First Friday Sing!
Tomorrow is the first Friday of the month, so it’s time for another Friday Sing! Join Mrs. B. and Mrs. Siebert ( and a few special guests) for a Friday Sing video. Finishing touches are still being applied now, so watch your email tomorrow for a Friday Sing Link, and share with your students whenever it works best for you.
School Closure Updates
Last week Governor Cooper announced that schools will remain closed for the rest of the school year. We will continue with distance learning through the end of the 2019-20 school year. We are working on a plan for staff and students to retrieve personal items and return school property such as library books and musical instruments.
The State Board of Education approved a Statewide Grading Policy for K-11 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and extended school building closures late last week. State leaders believe it is important that grading policies positively impact as many students as possible, validate the efforts of students and all those supporting remote learning, and address issues of equity and excellence. It is the intention of the policy to ensure no students receive a failing grade and that students’ grades as of March 13 serve as a minimum or a hold harmless point.
Grades K-5
- Grades K-5 students do not receive letter grades.
- Teachers will provide year-end written feedback for students/families based on their learning this school year.
- Academic and social/emotional feedback will be used to help transition students into the new school year.
Grades 6-8
- Grades 6-8 students will receive a final course grade of PC19 (Pass) or WC19 (Withdraw).
- Teachers will provide year-end written feedback for students based on their learning this school year.
- Academic and social/emotional feedback will be used to help transition students into the 2020-2021 school year.
- WC19 does not mean the student failed the course and does not imply grade retention for middle school students. WC19 means there is a lack of evidence the student mastered the course standards.
- Middle school students enrolled in high school courses (Math I or Math II) will follow grading options listed below: Students will receive course credit but, as in existing policy, the grade will not be counted in the GPA calculation.
Option 1:
- Report the numeric grade, their highest grade representing either their learning as of March 13 or as improved through the semester as remote learning continued.
- Students will receive course credit.
- The numeric grade and quality points for each course will be used to calculate GPA.
Option 2:
- Report a PC19 (Pass) or WC19 (Withdrawal).
- Students opting to receive a PC19 will receive course credit.
- PC19 or WC19 will not impact GPA.
- WC19 receives no course credit but students could take advantage of future credit recovery or repeating a course for credit.
Will my child be promoted to the next grade?
Student promotion and retention will remain the decision of the school principal and teachers. Schools will primarily focus on those retention cases that were already well underway prior to March 13 for reasons other than the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic issues.
Preparing for the End of the School Year
Here are some important dates as we work to complete the school year:
- Mon, May 25 - No School Memorial Day
- Thurs, May 28 - Last day for new assignments with distance learning. Teachers will still be available to connect with and support students online until the last day of school, June 5.
- Tues, June 2 - All assignments due- Math I and Math II Grading decision due
- Wed-Fri, June 3-5 - Parent-Teacher conferences via ZOOM. Teachers will prepare and provide student narratives and offer end of year virtual conferences for parents.
- Mon-Wed, June 8-10 - Staff at school (following all health and safety guidelines) organizing rooms and preparing student items for pickup.
- Thurs, June 11 - Parent Drive Thru Pick up line to retrieve personal items. We are working on plans and logistics for families to retrieve their personal items from the school and to return school property such as library books and musical instruments. Stay tuned for more information.
- Fri, June 12 - Alternate day for Parent Pick up in the event of rain.
Classroom Placement
Your child’s current classroom teacher will meet with the grade level team to create the class rosters for the next year. They use all that they know about your child’s academic, social, emotional, and behavioral qualities to determine which classroom is the best match. We do not accept parent requests regarding classroom placement.
If your child will not be returning to ABS for the 2020-2021 school year, please email Stephanie LeFever ([email protected]) with the name of the school your child will be attending so she can make sure your child’s school records are transferred successfully.
Yearbook Update
We are getting close to selling out of our original order. If we do, there will be another order placed but those will be limited also. Ordering is open until May 15th so please order online soon. Orders can be placed by visiting the Strawbridge website at Strawbridge Studios – Professional Photographers and School Pictures and clicking the red “Order Pictures and Yearbooks” button at the top of the page. The price is $22 and our school code is YB106312.
Flexible Fridays continue
The Arts Based School continues with the new schedule providing Friday as a Flexible Day for students with no new academic assignments. For Fridays, teachers will encourage “leisure learning” such as taking walks in nature, playing board games, doing arts activities. This schedule change will not increase academic assignments Monday-Thursday. Teachers will continue to be working on Friday, available to connect with students and support their learning.
A Note from our School Counselor- Amanda Sullivan
Week seven is coming to a close! How are you feeling right now?
Sometimes we get so caught up in the stress of everyday life that we forget to check in with ourselves–how am I in this moment?— and take time to simply breathe and slow down. We often stay in a constant state of action, tangled in a web of worry about things that need to get done, things that may or may not happen, or the stress in the world right now. It can be overwhelming to carry so much anxiety with us on a daily basis. And it can be especially stressful for kids.
Are you or your child a “but what if” person? In other words, do you find yourself or your child frequently saying, “I’m okay now, but what if this or this happens?”
When you focus on something that may or may not happen in your life, or look for things to go wrong, you are adding unnecessary stress and creating a pattern of anxious living that is often hard to break. Over the past 30 years as a counselor, I have heard countless children worrying about things in the future that may or may not happen: “I bet I won’t have any friends next year.” “I know I’m going to fail the test next week.” “My spring break is probably going to be really boring.” “I’m never going to be successful in life when I grow up.”
My answer to all of these statements over the years has been the same: Don’t worry about something that hasn’t happened yet. Stay focused on what you can do right now.
When you speculate about what may or may not happen in the future, you are living in a state of “but what if” instead of staying focused on the present. It’s different from preparing for an upcoming event. Preparing for an upcoming trip, for example, would be making a list of what you need to pack, booking a place to stay, and the travel to get there, making sure you have all you need in advance to ensure a fun and safe excursion. You are preparing for the future by taking care of things that need to be done in the present. The “but what if” version of that would be worrying about what might happen if you don’t like your hotel, worrying about things that can go wrong once you get there, worrying about forgetting to take something, etc.
Staying in the present is a practice called “mindfulness” and it has been shown to reduce stress and anxiety in both adults and kids. In children, it can reduce the anxiety associated with schoolwork, reduce attention problems and enhance focus in kids with ADHD, decrease the effects of bullying, improve social skills, and also improve overall mental health and wellbeing. It’s also free and you need nothing extra to practice mindfulness.
Mindfulness embodies the mantra right here, right now.
So how do you help your child to reduce stress through mindfulness? Let’s take the current pandemic we are in. Your child may come to you with worry about catching COVID-19. A mindful answer to that would be, “Right now we are fine, and we are taking lots of precautions so that we won’t catch it. So let’s stay focused on that.” You might ask them to tell you some of the things you are doing as a family to stay safe, or some of the things that people in the community are doing to help keep you safe. Just that slight shift from worrying about catching COVID-19 to “right now we are safe” may be enough to ease your child’s worry.
If you frequently hear your child worrying about school work or passing a test, you can employ the same practice. In response to I know I’m going to fail the test this week, you might reply: “What can you do right now to help you prepare to do your best on the test?” Again, pulling the focus back to right now helps to relieve the “but what if” stress.
Mindfulness can best be achieved through lots of practice, keeping your mind focused on the present instead of what may or may not occur in the future. It can also be accomplished through mindful breathing. I came across a fantastic video for kids about mindful breathing. There are four different exercises in this video, so you could potentially do one each morning before you start your home-school day.
And if you want to learn more about mindfulness practice for you and your children, check out these links from the New York Times and Positive Psychology.
And don’t forget, Mr. Ertl and I are still here for your students right now. You can contact us via email: Amanda Sullivan or Scott Ertl.