Hello Miner Families,

I hope everyone had a safe and joyful Thanksgiving break. I know that I am thankful for so many things this year regardless of how challenging the year has been. One thing that I am always appreciative of is the opportunity to serve as the school leader at Miner Elementary School where I get to work with such amazing parents/guardians and the best students all of Washington, DC!

As November ends and December begins we are in a season all about family, friends, and community. Even though we are not able to be together in person as a community this year we have a number of upcoming opportunities to engage together.

On Tuesday, December 1st - please join us for our monthly PTO Meeting. We have a lot of updates to share and discussions to have about this year and the set up for next year.

On Wednesday, December 3rd our Special Subject teachers will have two opportunities to engage with them. They will do a coffee with parents and families at 9:30am and a tea with parents and families at 5:30pm. Please join for these virtual events to hear what your kids are learning and get to know the amazing educators working with them!

We will also be hosting a literact night and STEAM nights both in December. This will be a great way to connect as a Miner Community and we hope you can join us for those as well.

I hope everyone is healthy and happy and that we get to see you at one of the various events in the month of December.

If you need anything from the school, here are the best contacts to use:

Principal Jackson - bruce.jackson@k12.dc.gov

Ms. Offor - uchenna.offor@k12.dc.gov

Stay safe and let the school know if we can be of any assistance.

Respectfully,

Principal Jackson

How Parents Can Help with Math at Home

At Miner Elementary, we are committed to improving our students’ achievement in mathematics. As partners in your child’s education, we will continue to work together in building strong, positive attitudes about learning math.

Prove it vs. Got It- Rather than just asking students to get answer and the teacher telling them whether they are right or wrong, students today are being asked to not only provide an answer, but to also provide proof as to how they know they are correct. Parents can support this learning as well by asking the same types of questions of their children as they engage them in Mathematics activities.

Math Everyone- Parents can help their children with Mathematics by engaging them in a variety of Mathematics activities, especially by pointing out and solving the Mathematics that they use in everyday life.

More than One Way- Parents will be invited to journey with students through open-ended problems and support the development of their creative Mathematical thinking.

Math is Everywhere- Parents can help their children with Mathematics by engaging them in a variety of Mathematics activities, especially by pointing out and solving the Mathematics that they use in everyday life.

Helpful Tips for Parents and Guardians

Believe that every child can be successful in math. It takes good teaching, coaching, encouragement and practice.

• Talk about math in a positive way. A positive attitude about math is infectious.

• Encourage persistence. Some problems take time to solve.

• Encourage your child to experiment with different approaches to mathematics. There is often more than one way to solve a math problem.

• Encourage your child to talk about and show a math problem in a way that makes sense (i.e., draw a picture or use material like macaroni).

• When your child is solving math problems ask questions such as: Why did you...? What can you do next? Do you see any patterns? Does the answer make sense? How do you know? This helps to encourage thinking about mathematics.

• Connect math to everyday life and help your child understand how math influences them (i.e. shapes of traffic signs, walking distance to school, telling time).

• Play family math games together that add excitement such as checkers, junior monopoly, math bingo and uno.

• Computers + math = fun! There are great computer math games available on the internet that you can discover with your child.

• Talk with your child’s teacher about difficulties he/she may be experiencing. When teachers and parents work together, children benefit.

Adapted from information provided by the American Education, Inc

Students are required to attend virtual learning each day, Monday through Friday. Student attendance is tracked by logging into Canvas each day. Please make sure students log in between 6am and 11:59pm to receive credit for attending. The log in must be through CANVAS to ensure the attendance is captured daily.

District attendance requirements still exist. If your student is going to miss school, please let their teacher know and send a note to Ms. Joseph via email at chelsea.joseph@k12.dc.gov.

Universal Health Certificates, Immunization Records, and Dental Forms are due on August 31st, 2020. Families who have not turned them in will continue to receive reminders consistently until we return to in person learning, at which point they will be mandatory and students will need to have them turned in prior to returning to school in person. If you have them completed, please email them to MinerESEnroll@k12.dc.gov.

UPDATE: Families must have updated immunization in order to claim their in person learning classroom space if offered. Those who do not have updated documentation prior to November 9th will risk losing their seat and it will be given to the next family on the waitlist.

As a reminder, Miner Elementary School is a feeding site for the community throughout the summer. Families can come in and pick up meals Mondays-Fridays from 10am-2pm.

UPDATE: While appointments at Miner will need to be scheduled moving forward, the school will remain a feeding site. Families are welcome to come between 10am-2pm for a meal. The cafeteria staff will bring the meal to families at the door.

Email: bruce.jackson@k12.dc.gov
Website: https://www.minerelementary.org
Location: 601 15th St NE, Washington, DC, USA
Phone: 202-397-3960
Twitter: @MinerElementary