Welcome to Digital Literacy! There is so much information that is coming at parents right now, so I will keep my greeting as short and to the point as I can, and continue to answer all those great questions that you have as they come up.
First, my name is Angela Flickinger-Pierce, or Ms. Pierce, and this is my third year teaching Digital Literacy at DAMS. Many of your students know me already, as some of your students were part of my 2nd grade WES class when I was a student teacher. I can't believe that I am lucky enough to have your students back!!!
As 5th graders, your student will explore many different types of technology including robotics, the engineering design process, graphic design, coding and online safety and digital citizenship. With the virtual start to the school year, our Google Classroom will look just like the Google classroom of their homeroom teacher, and we will share information in a similar way. Additionally, to help your student stay organized this year with Virtual Learning, I will be posting a "Week at a Glance" document on the stream that will show exactly what the students will be doing each day for the week. The rotations of Encore this year are 29 days long. The "Week at a Glance" will include all of the links that students will need for the week. Assignments will all have due dates and be found under the weekly topics. Your student will get one to two project grades each week for the rotation. Grades are based on showing understanding of the ISTE standards, and are 4,3,2,1, with 4 being advanced and 1 showing that the student has not yet showed their understanding of the concept. Students with a 1 or 2 will be greatly encouraged to continue to work towards a 3, and extra one-on- one help is ALWAYS available. Just let me know.
Details about our Encore rotations and classes can be found in this Encore Newsletter. It gives details about the start of the school year, a video introducing all of the Encore teachers, and has contact and office hour information for all of the Encore teachers. Please let me know if you have any information about the newsletter.
Finally, I will use this blog to share information throughout the rotation. You can look back on prior posts to see resources for a number of different activity ideas, staying safe online, and past student projects.
I know that this is a different type of school year, but we are going to make this work and learn, and I am here to help you every step of the way! I will leave you with pictures of my children from this summer. We spent most of our time outside, or gardening and baking. My daughter Rachel is a senior this year and applying to study Marine Science at the University of Hawaii at Hilo, and my son Henry is 5 and is attending 4K this year.
