Parents and staff members are encouraged to submit feedback on the potential, future use of Distance Learning in School District 21. Please see below for more details and a message from Dr. Connolly sent on April 16.
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Dear parents and guardians,
School District 21 is considering the future use of Distance Learning Days on days when school cannot be regularly held due to inclement weather or some other emergency situation. In preparation for the use of Distance Learning Days, we have developed a Distance Learning portal accessible through our website, which would allow students to engage in meaningful and teacher-supported learning. We understand a Distance Learning Day can’t replace the valuable in-person interaction between students and teachers, but this alternative would allow students and their teachers to continue engaging in meaningful learning, connected to the district’s curriculum, even when the weather doesn’t cooperate.
In addition to teacher assigned and supported distance learning activities, the district’s Distance Learning portal offers additional opportunities for students to engage in learning while outside of school. Both paper based and electronic resources would be made available.
The Board of Education and administration is interested in hearing the thoughts and feedback of parents on the use of a Distance Learning option. We are excited to introduce a new tool called ThoughtExchange to provide parents a quick and easy way to share thoughts from a computer, tablet, or smartphone. If you have access to the internet, you can easily share your thoughts!
When you click the link below, you will be taken to our ThoughtExchange page and asked to respond to one open-ended question. You will have the opportunity to share as many individual thoughts as you like, so please only share one thought per response box. Once you finish sharing your thoughts, you will have the opportunity to review thoughts shared by other participants and and give up to five stars to the ideas shared by others based on how they resonate with you.
Your responses and ratings are confidential. You may come back as often as you’d like to participate and, in fact, we encourage you to visit again to rate additional thoughts that are added after you first participate. Your participation in sharing thoughts and rating the thoughts of others will help us understand our community’s most important thoughts about Distance Learning.
Please review the Distance Learning portal and then participate through ThoughtExchange by Monday, April 29.
To participate in a language other than English:
- Visit https://my.thoughtexchange.com/message/
- Say or type “Hello” in the language of your choice
- Enter this 9-digit code: 188053679
Thank you in advance for your help and input.
Respectfully,
Dr. Michael Connolly
Superintendent
EMPOWERING EVERY STUDENT, EVERY DAY
