Dear Baker families,
We know that each individual in our Baker community is experiencing this global pandemic differently. We know many are experiencing anxiety related to health and economic concerns. Others are managing a household alone, working full-time while now joined by children at home e-learning. And, so many of us are in the sandwich generation, worried about aging parents and young children while struggling to find moments of self-care.
We also know that you rely on Baker to provide your child with an excellent, progressive education. We take that very seriously and are working to translate an incredible hands-on, experiential, highly relational approach to this e-learning period. We know this will mean some changes and continued iterations in the weeks to come.
We are writing to share updates to our e-Learning days. Over spring break, we have been able to reflect with our faculty on successes and challenges from our first week of e-learning as well as hear from our parents through a survey we published last week. We were very pleased to see that faculty, parents and students gave consistent feedback about the challenges which allows us to make immediate changes as we return to e-learning on Monday.
While each team has unique developmental needs which will be addressed by teachers directly, there were some all-school themes below:
Theme:
Students need direct connection with their classmates and teachers as well as live instruction.
Action
: We will have more opportunities for live, in-person classroom and advisory meetings.
Theme
: Multiple platforms, connection issues on Google Meet and clarity of the daily schedule and required assignments has been challenging.
Action:
Teachers will utilize Google Classroom as the main platform, posting a clear schedule for the 10:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. school day. Zoom will be used for live instruction, class meetings and breakouts. If your child’s teacher will utilize additional platforms, they will communicate clearly with you about it.
Theme
: We need a better balance of on-screen and off-screen time.
Action
: As teachers engage with more live teaching during the week, there will be more clarity about when students should be off-screen and working on projects, reading, etc.
Theme:
For parents of younger children, it is overwhelming to track assignments, supervise learning and keep up on classroom and specials.
Action:
Classroom teachers will guide the day and All School Team teachers will offer live instruction once per week.
Theme:
The Baker-owned Chromebooks and student emails, because of the high level of security, have caused frustration with printing and emailing.
Action:
Teachers will work to eliminate the need for printing, particularly with the introduction of Zoom.
As we continue on in this e-learning period, it is important that we continue our partnership, on behalf of your child, just as we would when inside the walls of the schoolhouse. Please see
this document
which overviews expectations for parents, students and teachers and provides contact information you may need. We are here to help you as you support your child in this unusual time. Don’t hesitate to contact us with questions.
In closing, we know some of your worries may not be academic in nature. If your child needs to process what is going on or is experiencing anxiety, please
contact Cynthia Eudy
. If you need access to a device or need additional tech support, please
contact Tech Support
.
Together,
Carly and the Leadership Team
