Red Raider Community:
This letter is to help all of our students and their families understand the purpose of the upcoming virtual days in the Mechanicville City School District.
On Tuesday, November 24th, our elementary school will be holding an all virtual day during which all students will learn from home for grades K-5. No students will physically report to the elementary school classrooms on that day as learning will be virtual.
On November 23rd and 24th, Monday and Tuesday of that week, our middle and high school students in grades 6-12 will participate in all virtual days as well, on their respective school days. Again, no students will report to the middle or high school on the 23rd or the 24th as all learning will be virtual.
These virtual days are necessary to support our students, staff, and programs for specific reasons that we would like to help you understand. First, these virtual days will allow us to assess how well our district would do if we had to transition to an all virtual education model in the future. Presently, we do not foresee this as something that’s going to happen in the immediate future, but it is our duty and obligation to be well prepared for it. Engaging in all virtual days as practice will help us understand how prepared we are as educators to transition to an all virtual model as well as assess home Internet connectivity and access to devices outside the “normal” school day for our students.
Second, these days will allow teachers to engage our students with reinforcement and enrichment activities, as well as use this time to catch students up for any learning activities that they may be missing. These will be more student-specific days during which students will have learning experiences that are specifically tailored to their current progress in their respective courses. Our students who regularly experience these opportunities in person will now receive them virtually on these days in a modified timeframe. These learning experiences will be largely independent, where students are working on individualized and differentiated activities on their own, while still having the opportunity to access their teachers in a Google meet at dedicated times for additional support as needed.
The third reason for these days is to allow our teachers time to develop standards-based report cards for each student in the district. This is new to our school district this year and part of this day will be used to ensure that our staff has the essential training on standards-based report card development needed as well as provide ample time to develop and create their standards-based report cards in such a way that is easy to read and and user-friendly for you and all of our students. For more information on defining a standards-based report card, please see our school impact website at the following link:
https://tinyurl.com/y4zsho9k
You can also watch a corresponding video from the Office of School Impact explaining standards-based grading here:
https://tinyurl.com/y4pzu79r
Teachers will also be working together on these days to analyze student data and plan using that data for future instruction. These days will also allow our teachers to collaborate with co-teachers, teacher assistants, teaching aids, as well as building administrators to further their instructional planning and instructional design work.
Please see the forthcoming post for grade level schedules from building principals that outline specific information for our students as well as meeting times and other detailed information. Although this is the schedule for our planned days, in the event of a full school closure, we would simply pivot from our existing school schedule and all students would participate virtually as their teachers instruct from their classrooms.
Lastly, our Food Service Department is offering a 5-day meal pack for parents to pick up on Monday, November 23 (this includes 5 breakfast and 5 lunches) at no charge to families. Please pre-order by Friday, November 13 by calling 518-450-4085 or emailing dmackey@mechanicville.org.
Please do not hesitate to reach out to building principals or the Office of School Impact administrators with any additional questions. We appreciate your support of these days which are integral to our District and students’ progress and best help our teachers’ support of their academic progress.
My best,
Bruce
#OneMechanicville
Message from Chris Turcio, Elementary Principal:
Hello Red Raiders! On November 24th, we are going to have a district wide virtual day. While at home, elementary students will have one online 40 minute ELA lesson AND one assignment that is posted in their Google classroom.
The schedule for the ES is as follows:
K- 8-8:40
1- 9-9:40
2- 10-10:40
3- 11-11:40
4- 12-12:40
5- 1-1:40
Parents, if you have not signed into your child’s Google classroom, please do so. If you need help with this, please contact your child’s teacher.
IF you have not signed up for parent square, please do so. Your child’s report card is going to be sent through Parent Square only!