Middle School Update

Dear Parents,

Thank you for your patience as we transition from “brick and mortar” school to our Distance Learning Communities. The teachers and I have been working hard to learn new educational platforms and analyzing new programs that will continue our curriculum progression. Obviously, this is new to us all and it will take time to settle into what is essentially a whole new schedule. I liken it to the beginning of a whole new school year except that the teachers already have a relationship with your child.

In order to understand online learning, I spend an hour a week in a cohort of middle school division heads, many who have been at this for weeks, talking about schedules, grading, homework and building community as an online school. I have learned much from these “veterans” of online schooling. First, I realize that we will adjust and tweak the schedule in order to balance workload and screen time. Many schools have gone to three or four classes a day. Also, schools are doing fewer synchronous (students in class at same time with teacher) and moving towards asynchronous (recorded lessons, independent work) classes. We obviously need input from parents and students on schedule issues so you will see a survey where you can give input very soon.

I am also reading articles dealing with the move to online schools. Dr. George gave us an article written by Jay Ferguson who is the Head of School at Grace Community School in Texas. In his article Finding a Way Forward, Ferguson marvels at the relatively short time that schools have moved from “brick and mortar” to online learning. This quote signifies where we are at in the process of converting to an online platform.

There are no experts in this field; even if a school had an online education platform before, this is something very different: a long-term, sustained, interactive, relationship with teachers, in which the near-full experience of the “brick and mortar” school has been lifted from its moorings and placed in families’ living rooms.

Once we’ve learned how to do that, once we’ve perfected it, once all our teachers have learned how to curate their curriculum for what is truly important, and become fluent in online learning platforms and delivery, and learn how to, as nearly as possible, replicate the incarnational necessity of the life-on-life, “brick and mortar” experience in a virtual capacity, that will change everything.

This is a new reality for us. The teachers are working hard to prepare meaningful coursework in a new platform, to narrow those concepts that are truly significant to their subject and focus on them, to maintain relationships with students in a world much more familiar to students and to keep the curriculum going so the students are ready for the next grade. It will take time, but they have made great leaps in a short time. We will be better as teachers and as a school because we are being stretched to learn new methods and strategies. Thank you for your patience as we adjust.

Checking RenWeb for Assignments

We are also trying to streamline how we communicate assignments and class activities. Rather than send yet another email, teachers will continue to utilize RenWeb to communicate assignments but in a more standard format. The homework area in RenWeb will look like a “to do” or task list for the day. Each bullet point will be an activity or assignment for the day that students can check off when finished. The task will have a due date and a brief description of the task and where the teacher has posted the details for the assignment. A report can easily be printed by the student or parent from RenWeb by logging into the parent portal and choosing to print the weekly homework report. We plan to provide a short video to instruct parents and students how to print this report.

Let us know if your child is unable to attend class

If your student is sick or for some other reason cannot be present for an online session, be sure to let the Middle School office know by calling 828-581-2201 or by emailing susan.watson@ashevillechristian.org so that the absence can be excused.

Class Schedules for DLCs

The Middle School Distance Learning Schedule has been updated to include additional teacher sessions, Art with Mrs. Patete, and PE with Coach Render for Middle School girls (they may join one of two live PE sessions on Teams).

Survey Coming Soon

Please give us feedback through the survey that will come out soon. We need your constructive input. We are already looking at ways to streamline homework due dates and communicate those with families. We realize that many families are working with students at multiple school levels and may have internet bandwidth and computer issues. For these reasons, we have kept our schedule flexible and are allowing students to work independently. That may change if the survey data shows that we need to adjust. Please take time to complete the survey when it comes.

Final Thoughts

Finally, I have been popping into classes on Microsoft Teams. I enjoy seeing the students and did not realize how much I miss being around them. I guess absence does make the heart grow fonder. I look forward to the time when we can all be together under one roof and I can hear the chaos of a middle school class change. But until then, we take comfort in knowing that God is in control and in even this He has a purpose. Thank you for your partnership.

Sincerely,

Scott Schroder