Distance Learning Resources, Information, and Online Safety; Plus, Join Mr. Newbold for Informal Google Meetings about Supporting Your Students

April 27, 2020

Good Day, Village School Families:

We have now been caring for our families and for one another through social distancing for about six weeks; it has been challenging, but the good news is that it seems to be working in Vermont. By working together to stay apart, we are flattening the curve.

Teaching through a pandemic was not something we had planned for, and we have been learning as we go. As crazy as it sounds, this may be one of the better times in history for us to have to utilize a Distance Learning model. The tools and technology that are available today make teaching and learning much more accessible than ever before. Our teachers have been able to make videos for their students, find great sources of content, and even meet in a virtual classroom in real time. None of this would have been possible when most of us were back in school. We can hold a device in the palm of our hand that can connect almost instantly to people, places, and content from all over the world. With these tools comes amazing opportunities and also new challenges.

Maintaining a safe and healthy learning environment is one of our most important values as educators. As educators, we also believe in being lifelong learners. In the last number of weeks, our network of teachers and institutions have taught us a great deal about how to teach and learn in the online environment as safely as possible.

In order to help keep our students safe, we have added an additional layer of protection to our systems (Bark for Schools), and we have added to our website some student expectations for distance learning, along with additional parent resources like a “How To” guide to access Google Classroom, and a guide to setting up Parental Controls for different devices and applications. Please follow this link to our Technology page to learn more: https://vsnb.org/technology/.

Distance Learning – How is it going?

There is a lot of chatter out there about how families are adjusting to Distance Learning. We thought it might be helpful to have a couple of informal sessions on Google Meet, where we can share some ideas that may help in your distance learning efforts. We also wanted to give you the opportunity to share your wisdom with one another. We are in this together, and there is much we can all learn. I will host the first session on Friday, May 1st from 1:00 to 2:00 pm, and the second session will be on Monday, May 4th from 7:00 to 8:00 pm. To attend one of the meetings, click on the day and time that works best for you and simply follow the prompts. We hope to see many of you there.

Class Lunches with Mr. Newbold

I also wanted to let you know that I will be hosting some virtual lunches with each of the classes in the coming weeks. This will give me a chance to connect with some of the students to see how they are doing and to try to answer any questions they may have. I will work with the classroom teachers to organize the meetings and send out the invitations.

Please reach out if you have any questions or concerns regarding any of the information shared in this Eblast.

Warm Regards,

Tim Newbold

Head of School

The Village School of North Bennington

“Children are at the heart of all we do.”

phone: 802-442-5955 ext. 201

email: tnewbold@vsnb.org

https://vsnb.org/