Please see below for copy of e-mail sent to all Blake families - the post within is wonderful and resonates with me deeply...
March 20, 2020
Dear Blake families,
I wanted to send everyone a note just to check in and wish everyone a healthy and safe weekend. Hopefully your students have received outreach/communication from their teachers - if they have not received any communication or you have any questions, please reach out. As I said earlier in the week, our collective focus and priority remains the same for all - to take care of one another and ourselves. So, please just do that and let us know if we can be of any support. I also wanted to acknowledge some of the 'pressure' that you may be feeling (I know Katie and I sense/feel it on social media as a family in our house with our own children) to recreate school, set up home classrooms, and to 'do things right' so our students do not 'fall behind'. Please know that we are here for you and my hope is to alleviate any concerns/pressure you may be feeling or experiencing in that vein of thought. We care deeply for all of your children and our commitment is to 'meet them where they are at' and help them (and you as families) to grow and move forward. There is no 'one right path' and we are ready/willing/able to adapt and adjust, as needed. Brian Gavaghan shared the post below from The New York Times with me last night and I found it to be 'just what I needed'. I will be referencing it in my weekly blog (and I am sure I will be coming back to it in the coming days/weeks), but I think it is worth sharing as we head into the weekend (along with a quote from Josh Starr that has been shared on social media and in many education circles)...
I Refuse to Run a Coronavirus Home School
by Jennie Weiner in The New York Times
Take care.
Nat