Dear Parent/Guardian,
Making the switch to online learning has definitely been an adjustment for everyone. We appreciate your patience and your support. When your child requires support with academic tasks, we ask that you consider the type of support you are providing. Teachers will be responsible for evaluating assignments and it is important that those evaluations are an accurate representation of what your child is able to accomplish, independently. Teachers are also responsible for providing feedback on your child’s learning, making it very important that the feedback for growth is based on your child’s true abilities.
Below are some suggestions for ways to effectively support your child when completing academic tasks:
1. Tech support- Please help your child with any tech issues that may arise. You can help them set up a word document, power point, sway, etc. and support the use of the features provided in that platform.
2. Research- Please do not help your child with researching a topic, unless the teacher has stated that research skills are not being evaluated.
3. Encouragement- Please have your child read his/her work to you. Offer to read it aloud for your child so he/she can hear what it sounds like. Please do not edit or revise your child’s work for them or with them. We will take care of editing and revision during class.
4. Encourage your child to sound out words or chunk words for spelling, rather than helping him/her with spelling.
5. Communicate or encourage communication with the teacher if your child is struggling with a concept or activity. This will allow the teacher to provide support to your child.
6. Camera use- Please encourage your child to leave the camera on. Often, teachers will use visual cues to assess understanding or keep student attention. When the camera is off, we must rely on your child speaking up or assume he/she understood. The teaching is much more effective when the camera is on.
7. Participation- Please encourage your child to interact with the teacher, classmates and content during class, just as he/she would in class.
Thank you for your continued support as we all adjust to this new way of teaching and learning. Should you have any questions, please contact your child’s teacher.
Eldon Keon, Principal
Julia Horner, Vice-Principal