Please know this is solely a copy of the email sent out on Friday, March 20, 2020 in an effort to keep record of emails that are sent directly to parents. If you read this already, please disregard. Stay healthy!
Hello, parents:
Thank you for all of the cooperation and feedback you’ve offered to us this week. Though our days have been very different from our usual school days, we have seen a lot of great work and effort from everyone as we’ve adjusted to these digital spaces and online instruction. We are truly enjoying the maturity and excitement your students are showing as they rise to this new challenge.
As we move into our next week, we wanted to provide some updates to help streamline the experience for not only our students, but you as well. We recognize that everyone involved is balancing multiple responsibilities between parenting, working, facilitating student learning, and so much more. In light of this, please know we are appreciative of whatever amount of support you are able to give your child from home. In the next few days, we will be organizing check-ins between each student and their homeroom teacher. Our hope is that this might serve as an outlet for your child to share concerns and ask questions about how to navigate this new learning environment.
In fifth grade, Google Classrooms will serve as our primary source of information for you and your child as we continue our online learning. We certainly don’t want to inundate you with information spread across several different platforms, so we believe the accessibility of Google Classroom will be most efficient for you and your child. Each Monday, we will update the Google Classrooms for each of your student’s core subjects with assignments, online meeting times, and any other relevant information for the week. The general Fifth Grade Classroom page will be used for updates from Specials teachers, non-subject specific interactions, general well-being links, and links to our weekly grade-level Zoom calls. Students should get in the habit of checking each of their Google Classrooms twice a day. Setting a specific time first thing in the morning and another time in the afternoon or evening might be helpful. This way, they can be aware of any changes that are made to their weekly schedules, as well as check in on the other comments and questions made by their classmates.
We highly encourage you to follow up with your student as they record these responsibilities in their agenda just as you did throughout the year. This will continue to help them develop their own accountability and scheduling skills, while also having the assistance of their team of parents and teachers. In Middle School, students are expected to check each teacher’s Veracross and/or Google Classroom pages for all assignments. While parents do have access to their Veracross accounts, in order to support their child’s growing independence they are not directly notified of assignments unless there is an issue in which a student is having difficulty and needs more support. Keeping track of assignments for their own classes is an important step for your student, especially as they continue to build ownership of their own learning in the years to come.
To help with the adjustment to online classes, we will be offering an open Zoom meeting for parents through the link posted in the Fifth Grade Google Classroom tomorrow, Saturday, March 21, at 3:00 p.m. We welcome you to join us so we can help clarify any confusion or answer any questions you may have.
We hope to see you Saturday at 3 p.m.!
Take Care,
Kimberly & Tim