"You never know how strong you are, until being strong is your only choice"------Bob Marley
Happy Saturday to you all!
We are #WKEStrong! We are so very thankful to have a work family that cares for each other. We hope each of you are safe and secure during these uncertain times. It is during these times, we find strength to encourage, support, and love each other. We are so proud of each of you for the work you are continuing to do for our students and their families. As always, we make decisions that are best for our students. Through this crisis, we have proven ourselves to be lifelong learners by reaching beyond our comfort zones to learn new and innovative ways to connect with children. Your commitment and dedication to your students is powerful and we commend you all! Thank you for being flexible and understanding as we present information to you that continues to evolve.
To ensure we are all on the same page with expectations, please read the statements below, per central services. As we are often reminded, school is still in session - the delivery of instruction is different. If you have any questions about these expectations, please let us know.
1. Work from the packets will not be graded, but do ask parents to return the work once we return to school.
2. Teachers and admin are responsible for communicating with parents on a regular basis via email, school messenger, or any other means necessary. Parent calls and emails should receive a timely response. Remember, all of this can be done remotely. Emails should be checked often. The 24-Hr Rule is no longer applicable to return calls/emails....Emails/calls should be answered in a timely manner - within 2-3 hours - if it requires a response.
3. Some teachers have been creative with how they are communicating with students via technology. Anything that enhances learning is acceptable beyond the learning packets. ALL teachers should have a system for on-going communication with their students and their families. However, be mindful that many families in our community/rural schools do not have the same access to technology as families in our more affluent schools. So, minimize what we say about this on social media.
**We are excited about the many videos we have seen with teachers reading to their students, students reading to their teachers, well wishes to the family, fun miss you videos and exercising videos. Kudos to you all!! We would like to eventually see all of our teachers connecting in some creative way!! Please share with us!!
4. Odds are, we could be operating like this longer than we have anticipated, so please think ahead in terms of future learning packets. You should plan to meet with your team (virtually) to develop the next 15 days of instruction for Science and SS. ELA and Math coordinators are working with coaches to prepare the next 15 days of instruction. For the Related Arts team, we are asking you to do what you did for the last packet.
5. Be mindful about what you read via social media. ALL decisions don't apply to ALL districts. Dr. Little and his team will communicate things that apply to Lexington 1. We are hearing discussions about state testing, cancelling SLOs, elearning for the remainder of the year, etc. None of the examples above have been approved for Lexington 1 - at this point. If you have concerns, please let us know and we will find out from Central Services and give you an answer.
We need to be prepared when Gov. McMaster makes his decision regarding what will happen after March 31st. We will ask for these documents to be sent to us by Thursday, March 26, 2020 so we can get them ready by the following Monday.
