The Patriot Premier
The Weekly Update for NPHS families, Mar 30 - Apr 3, 2020
Remote Instruction Mode !
Hello Patriots,
Wow...where to begin...
First, I hope you're safe and healthy!
I would never have predicted this school year turning out like this. No doubt, the COVID-19 worldwide pandemic will make the year 2020, a year that will go down in infamy. In the meantime, everyone must improvise, adapt, and overcome. This means changing our social behavior with others, mindfully and regularly practicing cleanliness, and donning PPE (personal protective equipment) in certain cases. Mandates from our governor's office have recently included charges, fines and jail time for failure to comply with some of these practices (click here for more information).
So how do we "do school" now? The short answer is "very differently." As you probably know, all spring school sports and activities have been canceled, and– for now– school buildings are closed to students and the public until May 1, 2020. The longer answer to this question is "remote instruction."
The rest of this newsletter will be dedicated to giving students and parents information on how to do school by remote instruction. As you learn this new way of doing school in this historical time, please realize that this is new for everyone, and students, parents, and educators all over the State and country are working to figure it out. Over the past few weeks, the North Pole High School staff have been working extremely hard to "retool" to provide our students with a meaningful educational experience for the remainder of this school year.
Finally, social distancing, self-quarantine, and remote instruction make maintaining a balanced lifestyle challenging. Remember to get your sleep, eat right, exercise, and limit your daily screen time on devices (think no more than 4 hours...your eyes and brain will thank you).
So read on, check out the links, and hang in there. We'll get through this challenging time because we're Patriots!
John Fink
Interim Principal
This Week: March 30th - April 3rd
Remote Instruction: How It Works
Take a look at the "NPHS Remote Instruction Week Schedule" above. You can see the days of the week (Monday - Friday) at the top, and times listed at the left.
Two new phrases you need to learn are "synchronous instruction," and "nonsynchronous learning." Synchronous instruction means a dedicated time where teachers "meet" with their students online. Look at the blue boxes: You can see that on Tuesdays, teachers will meet online with their period 1 students from 10:30 am - 11:30 am, and they will meet online with their period 2 students from 11:45 am - 12:45 pm. Wednesdays and Thursdays will work the same way for periods 3 & 4 and 5 & 6.
All last week, teachers were making phone calls, trying to let students know how to connect with them during these synchronous instruction periods. You can click here to get an idea of what each teacher is doing during these times.
When students are not meeting online with their teachers for synchronous instruction, they will be involved in nonsynchronous learning. Individual teachers will explain what this means for each of their classes. Basically, expect to be working on assignments at home for nonsynchronous learning, but keep an open mind as to what this will actually look like: nonsynchronous learning could involve "telecommuting" with teachers or other students, depending on the class.
So what if connecting online is a problem for your family?
Here are some ways to overcome that problem:
(1) The borough has set up free wifi "hot spots" for families during this time. This means that if you can get to one of these areas (by driving, for example), then you can access the internet. Click here for information on where to go to get on the internet for free.
(2) Students, if you need to borrow a Chromebook computer during this time to get on the internet, NPHS will check one out to you. Click here to download the Chromebook checkout form (and if you do decide to check out a Chromebook, here are some resources to get everything working right).
(3) If you need to pick up anything at the school this week (stuff out of your locker, textbooks, check out a Chromebook, etc.) click here to sign-up to do that. You may only come to the school this week by signing up, and if you do come, you are to practice social distancing at all times (you will not be allowed in the main part of the school building: we will bring requested items to the front doors when you arrive).
(4) If you still can't get online, we have dedicated every Friday from 7:30 am - 2:30 pm for students and parents to drop off any paper assignments at the school for their teachers, and to pick up any paper assignments from teachers (see pink columns in the chart above). Our staff will then safely convert these paper assignments into an electronic format to submit to the teacher. For safety sake, please "plastic-bag" any paper assignments to be turned in on Fridays and maintain social distancing during this transfer. We will then not touch the paper assignment until Monday to allow any bad bugs on surfaces to die out over the weekend.
You Can Still Buy a 2019-2020 Historical NPHS Yearbook!
NPHS YEARBOOKS: Not the entire year was taken from us! Quarters 1-3 are captured in the 2020 yearbooks, which are still being printed and shipped. As of March 20, they are still expected to arrive in North Pole the first week of May. About 90 remain for sale at yearbookforever.com Click this link to get yours!
Email: john.fink@k12northstar.org
Website: https://www.k12northstar.org/northpoleH
Location: 601 NPHS Boulevard, North Pole, AK 99705, USA
Phone: (907) 488-3761
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NorthPoleHS/