Dear Parents and students,
Welcome back. Usually, at this time, we would be welcoming you back into our classroom with sunny smiles, laughter and fun tales of holiday exploits filling the air. However, these are not usual times. Recent events have created lots of uncertainty and unknowns in our world.
One thing we do know is that God is great and powerful. He is someone who is always faithful. Even during this time, where plans seem uncertain and ever changing, we know He has a plan for us.
We have drawn a lot on our faith in God these past few days as we have begun to plan for what your child’s education will look like in the coming days and weeks ahead. Hopefully, this post will begin to provide you with some information on some of the things we are working on, providing you with some comfort and clarity.
We want you to know that:
- School will continue – Teachers are hard at work preparing materials and activities to students to work on at home. Recognizing that there are many things vying for your attention on the homefront, we are trying hard to not overwhelm you. However, we do not want to just send home busy work but rather activities that are still strongly connected with the BC curriculum.
- Establishing a routine is important – One of the best things for your child is establishing a routine that you can follow as much as possible. Therefore, a suggested daily schedule will be sent home to help with building those all important routines into your day. Children like knowing what is going to happen each day and what the expectations are.
- Connections with your child are important to us – We are thinking and praying for our students. We miss their smiles, their unique personalities and their energy. We have built relationships with your child during this year and want those relationships to continue even at this time. We want your child to know that we are still here thinking of them and knowing that they are still important to us. Throughout the week, we will be contacting you and your child – on a scheduled basis – using a variety of methods (phone, email, and video conferencing).
- Technology can be a powerful tool for remote learning but may be difficult – Bringing a number of technology tools to work in delivering content, activities and materials to your child can make for a different kind of dynamic learning experience. However, we recognize that families have differing abilities in accessing technology at home. Over the next few days, you will be contacted and asked to complete a short survey which will help us to determine the needs and capabilities of families in accessing technology. At the Intermediate level, there are plans to send our Chromebooks home with each student so that they have equal access to a tool commonly used at school.
- Students may need items from school – Elementary students use a wide variety of tools to complete work. In order to facilitate learning at home, some of these items will need to be returned to you. The Office and Admin are developing plans to provide families time to collect supplies from classrooms. This will allow you to have access to some common materials including pencil crayons, markers, scissors, rulers, paper, some duotangs, etc. Cognizant of the virulent nature of the Covid-19 virus, we are working on a way for parents to pick these materials up while maintaining the social distancing guidelines put out by Public Health. A schedule will be released by the office of pick-up times for your child.
- Primary content and activities will be distributed through your child’s classroom blog. Intermediate students will continue to use Google Classroom to get their materials, activities and content.
- There are many things we don’t know yet – We are working hard to answer as many questions as possible as quickly as possible and will strive to keep you updated as soon as we know more information.
We want to thank you for your patience during this time. God proclaims,
Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
You and your family are in our thoughts and prayers. We look forward to continuing to work closely with you, even in the face of these challenges.
