Home Learning Information
We are all entering new territory and are unsure how things will look in coming days, weeks and months. Like many of you, we have been keeping up to date with the experiences of others around the world who are already going through this and the following is my take on the advice of others.
We are not asking parents to ‘home-school’ their children. We are not asking you to replicate the school environment with curriculum instruction at home or to reconfigure your home to have an area set up to be a classroom. We are in the midst of a system shutdown and our children are still digesting the fact that they will not see their friends or teacher for some time, that their usual pastimes of rugby / hockey / netball / football / gymnastics / dancing / music lessons / clubs will not be happening, not to mention the things they are hearing about a global health crisis - little Susie and little Johnny are not in any position to learn a new maths concept today!
Modern education is not what we experienced as kids. Whilst we will provide you with some resources that we use at school which you can also do at home, the best that you can do is to do things with them that will build important life skills and reassure them that everything will be ok in time.
Play a board game, have them help you with the dishes or to bake some biscuits, have a dance or karaoke party, get out in the garden and have some fun or teach them how to weed the garden.
Also give them some alone time, let them have some supervised screen time, ask them to read you a story. Be with them and show them that everything will be ok. Let them ask you questions about what is happening and tell them what you are certain of - things are changing but they have people around them who care for them and love them and that is why we can’t do our normal things at the moment. You are their parents and family members, NOT their classroom teachers. Whatever happens, we will make sure your child has the tools they need to succeed in school when the time comes.
Below are some ideas of things you could do at home. Some involve devices but many do not and of course you will have your own ideas of what you can do. Through this weebly you can access a vast range of sites and resources which your children can use at home - click on the tabs above to explore! Individual classroom teachers will be updating their class blogs with further information or will be sending information through Google Classroom (your child will know which their teacher is using).
Remember,
We are not asking parents to ‘home-school’ their children. We are not asking you to replicate the school environment with curriculum instruction at home or to reconfigure your home to have an area set up to be a classroom. We are in the midst of a system shutdown and our children are still digesting the fact that they will not see their friends or teacher for some time, that their usual pastimes of rugby / hockey / netball / football / gymnastics / dancing / music lessons / clubs will not be happening, not to mention the things they are hearing about a global health crisis - little Susie and little Johnny are not in any position to learn a new maths concept today!
Modern education is not what we experienced as kids. Whilst we will provide you with some resources that we use at school which you can also do at home, the best that you can do is to do things with them that will build important life skills and reassure them that everything will be ok in time.
Play a board game, have them help you with the dishes or to bake some biscuits, have a dance or karaoke party, get out in the garden and have some fun or teach them how to weed the garden.
Also give them some alone time, let them have some supervised screen time, ask them to read you a story. Be with them and show them that everything will be ok. Let them ask you questions about what is happening and tell them what you are certain of - things are changing but they have people around them who care for them and love them and that is why we can’t do our normal things at the moment. You are their parents and family members, NOT their classroom teachers. Whatever happens, we will make sure your child has the tools they need to succeed in school when the time comes.
Below are some ideas of things you could do at home. Some involve devices but many do not and of course you will have your own ideas of what you can do. Through this weebly you can access a vast range of sites and resources which your children can use at home - click on the tabs above to explore! Individual classroom teachers will be updating their class blogs with further information or will be sending information through Google Classroom (your child will know which their teacher is using).
Remember,
Children are encouraged to create responses to what they are doing in their Drive and to contact me via email ([email protected]) if they have something that they would like to share. You will need to log in to your Google account to be able to save things to your Drive and share them easily with me. Instructions on how to do this from a laptop or mobile device are below (click on the image to download the file or watch the video).
Free internet safety filter for parents
While children are learning from home, they are away from the online safety and security services provided by our in-school filtering. So together with N4L and Netsafe, the Ministry of Education has launched www.switchonsafety.co.nz - a free way to block the worst of the web for students and families.
Through this site, you can follow the instructions to set up your child’s device for safer connectivity while they learn from home.
Remember, no technical solution is a silver bullet. Remember to complement this with digital citizenship toolkits provided by Netsafe and the information Allenton School has shared with families around digital citizenship.
Netsafe
Netsafe provides comprehensive support and information to support everyone to stay safe as they work, learn and play online. Netsafe has new and updated resources for parents, whānau and students at https://www.netsafe.org.nz/advice/staying-safe/
Through this site, you can follow the instructions to set up your child’s device for safer connectivity while they learn from home.
Remember, no technical solution is a silver bullet. Remember to complement this with digital citizenship toolkits provided by Netsafe and the information Allenton School has shared with families around digital citizenship.
Netsafe
Netsafe provides comprehensive support and information to support everyone to stay safe as they work, learn and play online. Netsafe has new and updated resources for parents, whānau and students at https://www.netsafe.org.nz/advice/staying-safe/
TVNZ Home Learning / Papa Kainga TV
This will launch at 9am on 15 April, the beginning of Term 2. It will be broadcast free to air on TVNZ 2+1, on TVNZ OnDemand and Sky Channel 502. Here is the programming for the first three days.
Emily wants everyone to watch this video about hand washing - fun songs to remind you to wash your hands!