???...update!SB 6-5-2020

I have been struggling for a few days with a clever title for this week’s update.  Unfortunately, I can’t seem to rally a witty thought to serve as the golden thread.  In the past, this update would be a celebration for the WA graduates as they prepared to walk across the stage to collect their diplomas on this first Friday night in June.  While that will indeed happen, it will have to wait.  As we come closer and closer to the end of the school year, all of us here at Stony Brook wish this year’s WA graduating class of 2020 the brightest of futures and hope for your generations’ leadership to guide us forward. 

 

Beginning Monday morning of next week, all of our Google Classrooms will be filled with a variety of activities and meeting opportunities for students and teachers to celebrate and connect in meaningful ways that allow those relationships to be honored and recognized.  Each grade level has different things planned in hopes of trying to catch some of the spirit and joy that was more clearly present when we were all together face to face.  Encourage your kids to participate and enjoy the antics even as remote as they are.  

 

Some of our students, still holding on to the joy of learning, have textbooks and library books with them at home.  Next week, on Tuesday and Wednesday from 10:00-2:00 we are going to have labeled carts and or tables set up in front of the school for students to drop-off books still at home. Please place a sticky note or taped piece of paper inside the front cover with the student’s name and Team name or teacher name for each book so that we can more easily organize them as we account for everything.  If for some reason you are not able to bring books by the school on Tuesday or Wednesday, have no fear, we will still be accepting them in fall when we all come back to school.  I am sure that there are plenty of books, resources and assignments that will appear in households over the summer months just as students found coats, gloves and wrappers falling out of lockers.  If you do choose to bring books by the school, it is important to remember that physical distancing is required.

 

On our last day, June 16, as I mentioned last week, we are organizing a way for families, interested in participating, to be able to drive around the back of the school so students and teachers can wave goodbye from a distance just as we typically wave off all of the busses after the last dismissal each year.  Currently, we are imagining a staggered parade encouraging Gr6 grade families to drive by sometime during the 10:00-10:20 window, followed by Gr7 families during the 10:20-10:40 window, allowing our Gr8 families the final waves from 10:40-11:00.  More logistics will follow as the specific traffic pattern and expectations will need to be communicated. 

 

I will be sending out more specific information to all of our Gr8 families as to how they can access the Gr8 Celebration being planned for the morning of June 16th at 9:00 before the wave parade.

 

While the academic year winds down, it is time to share information about our WPS summer reading program.  Students entering grades 6, 7, and 8 need to select and read at least one book from their grade level list, then be prepared to complete an assignment on that book when school resumes in the fall.  Students entering grade 9 will find their list and expectations on the WA Summer Reading website.

 

Finally, as many families have been struggling with how to best foster conversations with our children in response to the devastating images and videos following the tragic death of George Flyod, I want to share with you two resources that I have found helpful and encouraging this week. First, a video response on YouTube- In Response by Lynn Puplic Schools Superintendent Patrick Tutwiler, a former Dean at WA. Second, a link to the publication by the non-profit organization Teaching Tolerance entitled Beyond the Golden Rule.

 

Perhaps we can all benefit from expanding our summer reading lists.

 

Peace,

 

Chris

Dr. Christopher Chew

Principal

Stony Brook School