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Hello Birney families and friends,
Welcome to the opening of the 2020-2021 school year! It’s here! All over the city, students excitedly logged on to see who was in their class smiling at them through that screen today. Hopefully, families got a chance to stop by school over the weekend to snap a picture of their class list so students would know who to look for Monday morning. Monday morning also marked the beginning of new relationships, with new teachers and new friends, as we embarked on this new journey with the goal of meeting up together at school as soon as it is safe to do so. Let’s take this opportunity to appreciate everything done to make it possible to continue educating these amazing students in the best way we can.
Monday morning, and every morning this week, Birney teachers welcomed their students to their Zoom classrooms for an hour from 9:45-10:45. During that time, they began to build a new classroom community, putting everyone at ease and building relationships. If are unable to log on, be sure to check the SDUSD technology website, www.bit.ly/sdusditsupport for directions and video tutorials. Apart from the 1-hour class meeting, teachers made sure families are aware of all the opportunities for them to learn more about online learning. Parents – please make sure you try these opportunities so you, too, are up to speed for online learning.
Do you still want to get a district device? You can check a new device out at Birney every day of the week from 12:00-2:00 during lunch service of Grab n Go meals. If your device is not working, please do NOT return to Birney to exchange, instead call the Online Learning Support hotline at (619) 732-1400 or go to www.bit.ly/sdusditsupport for more information.
On top of rolling out their Google classrooms and Zoom invites, our teachers have been busy preparing for your drive-through supply distribution. Here is the schedule for that:
Tuesday, 9/01, 12-2: 2nd grade
Wednesday, 9/02, 12-2: 5th grade
Thursday, 9/03, 12-2: 3rd grade
Friday, 9/04, 12-2: 1st grade and 4th grade
Supply distribution takes place in the Birney Ed Center driveway. Cars enter from park or from the Ed center driveway and move through the Birney parking lot, stopping next to their teachers’ tables to pick up their bag of supplies. We will also have devices available for checkout for new families or those who did not yet get a device as well as the materials bags from last year if you still did not pick yours up.
If you can’t make it at the designated time, come at the lunch time after your date and we will run in and get a bag for you. We are trying to facilitate all contact with the school to occur during that lunch period between 12 and 2, so that we can serve our families in online learning at all other times. Additionally, our teachers are involved in taking roughly 900 minutes of professional development this week so they can build their expertise in online learning, so we want to respect their time.
More to come on all of this, I am sure. In the meantime, happy new year, and welcome to probably the strangest school year EVER! Today was certainly a first, I missed seeing all the shiny, smiling faces in their brand-new shoes and outfits. The Birney playground was empty all day, the Birney campus ached with the stark lack of the heart of the school, children. We love you, we miss you and we can’t wait to get this COVID thing behind us and get back to business!
Ms. Amanda