Remote learning kicks off in Grafton; don’t treat COVID-19 like a snow day
Grafton resident Maria Adamo shared photos of her children enjoying “school” at home, using YouTube videos for exercise and recycled materials for lessons and crafts. 
Grafton resident Maria Adamo shared photos of her children enjoying “school” at home, using YouTube videos for exercise and recycled materials for lessons and crafts. 
Grafton resident Maria Adamo shared photos of her children enjoying “school” at home, using YouTube videos for exercise and recycled materials for lessons and crafts. 
Virtual play dates with Grafton and other pals. We used “HouseParty” app for this since FaceTime with multiple people makes it hard to hear everyone talking over each other. 
Grafton resident Maria Adamo shared photos of her children enjoying “school” at home, using YouTube videos for exercise and recycled materials for lessons and crafts.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is Superintendent of Schools Jay Cummings’ most recent note to parents at the end of the first week of pandemic-related school closings. Photos are by Maria Adamo. who answered our request for pictures of kids learning at home.
We are off and running with remote learning!
The GPS staff has worked tirelessly to provide our students with a wealth of remote learning activities. We will be adding to our program over time and will be looking at new ways to better connect with parents and students.
Remote learning is a challenge for both staff and parents! This is new to everyone and I am excited about the work that I believe we will be able to do as a GPS community to make remote learning as meaningful as possible.
Growing up, my family used to go to Natick to watch the marathon each year. It was about five miles into the race. Every year you’d see the elite runners sail by and then, maybe ten minutes behind, you’d get the runners who went out way too fast and the reality of twenty more miles was hitting them like a ton of bricks. I used to wonder if there was any way in the world that they would finish.
As we are all trying to help our children learn from home, I think it’s important to remember a few things. First, this is definitely a marathon and not a sprint. I recommend taking on remote learning in small bites as opposed to trying to replicate a full school day all at once.
Second, it is important to remember that our collective sanity and positive attitude toward one another is more essential than any learning activity. Eventually, we will return to school and reset. Everyone will be all over the place in terms of what they did while out and what they remember from before schools closed — and that is okay and expected. We will take a few steps back and all move forward together once schools are open.
Lastly, trying to support learning is a challenge on a good day, doing so in the midst of a pandemic is not ideal! The photo you see on the internet of the smiling children doing schoolwork at the kitchen table with the parent who is thrilled to be providing instruction to them is not reality in most cases. From what I have seen, parents are doing a great job in trying to keep children engaged in learning without creating forced labor camps in their kitchens.
Together, let’s try to keep our children engaged in learning and connected while understanding that it’s awfully hard to do and nobody has it all figured out. Our teachers are doing a fantastic job in working to connect with students and I expect this to develop further over the coming weeks.
Given that all districts are struggling to adjust to remote learning at the same time, without much for preparation, the state is working to support these efforts. Over the coming week we expect to see a wealth of resources set up to support remote learning. We will be linking to these resources as they become available.
It is important to note that the school closure shouldn’t be treated like an extended snow day. The article (linked below) by Ariadne Labs provides a good summary of the importance of social distancing as a mitigation strategy to minimize the spread of the coronavirus: https://medium.com/@ariadnelabs/social-distancing-this-is-not-a-snow-day-ac21d7fa78b4
“Social distancing” means restricting when and where people can gather to slow the spread of contagious disease. This includes closing buildings, canceling events, and in general limiting large groups of people coming together. Because social distancing significantly disrupts the community, it is not often used except in extreme cases. However, when it is used, it requires the cooperation of all community members to be effective. Social distancing measures are implemented to safeguard the public’s health, especially certain susceptible populations, and avoid overwhelming the demand for first responders and medical care. This includes playdates, sleepovers, captain’s practices, and other student social gatherings.
Schools were closed down in the midst of our third grading quarter. Many people have asked what will happen to the grades that we had in that quarter, and how are we going to proceed. We are essentially holding on this until we know exactly when we will be returning to school. When school resumes, we will create and share out a plan for how we will handle past grades and grading going forward.
School Committee MeetingThe School Committee meeting on Tuesday, March 24 will be held in Conference room A within the Municipal Center and will include remote participation from School Committee members. The meeting will be accessible to the public via the following link:https://zoom.us/j/703026088 The meeting is scheduled to be broadcasted by Grafton Cable Access. The agenda for the meeting includes an update on the Coronavirus situation, remote learning, and consideration of a solar lease.
As of now, the School Committee has not made any adjustments to the school calendar. Currently, April vacation remains in place (week of April 20). Over the coming two weeks I expect the state to provide guidance on opening April 7 or extending the closure.
