MACS Family Resources

Week of April 13- April 17, 2020 - Volume 4

We Are Here to Support Your Family During Remote Learning

MACS Families, we want to support your child and family during this period of remote learning. We know that supporting your child's remote learning can be a struggle and some families may be frustrated. If this is happening for your family, begin with contacting your child's teacher. As a district, we are committed to providing you with up-to-date resources, ideas for at home learning and ways to keep your child engaged in the learning process.


This newsletter will be published weekly for all MACS Families. You can find this resource on our MACS website, Twitter (@MACSchools) and Facebook.


We have also developed a new Learning Support for Families Google doc, this will be published on our MACS website as well.

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UNC-TV At-Home Learning Resources

From UNC-TV-


"By executive order of the governor, public schools across North Carolina are closed due to COVID-19 through May 15. These closings have left thousands of students at home with reduced access to structured instruction.

To address this educational gap, UNC-TV and the NC Department of Public Instruction are partnering to support school-age children learning at home by providing free, curriculum-informed, over-the-air content that is widely accessible to students—especially those with limited or no internet access.

Each weekday, two blocks of programs on UNC-TV's North Carolina Channel will serve students: fourth through eighth grade, from 8 AM-1 PM, and ninth through twelfth grade, from 1-6 PM (actual times may vary, please check the weekly schedule online here).

These educational program blocks are available on the North Carolina Channel, available statewide for free over-the-air, through cable providers and streamed online here."


Click here to check out the great information and see this week's schedule linked below.

Social and Emotional Learning for Your Family During the COVID-19 Pandemic

ACT Prep Opportunities for High School Students

The following opportunities are being offered by ACT and all information below has been copied from their email publications.


Free ACT Prep Class for Students
Date: Saturday, April 18, 2020
Check out the first lesson of our Live Online ACT® test prep course for free. Meet an ACT expert who can help students own the ACT Reading test. The teaching team will show students how to tackle reading passages efficiently so they can get more questions correct.


ACT Bootcamp for Students
Date: Wednesday, April 29, 2020
Students can attend our free ACT Bootcamp session and join one of our expert instructors, learning how to tackle some of the most common question types on the ACT!

21st Century- Future Leaders Academy (FLA) Programming Continues Remotely

We are excited to announce that our Future Leaders Academy (FLA) teachers have been developing excellent resources for our students! The FLA program is funded through our 21st Century federal grant, which serves students in the after-school environment and summer programming. This grant is a huge opportunity for our students to be served outside of the regular school day.


Each week our FLA teachers will be sharing resources here to support our students during the COVID-19 school closure. Check out the first ones below and remember this is totally OPTIONAL for our students and families. The regular school day work should be the priority and these resources will serve as enrichment.


FLA Choice Menu #2-Week of April 3, 2020 designed for our Pre-Kindergarten -2nd grade Students


For any FLA student that works with Lexercise you will be served by 1 of your Lexercise teachers (Ms. Wertman or Mrs. Martin @Jones/ Mrs. Worrell @BHT).

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Full STEAM Ahead At Home!

Mount Airy City Schools believes in our Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Math (STEAM) Framework for learning. Below are many resources to help you continue moving forward with STEAM in your home during the remote learning period.


April is STEM Education Month, this is a proclamation by our North Carolina Governor, Roy Cooper in 2018.


We challenge our families to think about how STEM can come to life in your homes!

National Geographic Online Learning Events for Students and Families

Check out the link below to view the schedule of upcoming online events. National Geographic has also included a Family Guide for each topic to help plan for before, during and after the viewing.

Learning Happens in the Kitchen

Each week we will highlight opportunities for learning at home in the kitchen. Kids of all ages can participate in the process of food prep or cooking. See this week's healthy and kid-friendly recipes below.


Also, we would like to thank our partners at the Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest NC for the additional resources to help your family learn more about eating healthy. This week they provided the Cooking Matters at Home publications attached below.

Learning Happens With and Without Wifi Connections

The internet is a great resource for remote learning. We appreciate all of the great resources that we have access to for teaching and learning during this time. However, all learning does not require a WIFI connection.


Click here to check out the resources from North Carolina Public Schools- Department of Early Learning, which includes activities to support students in Pre-Kindergarten through 2nd grade. There are also lots of activities that do not require technology for your child's at-home learning.

MACS Parents Share Out

We know that our MACS families are #MACSawesome and totally rocking this remote learning time. Feel free to share out your best tips and practices for at-home learning with our team. You can share via Twitter by tagging @MACSchools and using #MACSawesome.


You may also submit your best practices to our Teaching and Learning team by emailing Penny Willard at pwillard@mtairy.k12.nc.us. Each week we will highlight families for the fabulous teaching and learning being done at home.

MACS Teaching and Learning

Dr. Phillip Brown, Chief of Academics and Human Resources

Penny Willard, Director of Innovative Programming

351 Riverside Drive, Mount Airy, NC, USA pwillard@mtairy.k12.nc.us 336-786-8355 mtairy.k12.nc.us/