Dear Parents,
On Wednesday, we had 9 Assumption seniors take part in a digital athletic signing ceremony (via social media) committing to 9 different university athletic programs. Congratulations to our senior student athletes!
We want to thank our parents, students, and faculty for the feedback given through the virtual learning surveys this week. We were happy to learn that our virtual learning days utilizing Microsoft Teams are going well. We are incredibly grateful for our dedicated faculty, hard-working students, and supportive parents during this unprecedented time in our school history.
In reviewing our daily schedule and calendar for the next two weeks and survey comments about the health and well-being of our students, we realized that we needed to build time into our schedule to allow for connections the students were missing with their homerooms and class meetings as well as being sensitive to the mental and emotional health of our students who are adjusting in so many ways to virtual learning at home. We feel that it is important to provide them time during the scheduled school day to meet in homerooms and class meetings as well as have some time to catch-up, rest, and re-charge. Therefore, we have made the following changes to our calendar:
Week of April 20-24
Monday – Thursday: Days as scheduled
Friday: No virtual classes for all (no Day 2) (exact schedule TBD)
- Seniors: Senior Celebration Day virtual experience including homeroom time, class meeting time, and project time; catch-up day.
- Underclasswomen: Homeroom and class meetings; catch-up day.
Week of April 27- May 1
Monday – Thursday: Days as scheduled
Friday: Virtual Learning Holiday (originally Oaks Day Holiday) No virtual classes for all; catch-up, rest, and re-charge day.
The specific schedule for Friday, April 24 regarding homeroom, class meeting, and Senior Celebration times will be emailed out to the students. As always, if your daughter is struggling with virtual learning, technology issues, or emotional health, please do not hesitate to reach out to her counselor or dean for assistance.
Decisions about May calendar dates and senior events are pending any decision made by the governor regarding our return to school on May 4. As soon as we have that information and have time to make final thoughtful decisions, we will communicate with you. We want to assure our senior parents that we are committed to recognizing and celebrating our senior class and their May events as allowed in 2020!
FINAL EXAMS: Given this unique school year, we have decided to cancel our traditional final exams for all grade levels.
Traditional final exams will be replaced by culminating unit assessments whether we are back in the building in May or not.
MOTIVATION DURING VIRTUAL LEARNING DAYS: On the Virtual Learning Surveys that students recently completed, a number of them mentioned that they were having trouble keeping themselves motivated and/or engaged in the distance learning environment, and some students continue to have problems with oversleeping/falling asleep during the day and missing classes. We also have students who struggle with depression and/or anxiety, and these can understandably be even more difficult to manage in the face of the pandemic. Mental health experts point to the importance of establishing and following a daily routine/schedule as a way to bring a sense of normalcy to these anything-but-normal times. Here are a few things you might encourage your daughter to do to maintain her motivation for and engagement in learning and stay awake during the virtual school day (and if you’re working from home, you might even find them helpful for yourself too!):
1. Use an alarm clock or set alarms on her phone to wake her up at a set time every school day morning. Some phones even allow a voice message (like “submit your attendance survey”) to be added to the alarm.
2. Get up, get dressed, wash her face (or even take a shower if time allows), and brush her teeth. On a side note, teachers would prefer to see students dressed instead of in their pajamas when they meet their classes in Teams.
3. Eat a healthy breakfast. Protein is brain food. Check out these recommendations from the Mayo Clinic.
4. Move! Don’t let her stay in her bedroom/in or on her bed during school hours. Her body knows her bed is for sleeping. Sitting at a desk or at the kitchen table or moving to the family room can help. She might even benefit from moving to a different room for each class—if you have multiple people all working from home, you could set up a room rotation so all can have a quiet but changing environment for learning/working.
5. Encourage your daughter to get enough sleep at night. Don’t let her stay up late into the night watching movies on Netflix, using social media, or texting with her friends. Encourage her to use her study block to actually do things related to school (work on homework or projects, meet individually via Teams with her teachers or guidance counselor or college counselor, work on a service project, read her email), instead of napping. Encourage her to use her lunch break to actually eat lunch (again, protein is brain food) or do something active like taking a walk, enjoying a few minutes of family time if others are available, completing a household chore, or checking in with you in person or by phone if you aren’t working from home.
Many thanks to the parents whose comments on the Parent Virtual Learning Survey helped create this list and to AHS faculty/staff for their good ideas as well.
SENIORS – MOTHER/DAUGHTER EXPERIENCE: Even though the Mother-Daughter Breakfast had to be cancelled this year, we still want to creatively celebrate the special mother-daughter bond for the Class of 2020. Mothers of seniors, your daughter should have invited you to have breakfast together on Saturday morning, April 18. At 10:00 a.m., both of you will be invited to watch a special video together. Your daughter will have the link for accessing it in her email. It will include many of the elements that the in-person event would have had, just with a different spin on them. We hope you enjoy this special time together!
ROSE THEATRE COMPANY – DIGITAL SPRING PLAY: Rose Theatre Company is excited to announce “A Midsummer Night’s STREAM!” Assumption’s digital production of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is being filmed on Zoom, complete with props and costumes! The play will air via the Assumption High School Facebook page at 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, April 26. A link to the performance will also be made available through the school website through May 3 at ahsrockets.org/academics/fine-arts/theatre-arts/. In lieu of ticket sales, the Rose Theatre Company is asking audience members to contribute to the Assumption High School Annual Fund which provides tuition assistance to those in need. We know there will be many families struggling financially due to hardships related to COVID-19 in the days and weeks ahead, and we want to help our community to meet that need.
LETTERS FROM COLLEGES: Attention, senior parents! Please have your senior daughters submit ALL letters received from colleges regarding admissions decisions, scholarship offers, and admission to special programs and honors colleges to the Guidance Office. The majority of colleges DO NOT provide this information directly to high schools, so your daughter is often our only source of information about this. Her timely sharing of this information is vital to the Senior Honors Ceremony as we work to make sure we have all the correct information to celebrate your daughter and the class of 2020. These letters can be emailed directly to COLLEGE.LETTERS@ahsrockets.org. We ask that students submit all of this information by Thursday, April 23.
WHAT WE DO MAKES A DIFFERENCE: During this pandemic, we know that it may feel isolating while abiding by social distancing guidelines. However, we also know that even while we are apart we can continue to find ways to make a difference both individually and collectively. So, we ask, “What are you doing to make a difference?” Please share what you are doing to make a difference on social media! Tag @ahsrockets in your Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter posts and pictures and use the hashtags #AHSMakesADifference, #HealthyAtHome and #RocketsAtHome. Or simply email your pictures and tell us what you are doing to make a difference at maggie.ising@ahsrockets.org. We are stronger together, and we will get through this united as a community. We hope that by sharing how you make a difference, it will bring a much-needed connection to our entire Assumption family. Although, we may be physically apart, we remain the community of Assumption!
Gratefully,
Martha Tedesco
Principal