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El Semanario Edison Language Academy – Together Through Two Languages (310) 828-0335 www.edison.smmusd.org
ANNOUNCEMENTS Home Access To On Line Learning -- Families will need to have Broadband internet access at home (not just a smartphone that you use to access the internet). Please see the information sheet our PTA compiled enclosed with this epacket and contact one of providers offering free internet access to new subscribers with school-aged children during the school closures. See which one is the best for you and see about signing up and getting installation scheduled. Borrowing Devices from School: For those families who shared information on technology needs by responding to the District on-line survey or speaking with your child’s teacher, we are trying to match you with district devices available for loan. We may be able to match some families with loaner equipment as early as next Tuesday. If we can match you with a device in this round, we will contact you with a time and place where you can come and pick it up. If we exceed the number of devices for loan on the Edison campus, the district will look for resources from other school sites and contact you for pick up at another time. Who will my child meet with during distance learning? Just like during schooling in “real time,” most instruction during distance learning will be from your child’s classroom teacher. They may also participate in instructional activities with their classroom instructional assistant, a reading interventionist, a Special Education Teacher (if they have an IEP), our Library Coordinator, Music, Theater/Art teachers, etc. Sometimes they may receive assignments from the other teachers at their grade level. The teachers are moving at the same pace and collaborating on very similar lessons because if a teacher should fall ill, his or her grade level colleagues will take over instruction until the teacher is better. This is a team approach!
FROM THE PRINCIPAL’S DESK: DISTANCE LEARNING Superintendent Drati has announced that SMMUSD schools will be closed indefinitely -- until State and County guidance says it’s safe to re-open (see the Superintendent’s 3/26/2020 message to families at www.smmusd.org). To make sure all our families without email access are aware of this information, we’re sending an automatic dialer with a verbal summary. In a nutshell, this means that after spring break all our schools will be providing students with a more high-tech and intensive form of distance learning through the end of the school year. This will be instruction in new topics and developing skills to help children complete their grade level curriculum over the 7.5 weeks between 4/20/2020 and 6/10/2020. District plans for what this will look like are being finalized and shortly there will be distance learning FAQs on the district website with more resources and information for families. Here’s a preview of distance learning after Spring Break. It is important to note that distance learning is not a minute-for-minute replacement of the school day. Rather, it is an altered and abbreviated schedule that reflects the realities of school closures, social-distancing, the “Safer at Home” order, and other emergency orders intended for everyone’s safety and wellbeing. Weekly instructional plans will include both on-line (real-time and recorded) and telephone connections with students. Instruction will include both asynchronous learning (each student being able to access and complete assignments, resources and recorded lessons according to their own or family schedule) as well as live on-line full class, small group and/or 1:1 meetings via Zoom or Google Hangout to also give students the opportunity to connect with peers. Edison teachers will share their grade level learning platform and weekly lesson plans with students and families. They will also publish times when they are accessible in real time to answer questions and provide support. After hours emails will be responded to the next day. Students will need to check-in with teachers in each day and meet the due dates assigned for posting work. We know that each family will be need able to make a daily schedule that works for its own circumstances. Teachers will work with families to adjust plans as needed. Edison’s plans will meet district distance learning standards including total minutes of instructional activities each day and suggested amounts of synchronous (real time) activities and recommended maximums for screen time. Please know that all our staff have been working very hard over these three weeks between the school closure and Spring Break to establish connection with each family and student, provide support for students in completing work in the paper learning packets, engaging in professional development and planning for long-term distance learning. We’ve also been holding IEPs and Special Education Services and rescheduling 504 and SST meetings that couldn’t meet due to the school closures, surveying the technology needs of our community, working with our Community Support Network, and the District. As we plan distance learning, we are mindful of the fact that some families cannot support instruction in one of our languages of instruction. This is a huge shift for all of us – for children, families, staff, and institutions. We are all confronting something new and doing it in a time of high uncertainty. I cannot speak highly enough of our caring and hardworking staff and their efforts during this rapidly changing situation. Thank you to everyone for their generous offers to help each other and the teachers! What an amazing community we have!