Distance Learning at GFA

Yes, this will be a challenging time, but we are here to help make sure you and your family have the resources and support your child needs to be successful. Also please remember that just as your child(ren)’s teachers are responsible for their advancement through a prescribed curriculum in the classroom, the onus to teach your kids during distance learning still lies with our GFA faculty. While there might be opportunities for parent-led enrichment in this new societal norm, GFA is not expecting parents to become classroom teachers or even sit with their children for long periods of time during instruction or independent work periods. Lower School Parents: During the first two weeks, children may need more parental support and attention to complete assigned work. Parents of PreK may need to sit with children to complete work.

This is new for all of us and, together, we will take it step-by-step. Our faculty will treat the first few weeks of distance learning just as they would the first few weeks of school where both teachers and students have an opportunity to adapt to new norms and work out a rhythm. As we get into a groove — students, teachers, and parents — we will all adjust accordingly, so you should be prepared for modifications and adjustments.

Lower School

Students will not follow the traditional school schedule. Every child learns best at a different time of day and at their own pace, so our plan was devised with an eye to this knowledge. We will not use the daily class schedule as a template for the day because that would require our students to sit with an iPad for up to 6 hours to complete daily work. Lower School students will have about 2 to 3 hours of schoolwork a day. Teachers will post a daily video and assignment, followed by independent work.  

Upper and Middle School

Students will follow a modified school schedule that roughly mirrors a typical day. What we have learned from other schools already deep into this process is that synchronous (i.e. live-streamed courses) work is important, but best experienced in small doses, and that flexibility is key for students and teachers. Classes will be shorter: your child will have approximately 30 minutes of synchronous teaching work and 3–4 hours of asynchronous, or independent work per week. 

• Notes on Middle School Schedule 

  • Homeroom or announcements will occur daily at 8:30 a.m. We’ll also take daily attendance during this time.

  • Classes will meet between 9 a.m. and 12:30 p.m.

  • From 12:30–3 p.m. Middle School faculty will be available for “office hours” and students will engage in independent assignments. 

  • Faculty will be available to work with students during their regularly scheduled class time, during office hours they set, and at other times on an as-needed basis. Parents can contact any faculty member directly to set up a time to discuss progress and/or concerns.
     

• Notes on Upper School Schedule

  • Advisory will meet daily at 8:30 a.m, at the start of school: this is how we will keep tabs on our students’ progress, spirits, and needs.  We’ll also take daily attendance during this time instead of during each class to save time.

  • Lunchtime will be at 12:00 noon. 

  • Immediately following lunch will be time for Clubs/Activities. It is our hope that most of these groups will continue to meet and we will help student leaders connect with their groups and arrange meeting times and virtual spaces. 

  • Each teacher will post two hours on Powerschool that will be scheduled “office hours” where students will be able to “meet” with teachers individually or in small groups. Teachers will do what they can to meet with students outside these times when there is a scheduling conflict.

• During this unprecedented period, the best advice for promoting mental health, immunity, and clarity is to get ample rest, proper nutrition, daily exercise, and ideally some time outside. 

• Maintaining a routine helps students focus, and they are less likely to fall behind with assignments. Involving your child(ren) in creating the schedule is a great way to develop voice and choice in how their day will be structured. 

• For Lower School parents: To prepare for the most effective learning, parents should establish a daily routine and schedule. Your schedule should include daily predetermined activities like breakfast, 2 blocks of academic time, physical activity, lunch, chores, snack, dinner, bathe, and bedtime. Your child’s schedule should also include daily choice activities like creative time, iPad screen time, game time, TV/movie, etc. See how one of our faculty created a schedule for home. 

• For parents of Middle and Upper School students: Dr. Lisa Damour had some sage advice for parents of “quaranteenagers” in the New York Times. To distill, it will help keep the peace at home when parents meet teenagers where they are and have empathy for the myriad of rites of passage and daily interactions that they are missing due to social distancing. 

Establishing a quiet workspace with limited distractions is a great way to set up your child, at any age, for success. Make sure your child’s school materials are all available within that space and that there is ample internet bandwidth. 

At many grade levels, students will be interacting with teachers and peers via videostream. We recommend a relatively simple, not distracting background.

Please note: When students use their device's camera to join a class or communicate virtually, they should be in school-appropriate clothing whenever they are on video.

You are not expected to teach the GFA curriculum! Our faculty have devised lessons that students should be able to complete independently. If your child has a lot of difficulties with lessons, please be in touch with the homeroom teacher or advisor.

• In the Lower School, parents should be prepared to get students into a position to navigate the iPad, watch the video message and assignment portion of class and monitor that independent work is being accomplished and handed in within the appropriate windows. For grades K–4, this does not mean that an adult needs to be sitting with students during instructional or work times. 

• A GFA student already has a reserve of academic motivation and self-discipline to draw on in this period. Middle and Upper School parents should be prepared to check in periodically and at the end of each day to make sure students are clear on coursework, expectations, and technology but no adult supervision is required for students to effectively move through the curriculum.

Lower School

Students will have about 2 to 3 hours of schoolwork a day. This includes specialist assignments.


Middle School

Classes will run between 8:30 a.m. and 12:20 p.m. Monday through Friday with up to 2 hours of homework a night.


Upper School

Half-hour classes will run between 8:30 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, with 3-4 hours of additional work each day.

Lower School

Teachers will post a daily morning message for students onto SeeSaw by 7:45 a.m. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday and by 8:55 a.m. on Thursday mornings. You may begin distance learning at whatever time you and your child decide is best, but be sure to start with the morning message. iPads will only be operational for student use between the hours of 7:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m. each day.


Middle School

Homeroom or announcements will begin at 8:30 a.m. Attendance will be taken. See the previous question for more detail on schedule.  


Upper School

Advisory will begin at 8:30 a.m. Attendance will be taken. See the previous question for more detail on schedule.  


Lower School

No lesson should bring about frustration or tears, for your child or for you! Encourage your child to give it their best effort, offer your best support, and then reach out to the teacher via the email listed in the directory to let them know your child needs additional support or guidance. 


Middle School

Faculty will be available to work with students during their regularly scheduled class time, during office hours they set, and at other times on an at needed basis. Parents can contact any faculty member directly to set up a time to discuss progress and/or concerns. 


Upper School

All teachers will have two hours of “office hours” posted daily on Powerschool, and students should plan to connect with them outside of class as needed.  If your child is having a hard time connecting with a teacher or managing in general, please reach out to his/her advisor.

Yes! Specialists created lessons and projects for students to do as well. Specialists will post assignments at the start of the week and students can decide when to complete them during the week.

Clubs and student organizations will be working with their faculty advisors. We will aim to continue programming that can be done remotely. We will work with peer schools to adjust competition schedules as needed in athletics, and coaches, ensemble directors, and other faculty members will communicate more with affected students when we have specific information to share.

While all team practices and inter-school competition has been canceled for the month of April, the athletic conferences in which GFA participates remain hopeful that some games will be possible at the end of the season. Athletic Directors are working collaboratively to ensure they do what is in the best interest of the athletes and their families and will keep those participating updated. All varsity athletes will receive workouts from and have regular communication with their coaches.

Students and teachers will maintain an interactive partnership using the platform Seesaw. Many of you are familiar with Seesaw from Spanish class. Students in grades 1–4 should be able to navigate Seesaw on their own, though this will be different because there are now more courses. PreK and some kindergarteners may need more parent support than other grades when navigating Seesaw.

Lower School

Lower School students will continue to use a variety of tools to help the teachers assess student learning. Children will be asked to record themselves reading, complete work on apps that will provide data to the teachers and complete work on pencil and paper. Work completed on pencil and paper will be submitted electronically to the teacher to assess. 

Middle and Upper Schools

Assessments will be handled differently in each discipline, but in all cases, they will look different from the usual formats. Undoubtedly traditional timed tests and quizzes will not work as well, so we will be using more projects and presentations, adapting and creating modules that emphasize student engagement and build important skills. In all cases, teachers will work closely with students to ensure that expectations and criteria are clear, and when a student needs clarification— which they will, given the nature of the situation! — they will have ample access to their teachers for help.

In a word, yes. 

Lower School

Each morning by 7:45 a.m., the teachers on each grade level will post videos and assignments for children to complete either on the iPad or on paper. Students will be instructed on whether or not they are required to post a video or a picture back to share their work with the teachers.

Middle School

Students will start their day three days a week in a meeting with their advisory. They will also connect with each teacher as a whole class at least once a week. Faculty will connect with their students in their classes in a variety of ways during the other periods. In addition, faculty will be available to work with students outside of the scheduled class time.

Upper School

Classes will meet virtually three times a week, as usual, and teachers will have office hours outside of class so students can discuss their work or get additional help.

At this point, teachers plan to continue assigning and assessing work using letter grades for the remainder of the year. 

Many schools are re-examining their grading policies, and our plan is to be guided by the following practice: In the Middle and Upper Schools, spring semester grades will be based on the work that students completed before Spring Break. If a student’s work improves, the final spring semester grade will go up. If not, students will keep the grade they earned before Spring Break, provided that they complete work satisfactorily (i.e., earn a passing grade for work between Spring Break and the end of the year).

Lower School

All student materials were sent home with students before the break. The student should contact the teacher if a workbook cannot be located. In most cases, teachers can scan a copy of the work that should be completed.

Middle and Upper School

Each class is different. Please have your child ask his/her teacher whether the text book will be needed. If so, please email the division head and we will work out a solution. 

All students should be in normal “Pants Day” attire during their classes. 

We will postpone clubs. If we return to school, we will run clubs as normal with a prorated fee. If we are unable to be back on campus, we give full refunds.

Lower School

If your child becomes ill, please send an email to LSattendance@gfacademy.org as you normally would report an absence by 9:00 a.m. We will record this information each day and alert the teachers so they know not to expect student work that day. Students can make up assignments when they feel better. 

Middle School

Advisors will take attendance at the start of the school day.  You should email Carolyn Skiba through our normal protocols by 9:00 a.m. Your child’s teachers will work with them to get caught up on any missed work. If the absence is extended then your child’s Advisor will help organize a plan.  

Upper School

Advisors will take attendance at the start of the school day. If your student is ill, please email Teresa Furegno at USattendance@gfacademy.org as you would normally report an absence by 9:00 a.m. Similarly, in the event of a family emergency, please email as soon as you are aware that your student will be missing school. If the absence is extended, then your child’s advisor will help organize a plan.

Along the way, your child may run into technical issues. If that happens, your first resource is your classroom teachers who can help with minor challenges. However, some problems need expert help, and in that case, please contact helpdesk@gfacademy.org, and someone will be able to help you with issues remotely. In your message, please write a full description of the problem your child is having and one of the technology experts will get back to you as quickly as possible to help resolve the issue. 


• Charge GFA technology every night outside of the sleeping area.
• Try not to travel with the iPad or laptops.
• No food or drink around the iPads or laptops; wipe off with a clean cloth when needed.
• For Lower School, iPads will function between 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. each day. Apps will be remotely deployed. Students cannot purchase apps on the iPad.

With the advent of Distance Learning for all, many useful platforms have emerged that help deliver these experiences in a more meaningful way. That being said, just like any software platforms, some have sought to use these platforms to disrupt the good work that schools and other organizations are doing to keep students engaged. 

How are we keeping our Virtual Learning Spaces safe? 

• From the outset, we’ve advised Faculty to apply to most stringent security settings within the Zoom Platform. Any faculty member that is utilizing the platform is doing so under our enterprise account where we’ve enabled many of these settings by default

• We’re monitoring related FBI warnings and guidance around using Zoom. So far, all we’ve done aligns closely with their guidance. Links to GFA virtual meetings are only posted to our password-protected portals or are emailed directly to students within a given class/advisory. 

• We’ve taken steps to ensure students are logging into the platform using their GFA Google credentials so they are easily identified/verified when they attempt to join meetings.

• To that end Faculty members have a “waiting room” function available where they “check-in” students one at a time prior to the start of a meeting. While in a waiting room, participants are not able to share audio or video. 

• We’ve provided guides to students that cover best practices and etiquette within Zoom.

We’ve taken a multi-faceted approach to online learning at GFA in which Zoom is just one piece of the puzzle. Concerns arise about school use of Zoom when it was the sole means of communication between students and teachers, this is most certainly not the case at GFA.