Campus Closure Timeline: We are aware of the State Superintendent communication notifying districts in California that many schools will not open for the remainder of this year. We are extending our shelter-in-place until May 1 in alignment with San Francisco Public Schools and the directives from Governor Newsom. We are not ready to officially close school for the year and we remain optimistic about being together again in person. We will continue to plan for a variety of scenarios while adhering to health and safety guidelines.
ECP (Preschool, TK, K)
In the Early Childhood Program we offer connections and assignments augmented by opportunities for video or face-to-face interactions with classmates and teachers. Homeroom teachers post an overview of their online learning plan on ParentSquare by each Sunday evening so that parents know what is expected in the coming week.
Activities are posted in Seesaw by homeroom teachers. A Seesaw QR login code is provided for students to access their “classroom” and a different QR login code for parent/guardians to view student Journals.
Lower School (Grades 1-4)
We know each of you is doing the best you can to make remote learning work in your homes! With that in mind, we strongly encourage each family to make daily decisions about online learning that work best for you. We support you to make these adjustments as needed and just ask that you message your teacher with a quick note about your decisions.
Here are answers to some of the common questions that are coming up about home learning for Lower School students. Please let Rebecca know if you have questions about these:
- 2nd – 8th grade students will receive an estimated 3.5 hours of learning activities from teachers each school day. 1st graders will receive 2-3 hours. This includes assignments from Specialist Teachers on days they typically see students, as well as independent reading time and assignments completed offline. **Please see a note on this below.
- Most learning activities are designed to be asynchronous (students work through them at their own pace). At this point, each Lower School classroom has at least 3 synchronous Zoom experiences each week. These will continue to evolve and change over time.
- Parents, please keep setting up social Zooms for your children! We know they love them and it is so important for their well-being to connect with their classmates in unstructured ways.
- Student Activities are posted in SeeSaw by 8:30 a.m. . Teachers will comment/provide feedback on student work as soon as possible.
- Students are expected to complete their Activities that day (unless sick or otherwise excused) by 3 p.m. , for longer-term assignments, by the specified due date.
- Students may respond to assignments in a format that works best for them. While some Activities may require a certain textbook (like Spelling Connections), on others, they have a choice of how to deliver their work. They may record their voices, take pictures, write on paper and photograph to upload, type or write directly on the iPad, build an example using things from around the house, or other creative ideas.
- When your tech isn’t working, please close the application and relaunch it or restart your device entirely. These steps many tech problems! If your individual problem persists, please email . Known tech issues (like SeeSaw going down) will be posted on our OHL wiki as soon as we are aware of them. Please wait a few minutes there before emailing your teachers.
**Two notes to lower school families:
If on some days the assignment load feels like too much and if your child is experiencing fatigue and anxiety, it’s a good sign that you need to exempt your child from an assignment or postpone it until another time. Some families are replacing assigned activities with others that feel easier for their individual child or family situation.
If on some days the assignment load seems light, please check our Extended Care activities or other resources on our OHL wiki for additional activities.
Middle School (Grades 5 – 8)
Most home learning experiences in Middle School will be asynchronous. Middle School students will rely primarily upon Google Classroom, a platform familiar to students and faculty. This will be augmented by teacher’s created Zoom “meetings” and videos. All students should expect to communicate with teachers and classmates through Classroom, Google Drive and email. Some teachers may supplement these platforms with additional apps such as IXL, Flipgrid or Kahoot which students have used this year at school. All faculty will be available for individual or group check-ins via email and Zoom.
Core and specialist teachers will post assignments on Google Classroom daily and students will be expected to complete these assignments by 3:30 p.m. or, for longer-term assignments, by the specified due date. Students can expect to receive regular teacher feedback on assignments and are encouraged to contact teachers with questions or concerns. Our expectation is that students will spend a minimum of 3.5 hours each day on schoolwork, including 30-minutes of independent reading.
The middle school faculty will also maintain an online “community-building” forum on Google Classroom, allowing us to continue some of our in-school traditions such as the weekly caption contest and assembly “shout-outs.”
Supplementary School-wide Activities
In addition to the 3.5 (average) daily hours of instructional activities, CDS faculty and staff are available to support students remotely in additional ways. These may include:
- Learning Specialist video check-ins and/or assignments for students who have Learning Specialist support
- School Counselor/MFT intern video check-ins for students who have weekly sessions
- Extended Care enrichment activity ideas (to be posted on ParentSquare)