I am sure everyone is aware by now that we will be staring the 20-21 school year virtually. While this is all still throwing us for a loop, I want you to know we are planning on a phenomenal school year however we get to be with our students. In the upcoming weeks I will be sending communication to keep you up to speed. Sometimes there will be a lot of information to share, other times not so much, but I want to stay in touch and for you to stay in touch with me as questions, concerns and ideas come up. I do not have all the answers, but together we do have the answers and we will make this a great school year for all of our children. This newsletter is more a check in, sharing updates with more to follow. I appreciate your patience and allowing us the time to plan to do our very best for our students.

This is a question that we are still grappling with. How do we bring what we do at Lovett into a virtual world? So far, we are planning on the following:

· Instructional Day: The instructional Day will be 7:30-3:00, however it does not mean that students will be online during this entire time.

· Daily live morning meetings: this is a morning check in and setting the stage for the day. This is also an opportunity for team building and addressing student social needs, and morning announcements.

· Daily live instruction-we absolutely will have daily live instruction where the teacher will deliver a live mini-lesson teaching skills and concepts. Students would then have a practice activity to apply what they have learned. The daily schedule will be consistent for each grade level.

· Weekly small group instruction-Every week students would have an opportunity to meet in small group with their teacher for live small group instruction. This could be digging deeper into a concept, correcting misunderstandings, or extending the concept. This gives teachers an opportunity to teach to a student's needs. This is a part of our norm weekly structure at Lovett and how we are able to identify specific student needs

· Weekly live time to check in with the teacher during office hours-beyond the weekly lessons and small group, students would have an open time where they can access their teacher live online. This is a time for questions, clarifying misunderstanding and checking in with the teacher as needed.

· Weekly schedule for Fine Arts-Our goal is for our virtual schedule to follow our weekly ancillary schedule: 2 day so music, 2 days of PE and 1 day of art. These would also be live lessons in whole and small group

· We will coordinate a supply pick up day before the start of school.

During the 20-21 school year and beyond, HISD has elected to move all k-12 to a 6 week grading period. This is important as the time is shortened from the 9 weeks grading cycle that we have been used to at the elementary level. It will be important that your students stay on top of submitting assignments on time.