Dear Parents & Guardians of Nitschmann Middle School,
I hope that you had a few moments to double-check our Sunday Email (either in your email inbox & online) and our BASD Middle School phone call/email at 12 pm. There is a lot of critical information in them for the kickoff of remote learning this week. Your children should have no problem getting started tomorrow on the assignments online.
I just wanted to put a few additional notes for you……
I think it is important to remember that everyone, including families & our staff, are experiencing a high level of trauma at the moment. Our world has been turned upside down and especially for our children. I can only remember a few times in my life, for example after 9-11, that I felt that there were limits on what we could do in our country. Our children are experiencing that for the first time with this crisis.
I want to let you know that I am experiencing the challenge of having two teenagers trapped in our house each day. While playing sports outside and going through every board game has helped, it is still not the regular routine of school. My family and I are readjusting and I think in the long run it will be the story my girls tell their children about when they were locked in the house with their parents for weeks! I am sure they will exaggerate it and it will sound more awful than it actually was.
The BASD remote learning activities that begin tomorrow are designed to help students stay engaged in some academic work. It is not designed to replace the everyday rigor of a normal day or week school. You do not have to recreate that at home. A few learning activities each day is enough for the moment. You do not have to feel the pressure to be your child’s full-time teacher or that your child will be behind everyone else at the end of the year. When schools reopen, we know that all students K-12 in the United States will have a gap in their learning. Our teachers will make sure that they get the necessary skills as we move forward.
So, take a deep breath, stay healthy, have your children work on their lessons each week on Schoology, put their phone down, and make them do some chores around the house. Formal schoolwork is not the only way to learn. Teach them a family recipe, a new board game, or just to be bored for a little bit. These experiences will change them for a lifetime, missing a math worksheet or writing an essay will not. We will all catch up when the world returns to “normal”!
Join us tomorrow and post a “Back to School, Again” photo of your children on social media. Don’t forget to tag Nitschmann Middle School, #BASDPROUD, and #BackToSchoolAgain.
Stay safe and healthy!
Dr. Mayes