"The rain will stop, the night will end, the hurt will fade. Hope is never so lost that it can't be found." - Ernest Hemingway
I have kept this blog focused on home reading strategies, ideas and purposes for all of the 2019-2020 school year, believing a continued focus on supporting students' reading at home would be of benefit to our school families. However, in light of the current provincial situation and the recent cancellation of all classes due to the COVID-19 virus, it seems more prudent to veer from this topic and focus attention on the issues at hand. Classes are indefinitely cancelled and children are expected to stay home.
Virtually anything that children would consider to be educationally enjoyable - like the Zoo, Telus Spark, pools, recreation centres, etc. have all been closed down as well. Children are expected to stay out of public places and gathering in large groups, and families are trying hard to cope with this new reality.
Teachers and school staff, too, are trying hard to cope with this new reality. At this point - so new in the process with barely 24 hours passed since the school closure announcement - we do not have much specific information, although we do expect there will be plenty of new direction coming soon from Alberta Education, as well as the Calgary Board of Education. As we face the very real prospect we may not see 'our' students in the classroom again this school year, and grapple with the frightening potential of the statistical data related to COVID-19, there are many mixed emotions, fears and anxieties being expressed on the school landscape in the absence of children. We feel a tremendous responsibility for our students - your children - and are anxiously awaiting information as to how we will be able to continue to support their academic growth through the remaining weeks of this school year.
Learning in the elementary years is foundational and essential to future academic success. We have worked very hard to support our learners in establishing this foundation and have no intention of not attending to student learning needs through the remaining weeks of school - we are only 2/3 of the way through the school year, and often teachers see students make their greatest academic gains during the last few weeks of school. While teachers are currently cleaning classrooms, sorting student belongings and supplies and trying to make sense of our next steps with students, we want our children and families to know the school year is not finished; it is simply paused briefly while school boards and Alberta Education regroup in the face of an extreme crisis and prepare to launch us into a new approach to student learning.
For now, we have a week before spring break, and the week of spring break itself, as a time for families to enjoy the warming weather and make sense of the quite startling turn of events in our province and across the world. When we return, we will have some solid direction for teaching and learning in an online/out of school environment, and families will have a much greater sense of how 'school' will play out in homes across Tuscany and of course, all of Alberta. Statistically, there may possibly be over 3000 cases of COVID-19 by the end of March, if all our best efforts to minimize the spread of the virus are successful. Life is moving in strange ways at a very rapid pace, and we are part of that flow.
For this week, we encourage all students to read their class blogs each day - teachers are sending messages daily to students, just to let them know their teachers are here and working on their behalf to make sense of a world suddenly gone 'tilt'. Teachers will pause over spring break, and then resume blog communications on Monday, March 30, 2020, followed by new online learning and associated activities.
This Thursday, March 19th, parents will be able to select a time to come to the school and pick up student belongings/medications, as well as any items left with STEM before/after school care. We will continue to communicate with parents via CBE Messenger as appropriate, and plan to also continue sending the Connect Monday message as long as it is relevant as well.
This is our new reality; however, it is not forever. Schools will open again and children will return - the school will not seem so eerily quiet and still. We look forward to that day with great anticipation! In the meantime, we wish all our families a wonderful spring break together, hoping you all stay healthy and active until we connect again with a new perspective on learning with which to engage our children!
Lorraine Kinsman, Principal
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