Dear Parents,
As you are aware, Governor Cuomo recently announced that schools will be closed for the remainder of the school year. To this end, we will continue to implement remote learning through the end of this academic school year.
We applaud the professionalism and commitment of teachers who, under challenging circumstances, continue to maintain meaningful relationships with students, deliver high-quality instruction, and attend to the social and emotional well-being of children. We appreciate parental support as we seek to revise, refine, and improve the remote learning experience.
Knowing that our model is not perfect, we are committed to learning from our efforts and making adjustments over time. For example, as school closure has progressed, we have recognized the need to ensure students have frequent opportunities to interact with teachers and each other in real time ("synchronously") and have incorporated an hour or more per week of synchronous learning opportunities into our learning plans at all levels.
Linked here is an updated summary of the components of effective remote learning lessons and descriptions of asynchronous and synchronous learning experiences that students will experience in the remaining portion of the school year. We trust and expect teachers to match the modality of their instruction to their purpose rather than respond to one-size fits all mandates. For example, a high school Advanced Placement teacher may choose to schedule a whole-class, synchronous review session to ensure that all students benefit from a question and answer opportunity, while an elementary or middle school teacher may decide that framing a lesson with an asynchronous, pre-recorded message and video demonstration may effectively teach a new concept and launch students into self-guided learning.
We are currently working closely with building administrators and teachers to organize year-end events to put closure on the school year while turning our attention to planning for a range of possible teaching and learning scenarios (e.g., return to school campuses, hybrid model of learning, and extended remote learning) in September. We plan to share information on the "planning for the future" process in the coming weeks.
Respectfully,
Dr. Robert Shaps
Superintendent of Schools
Annie Ward
Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction