Dear Parent:
Our faculty have been working very hard this week to prepare for possible “Distance Learning” days this semester.
Here’s what you need to know should that become a reality.
A new page on our website has detailed information (accessible from the front page of our website) about Distance Learning at BJA. It also includes a list of events and activities that have already been canceled, may be rescheduled, or are still to be determined.
Feeling overwhelmed about suddenly schooling at home? That’s normal—and learning a new method of learning while still trying to learn actual content can be overwhelming in itself.
To spare the student, the parent, and even the teachers themselves from too much trauma, we’ve asked our teachers to reevaluate their learning objectives in light of the new learning environment. Please be reassured that they will significantly reduce their expectations from what they would have had in their traditional classroom setting. Adjustments for online classes are typical. We’re just making those changes mid-semester.
Are you set with enough devices for your students? Some students may need to share, of course—one device per student shouldn’t be necessary.
But if your family will be hard-pressed to make it work with the devices you already own, would you let us know? We have 60 older Chromebooks available, which we currently use at the middle school. See our webpage for more information on devices needed and how we may be able to help.
Printers will not be needed.
Be sure to check our webpage for more information, such as teacher office hours and plans for upcoming training for the learning platforms we intend to use.
We saw a lot of sad faces on Tuesday, as parents and students stopped by to get their things, anticipating having school without seeing their teachers or having their friends surrounding them. We’ll try to keep the human interaction as part of their schooling experience as much as possible.
One way you can be part of that now is to send us pictures to post on our Facebook and Instagram pages. Watch for themes later on.
For now, send us a “picture is worth a thousand words” of what your very creative students did during this surprise extra week of Spring Break.
Send one high quality (good resolution), landscape (horizontal) photo to Dr. Copeland (through Grade 5) or Mrs. Nicholas (Grades 6–12), and we’ll select some of these to post on our Facebook and Instagram pages over the next few days.
Here’s something I’ve appreciated—something Martin Luther said during the Bubonic Plague:
“Very well, by God’s decree the enemy has sent us poison and deadly offal. Therefore I shall ask God mercifully to protect us. Then I shall fumigate, help purify the air, administer medicine, and take it. I shall avoid places and persons where my presence is not needed in order not to become contaminated and thus perchance infect and pollute others, and so cause their death as a result of my negligence. If God should wish to take me, he will surely find me and I have done what he has expected of me and so I am not responsible for either my own death or the death of others. If my neighbor needs me, however, I shall not avoid place or person but will go freely, as stated above. See, this is such a God-fearing faith because it is neither brash nor foolhardy and does not tempt God.”
Thank you for praying for your student’s teachers and our staff and administrative team as we continue to pray for you.
Dr. Dan Nelson
Administrator
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