Distance learning will start on Tuesday, March 24. Distance learning packets are available here online. OA will be using our own bilingual educational plans during school closures.
While distance learning can never take the place of our teachers, our goals for creating materials that students will use to learn at home are the following:
- The majority of students can complete the tasks independently. Younger grades will obviously need more family involvement. Please keep in mind that our school is diverse and each student has varying access to language abilities and literacy support at home.
- The learning can be done with or without access to technology to ensure equity.
- The format and type of work is uniform across grade-levels; this is to reduce family stress of figuring out multiple templates, systems and expectations.
Access to Faculty for Academic Consultation March 24th-April 3rd: Faculty will be on a remote work schedule. This will include availability through email for questions on distance learning. Faculty will respond as soon as possible, definitely within 24 hours Monday-Friday. Faculty will also provide academic consultations focused on tigres who need more support (Ex: tigres with special needs who have IEPs, tigres with low-tech access, and pre-identified families who receive additional wraparound services at school). Please be patient with our faculty as we try distance learning for the first time. Our first two weeks will be lots of trial and error. We will also use this time to prepare for distance learning from April 6th-April 24th. Our faculty is also learning to balance their own family expectations with professional lives. Have an extra minute? Email your teachers an encouraging and simple message, it will make their day.
Free Access to Internet: Comcast’s Internet Essentials (IE) program is offering families who meet certain criteria 2 months of free internet service in response to Coronavirus related school closings. This offer becomes effective Monday, March 16, 2020. The fastest way to take advantage of the two- months free offer is to sign up from their smartphone, tablet or computer at www.InternetEssentials.com.
