Weekly News
April 28, 2020
I hope this newsletter finds everyone well. This new normal is a bummer for sure. Just take it one day at a time.
“Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go.”– William Feather
Calendar of Events
May 4-5: Seniors scheduled to pick up items from GDRHS (See information below)
May 11-12: Juniors scheduled to pick up items from GDRHS
May 18-29: Sophomores scheduled to pick up items from GDRHS
May 26-27: Freshmen scheduled to pick up items from GDRHS
June 15, 2020: Scheduled last day of school
Update: Week 6
Quarter 4
Teachers will issue Pass/Fail Grades for all quarter 3 students. If a student was failing quarter three when school was shut down they will have the opportunity to make up work in order to earn a P. Quarter 4 grades will also be Pass/Fail. Please note that neither quarter three or quarter 4 grades will be factored into student GPAs.
Scheduling for 2020-2021
Our counselors are busy processing all of the requests that students have uploaded into SchoolBrains. If you or your student has yet to enter schedule requests for next year, please do so immediately. Counselors are happy to help with this process. Counselors will begin reaching out to individual students soon to attempt to get students placed correctly for next school year.
Sincerely,
GDRHS Admin Team
Graduation/Senior Updates
At the most recent School Committee meeting it was decided that Graduation would be postponed indefinitely. We will be monitoring events and hoping to plan a traditional ceremony sometime between June and the first week of August. Our Senior class officers are reaching out to their classmates to get feedback that will help us in making a decision. We will continue to prepare for both a traditional graduation and something other than that, should we need to maintain a certain degree of social distancing at our agreed upon date.
Prom: Regrettably, due to the extension of school closure we will be cancelling the prom which was recently rescheduled. I want to thank Ms. Mason and all of the staff that worked very hard to keep this hope alive over the past 6 weeks. I know this news will be met with much disappointment. I have received some inquiries on running the event for post graduated Seniors and I am not comfortable with that as an option. I have been in contact with Senior Class Officers and we are looking at options that may be in play for a self-directed class event when the restrictions allow.
We have extended the timeline for Seniors fourth quarter through the first week of June. Classes for Seniors will end in the last week of May and Seniors can use the extra time (if needed) to complete projects and finish up any lingering assignments. (see timeline below)
Once we have determined our plan for graduation we will set up a plan to distribute caps and gowns to the class of 2020. Our Class of 2020 leaders are currently collecting information to help us determine our timeline for graduation. We will also work with Ms. Cook and the yearbook staff to crate a plan for yearbook distribution.
With the assistance of Ms. Cain, Ms. Fisher, Ms. DeBay, Mr. Ricard, Mr. Wright and Mr. Arena we are exploring options for some virtual awards presentations to honor those students who have gone above and beyond academically, athletically, in the arts and in our community.
Senior Timeline
May 11-15: Senior teachers finalize all assignments for the Quarter
May 18-22: Last week of meeting synchronously as a class. After this week, teachers should continue to specify office hours for Seniors who may have questions or need assistance.
May 25 - June 3: All Seniors should complete given assignments in order to receive credit.
June 3: Grades Close; All equipment, books and fees handed in and paid.
June 5: Official End date. Teachers may accept work on any students in danger of not graduating up until this point
June 8: Grades due for Seniors.
*** We will have more information as it becomes available such as how and when students will receive cap & gowns and year books and how they will return items such as textbooks and laptops.
Mind Matters
Senior Building Access
From the Nurses's Office:
Please pick up any medications (this includes Epi-pens, Inhalers, Diabetes supplies) during your child's assigned date/time.
If you need to arrange another time during the scheduled building openings please email Cheryl Shea @ cshea@gdrsd.org to make arrangements.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hf5aGD9YfCWzq_xebBEQq-qXZrUKupPSCXGEji6xCkk/edit#gid=0
Building Access for all Students
Cafeteria Balances
If you would like to carry the balance over to next school year you do not need to do anything. This will happen automatically.
Library News
I wanted students and parents to know about the following resource that begins April 30th. Every week, SYNC offers 2 free YA audiobooks ( a non-fiction selection and one fiction). As long as you download the book to the Sora app, you can keep it forever and listen when you want. They're kicking their summer reading season with 2 excellent books: The 57 Bus and Monday's Not Coming.
For more information, go to: https://www.audiobooksync.com/
As always, if you have any questions, contact Ms. McMan
Testing Updates
June SATs have been cancelled. The next available testing dates are in August. Given the demand for these seats, the guidance department is looking into alternatives for the fall.
ACTs - April ACT is cancelled and students can now sign up for June or July ACT here is the link https://www.act.org/content/act/en/products-and-services/the-act/registration.html#dates
AP Exam schedule is here https://apcoronavirusupdates.collegeboard.org/educators/taking-the-exams/ap-exam-schedule
Updates for Seniors who plan on participating in athletics in college
COVID-19 Response FAQ These changes may not capture all unique scenarios; however, NCAA Customer Service is available to assist with questions Monday-Friday 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Eastern time at 877-622-2321 (Domestic students and Canadian students outside of Quebec) and for international students including Quebec at on.ncaa.com/IntlContact.
Click here to learn more about these important adjustments.
Class of 2020 Parents on Facebook
The GD Class of 2020 Parents have organized a group on Facebook! Parents are trying to find ways to celebrate our seniors and make some memories for them in this difficult time. If you would like to join, please reach out! If you are not on Facebook and want to hear any updates or share any ideas, please contact Carrie at jiser29@verizon.net
AP Exams
This is a copy of a letter I received from AP earlier this year which outlines the specifics of AP testing for this year.
Dear Massachusetts Principals and AP Coordinators:
First, I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy! I hope you know that my colleagues and I are here to serve as a resource for you when you need us.
As many of you have reached out to me with AP questions, I wanted to share ways in which the AP Program is supporting schools through free remote learning resources and the development of a new at-home testing option. For each AP subject, there will be 2 different testing dates.
The full exam schedule, specific free-response question types that will be on each AP Exam, and additional testing details will be available by April 3rd on AP Central.
About This Year’s AP Exams
- Traditional face-to-face exam administrations will not take place. Students will take a 45-minute online free-response exam at home.
- We’ll continue to support students with free resources through exam day.
- While we encourage students to wait until closer to the test date to decide, any student already registered for an exam can choose to cancel at no charge.
The AP Program will invest heavily over the next month in the following ways:
· For the 2019–20 exam administration only, students can take a 45-minute online exam at home. Educator-led development committees are currently selecting the exam questions that will be administered.
· AP curricula are locally developed and we defer to local decisions on how best to help students complete coursework. To be fair to all students, some of whom have lost more instructional time than others, the exam will only include topics and skills most AP teachers and students have already covered in class by early March.
· Colleges support this solution and are committed to ensuring that AP students receive the credit they have worked this year to earn. For decades, colleges have accepted a shortened AP Exam for college credit when groups of students have experienced emergencies.
· Students will be able to take these streamlined exams on any device they have access to—computer, tablet, or smartphone. Taking a photo of handwritten work will also be an option.
· We recognize that the digital divide could prevent some low-income and rural students from participating. Working with partners, we will invest so that these students have the tools and connectivity they need to review AP content online and take the exam. If your students need mobile tools or connectivity, you can reach out to us directly to let us know.
Test security is a concern.
· The exam questions are designed and administered in ways that prevent cheating; we use a range of digital security tools and techniques, including plagiarism detection software, to protect the integrity of the exams.
· Scoring at-home work for an AP Exam is not new to the AP Program. For years the AP Program has received and scored at-home student work as part of the exams for the AP Computer Science Principles and AP Capstone courses.
Instructional Support
Students and teachers can attend free, live AP review courses, delivered by AP teachers from across the country. These mobile-friendly classes are:
· Designed to be used alongside work that may be given by schools.
· Will be recorded and available on-demand so teachers and students can access them any time.
· Not dependent on current AP teachers continuing instruction. We know many AP teachers now face challenges that would make that impossible.
· Will focus on reviewing the skills and concepts from the first 75% of the course. There will also be some supplementary lessons covering the final 25% of the course.
Teachers who are providing remote instruction can continue to leverage AP Classroom, which we introduced at the start of the school year.
· Within AP Classroom, free-response questions that were only available for in-classroom use due to security concerns will now be unlocked.
· Teachers will be able to assign questions to students digitally.
Here is a one-page overview (.pdf/514KB) of how AP teachers can use the free, daily online practice in AP Classroom to help students prepare for exam day.
AP teachers can access these additional resources to help them get set up with AP Classroom:
· Foundations. Learn how AP Classroom complements the new AP course and exam descriptions and offers students opportunities for practice and feedback throughout the year.
· AP Classroom Demo. See a click-through demonstration of AP Classroom, which highlights how to assign, score, and interpret results from Topic Questions, Personal Progress Checks, and teacher-created assignments and quizzes from the AP Question Bank.
· AP Quick Start Videos. Watch short tutorials on the recent features added to AP Classroom.
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