Principal's letter
Dear Families,
Welcome to Friday! It has been a busy week and students have been working hard. As Ryan Noss mentioned in his email to parents, we are closely monitoring COVID metrics to determine when it will be safe to have students in the building. As soon as a decision is made, we will contact families.
I know that what we are trying to do for every child is difficult. I know that families are experiencing stressors that are new and overwhelming. I want to explain the thought process that I use when a parent calls with a concern about what their child is experiencing in the classroom.
I have had many conversations where a parent says, “there isn’t enough synchronous learning time” or “there is too much synchronous learning time” or “my kid isn’t engaged during asynchronous learning” or “Spanish is too hard” or “My kid just tunes out when someone speaks Spanish”. Inherent in all of these conversations is productive struggle and what is our vision for our students. When I engage in these conversations, as a teacher I think “what is the next step for the learner? What skills do they need to learn to be able to stay engaged?” If my vision for each student is that they will be independent bilingual learners, my problem to solve is how to help the child build skills to persevere through this challenge.
I believe that Garfield Elementary can be the right school for each of our students. I also believe this work is very difficult. I am privileged to be able to be a part of this journey with our families, our students, and our staff. I am lucky to be able to do this work and I know each staff member is ready to jump in with both feet.
Sincerely,
Leigh Santy
Principal
