Dear Students – a message from your teachers:

With the school closings and lack of certainty as to when schools will reopen, we will be remotely offering educational activities for your children so that they can continue their learning, even if on a limited basis. Given the uncertainty regarding the COVID-19 pandemic and its potential to impact families and teachers in our community, we are mindful of stress students and families will be facing.

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We have created this central site to help keep students and parents organized and informed regarding their different classes. This site contains:

1. Sample learning schedules that can be used at home to organize your learning time
2. Weekly updates from teachers that have activities and reminders
3. Online Google Meet times

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There are a few important things to know:

1. To start, please read the PSB Remote Learning Guidance. This document will provide answers to questions you may have at this time.
2. During the time we are closed, assignments and activities will be offered by your teachers. Many of the opportunities will reinforce past learning; others will move learning forward and/or introduce new concepts.
3. Beginning in early April, work assigned is expected to be attempted and, ideally, completed. We recognize that engaging productively at home may be challenging for families; however, we do encourage students to participate as much as they are able.
4. Learning Opportunities are technically optional due to inequities in our social structures and due to the fact that we are experiencing a global health pandemic. In our community, we have families and staff experiencing food insecurity, technical challenges (like, one computer and three students in the home), a lack of consistent adult supervision, and more.
   • If you are NOT consistently facing these challenges, we expect students to fully engage in the learning opportunities we have on offer.
   • If you need help, please let a teacher or staff member know and we will work hard to help you meet your needs.
5. As of April 6th, students will receive feedback on some assignments and will receive a “Pass” grade for Term 3. Learning experiences and opportunities provided by teachers will not be graded in grades 6-8 at this time because no one can guarantee that students will have an equal opportunity to complete assignments. To facilitate engagement and student growth, teachers will provide feedback as practicable on selected assignments.
6. For teachers who use Canvas and Google Classroom, assignments and activities will be offered there. For teachers not using Canvas or Google Classroom, they are reaching out to you about how work will be distributed.
7. We will regularly monitor email from students and parents (through Canvas if the teacher is using Canvas; firstname_lastname@psbma.org otherwise).
8. Students can reach out to Mr. Chaet via Canvas by writing a personal message (david_chaet@psbma.org). He will be writing group messages when he is available.

Our goals are to help reconnect the kids to school and to give them opportunities to continue their learning. Thank you for your patience. We hope to see all of our students again as soon as possible.

Warm regards,

The Middle School Team