This Week's Meeting Schedule

Monday 10/27
Office Day

Tuesday
Ione
Austin & Dylan - 11:00
Jasmine & Roxie - 1:30

Wednesday
Plymouth/Ione/Somerset
Michael & David - 8:30
Grace - 11:00
Teran - 1:00

Thursday
Pioneer
Wyatt - 11:00
Joseph - 12:30
Emma E. - 1:45

Friday
Harvest Festival

FAME - from Traci Muldery

Visions Families,


We will be having our next FAME presentation on this coming Wednesday, October 22, beginning at 10:00.


We will be looking at the art of El Greco "View of Toledo" and the music of Modest Mussorgsky, "Night on Bald Mountain".

The art and music presentation will be followed by individual art projects for all students.

FAME will end around 11:00 ish.  FAME is free.


Hope to see you there,

Traci Muldery

Link to FAME flyer

This Week's Meeting Schedule

Monday 10/20
Ms. Bryon in Carmichael
for Professional Development

Tuesday
Pine Grove/Pioneer
Joy - 1:30
Emma N. - 2:30
Tristan - 3:30

Wednesday
Jackson Public Library
Emma P. - 11:30
Baruch - 1:00
Ana - 2:00
Leila - 3:00

Thursday
Placerville 
Marley - 11:00
Thomas, Dianne & Kennedy - 12:15

Friday
Office Day

Curriculum Ideas

Are you looking for additional curriculum resources? Here are some that were shared at our last teacher meeting:






Common Core 4 Today
Available on Amazon
Math, Language Arts and some Science
Workbooks with daily practice

newsela.com
News articles for kids.
Free with signup.
"Read closely. Think critically. Be worldly. Newsela is an innovative way to build reading comprehension with nonfiction that's always relevant: daily news. It's easy and amazing. Every Article At 5 Levels Newsela makes it easy for an entire class to read the same content, but at a level that’s just right for each student."  - newsela.com

mobymax.com
A complete K-8 curriculum. $99/year. Order through Launchpad. Has a free version so you can try it.
"MobyMax is the fastest growing curriculum in the United States with over 5 million students registered since MobyMax was introduced three years ago. The simple reason for such widespread adoption is that teachers and students love rapid achievement. Students learn twice as fast! You need curriculum that is not only effective but also affordable to succeed. MobyMax redefines the meaning of affordable curriculum." - mobymax.com

dreambox.com
Online math Program.
"A student-driven math learning experience that powers success." - dreambox.com
$12.95 per month, $59.95 for 6 months. Order through Launchpad.

adaptedmind.com
Online math Program.
"A better way to learn math." - adaptedmind.com
$10.00 per month. Free trial. Not a Visions Vendor (yet).

Tenmarks.com
Online math program.
"The free program comes with complete curriculum for a single grade with deep and rigorous content, and embedded instruction for students. It’s designed for use alongside daily instruction to reinforce concepts." - tenmarks.com


I also had a parent share with me that she found these books an improvement over the common core supplements that were recommended by Visions:

Power Practice (Math, but they have other subjects as well)
by Creative Teaching Press
Workbooks
Available on Amazon

She also uses and recommends:
Vocabulary Connections
by Steck Vaughn
Available on Amazon

Can you recommend any curriculum resources to other home school families? I will be adding the resources from this post to a new page on the blog next week. Email me your recommendations (or criticisms) and I will add them to the page.

Budget Transfer Form

(Copied from the Newsletter)
The purpose of this Budget Transfer Form is to allow families to have the ability to move budget dollars between student(s) accounts within the same family.

These requests will only be accepted during the month of November, and they will be processed before the December winter break.  Please email, fax or mail them to the Resource Center.

Transaction ranges are limited to:

• Individual student account deduction, limited to $100-$250 (no more than $250 from a single student).
• Individual student account increase, capped at $500 (no more that $500 can be added to a single student).

If you have any questions on this process, please email kwellsfry@viedu.org.

New, Improved Semester Plans

I am in the process of developing new and improved semester plans. I will copy your old info into your new plan so you do not have to. When your plan is ready, I will place a link to your new plan on the page your old plan used to occupy and send you an invite.

I will go over the new plans at our next meeting. 

Here is a preview:

Plans are now Google Doc Spreadsheets (similar to Excel) with multiple tabs, rather than Google Documents (similar to Word).

Your plans now have drop down menus for the learning units. No more pulling out the learning units handout!

Each Semester Plan is geared to individual student grade level with the appropriate learning units.




K-5 Semester Plans have the whole year on one sheet because courses in K-5 rarely change during the course of the year.


6-12 Semester Plans are broken up into semesters, as middle school and high school often have semester length courses.







Semester plans now include tabs for LP progress recording. (No more LP progress grades through the form on the Blog). The Texts/Materials and Planned Assignments are auto filled from the semester plan. By default, the Completed Assignments section is auto filled from the planned assignment box. You will change this if you made adjustments to your plan. There is a drop down menu for letter grades, basic progress notes, and a place for further notes about each subject.

You should start seeing your updated semester plans this week. Feel free to explore and update them.  Go ahead and fill in info for LP1 and LP2 progress tabs if you feel comfortable.

Please let me know if you have any questions!

I am so impressed with your teaching and parenting. I know, especially for new families, the beginning of the year can be really rough. There is so much to learn and there are so many new things to figure out. You are doing a great job.

I am hearing so many parent educators say "I think I am getting the hang of it." Things are starting to make sense, curriculum is finally arriving and you can see what your days and weeks will look like. I have collected an amazing first set of work samples and am having a great time hearing your children talk about what they are learning.

I just wanted to take a moment to say how much I respect what each and every one of you is doing, and to let you know that I admire your commitment to your child's (children's) learning. I am in awe of you.

Returnables

How do you know what curriculum items you will need to return to Visions?

Some items are consumable (most workbooks and paperback novels, etc.), that means they are designed to be used up. Others are returnable (most hardback textbooks and manuals, some materials), that means that you will need to return them to Visions at the end of the year.

To determine what portions of your orders are returnable, go to your Orders screen. At the top you will see a summary of your account. It will look something like this, with your student's name above it:

The blue link for "Returnables" will take you to another page that will list items that need to be returned to Visions at the end of the year. It will look something like this:

This Week's Meeting Schedule

Monday 9/30
Teacher Meetings

Tuesday
Ione
Austin & Dylan - 11:00
Jasmine & Roxie - 1:30

Wednesday
Plymouth/Ione
Michael & David - 8:30
Grace - 11:00
Jezreel - 1:00

Thursday
Pioneer
Wyatt - 11:00
Joseph - 12:30
Emma E. - 1:45
Tristan - 3:30

Friday
Office Day/Somerset
Teran - 11:00

Upcoming...

• Friday, October 10: LP2 Ends
• Friday, October 31: Harvest Festival - FLYER

Visions Families,

We will be having our first FAME meeting on Wednesday, September 24, starting at 10:00.  FAME (Fine Arts Multi-Experience) focuses on the works and lives of significant artists and composers.  Each lesson is an opportunity to introduce your child to the contributions of these people.  We will be looking at a large size copy of a famous work and listening to the music of a famous composer.  The arts add so much to our lives, and your children will grown in appreciation of great works.  Following the lesson, we will have individual art projects.

This meeting will be particularly fun because it will be followed by a birthday/retirement celebration for fellow CT Nonnie Muehlenhaupt.  Nonnie has added so much to our FAME lessons over the last 5 years, and will be greatly missed.  I'm hoping that many of you will be able to come and celebrate with us. We will have a free hot dog lunch with refreshments and cake for dessert.

FAME lessons are free. While FAME focuses on K-8, we have had high schoolers come and participate or help, and they are truly appreciated!

Hope to see you there!
Traci Muldery

Link to FAME flyer

This Week's Meeting Schedule

Monday 9/22
Office Day

Tuesday
Pine Grove/Pioneer
Emma N. - 11:00
Joy - 12:10
Emma P. - 1:30
Tristan - 3:30

Wednesday
Jackson Public Library
Jezreel - 11:30 ??
Baruch - 1:00
Ana - 2:00
Leila - 3:00

Thursday
Placerville 
Marley - 11:00
Thomas, Dianne & Kennedy - 1:00

Friday
Jackson Public Library
Emma P. - 12:00
Gracyann & Daisy - 1:00

New Blog Pages

I posted a few new blog pages with information about how to find Visions vendors in your area, how to order vouchers, and how to find information about enrichment classes. You can find them at the top of this page.

Please feel free to post a comment on the pages about classes and events that you would recommend to other home school families.

Work Samples Simplified

I think I may have made the idea of gathering work samples much more complicated than it needs to be. Sorry for that.

The basics of work samples:
I will collect work samples at each meeting.
That means only once per LP :)

Work samples should consist of:

• 1 paper sample per subject, per student
• On 8 1/2 by 11 standard size paper, should be consistent with what is noted in your semester plan.
• 1 discussion, demonstration or display sample per subject, per student
• Can be demonstrating a  karate move, playing a song, showing me a model or a project, sharing pictures of a field trip, showing me your progress on a computer program, reciting a poem, summarizing a story, reading to me, showing me how to do a math problem, etc.

Please let me know if you have any questions about work samples or are having any anxiety around them. Thanks!

This Week's Meeting Schedule

Monday 9/15 - First Day of LP2
Office Day

Tuesday 9/16
Ione/Plymouth
Gracyann & Daisy
Leila - 1:30
Jezreel - 3:00

Wednesday 9/17
Camino/Pollock Pines
Sarah - 11:00
Alexandra - 12:30
Charlotte - 2:00
Karter - 3:30

Thursday 9/18
Ione
Phoenix - 11:00
Alex & Lucian - 12:30
Grace - 3:00

Friday 9/19
Office Day

Progress Grades - due Friday

Please use the appropriate form below to submit your LP1 progress grades. If you have any questions, or need any help, please text, call or email me. Thank you!
For students in grades K-5:



For students in grades 6-12:

Semester Plans - due Friday

Have you finished your semester plan?

Your semester plan is your master lesson plan for the semester. This is where you will record the texts and materials you are using for each subject, and how and when you plan to cover them. A semester plan helps you to see the big picture and gives you a structure for your school schedule. The semester plan needs to be completed sometime before the end of LP1 (9/12).

Remember: you do not need to use the format I provided. If you have another way you would like to organize this information, that is totally fine. I just need a copy.

Let me know if you have any questions or need any help.

This Week's Meeting Schedule

"D" Week
D weeks are generally the last week of the learning period and are paperwork/office weeks for me. There won't be any meetings other than make-up meetings on D weeks.

Monday 9/8
Ms. Bryon to attend teacher meeting

Tuesday 9/9
Phone
Jasmine - 9:30
Roxie - 10:30
Plymouth
Michael - 5:00
David - 6:00

Wednesday 9/10
Jackson
Joseph - 11:00
Katrina - 12:00

Thursday 9/11
Office Day

Friday 9/12 - End of LP1
Office Day

An Introduction to Visions Information Systems

Students and parents can access Launchpad, our student information system, anytime, 24-hours a day. A few helpful tools here will allow you to: place orders, keep track of funds, and register for classes and events. We have found that Google Chrome performs better with Launchpad than other browsers. It is free and can be downloaded here. Here is a link to a handy Quick Start Guide that will tell you everything you want to know about Launchpad.

This is the place to check for a collection of curriculum resources. Here you’ll find more information on supported curriculum, pacing guides, project ideas, videos and online resources. Sign in to Launchpad first, then log in to the Hub (Username: homeschool, Password: Home2014!)

TextbookX is the official vendor you’ll use to order adopted curriculum, purchase most teacher editions and shop the marketplace for great savings, up to 60%. To complete your order, use the Flexpay username and password for payment. If an item is offered on TextbookX, you will need to order it there instead of another vendor.

The Visions eHandbook is the internal site for students, families, teachers, and staff. Here you will find policies, procedures, and forms. This site contains resources, including step-by-step instructions and videos to help users comfortably navigate our student information system (Launchpad), as well as the rest of Visions eHandbook. Think of it as place to do a “Google Search” for Visions policies and forms.

The Wire is the school’s communication system, connecting Visions to you. Weekly Newsletters are sent from The Wire to families on Tuesdays, at 10:00am.

Student ID Photo Cards

To request an ID card through Launchpad:

1. Log into your student's Launchpad account.
2. Click the "More Info" link on the left hand side.
3. Click the "My Account" link in the main section on the right.
4. Read the instructions for photo requirements under the "My Photo and Student ID" heading. You can also view the requirements below.
5. Click the "Choose File" button, then browse to the image on your computer.
6. Click the "Upload Photo and Request ID" button.
7. An email will be sent to you when the photo has been approved or rejected by your teacher.
8. Once the photo is approved, SkyQ will create your photo ID and mail it to the mailing address listed in Launchpad.

Photo Requirements

• Photo should be in JPG or JPEG file format.
• File must be under 2MB in size.
• Try to use a plain, white or light colored background.
• Take the photo in a full-face view, directly facing the camera.
• Do not wear a hat or head covering that obscures the hair or hairline, unless worn daily for a religous purpose.
• Your full face must be visible, and the head covering must not cast any shadows on your face.
• Do not wear dark or tinted glasses/sunglasses.

Please think of this photo like a passport or other ID photo. Great examples can be found on the State Department's website.

Your CT must approve the photo. You will receive an email once the photo has been approved or rejected. To request a replacement ID, please contact your CT.

If you have any additional questions, please email studentid@viedu.or or call SkyQ at 916-780-7566.