THE FAIRVIEW CONNECTION
August 21, 2020
Message from Principal Ophus
Dear Fairview Families,
Our first official day of the school year is just a couple of days away! The Fairview staff cannot wait to welcome our students virtually for our first day of remote learning on Monday, August 24th. It was so wonderful to see our students yesterday and this morning for supply pick up. In talking to the staff, being able to see their students face-to-face was such an encouragement before starting up on Monday, and I hope you and your children felt the same way! Prior to our first day of school, all parents will receive an email from their child’s homeroom teacher to welcome them and provide the Zoom link needed to log in by 8:50 a.m. on Monday for the start of the school day. This Zoom link will be the same link everyday in an effort to simplify our procedures for students and parents. We have also included an instructions sheet in each student’s supply bag that was picked up yesterday or today to help teach how to sign into the Chromebook, access Google Classroom and the Zoom link for the day. If you have any trouble on Monday morning, please contact the office and someone will assist you. Don’t forget to charge your child’s Chromebook and use the directions provided in the supply bag to connect to your home WiFi. For a full overview of what our remote learning plan and a typical school day will look like for students, please watch this video recording from our parent meeting last Thursday.
Next week, parents are invited to attend our “virtual” Back-to-School Night on Tuesday, August 25th. Please see this schedule for information about the event as well as the Zoom links you will use to join the teacher presentations and visit with our support staff. These presentations will serve as a helpful way to get to know your child’s classroom teacher a little better, inform you of the teachers’ plans for teaching and learning this year, provide more details about the school day, and show how our staff is dedicated to helping your children have success this school year. I hope you are able to attend!
While our primary goal is for parents to take a step back from having to provide too much support for their children at home, we realize that your students may ask you some technology related questions as they are learning remotely. Our wonderful technology integration coach, Ashley Patla, has created this Parent Academy website to support you as you support your child. I encourage you to use this tool when something comes up related to technology to help your child. Ms. Patla also created a Student Academy website for students to use when they have a technology related question. In addition, with regards to technology, please take a moment to read through the email from Dr. Gorr that was sent earlier today. In it, you will read through some troubleshooting tips should your child experience any technical difficulties during remote learning, instructions on how to contact our tech team if needed, as well as some expectations related to the use of technology. Please note, if a technology issue arises, use this remote learning tech support form for assistance. While you can notify the teacher so they are aware of the issue, the tech support staff will be the people who can best help you solve the problem.
As mentioned during the parent meeting presentation, teachers typically start up the school year by teaching expectations, procedures, and building classroom community during a typical school year. This will be the case once again during remote learning; however, teachers will also need to teach students the technology skills they will need to know to access their learning while learning remotely. Once students are ready, teachers will begin with instruction of new content like a typical school year. Due to the fact that students will be on the computer for a longer period of time than they are used to, which can be tiring, we are significantly decreasing the amount of homework time for our students beyond the school hours. While there may be some times when a small amount of homework is given, it should not be taking a long time to complete. If your child is being burdened by homework during remote learning, please reach out to the classroom teacher as this is not our desire for our students.
During a typical school day, there are times when teachers are called into meetings for a variety of reasons including data reviews, problem solving meetings on behalf of students, and IEP meetings for students with special education needs. These meetings typically are an hour to 90 minutes in length. When this happens during remote learning, teachers will notify their students ahead of time and share with them what they should be working on independently while the teacher is at the meeting. It might be that an activity is given and students are allowed to take a break when they finish, or students may be given a couple of options to choose from until the meeting ends. In these cases, the teacher will let the students know when he or she will return and when the students will resume with live instruction. This will not happen often, but a couple of meetings are already scheduled for Thursday, so I wanted parents to be aware of this procedure. Let me know if you have any follow up questions about this. We will still utilize substitute teachers on school days when a teacher is absent.
Included below are three attachments with important information for you as parents. One of the attachments is from the business office and explains our procedure for picking up free lunches for those families that qualify for this service. Because we have families with children at multiple buildings who all qualify for free lunch, the pick up is going to happen at a centralized location, Lincoln Middle School, two times per week. The next attachment is from our Fairview Physical Education staff regarding their goal for PE this year and how you can help by making sure students have a ball nearby that can be used for certain activities. Finally, we’ve attached the suggested art supply list from Mrs. Piscitello that was shared once before in the newsletter on August 6th. Thank you for reading these attachments for more details.
As we close out this week of planning and training, I want to thank the Fairview staff for their hard work and dedication to our students. The staff has been hard at work preparing for remote learning, partaking in important professional development to help them with this new way of teaching, and thinking creatively about how to meet the needs of their students, and I am proud of them for all of their efforts. I am also so thankful for you as parents and guardians. I recognize that this pandemic has caused you to also think creatively about how to manage your careers, home life and child’s education in a new and challenging way. Thank you for your efforts in preparing your child to start school on Monday. I truly believe that we are a team as a community, and our collective efforts between the staff and parents will go a long way in supporting our students as we open the year remotely. If you ever have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me, your child’s teacher or another trusted staff member for help. We look forward to partnering together to solve any problems that will come up, and appreciate the partnership we have with all of you to help our students learn and grow academically, socially and in character.
Have a wonderful weekend, and we will see you virtually on Monday!
Sincerely,
Dan Ophus
Fairview Principal
MRS. PISCITELLO'S ART CLASS
For our first art class you will need:
Small white drawing paper (size 9x12 or something close to that size)
Pencil and eraser
Crayons or colored pencils
Sharpie
Scrap paper/ messy mat to go under your work
*If you are missing some of these supplies, it’s okay! Use what you do have right now.
FAIRVIEW PTO ROCKS
2020-2021 DISTRICT CALENDAR
The District calendar has been revised to reflect August 24 as the first day of student attendance. Please CLICK HERE to view the calendar.
Contact Us
Una Durkan, Assistant Principal
Office: 847-394-7320 / Fax: 847-394-7328
Website: d57.org/fairviewelementaryschool_home
Location: 300 N. Fairview Avenue, Mount Prospect, IL 60056
Twitter: @fairview_d57