Dear Families,
I hope this letter finds you well. Two Rivers is committed to ensuring that during our extended school closure, we are able to provide some continuity of learning for your child. To that end, our school teams have worked to design some alternative learning experiences that your child can do at home. We understand that these learning experiences can’t make up for the rich opportunities they would have in their classroom at school. Our educational model works best when students can interact with their teacher and peers in a community setting.
Below is what you can expect for your child and from our staff during our remote learning period which will begin Wednesday, March 18th.
Elementary Your child has been provided a packet which contains learning activities in reading, math, expedition, and specials. For older grades, the majority of this work can be done independently; lower grades will require some guidance from an adult. We will also be sending home your child’s login information for some of the web-based programs we use at school so that they can continue working on skills specific to their needs. Additionally, if your child is receiving special education services, they have received modified instructional material based on their individual goals. We encourage you to work with your child and their teachers to pace out the content in each packet as there is a lot and we don’t want to overwhelm students or have them finish early and be left with a lot of idle time.
While we are implementing remote learning, you can expect weekly touchpoints from your child’s teachers, as well as daily virtual office hours, where you can reach out with questions about your students’ assignments. Your child’s teacher will send information about how to get in touch with them in the coming days.
Middle School All middle school instructional material has been loaded onto Google Classroom, a virtual learning platform your child is already using during the day. They will be expected to log on and work through assignments on a daily basis. In addition to this self-paced learning, teachers will continue meetings with their crews from 9:00-9:30am each morning using the Zoom teleconferencing platform. (Students spent time today learning how to use this software.) Additionally, reading intervention and labs will take place virtually on the schedule which will be provided to you and your student. Our expectation is that students will be online during these 2-3 periods. Teachers will be taking attendance for crew, lab, and reading intervention and leaders will use this information to reach out to students and families who are not attending remote learning sessions to see if any supports are needed. Teachers will also be holding office hours each day in case students have questions about their work. These schedules will be provided by Tuesday, March 17th.
In addition to the academic plan outlined above, if your student is receiving other services (speech, occupational therapy, counseling, etc.), we will be working with you and our providers to coordinate these services virtually. Please be on the lookout for communication from a member of our staff.
As a father of two TR students, some of the things I will be doing to keep them excited about learning are:
● Asking them what they are learning about, and engaging in some of their activities with them
● Having them read aloud to me
● Having them help me cook using recipes (lots of math involved here)
● Finding educational games/activities we can do together (these are free!)
● Carving out time for structured outdoor play
While we know that this prolonged closure will pose challenges and an interruption in both learning as well as how we engage as a community, we are dedicated to ensuring that aspects of each continue. If you have any questions, please contact your child’s teacher or crew leader.
Best,
Kenneth McCants-Pearsall
Chief Academic Officer