Dear Greenwood Families,
As we begin Week #7 of remote learning, I hope that you and your families are staying safe and healthy. It is about time that we saw some sustained sunshine and warmer temperatures like we had over the weekend! I’m not sure that this lovely weather is going to hang around throughout the week, but anything is better than the plethora of April showers that we were graced with this year. Let’s bring on those May flowers! I would like to reiterate a message I shared a couple of weeks ago, a message that can never be repeated often enough these days: everyone is doing the best they can in uncertain times, and we all need to remember to be kind to each other. Please, please, please do not hesitate to reach out if you have questions or need support.
Teacher Appreciation Week
Even though we did some celebrating back in April, the upcoming week is “officially” Teacher Appreciation Week! The Greenwood School community is fortunate to have so many amazing and caring adults who have done amazing things during this unexpected and unprecedented time to support students and families. I am honored to work with this team of educators and staff members and cannot possibly thank them enough for everything they do to make Greenwood a great place to be. Please take a moment this week to reach out and let them know how much they are appreciated!
Class Placement Survey
This is the time of the school year when we start looking ahead toward planning for the fall, and one of the most important projects we have ahead of us is class placement. Later on Monday, you will receive a brief optional online survey that will give you the opportunity to provide input about your child. While there are always questions and unknowns when it comes to this process, those feelings may be heightened given the abrupt end to in-person schooling and transition to remote learning for the remainder of the school year. Everyone is very aware that we are going to need some significant planning around what things will look like when we are able to welcome students back to school. While our goals are always to build community and provide a safe and supportive environment for students in which to learn, we are also going to be looking at and thinking about, across the board, our students who have all missed out on opportunities that they would have had access to in a “normal” school year. Please know that this will be an important lens for our work as we think about building balanced classrooms for next year.
District Social-Emotional Learning Team Video
The Wakefield district SEL team created a video filled with tips for managing COVID-19 school closures that they wanted to share with families in each school community. When I say “filled with tips,” it’s not an exaggeration - the video is almost 90 minutes long! Don’t worry though...the first comment under the video lists out each of the tips and provides a timestamp for each, so you can easily jump around to the ones you want. I hope you find some helpful ideas!
Weekly Theme
I hope that you all enjoyed the silly jokes that were shared for last week’s “Joke of the Day” theme, and I apologize for the awkward moment of silence that inevitably occurred after each joke was told. When you’re reacting to yourself, it’s a strange feeling! Going back to more academic-type topics, this week is going to be all about math. Important mathematicians and interesting math problems galore!
Greenwood Instagram & Facebook Account
Just another reminder about following the Greenwood School Instagram and/or Facebook accounts (@wpsgreenwood) to see the daily videos!
Thank you for everything you do to support your children and their learning—let’s have a great week!
Tiffany Back