Ending Summer Skills Online 2012

Good morning!

Today we will closing down Summer Skills Online. Thank you all for your participation. Our incentive prizes will be given out when students return to school.

Our concluding activity is to solicit feedback about the program from parents and students. The link below will take you to a short survey where student, parents or both can provide feedback about the experience. The survey will be available until September 7, 2012.

Survey Link - http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22FAF66UZZ6/

On behalf of Nancy Hovorka and myself thank you for your participation this summer.

Steve Sokoloski

End of Summer!

Good Morning!

I just posted the answers to the Week 6 puzzles and quizzes. That means our summer is coming to an end and Summer Skills Online 2012 will be closing down. Our weekly lesson postings are done. However we will keep the site open and accepting weekly quiz submissions for another week.

On Monday August 20, Mrs. Hovorka and I will begin the work of closing down Summer Skills 2012. 

While you guys have a few more weeks of summer, we have to start getting things ready for the new school year and that means things like setting up classes for Study Island for all the new classes and teachers. We will keep the blog up and send out emails on the latest news but we will close down the the weekly quiz forms and certain parts of the site will no longer function.

We will pull all of the information together for our prize drawing and have our prizes ready to hand out right after the Labor Day Weekend. We will hand them out in school.


So, if you are a little behind because you were off at  camp or out visiting relatives that live far away, you have one week to catch up , and then sadly it is the end of summer.


Hope that some of you are taking on the challenge of the Steeplechase Bike Tour next Saturday. I will be riding so if you see me in the parking lot say hi!

Mr. Sokoloski

Week 6 Assignments!

Week 6 Assignments have been posted! Good luck everybody!

Mr. Sokoloski

Week 5 Assignments Are Posted!

Good morning!

Week 5 assignments have been posted. Good luck everbody!

Mr. Sokoloski

Week 4 Begins

Week 4 Assignments are now posted and available. Answers to the Week 3 puzzle questions are also posted.

One thing that I wanted to mention here and in a blog post is that I am seeing quite a bit of activity in Study Island. We had about 30 students doing assignments and earning Blue Ribbons. Overall as a group we are averaging 81% correct in all assignments for Grade 4 students and Grade 5 students.

However, we only had about 10 students take the quiz. It is OK if you are a little behind, but don’t forget that each quiz you take increases your chances in the prize drawing. You guys are certainly working hard, so maximize your prize chances by taking those quizzes!

Good Luck!

Week 3 Begins!

Did you ever just have a week get away from you? You look back and have no idea that the time went by so fast. That was last week for me. I am not sure I could tell you one thing I did last week, but I looked up this morning and we are ready for Week 3 to begin!

Ok, first things first. Week 3 is up and ready to go.

I did promise some stats.

1) Here are some books we are reading:

I’m Talder Loewen, German Version of Magic Tree House: Lions at Lunchtime, Sideways Stories from Wayside School, Penny the Pony Fairy, A Long Walk To Water,The Graveyard Book, World Cup, My Life is a Book, The Doll in the Garden, Mr. Burke is Berserk, Where The Mountain Meets the Moon, Our Universe, Faith, Hope, and Ivy June, Baseball Greats, Ghosts of Gribblesea Pier,  Potato Chip Puzzles, The Fire Within,  Sisters Grimm: Once upon a crime, Captain Underpants, Powerless, and Trouble According to Humphrey 

2) We got quiz results from Alex, Kishan, Madison, Anthony, Ryan, jannik, Deniel, Allison, Vernon, Cayden, Ruby, Zara, Zach, Emily, Sofiaand probably a couple more I missed or just came in.

3) In Study Island, as a group the Going Into Grade 4 class is averaging 84% correct in Math and 81% correct in English Language Arts. The Going Into Grade 5 class is averaging 78% correct in Math and 81% correct in English language Arts.

Good work everybody!

Ending Week 1 and Start of Week 2

Good Evening!

The assignments for Week 2 have been posted and are ready to go. I will have bit more to say about the how we did as a group as well as some special "hoorays" for folks who did some great things during Week 1. There are still some folks finishing up assignments for the week and I want to give them until tomorrow before I dig in to all of the work.

I decided put the answers to the puzzle type questions on a special page on the web site. That way if you are a little behind because you were away you can still read the blog but have to make a choice to see the answers for the week. Look for the tab on the top of the page called "Quiz Answers".

Mr. Sokoloski

Week 1 - Coming To a Close!

 Good Morning!

I just wanted to let everyone know that Week 2 Assignments will be posted on Sunday, but probably Sunday evening. I have a family picnic to go to early in the day and I will post after I get home.

Mr. Sokoloski

Great Start!

Wow! Two people have posted answers to the Week 1 quiz already! And I got one email confirming a Discovery Education assignment. And I got an email from a student who was working on Summer Skills from California!

I took a quick look at the Study Island activity and we had a lot of people logged in doing Study Island work. I counted about 40 Blue Ribbons earned yesterday.

Now remember, don't get caught in the Study Island Blue Ribbon loop, where if you take the test and don't get a Blue Ribbon, it can actually get harder and harder to earn the Blue Ribbon. Make sure you are doing OK in the games section before you try the test. If the program offers some help, read it over, and maybe even ask a family member to help you if you are not answering the game questions well. Then, when you are ready to take the test, work carefully and make it your best effort. If you don't get a Blue Ribbon after a second or third try, move on to the next skill, but let Mrs. Hovorka and I know that the topic was difficult for you.

Great job by everybody who worked yesterday! The rest of you guys, hope to see your quiz by the end of the week!

Mr. Sokoloski

Week 1 Assignments Posted - The Adventure Begins!

Good morning!

I have just posted the assignments for Week 1. You are welcome to start working on them. Parents can expect an email reminder that we are starting a little bit later today.

Good luck everybody!

Mr. Sokoloski

Study Island Login Reminders Have Been Emailed

Good Morning!

Early this morning we emailed everyone with a reminder of their Study Island passwords. They are the same ones you used during the school year.  Please check your email to see that it arrived. You will login with this information to complete Assignments 2 & 3 each week. You should also try out the login as everyone has been moved into a special summer class. When you login, you will be taken to a class page with assignments for Sample Week.  We still have a few folks that have not confirmed their contact email so, a gentle reminder to check your junk email folders and spam filters to make sure our emails are getting through.

Only a few more days until we officially launch on July 1!


Mr. Sokoloski

Setting Up Students Entering Grade 4 This Morning

Good morning!

There are several steps in getting things ready for Summer Skills. This morning I moved all students entering Grade 4 into the Summer Skills class in Study Island. Couple of more moves will take place today with our students entering Grade 5 (with the weather so nice, it may be until this evening!).

When the classes are all set up will will be sending emails out to the parent contact address that include your Study Island username and passwords.

So, this is just a heads up that if you are an entering Grade 4 and you remembered your Study Island username and password, if you login you now get the class page with the sample assignments.

Enjoy this beautiful day!

Mr. Sokoloski

Its Soooooo Hot!

I wanted to let you know that while you lucky dogs get to spend your day finding cool thins to do, Mrs. Hovorka and I are still in school. When you folks leave we have a few days to really clean the computers labs and storage areas. We are very lucky to have a little bit of air conditioning to help us out. However, we are coming in very early in the morning and working to a little past noon to beat the heat. Did you do today at 6:30 AM? I'll bet you were still sleeping. We were cleaning the Goodwin Computer Lab. Stay cool!

Mr Sokoloski

Happy Last Day of School?

Happy Last Day

What a great but hot start to summer! Hope everybody finds something cool to do through the end of the week. Thanks to everybody who confirmed their registration. If you have not confirmed your registration please check your email. That is all for now!

Mr. Sokoloski

Breakin' 40!

Today we went over 40 students registered for Summer Skills Online! Keep those registrations coming! We have been pretty good at getting a confirmation email out as soon as we get a paper registration or an email that someone has signed up online. If you have not gotten an email from us check your junk email or spam folder to be sure our email is getting through. After tomorrow there we will not be getting paper registrations so the online form is the best way. There is a link in the right menu bar.

Mr. Sokoloski

Down to the finish!

Hello everyone!

We are coming down to the wire in the school year and our registration period. Today I made a visit to Mrs. Deloreto's class at Vinton school. That was the last class to have a formal presentation about the program :( 

So, if you are coming on board get your registration in - use the online form. We would like to confirm that every student registered has a working parent email so when we begin on July 1 we are all set.

Now that is the business part, let me tell you an exciting story. Today I had to to drive from Southeast School to Vinton School over Browns Road. As I got towards the bottom of Browns Road I saw a shape outside my car window to my left on the driver's side. It was a red tailed hawk gliding along going down the hill. Now the hawk was gliding a little faster than my car and in a couple of seconds it was out in front by about 10 car lengths. It then spread its wings and extended its talons and dropped onto the grass on the left side of the road. It kind of "bounced" into the grass with its talons outstretched and flew back up and away. I had witnessed a hawk hunting for food and attacking some small creature. I did not see if it had picked up anything as when it turned to fly away it had its wings turned so that  could not see if it had anything in its grasp. But what an exciting moment. I had never seen a hawk attack so close up to see exactly how a hawk does it. It is great to live in a part of the world where every once in a while you get to see nature in all of it's glory.

Mr. Sokoloski

Friday Reminders

Good Morning! What a busy time we have going in our schools! Field Days, Moving On Ceremonies, Field Trips! And what great weather!

In the middle of all this excitement the news from Summer Skills Online is that we have sent out registration confirmations to our second batch of recipients today. If you registered this week your parents should be getting an email. We need parents to reply to this email to confirm we have a working contact email for the summer.

If you have replied, thank you! If you have not yet please do as soon as you can. If you did not get an email, please check your junk email folders and spam filters to be sure Summer Skills emails are not being blocked. If you still did not receive an email please contact the coordinator's.

Thanks,

Mr. Sokoloski

Questions from the classes...

I wanted to post a couple of answers to questions asked by students hearing about Summer Skills Online in their classes.

First - remember that you can register online from the menu choices if you want, or if you need an extra paper form you can print one out.

Second - even if you will be away you can do the program because all of the material is online. Or if you will be away from the Internet you can skip a week or two and catch up.

Third - We think that all the activities will work on smaller devices like tablets. You may have to make a choice in the Discovery Science activity about how the video is displayed. Check the video tutorial for some tips.

Mr. Sokoloski

What A Group We Have!

Wow! We sent out about 25 emails yesterday to families of students who registered to make that we entered the correct email. We have 13 replies within 24 hours! That is great! Parents should check their emails (especially their junk email folders and spam filters) for a registration confirmation.

Now if you registered after Monday morning, not to worry. We will batch up any new registrations we got in and send them out as a batch on Thursday or Friday.

In other news, we have been having fun doing our presentations to Grade 3 & Grade 4 classes at Vinton School this week. It was really great to see the students in Ms. Hain's class try out one of our optional fun links in the Sample Week activities - the Walk Jog Run site -  http://www.walkjogrun.net/.

Registration Confirmation Email Going Out!

Today at about 3:30 PM we sent out our first batch of 27 emails to the families of students who registered for the program. The purpose of the email is to say hi, but also to make sure we have a working email for the family of every child registered. If you have registered, please check your email (including any junk email folder or spam filtering software) to be sure you got our message.

Thanks,

Mr. Sokoloski