Principal Choquette is
preparing a schedule with a day for each grade level’s families to pick up
student work and belongings at the school. The fourth grade slot is tentatively
scheduled for the last week of May. I will let you know the date and time once
it is confirmed.
Looking ahead to next school year, I don’t
have any news or special insight to share regarding plans for re-opening the
school in September. I can say that planning for a re-opening is a huge
undertaking, far more complex than simply issuing a blanket “open the schools”
edict. So much will need to change. The district has created eight policy teams
to research and plan exactly what needs to happen for schools to open and
operate safely. I am awed at the professionalism, thoroughness and care going
into the planning. Part of what makes the task so complex is the wide range of
issues for the various age groups of students. High schoolers’ learning needs
and routines are obviously vastly different than those of elementary students.
Yet even within the elementary grades, there are big differences between how
kindergartners and fifth graders, for example, interact with materials, peers
and teachers in the classroom. There are a lot of issues to address, but I am
heartened by the great leadership we have in the school district and the city.
For now, before we get
ahead of ourselves though, we still have this year, and this is Week #10 of
remote learning. The overview of this week’s new work is in the “Remote
Learning Week #10 Parent-Caregiver Guide,” available as a PDF file here. Also, this message and all the previous weekly Remote
Learning Parent-Caregiver Guides are always available on my class blog at
bssroom302.blogspot.com.
NEW THIS WEEK
* Scholastic Book Order
I’d like to offer families
one more opportunity to order books from Scholastic before the school year
ends. Any books ordered would be shipped to me, then I could drop them off at
your house if that’s okay with you (I don’t think the books will be delivered
to me in time to coincide with our student work pick-up day). If you are
interested in buying books, you can browse the offerings on clubs.scholastic.com.
Our class code is NL2FT. You must use that code to have the books delivered to
me. Finally, you will need to pay directly on the site using a credit card.
* Class Zoom Meeting
We had a lot of fun on our
class Zoom meeting last week. Teachers Mrs. Black and Ms. Foley joined us, as
did school adjustment counselor Laurie Sperry. I scheduled another call for us
this week, Tuesday May 19 at 10:00 am. I will post the new meeting link in our
Google Classroom “Specials, Talk with Mr. Z and Other Cool Stuff” where the
kids can access it on their own.
OTHER NOTES
* Vote for a New School Logo
Earlier this year the kids
brainstormed ideas about Bridge Street School’s core values. The ideas were
used to inspire concepts for a new BSS logo. Families can view and then vote to
choose their favorite of three ideas by visiting this Google form: https://forms.gle/KmzsLPj6VZ1RVEsx9 The
deadline to vote is Friday May 22.
* Grow Food Northampton Offers More At-Home Activities for Kids
Our awesome Grow Food
Northampton program has introduced some new Web-based activities and learning
opportunities for students at home. These can be found at: https://www.growfoodnorthampton.com/grow-food-kids-at-home-vol-3/
Please don’t hesitate to
contact me if you have any questions or concerns. I am available every week day
between 8:30 am and 4:00 pm. I do have some weekly staff meetings, so it might
take me a few minutes to reply. We can also schedule a time to talk if that
works best for you. My phone and text
number is (413) 342-1490. Email is jzyskowski@northampton-k12.us
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