|
Liebe TCGIS Elternschaft,
It was a quiet, productive, intense day at TCGIS.
The vast majority of you were able to keep your children home today and for that: DANKE SCHÖN. The thirty or so kids who came were able to spend the day safely, much of it outside, and as a staff, we were able to arrange coverage such that we could get a good, solid start on our planning work.
Teachers and EAs met in large groups and in small teams to continue laying the groundwork for an eventual transition to distance learning. Staff had great questions and showed a clear commitment to keeping the learning going. It is certainly a challenge to make school happen outside of school, but I assure you that if anyone can get this done it is our staff.
Some thoughts around TCGIS, COVID-19 and what's to come:
-
3/17-3/27 is designated a
planning time
for our teachers.
-
Do not expect school work before 4/6 that will require teacher feedback and be graded.
-
Expect varied, optional online learning opportunities that may help you keep your kids engaged in learning. (Parents are free to require their kids to do this - we promise not to tell them they are optional. ;-) )
-
Please limit your email contact to our teachers during this time.
-
Special Education, along with interventions for literacy, math and behavior, present very specific challenges at this point and working out solutions in these areas will require additional time and thinking from all our staff. Distance learning MUST be accessible for all of our students and this will take considerable collaborative time for our teachers.
-
TCGIS library will be open for a second day on Tuesday, March 17, 8-3:30. We encourage parents and kids to stop in. Many took advantage of this today and it was nice to see everybody.
-
Families receiving free or reduced lunches who wish to continue receiving food during school closure please contact
Alex Weeding
in the TCGIS office.
In addition to this, I have some very sad news to share with you. Today, we informed our interns that they would have to return home. The threat of longer term illness in the care of a host family, along with the reality of EU nations closing their borders made it clear that the best option was to return to Germany, Austria and Switzerland. It was sad to say goodbye, but it was also great to hear, to a person, about what great experiences they had here with us. German speakers say often that everyone meets twice in their lifetimes and I hope very much that this comes true.
Closing on a positive note, it was a really nice vibe today in the library as many families came in to get books. Also, in my conversation with our construction site manager, I found a small silver lining to our COVID cloud in that crews will be able to do some very loud work this week without disturbing student learning.
Here are a few photos of the day. Even in tough times, good things are happening!
Wishing you all everything it's going to take to get through this - strength, patience - and in the spirit of St. Patrick's day, something we're all going to need - a little luck.
Mit dankbarem Gruß
Ted Anderson
|
