Dear White Oaks Families,
Beginning next Monday, October 5, our school will be hosting parent/teacher conferences focused on building a strong, meaningful connection between staff and families. The teacher and parent(s) will discuss student needs, areas of strength, and learning goals. The conversation may pertain to social/emotional needs, academics, and/or student independence depending on the needs of the child. This will not be a time to review students’ specific progress in academic areas. Parents will receive a progress report later in November. If a student is not making expected progress prior to report cards being sent home, please know that teachers will reach out to parents to discuss any concerns.
Throughout the week, White Oaks students will engage in a range of educational opportunities, including daily live instruction, asynchronous learning, and independent assignments between the hours of 8:30am-12:30pm to allow teachers to meet with families between the hours of 1-3pm, Monday-Friday. Office hours will be replaced by conferences next week to ensure every family has the opportunity to connect. PE will continue as scheduled during this time.
Conferences are different from report cards as the focus is on building a strong relationship and prioritizing the immediate needs of our students. Please click on this document for more information on the differences: Conference vs. Report Card Expectations. In addition, here is a comprehensive description of conferences that elaborates on the experience we hope to embrace as we partner with you in this year unlike any other.
Teach Your Kids the Value in Making Mistakes
In a distance learning model where parents and caregivers are often in the same room during school, seeing your child struggle with a concept or not get everything right can be challenging. As educators, we understand the teaching in the mistakes and look for them as valuable data to guide our next instructional steps. While researchers often argue about how long it takes to learn new skills or concepts, everyone can agree that rarely are they mastered after just one or two lessons. In our collaboration meetings, we plan multiple opportunities and modalities for our students to engage in a unit of study, layering the lessons on top of each other to deepen understanding over time. Here is an interesting perspective to consider about encouraging children to take responsible risks that may very well end up in failure with learning being the end result.The picture below is linked to some helpful ways to support a growth mindset with feedback in your family. Thank you so very much for your continued partnership in the education of your child!
Sincerely,
Leah Scholer, Principal
[email protected]
School News and Events
Join TeamKid and Support White Oaks School
Now, more than ever, our schools need your support. Distance Learning has presented new and unique challenges for our students and staff. Join TeamKid today by supporting the White Oaks PTA and SCEF. Your generous donations will be used to fund PTA programs this year like teacher stipends, art supplies, enrichment, staff appreciation, community building, special projects and needs, walk-a-jog shirts, healthy cities tutoring, and much, much more. SCEF donations will support grants for excellence in teaching, technology, mental health, electives and music as we plan for 2021-22.
Thank you for supporting TeamKid in our efforts to enhance and enrich your student’s education and provide tools for our teachers to create meaningful learning opportunities for their students. Join the TeamKid movement by making your PTA donation this fall and planning your SCEF donation at a time that works best for your family. Find out more HERE.
October PTA Meeting - October 14
Please join us at our next PTA meeting on Wednesday, October 14 at 7:30pm via Zoom. We will receive a school update from Mrs. Scholar as well as hear from our Idea Teams.
All parents are welcome to attend! Just a friendly reminder that to be eligible to vote, you must be a member of the PTA. We hope to see you there.
In-N-Out Books – Grand Opening Wednesday
Come and check out a book at the first pop-library session. We’ll be set up on the East White Oaks Way cul-de-sac in front of the library from 1:30-2:30pm on Wednesday, October 7. Going forward, In-N-Out Books will be open the first and third Wednesday of every month. We’ll be practicing social distancing and need parents to complete the Covid-19 Screening Form before coming to campus. See you Wednesday!
Advocacy Team
One of the roles of the PTA is to advocate for our schools. We are creating a team that is focused on this advocacy role. If you have interest or expertise in this area, we'd love to hear from you! Please email [email protected].
SCEF News and Events
Nurturing a Lifelong Love of Music
SCEF is thrilled to announce that the School Board approved an amendment to the budget to provide Music for Minors to K-4. Music for Minors is a local nonprofit and leading provider of comprehensive, sequential standards-based music education. The mission of Music for Minors is to nurture in children a lifelong love of music. Without the generous and overwhelming support of our donors, we could not support our kids, teachers and schools in these important and meaningful ways.
Your contributions continue to make a real difference for our students during this challenging school year. Thank you!
Community News and Events
SCSD Parent Website
We hope you will check out our new SCSD Pandemic Care & Support website that specifically addresses resources for our school community during the Pandemic.
We've created a Parent Education Calendar and will keep that updated with new events. Note: we will be adding new events to this calendar regularly, so you may wish to link the calendar to your own.
The site also houses pages for Counseling & Mental Health where you will find links to make appointments with your school counselors, along with information such as the Green Folder which details an action plan to help during a mental health crisis. We added a page about Meals & Groceriesjust to make sure everyone knows how to order weekly meal boxes and get support from the PTA if you need groceries.
Finally, you'll find our newly-released guidelines for families about the process we are following if a student is ill. Each time those processes are revised, we will let you know.