Dear Pine Bush parents and staff,

 

As we rapidly approach the launch of full-blown virtual learning next Monday, our teachers have been busy organizing the instruction that they otherwise would have presented in person, to now deliver completely via Google Classroom. Teachers who have not been using this platform regularly are busy watching videos to become more familiar with it. Each school has been pairing teachers who might be less familiar with this medium with colleagues who are masters in their use of Google Classroom, so everyone who needs it, will have a buddy that they can turn to for help.

 

Generally speaking, secondary teachers have been using Google Classroom more than elementary teachers. But even teachers who use Google Classroom routinely have never had to use it for exclusive instruction, so I ask everyone to understand that we will all be learning as we go. Our staff will monitor the roll out so we can determine what’s working and what we might need to adjust. One of the reasons we have created Flexible Fridays is to have a dedicated time when teachers who need any additional training or time for logistical planning can do just that.

 

Besides this extensive teacher preparation, we’ve also activated a Pine Bush email account for every elementary student, something our secondary students have had for a while.  Our elementary students will already know their email address because it is what they have been using to log into their Chromebooks at school.  The formula is: pb.firstname.lastname@pinebushschools.org 

Their login for their email is the same as their login to their Chromebooks.

Starting Monday, our elementary students will need to log in to the Google Classroom for their teacher, instead of the one for their grade level.

 

There are a couple of steps that parents can take right now to help make sure that their children are ready for new instruction on Monday.  First – have your children show you that they have their device connected to your home Wi-Fi, Then have them show you they are logged in to Google Classroom. By the end of the day tomorrow, we will have loaned out over 1,100 Chromebooks. So all of our students should be able to show you how they do that.  If students wait to figure that all out until Monday, they will already be behind. 

 

This brave new world of virtual learning will work the best if we have all taken time to prepare for it. I want to thank both our staff and our parents for helping us with those preparations.

 

Tim O. Mains, Pine Bush Superintendent