As we head toward our winter break, I wanted to celebrate our students. Over the past few weeks, I've had a great time checking in on their learning, and seeing amazing things.
Kindergartners have been listening intently to stories of the Ninjabread Man. I even got to practice my ninja skills in sneaking up on Mrs. Peck. Fifth graders who were definitely sad to not create the winter Sound and Light Parade had a great time building some roller coasters instead and making movies. I was impressed with their film making expertise. The examples are endless from hearing about "magic" slime ingredients in second grade, or seeing Parthenon models in third grade and listening to how some students made theirs more sturdy, fourth grade making snowball launchers, and first grade doing virtual and live experiments and math explorations.
The most heartening thing I've seen is students asking questions. As long as they continue with our curiosity, we will have learning. There is and will be much work to be done to support students to close any learning loss that is occurring, but make no mistake, our students are engaging, learning, and finding some joy in a difficult time. They, more than anything else this Fall, bring me joy and hope for the New Year.
It is always a good time to be an educator, because of our students. It is no different during a pandemic - students are amazing - thank you for letting us work with yours! We hope you have a restful and peaceful break.
We did have our Stage 4 FAQ yesterday. Unfortunately there was a problem with the video. Here are some resources and FAQs. If you have specific questions, please feel free to contact us.
Is stage 4 going to be 2 days of in-school learning, or 4?
For all PreK-2 students it will be 4. For students 3-5, it will be 2-4 depending on the staffing we have available to us, and the numbers of students who want to access in-person learning. For grades 3-5 we will prioritize A-Base, B-Base, C-Base, and ESOL students for 4 days per week. This decision on 2 days or 4 days will be made by the school division and known before the Superintendent makes his recommendation on January 14th.
If a student is in a 2-day per week then, for the at-home day, work will be provided by a teacher. We will work to have a staff member have a morning meeting on those days with students to make sure that they are set up well to complete their at-home tasks consisting of independent practice, projects, reading, ST Math, etc.
The virtual day will largely look the same. Synchronous instruction in the AM or PM, and independent work and specials during the opposite block. During Stage 4, specials classes - Art, Music, PE, Library, will not be synchronous and will instead involve things like a choice board and submitting assignments via SeeSaw. Intervention services may also be impacted.
Will I have a new teacher?
It depends on how many students select hybrid in stage 4, and how many teachers need accommodations to continue working virtually. We will have class assignments to you by the last week of January if the Board moves to have Stage 4 begin February 4th. We will try to have as many students stay with their teacher as possible.
In Stage 4, specials will be taught asynchronously for virtual students, and classroom and co-teachers will implement the asynchronous lessons in school.
Intervention may be more limited in Stage 4.
Really, who will be my student's teacher?
We really don't know. We staff to meet student requests, so we won't know how many and which teachers we need until we have student choices.
What if I really don't want to change teachers?
If keeping your current teacher is your #1 priority - and you are TOTALLY flexible on hybrid or virtual, email me and Mrs. Morris at cdommer@k12lbemarle.org and lmorris@k12albemarle.org, and we will accommodate that request. We had several of those for Stage 3, and they all worked out.