Kim O'Hara, 5th Grade Social Studies & Science Teacher
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Kim O'Hara received her bachelor's degree from Duquesne University in 1992. She began teaching on the coast of North Carolina where she and her husband were stationed. After retiring from the military she and her family moved to Charlotte where she spent time home with her children for many years. When returning to the classroom, she began at a local charter school and then moved to Bradford. During her time at Bradford, she has taught Social Studies and Science. Kim lives with her husband and has 3 grown children (Maddie, McKenzie, and Mitchell). She enjoys gardening, reading, and any activity that is near water (beach, pool, lake, river). |
Posts
Good Bye for now
Hello families,
I just wanted to remind you that today is the last day of school. It is sad, anticlamatic, not proper BUT a relief, I am sure, to most of us. I'm afraid this will be the year that goes down in history but not in a good way.
I do hope your get to have some fun this summer as we have had so much stress this year. I hope you are happy and healthy and stay that way. I hope you all learned something this year (I know I sure did) and it will make us better people, smarter people and less judgemental of others.
I hope that you will continue to learn through experiences this summer and I hope our year next year is going to be like we remember school being! I hope...
Thanks for sharing your children, your lives, your concerns and your humor with me this year. I feel assured that we all have a different idea of what we need to do and what education is all about!
Have a blessed and wonderful summer!
Ms. O'Hara
Thank you
Good morning parents,
I meant to send this on Friday but went to Ga to celebrate mother's day with my mom and forgot to send this in all the rush.
I want to say a big thank you for making teacher appreciation week really special. I got some awesome gift cards, sweets and sweet notes! I have really loved teaching this year and hope that they have loved learning as well. It's not often that a good group of kids gets together for an unprecedented year. It certainly has been one that I've never experienced and hope that we don't have to experience it again.
Thanks again for thinking of me and making me feel so special,
Ms. O'Hara
And here we go
Hello Families,
We are well on our way to the end of the school year. If you haven't heard, we will be continuing with our regular calendar which means that school ends for students on June 3rd. We still aren't sure what some of this may look like but I will be continuing with distance learning until then!
I want to thank you as families for helping me help your child. Yes it has been a struggle but this "village" is succeeding!! I have most families finding success in getting assignments accomplished, asking questions that further learning and remembering the things we have already learned! Thank you to those parents that have been so patient with me as I am learning a whole new way to engage students and find answers to questions that I've never been asked before! Please continue to help your child stick to a schedule, accomplish tasks, be prepared and engaged (especially for zoom).
I hope you have a wonderful weekend and see you on Monday,
Ms. O'Hara
Zoom tomorrow
Hello Families,
Since we were out of school today our zoom sessions will be Tuesday (tomorrow) and Wednesday this week. I look forward to seeing them!
Spring Break
Hello Families,
I'm glad that distance learning has gotten a bit easier it seems. I've gone from close to 60 emails a day to about about 40. Thank you for your patience as I get around to answering them all.
As you know tomorrow and Monday are holidays and I truly want you to take a minute and not worry about school. The weather is suppose to be beautiful so please take advantage of that.
I am including the link here if you want to make yourself an observer on your child's canvas. Many of you have asked how you know and this should help.
There is also a link in an earlier post about navigating Canvas. If you or your child are still having issues then take another look at that.
Have a lovely weekend,
Ms. O'Hara
Canvas help for parents
Parents please go to this link to Ms. Waters' page that can get you Canvas help if needed. I suggest opening in another tab.
Thank you
Just beginning
Hello Families,
I was so excited to see those little faces today! It went pretty well from my end and I'm hoping the same happened for you!
I did have a few kids that could not locate their log-in for brainpop (social studies plans this week). If your child is having this issue then please email me separately and let me know. I can reset their password. It should be in their agendas, however.
Hope things go smoothly for all of you this week!
Ms. O'Hara
expectations this week
Hi families,
I hope packet pickup went well today. We have been working really hard to get us prepared to teach them next week.
This week has been our practice week. If you have not been to canvas just yet then please make sure you do that tomorrow because there are some learning experiences that we are doing through "zoom". Zoom will be our learning platform for distance learning. Tomorrow there will be some practice sessions. If you will log into canvas and go to the links for zoom then the rest of the process will be self-explanatory.
As you know, grades are on hold as well as conferences. We will get into this new adventure one step at a time. I will be giving a lot of grace until we learn this as I hope you will be giving lots of grace as I am struggling to learn to do all of this as well. The things I love most about teaching are your children and I can't wait to get back to our routine of learning.
As always, let me know if you have any questions. If I did not get in touch with you Friday or Monday then please reach out to me especially if I did not send an email to you.
Links for help
Hi guys,
Ms. Gurthie created a helpful video to log into Canvas. Follow this link:
Also here is how you log into our Social Studies book:
Copy and paste this link into your browser. You will "click to enter" then choose the option of the book that says "Native Americans and Westward Expansion: Cultures and Conflicts". Each day you should be reading a little so that by the end of the week you have read all of the chapters you were suppose to for the Power point.
As usual, let me know if there are any questions.
Starting tomorrow
Hello families,
I know it has been a confusing time this last week but I am hopful that you have spent some great time with your family. Starting tomorrow I would like for you to take some time to begin some online learning. We will spend this next week getting to know Canvas a little bit better, practice your typing, get to know some new programs and get geared up for actual school the following week (3/30).
I am still making calls to give usernames and passwords to everyone. If I haven't gotten in touch with you yet, then please know I will begin as soon as I can tomorrow. The phone number that the call is coming from is 980-277-1348. It could be blocked and I'm trying to leave messages. In the meantime, please find the last post and begin to use the websites that I recommenced for this past week. Your passwords should be in your agenda if you don't remember. I have changed everyone's password for Canvas so don't worry about getting on until I contact you. If you try, then your username hasn't changed but your password is now your istation password with Bps* added to the end of it.
Remember not to panic. I am not expecting that you will know exactly what to do just because you posted one project already. I will walk you through several things.
Parents, if you are working and cannot be contacted please email me to let me know and I will email the information to you. If I have already gotten in touch then your child is welcome to begin wherever they are comfortable.
Well....
Hello families,
I hoped we'd be in school today so that I could help them be more comfortable with "what will happen if" but I didn't get that opportunity. Please assure them that they will still be learning! I am putting some websites up that they can go to, to help you (and them) not be crazy from sitting around!
Thank you parents for your support and flexibility, as these decisions are not made lightly but certainly made for all of our protection. We have to follow the rules too! I am also posting the Civil War power point for them to work on, go back through, understand again, etc. You can find that on the posted links.
As I come up with more ideas or find free cites that they can use, I will keep you updated.
.
https://mysteryscience.com/school-closure-planning <-- great website for question based learning.
www.brainpop.com <-- kids have a log-in
https://www.twigsciencetools.com/ <-- another great site for information.
studyjams.com <-- free site with videos - just search your topic
typing.com - kids have a log in
Legends of learning - math and science
Civil War
If you have your notes you can complete the power point that we have been working on. If not then you could scroll through, click on links and learn a little something (or something more)!
Fieldtrip tomorrow and chess club sign ups
Hello families,
As you know many of us will be on the Wilmington fieldtrip tomorrow and Tuesday. I was out of town this weekend for a wedding and my car broke down on the way home. Therefore, I have not gotten grades entered from last week. At this point, I'm afraid it will be Wednesday before I will have a chance to do so. Thanks for your understanding!
See link below for chess club that will begin in 2 weeks. Sign up today to reserve your spot! Only 24 kids can attend.
