We are looking forward to seeing some of you tomorrow (from a distance of course) for the dropping off of this week's work and then picking up work for next week. Elementary families - all of you should have work to pick up unless you have specifically received different instructions from your child's teacher. Additionally, I believe one or two secondary teachers will have work to pick up - but they will have communicated directly with you on that so if you haven't heard something, you don't need to come (we will miss you though). The school will be open from 7:30-11am.
In my Facebook live today I spoke a little about school pacing. Here is a link if you missed it.
We are all trying to strike the balance during this window. Please keep directing feedback to teachers regarding the workload. With this said, make sure you do so gently. All of my teachers are working countless hours each day to prepare meaningful work for your children during this timeframe.
On a completely different note - send us pictures. We would love to see pictures of you doing your schoolwork from home. This is one way we can stay connected even when we can't meet. One of our classes even did a virtual playdate today just so the kids could see each other. How cool is that! Send pictures (or any other good idea you have for staying connected to kelly.walker@theriveracademy.org).
It is in times like these that you realize we are so much more than a school - we have become family - and family sticks together even if we can't be in the same room. Thankful to be walking through this unprecedented season with all of you!
"See you" tomorrow!
Eric
Here is an email from Mrs. Griffith regarding Secondary pacing:
Thoughts on distance learning.
First, teachers are adjusting and should have a more consistent and linear system for giving assignments for next week and beyond.
One of the things that 7th and 8th and maybe even 9th grade students might need help from their parents with is knowing how to schedule their time. Because the teachers are just learning this online system they have tended to be posting assignments a bit randomly throughout the day and week. We do hope to get better at giving a week's overview on Monday and then sending out assignments in the order that they'll be due. But there will always be projects that have a longer-term due date for which the students will need to schedule out over the course of the work time. So if you are able as a parent to help your student look at their workload and sort out how much to do each day that would be extremely helpful. This is especially true for students who normally struggle with their daily work and homework as well as for those go-getter students who might try to tackle the entire load on day one. So, we are asking parents to dive in and help them sort and schedule their time so that they don't feel overwhelmed in these first few days of our distance learning program.
Mrs. G
