Fuel in the Tank...update! SB 3-27-2020

I shared the following video greeting with our staff earlier today and I wanted to send the same message to all of our students and families, as well:

 

Get Outside and Walk

 

It is incredibly important for all of us to remember that we need to keep fuel in the tank if we want to be of any service to anyone else including taking good care of ourselves.  This is a very trying experience for everyone. Families are struggling with lost income or sick familiy members or challenges with working from home with a house full of distractions all while feeling the additional burden of keeping students engaged in learning; educators are finding themselves needing to support their own children and in some cases parents as well as figuring out how they can connect with all of their students and adapt all of their expertise to a new platform; and most importantly, students are being asked to endure having their worlds turned upside down without daily access to all of the support they typically have here at school.  We continue to remain focused on how we can best nurture positive relationships and removing the face to face connection definitely puts a damper on that. We are very tech savvy as a whole, but have always used tech purposefully as a tool and not allowed ourselves to become dependent on it in establishing our relationships and routines within the physical learning environments. We are now clearly going to be dependent on it.

 

According to Professor Aldrich from Northeastern University, a more appropriate term we should all adopt is “physical distancing” rather than “social distancing” as we really need to remain committed to connecting with others and supporting our social/emotional well-being. The World Health Organization agreed and frankly it sounds like a pretty good idea to me, as well.

 

One of the things that families might consider as our initial 3 week interruption extends to a 7 week adventure of sorts, is exploring this challenge for next week:  LookUP Challenge.  As technology is becoming a necessity for everyone to remain connected, it could be a good time to intentionally address habits and develop new routines that allow us to use devices in shorter spurts.  One of the leading concerns about remote learning is an increased expectation of screen time. Next week, you will all be getting more information from WPS Central Office regarding our plans moving forward now that we know school will not be opening again until May 4 at the earliest.  The original guidance from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education here in MA was to provide optional enrichment opportunities for students during this initial closure. They are now providing updated recommendations and we will continue to make sure that our plans are in line with the state expectations.

 

This is certainly going to be a year to remember.  Our yearbook advisors wanted me to remind everyone that any of the personal pages families choose to create are still editable up until April 27.  If your sense of humor is still intact, you might consider creating your own homeschool pages with all of the additional faculty residing under your roof.  The yearbook advisors are still planning to get our book out in June. The company we work with, Treering, is willing to mail yearbooks to students' individual homes, and has a digital "signing" feature that we'll be activating, which will allow them to "sign" each others' yearbooks online if we are still physically distancing at that point. You can access more info here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QiB4SmKh6s29GUBzmUJJ2EI5IiPOzl-g/view?usp=sharing


 

Finally, if you have not already seen this video created recently by students from the Boston Conservatory at the Berklee College of Music you should really take some time to enjoy it.  Watch it all the way through the credits to appreciate all of the collaboration involved: https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/03/24/821041006/virtual-love-sweet-love-from-quarantined-berklee-college-of-music-students

 

Then go outside or find other ways to keep fuel in your tank. 

 

The weekend has arrived...

 

Chris

 

Dr. Christopher Chew

Principal

Stony Brook School