Learning Selection Form- please respond by August 3
When On-Campus Learning begins in September, parents may choose to continue Online Learning for their child(ren). Presbyterian School is committed to providing an Online Learning program, including access to learning resources and tools to use at home, for all students, PK3-8th grade throughout the school year.
Families choosing Online Learning in lieu of On-Campus Learning must do the following:
In order to help the School plan for the year ahead, please submit your response before August 3, 2020. Only one parent/guardian needs to fill out the form. We will be finalizing our teacher and student schedules based on your selection.
School Supply Pick-up: iPads & Learning Materials
Every student from PK3-5th grade will be assigned a school-issued iPad at the beginning of the year. PK3-5th grade students may use these iPads at home during Online Learning. All apps and programs required for Online Learning will be installed on the student iPads. Parents do not need to purchase any additional technology for Online Learning.
Middle School students will already be in possession of their iPads through the School's 1:1 Bring Your Own iPad Program. Middle School parents have been emailed instructions from Carla Isenhower, Director of Technology, for setting up student iPads for the first day of school. Please email iPad Help, if you have any questions about iPad set-up for your middle school student.
All school supplies and other non-technology learning materials will also be provided to families before the first day of school. Parents do not need to purchase any additional school supplies for Online Learning.
Parents will receive a date and time to drive by school for their School Supply Pick-up when class lists are shared in August.
Why did the date for the First Day of School move to August 24?
Last week the School announced that the first day of school for all students, PK3-8th grade, would be August 24 via Online Learning. One of the recurring questions that emerged from our Parent Survey were inquiries about our reasons for a delayed start. We made the decision to push back the first day of school in order to give teachers two full work weeks (instead of one) to have adequate time to learn, establish and implement their responsibilities for the 2020-21 school year.
Second, we are asking teachers to plan for multiple new paradigms of education and levels of operation for this year including:
Most of these paradigms we have never practiced before and all of them take time to build and implement. Early Childhood and Lower School teachers are launching a new Learning Management System (LMS) and Middle School faculty are expanding their LMS. Our Online Learning also involves more synchronous opportunities on Zoom and new daily and weekly schedules for all students.
On-Campus Learning will revolve around new masking and distancing requirements that can run counter to best practices in education and are, frankly, antithetical to the high-touch, hands-on pedagogies that we expect our teachers to utilize—particularly with our younger learners. Over half of our teaching faculty will be switching classrooms to accommodate new square footage requirements. Packing up and moving classrooms and making adjustments to teaching methodologies and lesson planning takes a considerable amount of time.
Online Learning for students who choose not to return to campus involves yet another layer of planning and thought. Teachers must make plans for how they will conduct class in an entirely new on-campus atmosphere while also managing Online Learning for students still at home. This will take massive amounts of coordination between and among teachers, parents, and students.
Finally, we have chosen to involve our teachers in every step of planning and preparing to reopen, which includes providing them guidance and health information and then helping them adapt solutions to the specific realities of their classrooms. This guidance on health and safety information changes almost daily. As a result, our decision-making and planning is constantly adapting and evolving including the necessity to push back the start of school.
More FAQ's available online
Each week, we will continue to send parents more information regarding the start of school. Information from our Back-to-School packet has been broken down into bite size FAQ's online. Please take a minute to look at our Back-to-School FAQ page to get many of your questions answered. We address these Frequently Asked Questions and more!
If you have a question that you can't find an answer to, please do not hesitate to email your Division Head.
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