| Good morning, the Provincial government announced Tuesday that K-6 students would begin online learning effective Friday, May 7th. This means that today, Thursday May 6th, will be our final in person learning day and we hope to return on Tuesday, May 25th. The school office will remain open during this time. We are so proud of the way Evergreen School has come together at this difficult time to stay safe, take care of one another, and continue to learn together. It is important to note that we have all done an excellent job of following the safety protocols every day. The students and staff have been diligent to keep their masks on, to practice physical distancing during mask breaks, and to frequently wash their hands and sanitize whenever hand washing is not possible. Unfortunately, with rising case counts the government has deemed K-6 online as a necessary step to counteract this trend. Your child’s teacher and grade teams are busy planning and preparing for this transition. They will be communicating more details with you today and Friday. As with the week immediately following the winter break in January where our learners were online, grade 1-4 teachers will be available online approximately 2.5 to 3.5 hours each day providing instruction and support. Kindergarten would be online half this time as they attend half days. It is not the expectation that teachers and students are online with their entire class for the full school day. Each teacher will share their schedule directly with families so you can support the online learning of your child. In addition, teachers will provide independent work times (offline tasks) for students to complete. Our Music and PE teachers will be added to classrooms as well to support our students at home with Music and PE activities. It is very important that our students take breaks and get some physical activity throughout the day. These are the general guidelines as communicated by Alberta Education and the Calgary Board of Education as we try to balance the needs of families with multiple students in different classes and different schools as well as staff with their own children now at home online learning too. Over the next two weeks, it is important your child stay engaged with their classmates and teachers, and with their learning. Encourage them to attend all virtual classes during the scheduled times, access support as needed and complete all their assignments to the best of their ability. It is the expectation that attendance is taken in both the am and pm for grades 1-4. If for whatever reason your child will not be participating in online learning on any given day, we would ask that you phone our attendance line and let us know. This is a challenging time for everyone, and we know that you will make decisions that are best for your child and your situation. We want you to know we are here to support you. Some of our students were discussing the “positive aspects” of being online and they came up with the following: “we don’t have to wear a mask, we can wear our pajamas all day, we can cuddle with our pets and show our classmates our animals in google meet, we can have a hot lunch and we are keeping people safe.” We appreciate the silver lining message during these challenging times. Once again, we thank you for the ongoing support of your children and their teachers, we couldn’t do it without you, and we hope to see everyone back on Tuesday, May 25th.
Kim and Jason
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