Distance Learning Roundup for April 24

If you were to pop into our virtual classrooms this past week, you would have seen English poetry via TikTok videos, workouts led in Mandarin, geometry lessons using blankets and a lot of Ram pride and encouragement being shared by students and faculty alike. Check out this week’s distance learning roundup! We are, proudly, #RamsTogether!

Mandarin-Led Workout Videos

In Chinese 400 with Ms. Lily Childs, Upper School World Language Teacher, the Class of 2021 made “home gym” videos showing workouts using house-hold items while explaining exercise instructions in Mandarin. Check out one such video entitled “The Quintessential Home Gym (Featuring 4 of the World’s Best Athletes!). Maybe you’ll learn a bit of Mandarin while having a great workout thanks to these Upper Schoolers!

“The plan is to use some of the workout routines in class,” shares Ms. Childs.

What a fun way to practice Mandarin and exercise during the Stay At Home Order! Feel free to follow along!

Collaborative Zoom Messages from Teachers

After finding out that the remainder of the 2019-20 academic year would be spent doing distance learning, our sixth grade faculty members put their heads (and Zoom pictures) together! Mr. Dustin Delfin, Middle School Math Teacher, coordinated a collaborative, encouraging message from all of the teachers who work with the sixth grade class. See if you can read what they had to say!

Geometry with Blankets

In Middle School Math with Mr. Delfin, students are studying geometry and solving problems involving area and perimeter of polygons. “I wanted to get them moving around and get them away from the screen during some of our class time,” said Delfin. Students were asked to use a blanket to recreate/fold three different polygons on their GoFormative.com activity. Since not all students have rulers in their homes, they were asked to use their feet as a unit measuring tool. Once students gathered their data, they uploaded an image of their blanket polygon(s) to the whiteboard feature and practiced calculating the estimated areas. See the images below for a sampling of the submitted student work.

TikTok and Poetry

In Upper School English Teacher Mr. Daniel Sadicario’s ninth grade class, students mixed poetry with TikTok videos. “My students were asked to journal about their experience with staying at home and then create a poem about that and then turn it into a TikTok-like video. Here are two examples of what they came up with:

Ishaan Handa ’23

Sanchi Vishwakarma ’23

Making Birthdays Special

Birthdays don’t go unnoticed during distance learning! In Third Grade Teaching Associate Ms. Hanser’s class, her students and fellow faculty members created cards to celebrate her birthday over a Zoom video call. Check out all of their creations here! They sure know how to make their teacher feel special! Happy (belated) birthday, Ms. Hanser!

Peer to Peer Can't Stop, Won't Stop

When we moved into virtual learning, the Upper School Mentors from Peer to Peer were eager to still meet with the eighth graders one last time as planned since they knew that the move to Upper School in the fall would be more important for the eighth graders now. They were so happy that they were able to work with the eighth grade team to make the final meeting happen!

This last conversation occurred in small groups via Zoom right after lunch. Many of the eighth graders had questions about what to expect in Upper School, and the Mentors provided “real answers” about academics, activities, athletics and how to survive the transition into ninth grade. The groups also compared many notes about how virtual learning is going at the Middle School versus the Upper School and found many similarities. Vicki Thurman, Director of Student Services, said, “Having this one last session for closure was wonderful for all students but even more so for our Seniors—especially those who have been a part of the program for two years!” Thank you to all of our Mentors and Mentees for a wonderful year of Peer to Peer!

Character Development Over Zoom

In Middle School Drama Teacher Charlotte Dougherty’s classes, students worked on character development and monologues! Here they are tapping into their characters over Zoom!

Encouraging Words from Home

During this distance learning period, a lot of encouraging messages have been shared including this one from Evan ’31. Thank you for the encouragement, Evan!

Another great week of distance learning is in the books!