OVS Weekly Update

Learning Coach Trainings

Tuesday February 13th

• 2:15-MAP Results and Review
  
• 3:00-OPS Grading Practices
  
• 3:30-Coffee chat with Wendy

Wednesday, February 14th

• 9:15 OPS Grading Practices
  
• 10:00 Coffee Chat with Wendy

Thursday, February 15th

• 9:15 OPS Grading Practices
  
• 10:00 Coffee Chat with Wendy
• 2:15-OPS Grading Practices
• 3:30-Coffee chat with Wendy
  

Parent Teacher Conferences: Check email for sign ups for K-8 (9th grade is drop-in)

Weds., Feb 14: 1:30-8pm (9th grade until 7:30pm)

Thurs., Feb 15: 4:30-8PM (9th grade until 7:30pm)

Fri., Feb 16: NO SCHOOL

**9th grade information sessions led by 9th grade teachers during PT conferences in the Commons Area.

• Wednesday, Feb 14 at 6:30-7:00pm
  
• Thursday, Feb 15 at 4:30-5pm
  

Math Club Mondays: Monday February 12th from 1:30-2:30

Students engage in math groups with teachers and math specific training provided for learning coaches. This week's training is Building Math Skills through Games.

Other Important dates

February 16th and 19th- NO ONLINE LESSONS OR ISL

Next week we have a great opportunity for learning coaches and students to connect with teachers. It's parent teacher conference time! In our first year, our learning coaches made a valid point regarding parent teacher conferences. They asked, "Why would we need to have parent teacher conferences, when we spend more time with our students than the teachers do?"

Parent teacher conferences are a wonderful time to share successes, concerns, and strategies regarding your student's learning. We are all in this together in order to support student growth. Parent teacher conferences are a great opportunity to brainstorm how we can continue to strive for student success. During conferences a few topics that you should be prepared to discuss with your teacher:

• Each student at OVS has an Individualized Learning Plan with goal setting and strategies identified to support your student's growth. You will revisit and review this plan with your student and teacher.
  

• Teachers will be engaging in discussions with students and parents regarding growth goals using the MAP data from the winter testing.

• Be ready to set goals with your student and teacher and identify strategies on how you can work together to help your student reach these goals by the end of the school year.

• Share any interests and/or hobbies about your students that your teacher may not be aware of in order to help them engage your student during class time. This will help the teacher personalize learning based on your student's interests.

We truly we are all a team working together to support your student (refer to the graphic below). Connecting with your student and your student's teacher will only make your student's support team stronger. Please bring your student(s) with you during conference time.

For your convenience, we have posted the links to sign-up for conferences in our newsletter. If you cannot attend conferences next week, please work together with your teacher to schedule a time to do so.

All K-9th grade Conferences are held this Wednesday and Thursday at the Den (4640 S 59th St). Please sign up for a session at the links below to reserve your time with a teacher. Students in K-3rd grade will meet one-on-one with a teacher while 4th-8th grade will have a block of time the parents can drop in during the designated slot. 9th grade students and parents will drop in during the designated conference time. Conferences for 9th grade students only end at 7:30pm on both nights.

Weds., Feb 14: 1:30-8pm

Thurs., Feb 15: 4:30-8PM

Fri., Feb 16: NO SCHOOL

During conferences, there will be two sessions for parents and students to attend to learn more about the 9th grade experience. 9th grade information sessions will be led by 9th grade teachers in the Commons Area. Come join one of the sessions offered during the designated times.

Wednesday, Feb 14 at 6:30-7:00pm

Thursday, Feb 15 at 4:30-5pm

Make sure to reserve your spot today to meet with your student's teacher.

Ms. Roger's Sign Up

Mr. Dowling's Sign Up

Ms. Nommensen's Sign Up

Middle School Sign Up

During conferences, students will be receiving and discussing their winter MAP results. If you notice a dip in their scores from the Fall, here is an article to help alleviate some of your concerns. Please reach out to your student's teacher in what you can do to assist your student with skill building for the next semester.

4 Questions to Consider When Winter MAP Scores Drop

Synergy would like to provide food for the teachers during conferences again. Sign up HERE to bring items that are needed.

Students gathered last week to attend our first Math Club of the semester. All students K-8th grade are welcome to attend every Monday from 1:30-2:30.

Have you ever played Trashketball? How about Cup Stacking? Zap!? These are just a few of the games that we will be playing at Math Clubs! Students will be playing games to reinforce key math concepts that are appropriate for their learning levels. We encourage learning coaches to stay and engage in learning coach training on math strategies and supports to use at home.

Three math clubs are available:

• Ms. Rogers will be reinforcing addition and subtraction.
• Mr. Dowling will be playing multiplication and division games.
• Mrs. Nommensen will be teaching higher level math rules.
  *If you have questions on which club your student should attend, please consult your teacher.

Join any club you like and enjoy applying math using fun games! After clubs are over, stay for ISL to get caught up on your K12 assignments! We are here to help you out! Sign up with this link: www.SignUpGenius.com/go/508084EABAB23A4FA7-math

One Note and One Drive are tools our students use in the classroom on a weekly basis. It is important to understand how the tools work to ensuring your students success. Students in all grade levels utilize One Note in the classroom as well as for online lessons. Our 6-8th grade students take advantage of One Drive to save and submit their assignments. Chcek out these tutorials on how to use the tools so you can assist in your students success and understanding of them to.

One Note Tutorial

One Drive Tutorial

Boxtop Collection Box Top Classroom Challenge: Deadline: February 15th
Bring in your box tops and place them in your teacher's jar on the front desk. The teacher with the most box tops by February 15th will win Pajama day during the following week!!

Be on the lookout for Ocelot paw prints We have asked our teachers to let us know of any classroom needs. They will keep posting these items on the Learning Coach Lounge door. Please consider adopting a paw print! You can then return the items directly to the classroom teacher. THANK YOU!

Synergy Board Vacancy The Synergy board is still seeking board members. Please contact us at omahavirtualschoolpto@gmail.com if you are able to help serve our community.

OVS T-shirts Available: We still have grey and blue t-shirts available for sale. There are limited sizes and quantities. The blue shirts are $10 and the grey shirts are $17. Here is what is available:

• Blue Shirt: Youth Medium (2) and Youth Large (1)

• Grey Shirt: Youth Extra Small (2), Small (3), Medium (3) and Large (5), Adult Small (2) and Adult Medium (2)

UPCOMING EVENTS
Friday March 23rd: Family Game Night
Cost: $10 per family (if eating pizza dinner)
5:30-6- Pizza Dinner
6-7:30- Learning HQ will provide games for families to play! Join us for a fun family night! Games will be available for purchase during the event. RSVP Cards available at the front desk.

Friday April 20th: Storm Chasers Game
Save the Date! More Info Coming Soon

1. Create art that truly commemorates and celebrates Black History. You may use any materials you want: canvas, pencil, paint, charcoal, crayon, marker, etc.
2. Write your name, your grade, your Teacher’s name and your school’s name on the back of your art.
   
3. Turn in your art and the permission form into your Homeroom, Art, or Social Studies Teacher or Love Jazz Art Center at 2510 N 24th Street, Omaha NE by 28 February 2018.
4. Only one submission per student. Art must be original and students own work.
   
5. Art must arrive at Love’s Jazz and Arts Center, 2510 N. 24th Street, Omaha Nebraska, by 7 March 2018. Center hours are: Tuesday-Friday, 11am-5pm & Saturday, 11am-3pm.
6. Permission slips can be picked up at the front desk.
   

Coming up in K-5 Art:

• Week of February 5th- February Face to Face Time - Bring in portfolios with any 3rd quarter work completed this far.
  
• NOW OFFERING: Open Art Time 9:30 -11:30 AM February 20, 21, 22 *Registration is Required
  • Registration will be sent out Week of Feb 12th
• All 3rd Quarter art should be turned in to Mrs. Barry by Friday, March 2nd

Thank you so much for all of your kind words and thoughts during my time away! I am ready to be back and see our students! See you this coming week for F2F!

Upcoming:

We will continue our Literature Circle groups. I will be talking with Kindergartners about which picture book they would like to read next. In Math, we will be working with numbers and different ways that we can represent numbers, whether with words, pictures, tally marks, ten frames, etc.

Ms. Rogers Skill Support Schedule Sign up

Week in Review:
We had a much better week with Lit. Circles! So much great conversation! I’m very proud of the kids and the work they did! We worked on our Data Folders for conferences next week. We highly encourage you to have your student at the conferences with you. They will be explaining their progress.

Looking Ahead:
We will continue to work with stretching sentences. Through awesome donations, we are able to acquire a writing/math notebook. Some of our students used them last week. We will all get to use them this week. Thanks to all who helped with that!! In Math we will continue with 2-D and 3-D Geometry. We will also be discussing fractions.

The video link below tries to explain the plotting of fraction on a number line. It is important to be able to understand fractions as not only a picture, but as a number as well.

Fractions on a number line

Mr. Dowling Skill Support Schedule Sign up

Math clubs started this week and I really enjoyed seeing the kids! We played a fun math games and laughed a good deal!

This week, students will be completing a pre-writing to compare/contrast themselves to a character in their book. This organizer will come home and can be the spring-board for Grade 5 Unit 8 Composition. They can use the pre-writing to write their paper. 4th grade parents are welcome to use it however they please!

We had few students bring back their completed Literature Circle worksheets in their packets. We are now over half way done with the books. This is a major part of their grade for Reading. If they do not complete the work, they will be getting a 0 for that day. Please complete the work and the reading so we can have smooth discussions in class. Stone Fox was to read chapters 4 and 5. Henry Huggins is to read chapter 4. My Side of the Mountain and Hatchet are to read chapters 12-13.

I look forward to visiting with you all at conferences!

Mrs. Nommensen Skill Support Sign up

Week in Review:
Students learned varied concepts from their K12 curriculum.

• Fundamentals: Identify and apply the formula for compound interest.
  
• PreAlgebra: Identify the and apply the formula for area of a circle.
  
• Algebra: Prove how the Pythagorean Theorem identifies triangle lengths.
  
• Algebra 1: Order and write rational numbers in multiple representations.
  
• Geometry: Calculate circumference, area, and volume of various polygons and polyhedrons.
  

Looking Ahead:
In class we will work on varied math concepts from their curriculum involving real-world math.

• Fundamentals: Use prime factorization to distribute algebraic expressions. (Lesson 6.14- Prime Factorization)
  
• PreAlgebra: Design and model a complex figure in the real world and calculate its area. (Lesson 7.13 – Area of Complex Figures)
  
• Algebra: Identify, label, and measure points, lines, and angles. (Lesson 8.01 – Points, Lines, and Angles)
  
• Algebra 1: Order and write rational numbers in multiple representations. (Module 2: Rationals, Irrationals, and Radicals)
  
• Geometry: Calculate circumference, area, and volume of various polygons and polyhedrons. (Module 2: Area and Volume)
  

Resources:

• Fundamentals: Math is Fun shows how to find the prime factorization using the tree method.
  
• PreAlgebra: Math is Fun has models, sample problems, explanations, and an interactive calculator on the Area of Circles.
  
• Algebra: Basic Mathematics has models, sample problems, and explanations on the basic geometry terms.
  
• Algebra 1: The Math Page - Discusses rationals, irrationals, and radicals. Offers sample problems with solutions and vocabulary related to the topic.
  
• Geometry: Thought Company - Discusses area and volume of polygons and polyhedrons. Offers sample problems with solutions and vocabulary related to the topic.
  

Weekly Online Math Lessons:
Each week I am teaching the current math lesson, per the pacing guide, for each subject online via ClassConnect. These sessions are mandatory and students will learn the concept through interaction with the teacher. Upon completion, students will take their check-up and be complete with that lesson. Recordings are available within the Content area after each session has completed.

• Fundamentals: (Monday @ 9:30) Prime factorization (6.15).
  
• PreAlgebra: (Friday @ 9:30) No lessons – Teachers off.
  
• Algebra: (Monday @ 10:15) Module Check Up (Module 6).
  
• Algebra 1: (Friday @ 10:15) No lessons – Teachers off.
  
• Algebra 2: (Monday @ 11:45) Varied topics.
  
• Geometry: (Friday @ 11:00) No lessons – Teachers off.
  

This last week we worked on science and social studies. In earth science, we worked on the K12 assignment "Building a Tidal Plant". In life science, we worked on the assignment "New Organism". In physical science, we worked on a potential and kinetic energy lab. In world history, students made a model of Greek architecture. In geography, students worked on a webquest about the Burma cyclone. American history students learned about the consequences of WWII by looking at artifacts from the Holocaust Museum.

Next week we will be working on ELA in class. We will be reviewing introductions and conclusions.

Have a student in 9th grade at OVS? Check out their newsletter each week HERE!

Inspire a Girl’s Future! Introduce her to the world of engineering.

Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day will occur during national Engineers Week: February 18-24.

Calling all girls to celebrate and learn:

Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018; Nebraska Innovation Campus – 2021 Transformation Dr.

Dream Big, Engineering Our World will be shown followed by engaging and age appropriate hands-on activities.

Two sessions: 9-11am & 10am-Noon

Event is free for girls grades 3-12, but registration is required. Register here today!

Questions can be directed to swei2@unl.edu.

All students in kindergarten through 12th grade are invited to step into the lab and create and submit a machine that will MAKE A SPLASH! Submissions are due on Friday, March 9th. Click HERE for more information.

If you are having issues with your student's device, please email your issue/concern to this email address: ovs-techhelp@ops.org

Parents will get an email response following your submission. One of our staff members will email parents back to provide assistance, so be sure to check your email after sending your concern.

We are a dynamic and nurturing community of learners that empowers students to reach their individual potential by providing a creative atmosphere for innovative learning and academic excellence.

The first K-8 Virtual School in the state of Nebraska.

Email: virtualschool@ops.org
Website: ovs.k12.com
Location: 3215 Cuming Street, Omaha, NE, United States
Phone: (531)299-0269
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OPSVirtualSchool/
Twitter: @OPS_Virtual