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South Lewis Remote Learning Plan

Overview and Guiding Principles

It must first be acknowledged that Remote Learning is not intended to replicate the instruction of our daily classrooms in a digital environment. Doing so would be impractical, unrealistic and simply not work for our students, instructional staff or families. Our essential goal is to provide direction, information, and resources to ensure the most engaging instructional experiences possible for all students, while being fully aware of and acknowledging the challenges of learning outside the physical classrooms of our schools.

Remote Learning is built on the foundation of the following principles: 

• The social, physical, emotional, and mental well-being of our students, staff, and community continue to be a top priority. 
• All students have opportunities for continued learning that focuses on critical standards.
• Students and staff work to minimize further instructional loss.
• Students and families are given routines and structures to ensure they stay connected to schools and learning.

Instruction, Content Delivery and Staff Availability

Instruction and content delivery will be a new and challenging endeavor for most of our staff and students. Remote teaching and learning is a skill that must be developed over time and will not be perfected overnight. 

With limited and reduced time available for instruction, it will need to be focused on prioritized and critical learning standards and content. This will include both previously covered material and new content. Lessons and activities will be both synchronous (on-line live instruction) and asynchronous (learning experiences students access in their own time and complete at their own pace) through such platforms as Class Dojo, Zoom, WebEx or Google Classroom. 

Our Remote Learning Plan includes research-based reasonable and appropriate time commitments for this new form of teaching and learning. Simplicity where “less is more” is best for Remote Learning. These TOTAL times listed below include both instructional lessons and independent work.

For South Lewis Central Schools this means: 

Instruction will be provided by Core Classroom, Related-Arts, Academic Intervention and Special Education teachers as well as Related-Service providers (i.e. OT/PT/Speech) on a set schedule between the hours of 8:00am and 8:00pm. Schedules will be communicated to our students and families. Counselors, Social Workers and other student support specialists will also continue working with our students and families. 

Academic Intervention Services (AIS) will continue to be provided and available to students. AIS instructors may work in collaboration with classroom teachers to support their students. 

Special Education services will also continue to provide services consistent with Individual Educational Plans (IEPs) to the extent practical and possible through Remote Learning. It is currently unfeasible and unsafe to provide hands-on or in-person therapeutic services. Our goal is to meet the needs of all learners and to work collaboratively with students and families in order to do so. Additionally, Committee on Special Education (CSE) meetings and Annual Reviews are being transitioned, whenever possible, to online/virtual platforms. 

In order to offer support to our students and families outside of these set lessons, our instructional staff will also have office hours each week during which students and families can access additional support by appointment or drop-in interactions.

For more information, see the full learning plan here: South Lewis Remote Learning Plan - Full