Weekly News
April 14, 2020
I hope this newsletter finds everyone well. I am sure many of us have become tired of our new normal. Hang in there.
― Winston S. Churchill
Calendar of Events
May 15, 2020: Junior Senior Prom (This event will be rescheduled, date TBA)
May 29, 2020: Graduation (change TBA)
June 15, 2020: Scheduled last day of school (even with the shutdown)
Update: Week 4
I hope week one of the new remote learning plan was successful for everyone. No doubt, something like this is going to meet with some obstacles but we will work them out, hopefully just in time to come back to school for real.
Congratulations to Ms. Kostich and her husband who welcomed a beautiful and healthy baby boy over the last week. We wish Ms. Kostich and her new family all the best!
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.
What about Senior Events and Activities?
We are actively looking at options to salvage some of our Senior's year. With the unlikelihood that we will be able to hold prom on the originally scheduled date, we are actively looking for another date at the same venue and exploring other possibilities should that not be possible.
It is also likely that our originally scheduled graduation date will be moved back. Although we do not have specific data on this yet, I wanted to give families ample time in case they had planned to have visitors in from out of town or were planning festivities around the original date.
Sincerely,
GDRHS Admin Team
Testing Updates
SATs. Collegeboard has cancelled their May SAT test but June is still available for signups. I would suggest to Juniors that they should sign up now for June or August before locations are full. Here is the link if you want to include it https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/sat/register/dates-deadlines
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
Library News
We're looking for more people to join our first digital high school book club for the month of April. Email: Ms. McManus
This month we’re reading The Sleeper and the Spindle, a fairytale mash-up between Snow White and Sleeping Beauty by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by Chris Riddell.
The ebook is available on Hoopla (no wait list) with your Boston Public Library e-card or Groton Public Library card. It may also be available on Sora, but only to one person at a time.
Don't have a BPL e-card? Here's a 90 second tutorial on applying for a BPL e-card. (Students, use a personal email when filling out the application)
Want to know about other digital resources available? Check out the evolving list of remote learning resources at the library's website: bit.ly/gdlibrary
READ and WIN MONEY for your class!
The Groton Public Library is offering a Quaran-teen reading challenge that will run as long as school is closed for students in 6-12 grade. Cash prizes for the winning grade.
Scholarships for Seniors
Please mail all scholarships to the address indicated on the application. If it is to be turned into the Guidance Department you can save it as a PDF and email to Ms. Cain, mcain@gdrsd.org
Local scholarships are now available in Naviance Student and by clicking here.
If you need a copy of your transcript for a scholarship it is now available in your SchoolBrains Portal under reports.
Click here to see other scholarships that are sent to guidance and available to our students.
You can fill out the forms by hand and scan them or you can take pictures of the form and attach them to the email.
Worried about College Applications next year?
FREE Live-Online Info Session:
COVID's Impact on the ACT, SAT, and College Admissions
Date: Monday, April 20, 7 pm - 7:30 pm Eastern.
The COVID-19 pandemic has upended virtually all aspects of our lives, including the college admissions process for high school students. The SAT and ACT have been rescheduled and cancelled. Some college admissions offices have announced plans to go "test-optional." Others are considering waiving certain GPA requirements. Many questions remain unanswered amid an already confusing process.
Join The Playbook's Founder and Lead Instructor, Jared Friedland, for a free special webinar addressing the COVID pandemic's impact on testing and admissions for the classes of '21 and '22. Selected topics include:
- When will the SAT and ACT be offered again? Are the exams moving online?
- Which colleges and universities are now test-optional and what does that really mean?
- How are college admissions officers altering their evaluation standards?
This webinar is intended for students and parents and will be held live, so participants will have a chance to ask questions.
To register, visit www.LearnThePlaybook.com and click Upcoming Courses and Events on the menu bar.
Class of 2020 Parents on Facebook
he 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 week 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.
Free AP Resources
This information was sent from the provider directly. It is not an endorsement by the Ditrict. We are simply passing it along for anyone interested in looking into this.
Livius has decided to expand our free prep offerings for all. The latest communication from the College Board is that the AP Exams will be happening and that students will most likely be able to take these at home. The content will be about 75% of what students would have covered in AP classes this school year.
As such, we have created a 100% free AP Exam prep program that runs 4 weeks during the month of April. Our 6 classes will do a review of curriculum covered but will also focus on prep strategies for excelling on the exam. There is a difference between reviewing the curriculum & being strategically prepped for the exam. Our class will cover both.
Again, 100% free, no strings attached. Please see the schedule below and landing page to enroll.
This is the link to the free AP Classes:
https://livius.me/free-online-ap-class/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=SM
This is the link to the FREE SAT/ACT classes:
https://livius.me/free-prep-class/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=SM
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