Clarke Families,
As you know, school is now canceled at least through April 30th. The Department of Education has outlined several options that we can put in place to ensure your children have continued opportunities for learning and access to their teachers. We have elected to implement the voluntary option, which means that we will be providing instruction and activities for your children, but they are not required to participate or complete the work and grades will not be assigned. The goal is to provide instruction, activities, feedback, and support for your students without overwhelming families as they cope with our new normal.
In the next few days, you will receive a call from each of your children’s homeroom (elementary)/advisory (secondary) teachers. They will be calling to check in and to determine how you would like to receive your student’s learning packets each week. The packets will be linked, with instructional videos prepared by our teachers, to a website we have created and will share out when it’s “live”. If you don’t have the ability to access the packets online, we will be happy to send one to your child each week. If you have multiple children, you will receive multiple calls in the coming days. We apologize for this in advance and ask for your patience. We thought it was important for teachers to touch base and, logistically, it would be very difficult to assign which teacher would call a household.
As students complete their weekly packets, you have the option to return them to teachers who will review the work and determine if additional instruction and support is needed. You will have two options to return the work. The first is for you to scan or photograph the work and email it directly to your child’s teacher. The second is for you to drop off the work each Monday, beginning April 20th, by 7:00 pm. There will be drop-off totes available at the elementary and secondary campuses. Administrators will then sort and scan the work to the appropriate teacher. Weekly packets will be posted each Monday, beginning April 13th.
Teachers will offer a one-hour “office hours” time every Thursday, via Zoom. We have followed the safety recommendations and guidelines to ensure your child will be in a safe Zoom environment, including teachers having to admit each participant into the Zoom. The first office hours session will be April 23rd. Your child’s teacher will send out a link to their Zoom office hours through Campus Messenger the day before. If your child’s teacher sees your student struggling with a particular skill in the packet work, he or she may call and personally invite your child to Zoom for extra instruction. However, all students are welcome to join their teacher’s Zoom to ask questions, get additional instruction, or just say hello. If you do not want your child to participate in a Zoom, please email his/her teachers and let them know.
Thank you for your continued support as we journey through these uncharted territories together. Know that we are all working hard to ensure your child has the opportunity to continue to learn over this lengthy closure. We look forward to beginning our new system on April 13th. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Mr. Seid, at 641-342-4969 or sseid@clarke.k12.ia.us.