Japhet School

Upper Class Distance Learning

March 14, 2020

Dear parents,

By now I know you are aware that our school building is temporarily closed to comply with a directive from Governor Whitmer and to protect the health and wellness of our school population.  Fortunately our students have had some practice working with the technology that will support distance learning. We may have a period of adjustment that proves challenging, but I know we can work in partnership to make this experience as smooth as possible for you and your student.

To that end, at the beginning of each week a general schedule for your student will be available. The schedule will include all assignments in all subjects that will be covered that week. The schedule will also include any times that I will be online teaching lessons in Google Hangouts/Meet, and the times that I will be available each day for questions and support. Students will need to log into their account to communicate with me via email or Hangout, to access their Discovery Education Science TechBook and LearnTCI accounts. 

(Information regarding logging in deleted from this online publication of original email. See Ms. Eggleston’s email if needed.)

The goal is to keep your child learning as much as possible.

Again, please feel free to contact me with any questions that you may have going forward. I will be in contact with you and your student.  Any and all school updates will come to you from the Head of School.

I know character — industry, optimism, respect — will aid our partnership as we work to keep students learning, informed, and engaged.

Sincerely,
Susan Eggleston
Susan.Eggleston@Japhetschool.org

March 15, 2020 — from Liz Grunow

Hi parents,

I know as we roll out all these plans for continuing learning while away from the school building that things can seem a bit overwhelming. I hope that, as always, you feel that you can reach out to us with any questions or concerns.

Right now is a great time to have invested in an online platform for one of our learning segments! Our science program is completely online, minus the hands-on labs that we do in the classroom. While I know the students will miss the hands-on aspects of our class, they will still have the opportunity to continue learning and feeding their science curiosity.

So, I will be emailing your children later today about this week’s assignments. The platforms are ones that are familiar to them–assignments will be in the Science Classroom and in their Discovery Science accounts. I will remind them that they need to be signed into their Japhet Google accounts in order to sign in to their Discovery accounts–but they are used to this. I will also be sending them links to related videos and virtual learning opportunities related to the subjects we are covering.

I am not scheduling any Google Hangouts with your students at this time. I want to keep the schedule open so that Susan has the time with your students that she needs for math, reading, and writing instruction.

Please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions that you have! We all need to support one another during this unusual time.

Be safe and healthy!

Liz

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