions to Complete: Describe the sequence of actions you would like students to take. List actions on separate lines or separate actions with a blank line between them rather than using a bulleted list or an ordered list. If an action includes interacting with a video or document, then include a link embedded in the actual description of the action.

Items to Submit for a Grade: Describe the specific work that must be submitted by Friday at noon for a participation or assessment grade. An example is shown below:

Compiling PDFs to Reduce the Number of Links

Families have expressed some frustration at the number of documents they are trying to link to, view and print. Please consider merging multiple documents into one PDF so that parents only need to click on one link for all the documents for the week rather than one document at a time.

As soon as businessmen George Fitch and William Maloney recognized the similarities between a Jamaican pushcart race and bobsledding, the dream of training a Jamaican bobsled team was born. It is some version of this story (touched up with a whole lot of creative license by Disney) that was featured in the movie, Cool Runnings, including scenes like the one picture below:

I offer this to you all as a metaphor for what we launched on March 27th. After much trial and error, the team finished a complete race in 1988 and has been competing ever since. Likewise, let us press on through this unique season in the life of our school. Let us be open to what we will learn along the way and celebrate the unexpected blessings as they come.

A pedagogy that is distinctly classical and Christian begins in incarnation, is grounded in relationships, is inspired by contagious affections, is filled with wonder, demands attention through imaginative storytelling, teaches through Socratic conversations, deliberately integrates movement and formative liturgy, and celebrates the beauty and persuasive power of language. We still believe that this kind of teaching happens best in a vibrant community experienced in classrooms, in lunch rooms, on athletic fields, on field trips, and the variety of face-to-face conversations that naturally occur when we are living life together. So anything we deliver in this online context represents some kind of compromise.

Our instruction will necessarily become more didactic than dialectic. Students are going to need more direct explanations and examples of concepts simply because we are not able to lead students into understanding through exploratory activities and Socratic conversations when we are limited primarily to static learning plans. A shift in this direction is not completely outside the bounds of our tradition. The rhetoric we practice in our video lessons and attached documents should aim to exemplify the wisdom and eloquence that we hope our own students would also regularly demonstrate in their own compositions. Lessons should still be laced with metaphors, beauty should still be contemplated, deeply human questions should still be wrestled with, our explanations should be logically sound and persuasive, and our love for our content should still be contagious. Finally and ultimately, our genuine love for our students should shine through the learning plans we compose and the support we offer families throughout the week.

There is a great variety in the ways this distance learning experience is landing in homes. A few families will navigate these waters just fine while others will feel like their ship is slowly sinking one week at a time. Challenges that families will face include but are certainly not limited to: not enough devices available to access learning plan content; both parents attempting to maintain their own work (or even family businesses) at home while also homeschooling their children; single parents facing exhaustion; families stressed by financial woes; and families still in the midst of health crises that existed before this all began. So let us be quick to express empathy towards our families. While we hope for all families to be able to stay on board with our distance learning plan (especially as we refine it each week) there will be families who simply cannot abide by the plan certain weeks. In such cases, special graces will need to be shown. Teachers should partner with their respective division heads in these moments to explore creative solutions that introduce greater flexibility in pacing and even content.

Parents need your partnership now more than ever before. When you see the opportunity to actively pursue a struggling student do not hesitate to pursue. If a student has consistently been absent from optional Zoom meetings, send them an email to make sure they are staying on track. If the quality of a student’s work demonstrates a gross misunderstanding of your instructions, give them the opportunity to submit it again without penalty. If you have been exchanging emails with a confused or frustrated parent, don’t hesitate to pick up your phone and given them a call instead. Be a good listener, express empathy, and be sure to offer tangible suggestions and solutions whenever possible. Let us help parents and students envision what success looks like in such circumstances. Finally, don’t forget to send encouraging emails to students (and CC parents) praising them for the quality of their work.

Covenant Classical School’s mission is to train our students to live and think according to a biblical, Christ-centered worldview. We accomplish this by partnering with parents to provide a rigorous, classical education that instills a lifelong love of learning. So what exactly does “rigorous” education look like in this new context. A class that meets four to five times a week 45 minutes at a time will accumulate 180-225 minutes of instruction across a week. If we add just 15 minutes of daily homework, this amounts to 240-300 minutes of learning per week. Multiply this by five subjects or courses and you are looking at 20-25 hours of learning per week. As the grind of our distance learning plan wears on families, it is best for us to let these numbers represent an upper limit that we do not want any student to regularly exceed.

When the efficiencies of a student learning at home are compromised by the limitations of their home learning environment (ex. distracting siblings, scarcity of devices, low internet speeds, fatigue and boredom of sitting in the same place all morning) it is possible that your “average” student will require more time to complete ordinary assignments. Estimate the amount of work a student might complete under ordinary circumstances and dial this down several notches. Feedback from educators who have been on the frontlines of distance learning for longer than we have regularly testify to the need to pare down and cull content more than they first anticipated. One administrator within our own CCE movement, recently described cutting the content load they initially deemed appropriate in half by the time they finally settled into a groove that felt reasonable for their families. Erring on the side of simplicity and brevity is necessary but it does not need to compromise the integrity of work we ask students to do. Assignments should remain as meaningful as they were before. In fact great care should be taken to pare down your remaining curriculum to precisely the most meaningful content that lies ahead.

One way we can help families (especially those with many children) navigate the myriad of activities presented to them each week is to separate subjects and courses into the two categories of: required assignments and optional enrichment. Weekly lesson plans with required assignments are composed for essential subjects (ex. mathematics) while menus of enrichment opportunities are curated for other subject areas (ex. art, music, theatre, PE). Essential subjects are generally those that are cumulative in nature, where lessons learned at one grade level are absolutely prerequisite to those lessons in the grade levels ahead of them. This move should not be misinterpreted as a commentary on the importance of enrichment subjects. They are just as much a part of our curricular core as any other subject. Students should actively be encouraged to pursue one or more enrichment opportunities each week. Expressing oneself through the arts or enjoying outdoor exercise may be the very means of maintaining sanity that a student (or entire family) desperately needs.

Those teachers composing menus of enrichment experiences should enjoy the freedom and flexibility that comes with learning experiences that do not have to translate into participation and assessment grades in RenWeb. Consider suggesting experiences that can be engaged by siblings across different grade levels or even engaged by an entire family. Do not hesitate to re-design the curriculum that you first laid out for this school year in order to tailor experiences to the extraordinary and challenging season we are in.

Those teachers composing required assignments for essential subjects/courses may opt into including enrichment opportunities as well. In addition to the three sections your learning plan must include (Overview, Actions to Complete, Items to Submit for a Grade) you might add a fourth section, Optional Enrichment, describing ways to pursue the big ideas of your lesson further or explore related complementary content.

Most weeks will end with students submitting work for a participation grade. Approximately once every three weeks, work should be submitted for an assessment grade. These assessments must be designed to account for the access to resources and unlimited time that students have in their homes. You will likely need to modify or create entirely new assessments fitting to distance learning. Assessments requiring students to demonstrate knowledge through the recall of names, dates, places, rules and definitions will lack integrity when students have access to this information at their fingertips. It is more appropriate for assessments to resemble a portfolio or product that reflects a student’s essential understanding by requiring application of knowledge (as opposed to pure recitation). In the hard sciences this may be achieved through questions requiring: multi-step mathematical solutions, annotation, explanation, synthesis, summarization and even personal reflection. In the humanities this may include questions and writing prompts requiring: annotation, outline, synthesis, summarization, personal reflection, and even persuasive argumentation. 

This season of distance learning will admittedly afford students the opportunity to earn higher assessment scores than the traditional classroom test environment and that is absolutely okay. Assessments may take on a new form but they should not be harder than they were before. Students should experience some relief in completing assessments that are generally easier than they were before. We do not want this to become a season of learning that buries a student who is genuinely trying to adapt and we must be content with the reality that everything we do during this time is skewed. Again, that is necessary and okay.

How to set up a recurring zoom meeting.

How to invite participants to an impromptu Zoom meeting.

How to use a virtual background.

View a library of additional tutorial videos at the official Zoom help center.

Sign up for a Loom teacher account using your @covenantfw.org email address.

Download the Loom application to your desktop.

Add the Loom for Chrome extension to your browser.

How to use Zoom to simulate a document camera in a Loom video.

How to share a view only Dropbox file via a link.

How to scan, save, and send a document as a PDF using your smart phone.

How to insert a hyperlink in a Google Doc.

How to share a view only Google Doc for students to download, edit, and return.

How to merge PDF files on a Mac.

How to merge PDF files on a PC.

How to create labels and sublabels in order to manage the work you receive from students.

How to use browser tabs to insert grades across all subjects one student at a time.

Think About Such Things

Hello everyone! If you are comfortable, feel free to email me a video of your family singing this verse put to melody: Philippians 4:8 – Think About Such Things. May it uplift your thoughts this week.

Peter and the Wolf

Peter and the Wolf by Sergei Prokofiev has been a favorite of mine since I was your age! Watch this video and listen carefully as the various instruments make you think of each character in the story. Can you try to name the family to which each instrument belongs (strings, brass, percussion, and woodwind)?

Overview

We would like to use this week to review addition and subtraction with and without regrouping.

Actions to Complete

1. Read through these notes on how to practice and review with your child.
2. Complete one of these practice worksheets each day.
3. Also, consider reviewing pages 221-233 from Chapter 17 in the Math in Focus textbook.
4. For additional enrichment and arithmetic practice check out XtraMath and Tang Math.

Items to Submit for a Grade

Submit Worksheet D on Friday at noon for a participation grade.

Overview

This week we will focus on Moses’ Birth.

Actions to Complete

1. Begin by reading history card #22 as well as Exodus 1-2.
2. Create an Art Narration Page by writing “Moses’ Birth” at the top of a page and illustrating the story of Moses in the woven basket floating in the Nile River.
3. Save your picture in your purple history folder.
4. Optional: For enrichment purposes, do a weaving project like the one shown in this Weaving Video.

Items to Submit for a Grade

Send a picture of your Art Narration page to your homeroom teacher at the end of the week and save your picture in your purple history folder.

Overview

This week we will learn about the five types of Psalms: lament (crying out for God’s help), confession (confessing sin to God), imprecatory (asking God to judge His enemies), praise (praising God), and thanksgiving (expressing thanks to God).

Actions to Complete

1. Read the Bible card titled, “David Writes Many Psalms.”
2. Watch this video about Psalms.
3. Graded Assignment: Make a poster or chart on a sheet of paper. Label the 5 types of Psalms and next to each draw a picture of what that looks like. It should have a title, be neat, colored, spelled correctly, spaced nicely on the page, and contains words / speech bubbles as well as pictures. 
4. Optional: See if you can find a specific Psalm on your own that fits into each category.

Items to Submit for a Grade

Send a PDF of your finished poster to your homeroom teacher.

Overview

This week we will be continuing our unit on demonstrative pronouns, focusing on ille, illa, illud, “that, those”. This pronoun will feature prominently in our Latin retelling of Marco Polo’s life and legacy.

Actions to Complete

1. Introduction: Click here to view a blank Unit VII Quiz 2 and corresponding answer key featuring demonstrative pronouns.  Then complete parts A, B, and C of the assignments below.
2. Part A: Watch the video, while annotating your own practice quiz and story slides with derivatives and pictures as much as possible.
3. Part A: Chant alongside the audio recording looking at your own study sheet.
4. Part A: Fill in the practice quiz with the help of your study sheet’s key, making sure each answer is fully correct.
5. Part B: Chant alongside the audio recording again, this time looking at your own filled in practice quiz.
6. Part B: Try to chant through a blank copy of the practice quiz orally from memory, noting which words may require extra practice. Practice those using your own filled in practice quiz, acting the words out and remembering your drawings when applicable.
7. Part B: Review the introductory video, as necessary/desired.
8. Part C: Chant alongside the audio recording again, looking at your own filled in practice quiz when necessary.
9. Part C: Study any words or endings that prove difficult.
10. Part C: Review the introductory video, as necessary/desired.
11. Part C: Take the quiz.
12. Part C: Correct the quiz with your study sheet.

Items to Submit for a Grade

Submit the quiz taken from memory and the filled in practice quiz as a PDF.

Overview

This week in 5th grade math we will take some time to review past concepts. I will be giving you some assignments from your textbook. Use the textbook as a reference to work through any problems you are having a hard time understanding. In the following weeks I will create some instructional videos for you learn from as well, highlighting key concepts. For this week, I want to make sure you all have the time and space to learn a new schedule and system of learning. Besides the assignments and videos, I will also host an optional Zoom meeting specifically for math. During this time, I will check in with you and host a Q&A covering the current assignments. I encourage you all to log into the Zoom meeting, so you can each get to know the technology. We may have a few laughs together! Complete the following assignments on graph paper, notebook paper, or your math notebook. You have completed the following assignments before, but it’s been awhile, and I would like to take a week to review. Also, using the textbook doesn’t require your parents to print out a large packet. Next week we will jump back into learning about ratios, which is where we left off before break. When you are completed with each assignment, please correct and rework the problems you missed, using the key provided here: Answer Key.

Actions to Complete

1. Optional: Click here to download a Multiplication Chart if you think it will be helpful.
2. Solve all odd problems on pages 38-40 then correct and rework the problems you missed.
3. Solve all odd problems on pages 118-119 then correct and rework the problems you missed.
4. Solve all odd problems on pages 164-166 then correct and rework the problems you missed.
5. Solve all odd problems on pages 214-215 then correct and rework the problems you missed.
6. Solve all odd problems on pages 260-261 then correct and rework the problems you missed.
7. Solve all odd problems on pages 284-285 then correct and rework the problems you missed.

Items to Submit for a Grade

Email me a total of six photographs of the student’s work after they have completed the assignments and corrected them. This will be a participation grade. It just needs to be a quick snapshot of each item for accountability, and so I can see the progress that has been made.

Overview

As you will recall, right before spring break you started working on an outline for your Living History research paper. Because we lost a week of school, we are going to skip the outline and go straight to organizing your notes. This week you will organize your research notes and write your speech. To complete your assignments you will need your Living History Binder as well as four different colors of highlighters or colored pencils.

Actions to Complete

1. Read the speech guidelines on page 19 of your LH Binder. On the blank lines at the bottom of the page, fill in these dates. Your speech must be turned in to your teacher by March 27th. Your speech must be memorized then recorded for your teacher by April 3rd.
2. Consider these tips while writing your speech: (1) Write in first person, using first person pronouns like I, we, me, us, my, and our; (2) Include no more than two dates because dates are hard to memorize and won’t stand out to your listeners; (3) You do NOT have to include the date your character died, the date of birth is sufficient; (4) Your speech will probably be too long at first. Write it out, then time yourself reading it at a normal pace. If it is over one minute, figure our which details you can leave out; (5) Look at this Sample Speech if you need one to reference while writing your own.
3. If you have any questions while writing your speech, please feel free to email me at any time during normal school hours. You can also ask questions during our scheduled zoom meetings. The final draft of your speech (typed or handwritten) should be emailed to me by noon on Friday, March 27th.
4. You will also be organizing your research notes into four categories: Biography, Thesis Part 1, Thesis Part 2, and Thesis Part 3. Please watch this video for directions on how to do this. For written instructions, open this document. Your organized notes should also be completed by noon on Friday, March 27th. A parent should take pictures of your notes and email them to me.

Items to Submit for a Grade

Turn in a typed or handwritten final draft of your living history speech by noon on March 27th and remember that your speech must be memorized then recorded for your teacher by April 3rd. Send a picture of your research notes organized into four categories to me by noon on March 27th.

Overview

This week, we will continue our study of arguments (syllogisms). In order to determine the validity of a syllogism, students must be able to determine the form of a syllogism, which necessitates knowing both the figure and the mood of an argument. In this week’s lessons, we will seek to understand and learn how to locate both the mood and figure of an argument.

Actions to Complete

1. Read Lesson 21 and Lesson 22 from Introductory Logic.
2. Watch this video on Lessons 21 and 22.
3. Do Exercise 20 (one page) and Exercise 21 (two pages).
4. Check and correct the exercises with this Key for Ex 20 and Key for Ex 21.

Items to Submit for a Grade

Turn in your completed and corrected work for Exercises 20 and 21 by noon on Friday.

Overview

We ended Spring Break with the Destruction of Carthage. This week, we will finish our study of Rome’s expansion as they move from the Western Mediterranean to the east, conquering Greece. Then we will transition to a study of Roman culture during the Republic.

Actions to Complete

1. Begin by watching the Loom video Transition to Distance Learning before moving on to any of the assignments below.
2. Watch the Loom video Society and Culture in the Roman Republic.
3. Read and annotate Speilvogel beginning with “The Eastern Mediterranean” on page 124 and ending at the bottom of page 133, skipping the box on the Destruction of Carthage on page 125 and the box on the movie Spartacus on page 130.
4. Finish packet 7.2 that we had worked on in class by answering questions 20-22 (skipping 14-19 if they are not already done). 
5. Complete questions 1-10 of 7.3 Society and Culture in the Roman Republic. Below each question, type in your answer based on the reading (preferably in a different colored font that is still readable). Remember to answer each question thoroughly using complete sentences. 

Items to Submit for a Grade

Scan each page of packet 7.2 as well as your answers to questions 1-10 for packet 7.3 and email them to me as an attachment by noon on Friday.

Overview

Hey everyone! A lot of the assignments will feel the same for next week; however, I did remove composition as a requirement, and I put in its place all of the Sententiae Antiquae. I know this will be challenging to essentially learn on your own, but do your best to translate everything correctly. Feel free to collaborate, but do yourself a favor and be sure that you can explain your way through a translation.

Actions to Complete

1. Grammar: Carefully read pages 193-195, taking notes and highlighting your book as you read. You should be able to: (1) define and translate the ablative absolute and explain how it is different from a simple participial phrase; and (2) define and translate the passive periphrastic. Here is a link to a helpful YouTube video that walks you through Chapter 24 of Wheelock.
2. Vocabulary: Read through and memorize the vocabulary for Chapter 24. I would recommend using Quizlet as a study tool.
3. Translation: Sententiae Antiquae #’s 1-9
4. Translation: De Cupiditate (pages 197-198; it looks short, but it continues on page 198 at about the middle of the page (Caelo receptus…))
5. Translation: The Satirist’s Modus Operandi (pg. 199)
6. Optional Assignment: Composition sentences – Exercationes 14, 15, 16, 17

Items to Submit for a Grade

Submit all three translation assignments to me by noon on Friday.

Overview

This week we will consider the two natures of Jesus Christ. Jesus is fully God, and fully man, in one person, forever. We will also review several of the major theological statements in church history concerning the nature of Christ.

Actions to Complete

1. Read chapter 14 of Bible Doctrine while wrestling with these questions: Who was Jesus? What does it mean when we refer to him as the God-Man?
2. Answer six review questions on pages 246-247.
3. Write 1-2 sentence descriptions of the following eight special terms: Chalcedonian Definition, Docetism, Eutychianism, Impeccability, Incarnation, Kenosis Theory, Nestorianism, and Virgin Birth.
4. For additional perspective, consider pages 1-7 (esp 3-6) of my outline.

Items to Submit for a Grade

Submit your answers to the questions and your descriptions of the terms to me no later than noon on Friday.

Overview

Our class is in the middle of reading Brave New World. We finished Chapter 4 on the Friday before Spring Break ended. So, your week will focus on reading Chapters 5-8 and completing the guided reading assignments from the packet. Each week I will post a video introducing you to the concepts and assignments for the week. Each week’s assignments have been thought out intentionally to help you understand the most important ideas in Modern Literature. Additionally, I will provide a list of recommended enrichment resources to further your understanding of the unit we are studying. Anytime you need help during the week you can send me an email and expect a timely personalized response.

Actions to Complete

1. Watch this video: Introduction to BNW Chapters 5-8
2. Download this packet: Brave New World Packet
3. Read chapters 5-8 of Brave New World.
4. Use this template to complete guided reading assignments 4.2 and 4.9a: Guided Reading Answers Template.
5. Optional: Explore this set of activities for enrichment: Brave New World Enrichment.

Items to Submit for a Grade

Submit your answers to the guided reading questions to me as a DOC or DOCX file. Make sure you name your file in this manner: “Last Name – ML Week 1.”

Still Life

Set up a group of objects on a table. Draw the still life objects with a pen. Carefully draw all the lines you see, observing the relationships of things next to each other. Include background, drawing it as you see it connected to the objects. This could take 2-3 hours. User larger paper (approximately 18 by 24 inches). Shown below is an example in three stages: