Hi, Team Remote Families! This week's Positivity Project character strength is Fairness. Fairness means that you believe that all people have value. You approach situations with an unbiased mindset and treat everyone with respect. However, fairness is complex and personal. The Positivity Project highlights how we can look at fairness from one of two perspectives: the justice-reasoning approach, which uses logic and determines right from wrong through ethics, or the care-reasoning approach, which is based around empathy and the willingness to understand the needs, interests, and well-being of others. Read more about Fairness here. Check out the video below as professional tennis player Jack Sock tells his opponent, Lleyton Hewitt, to challenge a point in a great display of sportsmanship in the spirit of fairness.
In-Person Parameters Are Changing...What Does That Mean For Remote?
Now that social distancing guidelines are changing, our in-person modalities are able to accommodate more students in the classroom for more days per week. As you may know, students in grades K-4 are able to attend school in person five days per week as they have done all year. Hybrid students at WGMS will return to school five days per week starting on Monday, April 26th. At CMS, hybrid students will attend school on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. Wednesdays will continue to be used for Office Hours and planning time for teachers. At WGHS, hybrid students have already begun attending classes on alternating Wednesdays. You might think that following the lead of our in-person counterparts would be a logical next step for Team Remote, but it wouldn't be as simple as it sounds, nor would it necessarily be advantageous for students.
Asynchronous Learning Trends
Some might consider the scheduled asynchronous learning days as "off" days, but I would like to invite you to think of those days in a different light. Asynchronous learning, while challenging for learners of any age, offers an opportunity to develop skills like resilience and perseverance, as well as dispositions like student agency, which are crucial for future college and career success. Throughout the 21st century, there has been a steady increase in distance learning (i.e. asynchronous) opportunities for students enrolled in post-secondary degree programs. According to a 2018 study from the Babson Survey Research Group, distance education enrollments have been increasing for nearly two decades, with about one in every three students enrolled in at least one online course.
Based on my teaching experience at Onondaga Community College, I can attest to the fact a teacher's pedagogy will vary based on whether a course is taught face-to-face or is delivered entirely online. For example, I teach Western Civilization courses in both face-to-face and online formats. While the pacing may vary, both formats convey the same content and measure student learning using the same assessments. I would argue that the online version of my course fosters greater student participation as I expect to hear from 100% of the students for every activity whereas students in a face-to-face setting may be more passive during class. At the primary and secondary levels, I am confident that teachers will continue to integrate elements of asynchronous pedagogy into their repertoire in the years to come as they have learned to leverage instructional technology in meaningful ways. Continued exposure to asynchronous learning now has the potential to pay dividends in the future.
What We Can Do
While I don't want to run through the litany of obstacles that would prevent Team Remote from adopting the same schedule as our in-person counterparts, I would like to share with your some of the measures our remote teachers are taking to meet their students' needs:
Grades 5 - 6
- Remote Teachers at WGMS may merge sections if possible. For example, our Remote 6th Grade will be merging the Monday-Tuesday sections with the Thursday-Friday sections. Teachers will communicate these decisions with their students and families.
- Remote Teachers will continue to provide personalized learning opportunities on Wednesdays. Students are welcome to contact their teachers for availability.
- Remote Teachers at CMS may invite students to join synchronous classes to bring the M/T and Th/F cohorts together when possible and prudent. Please be advised, however, that oftentimes, the lesson would be a repeat of the same lesson they would present on scheduled synchronous days. Further, class size may be a prohibitive factor. Teachers who are willing to invite both cohorts to thier their synchronous classes will communicate these decisions with their students and families.
- Remote Teachers will continue to provide personalized learning opportunities on Wednesdays. Students are welcome to contact their teachers for availability.
- In-person Teachers at WGHS may invite their remote students to a join a livestream of their in-person classes on alternating Wednesdays. To be sure, many of our WGHS Remote Teachers also teach sections of in-person classes. Teachers who are willing to livestream their Wednesday in-person classes will communicate these decisions with their remote students and families.
- Remote Teachers will continue to provide personalized learning opportunities on Wednesdays. Students are welcome to contact their teachers for availability.
- Remote Teachers may implement strategies that require more student-centered activities to be assigned on asynchronous days. I meet with the Remote Faculty regularly and plan on addressing this topic during our upcoming (4/21) faculty meeting. Stay tuned...
NYS ELA and Math Tests for Grades 3 - 8
Fully remote students are NOT required to sit for the NYS ELA and Math assessments for grades 3 through 8. See the memo below from the New York State Education Department (NYSED):
Schools are not expected to bring students into the building to participate in the tests if the students are receiving entirely remote instruction during the testing windows. However, to assist in scheduling, NYSED suggests that schools consider contacting parents of students receiving entirely remote instruction to advise them of the testing schedule and ascertain the parent’s interest in having their child come to school to participate in the test.
If you would like to "opt-in" and have your child participate, please contact your child's "home building" principal. Please see the appropriate leadership blogs (links on the right of this page) for testing dates.
Elementary Updates
Out of This World Zoom Class!
Mrs. Binns' 3rd grade class recently learned all about NASA from the experts themselves during a recent remote Zoom lesson. Feel free to check it out below:
Secondary Updates
Participation in Government Virtual Food Drive
Before leaving the West Genesee community, our Seniors want to give back! Each year the Senior Participation in Government students individually fulfill a community service requirement to engage in active citizenship. This year we are working in collaboration with Food Bank of Central New York. Donating $1.00 will provide THREE meals to a family in need. The need for food has been further magnified by the Coronavirus pandemic. Please help us contribute to this worthy cause. A gift made through the virtual food drive will provide more food than through a traditional drive, doubling or even tripling the amount of items your dollar can purchase at a regular grocery store. Every dollar raised through this virtual food drive will be used to buy nutritious food for our hungry neighbors. Check out the promotional video the students made on TikTok:
Click this link to donate and support our Participation in Government students' efforts: https://www.foodbankcny.org/west-genesee-high-school-virtual-food-drive/
