 Thank you to everyone for your participation in our Virtual Spirit Week last week! I enjoyed all the submissions to my email, shared by teachers, and posted to twitter. These small acts helped me continue to feel connected to our community while apart.
We are all adjusting to our new reality since the governor made his announcement on Monday. FCPS is working OVERTIME to get distance learning ready for our students, staff, and parents. We recognize the complications moving forward with distance learning and Lemon Road wants to be sure everyone is ready, supported, and has access as we embark on this new learning for all of us. Read below for the difference between continuity of learning (through Spring Break) and distance learning (beginning April 14).
I ask you to be patient with our staff as we transition to teaching virtually – this experience is new for all of us and I am instructing the staff to go slow. I also want to remind parents that distance learning is not equal to the instruction provided during a typical school day.
The health and safety of our staff and community is our top priority as we grow with new skills and challenges. Our people are our most important resource. Thank you for everything you have done to support our school and community during this incredible time.
Stay safe and be well ~ Mrs. Castillo
The guidance to date provided by the Virginia Department of Education is that since school divisions cannot ensure equity in access, student instructional assignments should not be required or graded during the closure. FCPS has provided families with centralized resources to support continuity of learning. These activities can be accessed through the FCPS 24-7 and are available on the FCPS Website. When anyone logs on to FCPS 24-7 they will see a Continuity of Learning module that has links to resources for elementary students as well as resources for middle and high school students.
Mr. Heffron has worked to create simple ways for our families to access digital resources. Check out these two pages devoted to distance learning resources and links. Lemon Road has online activities students can continue to practice with available on the Student Links page. Finally, our FCPS cable television channels are now broadcasting learning activities. New instructional videos are currently being recorded and will be added to the programming lineup shortly. Channel 21 includes elementary school programming, Channel 25 includes middle school programming, and Channel 99 includes high school programming.
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FCPS is embarking on a four-tiered approach to distance learning that will begin officially following Spring Break. All work and assignments are currently optional and will not receive a grade. Our priority is to offer continued learning opportunities to all our students for the remainder of the 2019 – 2020 school year.
Part 1: Weekly Learning Packets
Beginning Monday, March 30 and continuing for the remainder of the school year, all elementary students will receive a weekly learning packet in the U.S. Mail. These packets were created centrally, but teachers may reference them when new learning begins on April 14. Students are encouraged to work on these packets at home next week and beyond as independent practice.
Part 2: Virtual Teaching
Our staff has been working this week to develop a plan for ongoing instruction of our students. Classroom teachers and specialists will be either teaching live through sites like Blackboard Collaborate Ultra or recording themselves teaching and posting links to the videos following Spring Break. More detailed information, as well as a daily schedule, will be shared next week by your child's classroom teacher. When possible, teachers are being recommended to record any live instruction and share links with the students on blackboard so students who cannot join live may view another time. Our plan is that core instruction (community building, language arts, and math) will begin first and we will layer in additional learning opportunities as a school overtime.
Part 3: Channel 21 Programming
Like mentioned above, our FCPS cable television channels are now broadcasting learning activities. New instructional videos are being recorded and will be added to the programming lineup shortly. Students can watch on their TV through Channel 21 or can use these links to view building level instructional programming. Channel 21 includes elementary school programming, Channel 25 includes middle school programming, and Channel 99 includes high school programming.
Part 4: Staff Office Hours
Beginning April 14, all staff will have regular virtual office hours to be available to answer student and parent questions in real-time. Staff will explore various methods of communication and accessibility for office hours and will communicate through email and post their schedule on blackboard.
If you are looking to access Parent View on SIS or Blackboard but, you haven't created an account, click on this link to create an account through the FCPS FASTeam. Blackboard will be the primary source parents will visit to access resources for your students while away from school. Remember, students also directly access Blackboard with their FCPS username and password.
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Beginning Monday, we'll focus on the character strength of humor. This is one of those strengths that most people don't associate with the concept of "character." However, we know how important humor is in our lives -- individually and collectively -- especially during times of adversity. Though what the world faces now is a very serious matter, humor can help us see the lighter side of life and gain strength to overcome the unique challenges we all face. For a one-page overview of humor, please click here.
Humor means that you like to laugh and bring smiles to other people. Humor is a sense of playfulness and lightness. It is a way of looking at and describing the world that brings laughter to people. A person with the strength of humor is skilled at seeing at the funny side of things, bringing smiles and laughter to others, and identifying and communicating the absurdities in life. People with this strength don’t specifically need to be joke tellers, although many are. Humor can have a dark side, depending on how it’s used. Some humor is mean spirited and bullying. The strength of humor that the character strength focuses on is that which raises the spirits of other people.
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