WeLearn Academy Newsletter – Aug 30 – Sep 3, 2021
WeLearn Academy Newsletter – August 30 – September 3, 2021
Dear WeLearn Community:
Our Learners, new parents, and WeLearn team have had a very busy first week with soft-skills workshops, PBL project launch, new innovation program orientation, and also welcoming many new students. So, first off, I would like to extend a very warm welcome to our 20+ new Learners and their families. I say 20+ because we have a number of Learners who are doing their trial during the first two weeks before enrolling.
To handle the larger number of learners we have: (1) engaged new coaches and mentors, (2) created a new Student Success department to focus on mentoring, counseling, tutoring and personalized learning adjustments; (3) formed a new middle section for PBL and (4) created a new more flexible and self-directed Innovation program.
Our newsletter is a bit longer than usual, however, there are a number of key points we need to communicate to you this first week.
Parent Communication:
Emails: Some parents have had problems receiving our emails this week. We apologize for this. We moved our email server from a Google System to a Microsoft Education System a few weeks ago. Apparently, there might be some bugs remaining for some of you. We are working hard to fix this problem. If you are not receiving emails, or know of other parents who are not, please notify Mr. Ralf at [email protected].
Weekly Zoom links and Schedule: Every Monday morning, by 8:30 a.m., we will send the weekly schedule (which will be largely the same each week) and all the relevant zoom links, including zoom links to your Learner’s mentoring sessions, via EMAIL, Line, and WhatsApp. The time and date for your Learner’s mentoring session will be sent individually.
Daily Schedule & Zoom Links: As an additional reminder, every morning, by 8:30 a.m., we will send out the zoom links for that day’s activities to the Line and WhatsApp groups for the convenience of WeLearn learners and parents. If you are not in one of those groups (Line for Primary and Middle Cohorts and WhatsApp for Secondary Cohort), please contact Ms. Joy at [email protected]
Monday is a Flex Day
To provide more flexibility to our learners we have arranged Monday to be a Flex Day. There will be no Morning Kickstarter on Mondays to allow our learners to manage their online academics, work on their personal projects in STEM Innovation, or attending mentoring. Tuesday to Friday (3:00 – 5:30 pm) is also flextime either for Conundrum, Study Club, Fitness Club, or personal projects.
The New Middle Cohort
We currently have a big group in our new Middle Learners cohort that includes grades 5-8 or ages 10-13. Having upper Primary Learners in this new cohort provides us a greater opportunity to customize instructions to a smaller age group of learners.
New STEM Innovation Program
Our optional STEM Innovation program for this term provides more personalized learning activities to our learners. They could choose projects from different a variety of options according to their personal interest. Kindly check the link below for the STEM Innovation program, if your child has not filled out the form. This will help us acquire licenses for the project of their choice.
Students Success Department
Under the new Student Success Department, we are excited for our learners to meet our new team of academic mentors led by Mr. Alec with Mr. Andrew, our remote mentor from Northwest Pacific, Ms. Neha, our ESL coach, and Ms. Anne, a new member of our team from Pensmith STEM School. The Students Success Department combines Personalized Learning, Mentoring, Counseling, and Learning Support/Tutoring.
Wishing you a wonderful and safe weekend.
As always, Upward and Onwards!!
CEO & Founding Father of WeLearn
David Doran
+++
Read MoreWeLearn Academy Newsletter – August 22 – August 27, 2021
WeLearn Academy Newsletter – August 22 – August 27, 2021
Dear WeLearn Community:
Welcome to the New Term! We are happy to welcome you all back as we begin the PBL Fall Term next week, September 1, 2021.
I’m sure you would all be excited to meet 14 new learners in our program for the next term. I’m also glad to welcome back Jon Somaang, a former learner in our program who will be rejoining us this fall. I would also like to send our best wishes to our learners: Talya and Layla who moved back to Cape Town, South Africa, and to Eman and Annie who moved to Alberta, Canada.
To start the new term, I would like to share some of the details about the new developments in the WeLearn Ecosystem.
New Weekly Schedule
To give our learners a bit more flexibility, we’ve assigned Monday to be a Flex Day where there will be no Morning Kickstarter. This allows our learners to manage their time effectively between working on their online academics, attending mentoring, or working on their personal projects in STEM Innovation. Also, Tuesday to Friday (3:00 – 5:30 pm) is flextime either for Conundrum, Study Club, Fitness Club, or personal projects.
The New Middle Cohort
Kindly be reminded that we will have the Middle Learners Cohort starting this Fall term. It will include learners from grades 5-8 or ages 10-13. This will allow us to refine the delivery of our programs to our younger learners.
New STEM Innovation Program
We are excited to introduce our optional STEM Innovation program for this term. In this program, we will have our learners work on self-paced personal projects based on their interests. Once learners have signed up, they can join the STEM Innovation Club time where one of our coaches will be present to cater to the needs of the learners.
Students Success Department
Our new Students Success Department combines Personalized Learning, Mentoring, Counseling, and Learning Support/Tutoring. Our new team of mentors will be led by Mr. Alec with Mr. Andrew, our remote mentor from Northwest Pacific, Ms. Neha, our ESL coach, and Ms. Anne, a new member of our team from Pensmith STEM School.
Orientation & Workshop Week
Our Student Success Department will be leading a workshop on Leadership, Communication, & Collaboration during the first week of school. This workshop aims to strengthen the soft skills development of our learners and prepare the groups as they face another great challenge in the new PBL term.
Weekly Q&A about WeLearn Ecosystem: We will continue our weekly Q&A Session with David Doran, WeLearn’s Founding Father, and the Ed Team, this Sunday (August 29th). Please share the link below with any of your contacts who would like to know more about the WeLearn education model.
Register here: Click
Read MoreWeLearn Academy – August 16 – August 20, 2021
WeLearn Academy Newsletter – August 16 – August 20, 2021
Dear WeLearn Community:
As you know, we’ve been holding two-week free trials of our WLA academy program all month. Our final trial occurs next week, with the topic below of « Protecting the Oceans ». If you have any friends or colleagues interested in trying out our program, please send the graphic below to them (which you also received on Line).
Summer PBL: Protecting the Oceans (Aug 23-27, 2021)
We would like to invite again our WeLearn Academy learners to join another interesting PBL topic next week about Protecting the Oceans. This PBL provides a great opportunity for our learners to practice their writing skills and share their ideas and authentic project solutions with other learners in the Penpal Schools network around the world.
Join us for the orientation on Monday, 23rd of August, right after the Morning Kickstarter!
Minecraft for Education: We are happy to be able to begin our Minecraft Education program this term — which will be incorporated into our PBLs and Innovation program. See more information below about how your child can try it out next week before the term starts.
September Term Start Date: Please don’t forget that our September term will begin on Sept. 1, which is a Wednesday, with an all-learner morning Kickstarter at 9:30 a.m. PBL for primary and middle year Learners will begin on Sept 1. PBL for secondary learners will begin on Sept 2, Thursday. Full details, schedule, and PBL syllabus will be sent out next week.
Weekly Q&A about WeLearn Ecosystem: We will continue our weekly Q&A Session with David Doran, WeLearn’s Founding Father, and the Ed Team, this Sunday (August 22). Please share the link below with any of your contacts who would like to know more about the WeLearn education model.
Read MoreWeLearn Academy – August 9 – August 13, 2021
WeLearn Academy Newsletter – August 9 – August 13, 2021
Dear WeLearn Community:
Dear WeLearn Community:
We have just completed the second week of the PBL Trial Program for the month of August. Our Learners have demonstrated their great passion in solving a real threat to protecting our environment. You will find an overview of the PBL this week and their solutions in the article below.
Our Innovation Department is also launching the Minecraft Education Edition as an additional learning tool for PBL next term. Be sure to check out the recent study from Queensland University on how Minecraft Education Edition impacts learning in the classroom.
Self-Directed Learning is one of the core future skills our Student Success Department is focusing. You will find below how our learners are assessed in developing this skill.
Penpal School PBL: The Science of COVID-19 and How to Stay Safe
Our full-time WeLearn Academy students are welcome to join the next two weeks of PBL Topics from Penpal School. This PBL allows our learners to share their solutions with a broader audience of other learners from around the world. “Protecting the Oceans” PBL topic will be delivered again from August 23rd -27th. Feel free to join the orientation on Monday, 16th of August, right after the Morning Kickstarter!
Recruitment Campaign: We will continue on the second week of the open Q&A session with Mr. David, WeLearn’s Founding Father and the EdTeam, this Sunday (August 15th). We would really appreciate it if you would forward the post below (and sent on Line) to any of your friends and contacts who might be interested.
Read MoreWeLearn Academy – August 2 – August 6, 2021
WeLearn Academy Newsletter – August 2 – 6, 2021
Dear WeLearn Community:
I hope you are all enjoying your flex month break from our PBL and Innovation courses. I also hope that
our Learners are taking some time off from online learning so they will return refreshed in September.
New Student Success Program: We have a wonderful new announcement for you in this newsletter. We
are setting up a new department to focus on helping your Learners to be independent, responsible, and
Self-Directed Learners — and achieve their personal learning goals. This department will be led by Coach
Alec Goldman. Please read his section below for more information.
Recruitment Campaign: You may have noticed that we have a strong social media recruitment campaign
going on currently. Our social media chat lines have been on fire these past few weeks, with many
questions being asked about our program. To address these questions, we have an open Q&A session
with me and the EdTeam this and next Sunday (8th and 15th August). We would really appreciate it if you
would forward the post below (and sent on Line) to any of your friends and contacts who might be
interested.
Trial Program: As part of our recruitment campaign, we have a trial program taking place this month. We
have around 10 new students joining each week and expect to have quite a few new enrollments
September Term. More new friends for all our Learners!