Tuesday, June 9, 2020
March 30th Update
March 30, 2020
Dear Great Falls Families,
It may feel as though quite some time has passed since we last gathered, but I do sincerely hope you enjoyed your parent/student/teacher conference earlier in the month. Spring conferences are always a wonderful time to celebrate progress and for parents & guardians to gain insight into what your child is learning, how they are demonstrating skills & concepts acquired, and to establish new goals for learning soon to come. Thank you for participating in this process with us!
Gorham teachers have been working hard to identify clear learning targets at each grade level in every content area. These learning targets are aligned to a set of K-12 Graduation Standards, which are based on the Maine Learning Results, including the Common Core State Standards for ELA and Mathematics, and the Next Generation Science Standards. They are called performance indicators because they “indicate” through a student’s “performance” if the student is on track to achieve the K-12 Graduation Standards.
At the K-5 level, teachers have already identified the performance indicators in all content areas and are now using assessments aligned to these indicators. Teachers are using Jump Rope, an online standards-based gradebook, to track student progress to the performance indicators. To learn more about Jump Rope, check out the online resource found at How to Interpret Your Child's K-5 Report Card. The 2nd-trimester report cards are scheduled to be emailed to parents on Friday, April 3rd. The following chart may help to describe the scores that you will see on your child’s report card.
As always, please feel free to reach out to me at any time with questions and feedback. I am available through email at becky.fortier@gorhamschools.org and by phone at 222-1050. Take care and be well!
Sincerely,
Becky Fortier, Great Falls Principal
March 25th Update
March 25, 2020
Dear Great Falls Families,
We hope this letter finds you healthy and well. Thank you for being patient, open-minded and flexible as our staff have worked diligently to communicate and provide instructional opportunities for our students during this unprecedented challenge. Similar to educators, we imagine that you are experiencing good days and days of feeling absolutely overwhelmed. We want you to know that you are doing wonderfully!
This morning we met with the Great Falls staff through one of our many Zoom meetings, and teachers are grateful for your support and dedication to making “remote learning” work for your children. As our Commissioner of Education Pender Makin shared, “Do the best you can with what you have for as many as you can.” We have no doubt that this is happening at home.
For the first two weeks of “remote learning,” our goal was to establish effective communication between our families and students. Your efforts to learn new communication platforms, attend Zoom meetings, and extend the learning to your children have not gone unnoticed. We have witnessed families demonstrate kindness, growth mindsets, risk-taking, and the ability to be flexible and creative thinkers, all skills we work so hard to teach our students. Thank you for modeling such within your households!
We originally thought that we would be able to offer another mass material pick-up by parents that would occur on the campus of Great Falls. Unfortunately, given guidelines and current information provided by medical professionals, this is no longer in the best interest of the Great Falls community. Printed materials will be provided only as needed for equitable access on a case by case basis. Our staff are ready to provide opportunities for our students to maintain skills and be exposed to their grade-level performance indicators without providing physical printed materials.
To help ease the burden at home, we have made some educational decisions for how much time our students should be engaged in daily academic and creative arts activities. Special Education and Response to Intervention supports will begin during the week of March 30th and may happen through the use of Zoom.
Kindergarten
Reading: 15 minutes
Writing: 15 minutes
Math: 15 minutes
Science and Social Studies: optional
Creative Arts: 15-20 minutes
Grade 1
Grade 2
Reading: 20 minutes
Writing: 20 minutes
Math: 20 minutes
Science and Social Studies: optional
Creative Arts: 15-20 minutes
Grade 3
Reading: 30 minutes
Writing: 30 minutes
Math: 30 minutes
Science and Social Studies: optional
Creative Arts: 15-20 minutes
Grade 4
Grade 5
2 Hours (Reading, Writing, Math)
Science and Social Studies: optional
Creative Arts: 15-20 minutes
Teachers will continue to communicate daily expectations while providing learning opportunities for your child through flexible methods that may include email, SeeSaw, or Google Classroom. They are creating experiences that are tied to grade-level performance indicators and may not require the use of printed materials. Please reach out to your child’s teacher if you do not have supplies such as pencils, paper, books, and more. We will figure out on a case by case basis how to distribute the materials that your child may need. It is very important to us that all of our students have the tools they need to participate in learning opportunities at home.
Parents and guardians, we’d like to quote Commissioner Pender Makin once more, “Put on your own oxygen mask. Breathe and be gentle with yourselves and everyone else.” We are in this together. We will catch all of the students where they are academically when they return to us. Thank you for being such wonderful partners in education. Please continue to reach out with any questions, concerns, or needs.
Kindly,
Becky Fortier and Stacey Sawyer
Great Falls Administrators
March 16th Update
March 16, 2020
Great Falls Families,
The Great Falls staff came together today to develop “remote learning” opportunities for all students for the duration of our school closure, with the goal of maintaining essential skills and learning. You can expect to hear more specific details about this plan directly from your child’s teacher. Teachers will communicate primarily through email, so please ensure your child’s teacher has your most recent contact information.
In order to get students started on this journey of remote learning, they will need some materials from the classroom/school. These materials will be distributed in a staggered manner to prevent large groups of people coming to the school at the same time.
On Tuesday, March 17th, parents of 4th grade students may come to school to pick up their child’s remote learning packet (between the hours of 8am - 5 pm). This packet will include a chromebook and charger.
On Wednesday, March 18th, parents of 5th grade students may come to school to pick up their child’s remote learning packet (between the hours of 8am - 5 pm). This packet will also contain a chromebook and charger as well as other learning materials.
On Thursday, March 19th, parents of 2nd and 3rd grade students may come to school to pick up their child’s remote learning packet (between the hours of 8am - 5 pm).
On Friday, March 20th, parents of Kindergarten and 1st grade students may come to school to pick up their child’s remote learning packet (between the hours of 8am - 5 pm).
Due to the continued need for social distancing and the fact that our schools are temporarily not open to the public, the remote learning bags will be distributed with the following protocol. Please drive into the bus loop at the front of the school and park your car at the orange cone. Then, please call the main office (222-1050) to announce your arrival and name your student. Staff will be on-hand to place the learning items just outside the front door on a table. Once this occurs, please exit your vehicle and retrieve the items. We ask that only one person approach the door at a time. We apologize for the formality of our process, but these are important measures that we must enforce to keep everyone safe.
Your children are of the utmost importance to each of us here at Great Falls. Thank you for being our partners in education as we maneuver this challenge together. Please reach out with any questions you may have.
Kindly,
Becky Fortier and Stacey Sawyer
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