Dear CM Students and Parents,

Thank you for your incredible care and attention during this challenging and historic moment. While we wish it could be significant for other reasons, we are so appreciative to be working inside this wonderful and caring community as we make our way through these unprecedented conditions. As an administration, we are working hard to balance “communicating” and “over-communicating” so please forgive us if we are erring on the side of too many letters right now. CM’s mission helps ground us in this moment and so we must look to the other available avenues where we will continue to pursue excellence in student learning and classroom teaching.  
 
We believe that with our faculty, our students, and the support of our community we will be able to deliver a unique curriculum through a digital infrastructure that challenges our boys, supports their learning, and provides ample opportunity to build knowledge and skills. Our administration and talented faculty have thoughtfully and tirelessly anticipated and prepared for this moment when we first recognized such a possibility was on the horizon. And while many of our teachers already integrate digital and online experiences as part of their teaching and learning, we ask for your patience with us as we move the entirety of our curriculum into this online learning environment. 
 
Given the partnership that is foundational at CM, we believe we will be able to provide your boys with a meaningful and rich learning environment and experience. While confident in our success, there is no doubt for the foreseeable future the CM learning experience will all be different. It will take some time to build the routines and expectations that help in any new situation. Through this letter, we hope to provide some suggestions for you as you work with your boys each day. We will outline and repeat some of the “orientation” news and schedule for our first week of online learning.

Much of the information below is available on our website on our Online Learning page. Early today, your son's theology teacher sent an email to you and your sons with some specific information for tomorrow's check in.

While a change of this magnitude can be disorienting and stressful, we encourage you to support this transition to distance learning by promoting it to your sons as an important adventure. This journey will allow them to be known in different ways, it will introduce them to skills that will be critical in their future careers and in college and university level learning environments. In this critical moment, we ask that students put forth an even greater level of ownership and responsibility. Meeting expectations fundamental for success in a traditional, face-to-face learning environment, students will now need to exceed those demands in our new, digital environment. And with this input of effort, we believe that they will find a range of ways to showcase new skills and abilities. 
 
For most of our interactions in this distance learning setting, we will be using OnCampus and Microsoft Teams. Your son should confirm that he is able to log on to his Catholic Memorial email (this gives them access to their Office 365 environment). You and your son should already have received an email from his theology teacher expecting him to participate in a mandatory online orientation Monday. Our hope is that after this orientation, he will be able to access resources and information through OnCampus and Microsoft Teams. Each of his academic courses will be using a range of additional content and skill specific programs and apps to help make material and learning even more robust. There will be a learning curve with each of these and at times we will be learning together! On this point, we would like to describe the importance of ownership and partnership. Students and their families must be active participants in during this time as we navigate this unique challenge. We are asking that everyone seeks answers to questions, solves problems, helps others, and finds ways to contribute in positive ways!   
 
We hope that the time spent in our ‘online’ community provides them with activities that are inspiring, conversations that help them stay rooted, and a way to maintain some normalcy in these trying times. At the end of our first week, we will be reaching out to you through a survey to gather feedback. There will undoubtedly be things that we can do better or differently and we look forward to working with you to optimize this experience.

Given that things are likely changing for you at your house as well, please be in touch if we can provide further resources. While our supply of computers is limited here at CM, we will do our best to manage these requests. Please reach out to Mr. John Aversa.

Absences due to illness must be reported in the usual way: Parents are expected to email Ms. Batcheller. This is especially important under the circumstance of the COVID-19 virus. CM needs to know if any students are sick. Absences that are not excused by an email from a parent will be followed up on daily by administration .

In the meantime, if you have any thoughts or questions, please do not hesitate to ask. We will respond as quickly as we can.

For parents of middle school students, please email Mr. Palm , Mr. Durazo , or Ms. Concannon with any questions or concerns.

For parents of high school students, please email Mr. OBrien or Mr. Danso with any questions or concerns .
 
Blessings and good health,  
Mr. Andrew O'Brien
Assistant Head of School/Principal
Mr. Brian Palm
Assistant Head of School/ Head of Middle School
On Monday, your son is required to attend ONLY his theology class online. Our Theology Department has been tasked (because all CM students take theology) with conducting an orientation for ALL classes.

Monday - Day 8 (Check In)
Tuesday- Day 1 (First Day of Online Learning)
Wednesday - Day 2
Thursday - Day 3
Friday - Day 4
Creating a Productive Leaning Environment at Home
  • Parents should work to create and promote a quiet work environment that also allows regular check-ins by adults. 
  • Distractions such as unnecessary devices should be limited/eliminated.  
  • Headphones with a microphone (if available) can help to focus and minimize background noise. 
  • Help students develop a morning routine so that they are READY for learning at 8AM. Suggestions include:  
  1. Morning shower  
  2. Short morning exercise/breathing routine  
  3. Something to drink and eat (nutritious and low in sugar) 
  4. Be dressed in clothing that is professional, not distracting, and appropriate for a work environment (while we will not have a dress code during this time students should consider their choices wisely). Dressing too casually, may lead to too casual an attitude. 
  • Review the schedule for the day with your son prior to logging on. 
  • Help your son gather the resources that they might need so they are readily available. These include:  
  1. writing paper
  2. writing utensils
  3. text books
  4. daily planner (for recording assignments)
  5. A small piece of paper that highlights their schedule for the day (post-it notes work well for this!).  
Expectations for Online Leaning
  • Distance learning requires Catholic Memorial students and teachers to use various online platforms that are meant for educational purposes. Inappropriate use of technology will be subject to disciplinary action up to and including suspension or expulsion. 
  • Students are expected to abide by the generally accepted rules of network etiquette. These include (but are not limited to) being polite, using appropriate language, properly citing and/or obtaining permission for all information from research sources when the information used from those sources is included in a work as a direct quote or paraphrase. 
  • Catholic Memorial, and Massachusetts law, forbids students from recording or taking pictures of teachers or other students without consent. Any student in violation of this will be subject to disciplinary action up to and including suspension or expulsion.