Coronavirus Update
Florence 1 Schools: Tuesday, March 17, 2020
Florence 1's Facebook COVID-19 Program Receives Over 28,000 Views
In case you missed it, view it here: https://www.facebook.com/Flo1Schools/videos/247541709602256/
High School Student Sends a Message to COVID-19
Instructions from the Teacher: Reflect on the response to the spread of the Coronavirus and yesterday’s reading assignment. Write a letter to COVID-19
Dear COVID-19,
You may think you have bested us. You may think that you have crippled our nation forever. However, what you don’t realize is that we have crippled ourselves, in order to defeat you. We will isolate ourselves, crash our stock market, even stop families from seeing loved ones to prevent your victory. You will not succeed.
Victory for you is not what you expect either. You think victory is touching every single person in the world and slowly suffocating them with your warm embrace. You plan to overwhelm our front lines with pure carnage filling every bed as you have done in Italy. But you will not succeed.
Even here, in Florence, South Carolina, a town you have not yet touched, we have taken extreme measures. We have closed our schools, distanced ourselves from our friends, and cancelled events just to stop you. We have even implemented online schooling, a measure that seems outlandish, to not only home school Florence, but a whole nation! How can you possibly succeed?
Most seniors have accepted the inevitable. We have accepted we may not graduate with all our loved ones near, go on our senior trips, or dress up for our senior prom. It hurts, but not as much as you will. We are simply a cog in a greater wheel. Who are we to complain about buying a prom dress for a date that will never happen while doctors in Italy have to decide which patient lives and dies?
But I digress. COVID-19, you will not overwhelm our brave hospitals with your reeking infection. You will not kill millions upon millions of our people. You will not hurt our children’s education. You will not ruin our senior year. You cannot win this war you have raged, no matter how hard you try.
Letter by Megan Reeves, West Florence High School Senior; Nichole Scipio, Instructor
All You Ever Wanted to Know About the Meal Site Schedule
HOW TO KEEP OURSELVES HEALTHY
- Wash your own hands frequently with soap and water and make sure your children wash hands whenever they come in from outside the home (see the link above for proper handwashing technique).
- Help your children practice not touching their faces (people touch their faces approximately 23 times an hour; keeping our hands away from our faces is crucial for staying healthy).
- Teach your children to cough and sneeze into the crooks of their elbows.
- Parents: avoid eating from from your children's plates and avoid sharing water bottles.
- Avoid being near sick people.
- Disinfect surfaces and devices in your home; dispose of all tissues.
Educational Apps For Children at Home
Sometimes screen time is a necessity if we have children at home and work we need to do. Here are three apps that make screen time a learning time:
CodeMonkey: a game-based education program that teaches children to code. It comes with a membership fee, but there's a free 14-day trial that doesn't require a credit card.BrainPop: Online learning across subject areas for children in kindergarten through middle school and ELL learning for all age groups. Free.
Khan Academy: Online learning in math, science, and literacy for all age groups. Standards-aligned. Free.
Postponements & Cancellations
Regarding middle and high school athletics, the South Carolina High School League is suspending all Spring sport activities from March 16, 2020 through April 5, 2020. This suspension includes all contests, practices, workouts (conditioning and strength training), and/or open season skill development.
Effective Tuesday, March 17, all branches of the Florence County Library System will be closed to the public in order to mitigate and prevent the spread of coronavirus COVID-19.
The Florence 1 Schools Junior All-City Choral Concert (March 31) has been postponed until a later date.