What to Expect

for Remote Learning

What Remote Learning Looks Like at BR

Vibrant Virtual Classroom

All Black River students will be part of a Google Classroom for each class they are enrolled in. The Google Suite is our primary learning system at Black River. Every student will be expected to use their school-assigned Gmail for communication, as well as participate in their Google Classrooms to access material, complete assignments and assessments, and to interact with teachers and classmates.

A-Week-At-A-Glance

A school wide Classwork Release Schedule will be in place Monday through Thursday. Each subject will release new classwork to students through their Google Classroom on the day shown in the diagram above. This allows students to know when to expect new work and agendas, while not overwhelming them with all of the week's work for all of their academic classes all at once.

As new classwork is rolled out, students should modify their daily and weekly work plans in a way that takes into account any synchronous learning activities (i.e. Google Meets) and prioritizes assignments with upcoming deadlines.

When the whole school is in remote learning, this will also be the main Synchronous Learning Schedule for each department. Therefore, on Mondays, a synchronous learning session may occur with your student's math teacher. On Tuesdays, a synchronous learning session may occur with your student's history teacher, and so forth. Fridays would be an opportunity to engage teachers in Chats, Meets, or emails for further help and clarification on topics.

Times for these synchronous Meets will be part of the Google Classroom Calendars for each class. This allows students to see all of their Google Meet opportunities and assignment due dates in their Google Calendar. It is possible that some classes may schedule additional sessions for synchronous learning as well, depending on the needs of the class and the schedules of the students. Each teacher will work that out with their students, as needed, should extra synchronous learning sessions occur.

Attendance will be logged by the student or parent daily through Infinite Campus. Engagement in class meetings is expected. Assignment completion and assessments are required for course credit.

On days that do not include synchronous learning for a class, students will continue to receive Regular Communication from their teachers including their progress in class, feedback on their work, grades on completed work, answers to specific emailed questions, and other meaningful contact. On the surface, it might look like your learner will have a great deal of "extra time". However, if two subject matters per day are releasing a week's worth of content with the expectation that it is to be completed with quality and depth, then that "extra time" might not seem so extra after all.

For ideas on work plans and visual schedules, see the Family Resources page.

Reasonable Workload

The amount of time we expect our fully remote students to spend each week on their classwork is outlined below:

Middle School students can expect approximately 2 hours of work per class per week, for a total of approximately 12-14 hours each week.

High School students can expect approximately 3 hours of work per class per week, for a total of approximately 18-21 hours each week.

Classwork will take on a variety of forms, including online work and interactions with classmates and teachers, as well as offline hands-on and paper/pencil tasks.

We understand that remote work often takes more time for students to complete due to at-home responsibilities and distractions, delay in getting questions answered, and adjusting to new ways of learning and practicing content. It takes more time for teachers as well. We are all in this together!

Enhanced Remote Learning

Black River Teachers are hard at work learning new ways to provide students with enriching remote learning experiences.

Many teachers will be involving students in more collaborative learning with their peers using our G Suite tools, more interactive lessons using supplemental programs, and more online interaction with practice games and relationship building activities.

Supportive Community

Black River is also focusing on the whole person in planning remote instruction. Mental health and physical wellness are even more important than our academic progress. Taking care of the whole person and building the Black River community will be a big focus throughout the year.

Access to mental health resources is now much easier to locate through the Black River Website, under the Resources dropdown menu. In addition, we have adopted a character and community building program called EduGuide that will be part of our CAP curriculum to help support our students and staff.

Friday Support Day

When the whole school is fully remote:

Teachers will host live office hours through appointment slots on Friday for students and parents to receive one-on-one support. This is a great time to receive help with:

Course content
Technology tools
Prioritizing and Organizing work

When some students are in-person, and some are remote (now scheduled for October 19):

Fridays continue to be our Support Day. Our staff will continue to have office hour appointment slots available for students and parents to sign up for one-on-one help. Our in-person students can opt to use this Support Day as a remote work day from home or an in-person work day with the assistance of teachers. We will also give our remote students the ability to sign up to attend in person for this Support Day.

On Support Days, students who choose to work in-person will remain in one classroom with the support and direction of a teacher to help them prioritize their work, ask for help, and plan out their remaining work. Teachers are also still available to continue hosting one-on-one virtual meetings.

Below you will find the in-person schedule of blocks, showing the Friday support day.

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