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family and student update

9/27 – Family/Student Update

Published September 30, 2020 by Scill Chan

9/27

Dear Students/Families,

 

To receive our student/family updates in other languages, please go to our website (www.bcs448.org) and click “Translations”!

Para recibir nuestras actualizaciones para estudiantes / familias en otros idiomas, visite nuestro sitio web (www.bcs448.org) y haga clic en “Traducciones”.

لتلقي آخر التطورات المتعلقة بعائلاتنا /طلابنا مترجمة إلى لغتكم، يرجى الذهاب إلى موقعنا (www.bcs448.org) والضغط على كلمة “ترجماتTranslation في أعلى الصفحة. 

 

THANK YOU for your patience and trust in BCS!!  We had a wonderful week in our crew orientation expedition What does it mean to belong?  Students learned digital skills, engaged in community building, and learned about the benefits and responsibilites of belonging.  Please ask your child about what they learned and enjoyed from the expedition with their crew.

 

BCS ANNOUNCEMENTS

 

No School Monday 9/28 in observance of Yom Kippur

  • There is no school on Monday
  • For all observing Yom Kippur, Yom Tov and may you have a blessed and easy fast.

 

Schedules for next week have been emailed to students – check BCS student email

  • Please look in PupilPath for your child’s schedule and attendance
  • Please also support your child to look through their BCS email – Scill sent an email with their schedule and Zoom links for next week
  • If you would like a copy of your child’s schedule and you cannot access PupilPath, please email Scill and she will send it to you
  • During blocks where there are no Zoom classes, students should check for work in their Google Classrooms for their self-directed learning

 

World Arts 

  • This year, students will have a course called World Arts which is a combination of our Foreign Language Dept and our Arts Dept
  • Grade 6 & 7 will receive Art and Music in World Arts, with an emphasis on Spanish culture.
  • Grade 8 will receive Spanish and Theater in World Arts. 
  • Grade 9 students have a separate Spanish class in addition to World Arts.
  • Upper Grades students (Grades 9-12) will specialize in one of the three tracts in World Arts – Art, Music, or Theater.

 

Register for PupilPath Access with a student/parent code

  • You will find details about your child’s schedule in PupilPath.  If you are a blended learning student, your pod classroom is listed on your in-person days in your schedule.  On your remote days, your Zoom classes (day/period) are listed in your schedule – the other periods are self-directed learning in Google Classroom.
  • Registration codes for parents/students were emailed to BCS student email addresses.
  • Multiple parents can register with one parent code.
  • If you need a parent code, please email Scill@bcs448.org

 

Supply Pick Up

  • Teachers are working hard to prepare supply packets for students, we are almost ready 
  • Blended students will receive their supplies on in-person days
  • All-remote students will be emailed pick-up times by their teachers, thanks for your patience

 

Zoom Norms – Families, please help us to help your child learn!

  • As students navigate their Zoom classes, we ask the support of families:
    • Please reduce your background noise.  A student cannot unmic and speak if there is a lot of noise in the background in the house.
    • Please be mindful of what can be observed in the camera background, e.g. if the bathroom or living room is visible behind your child.  It’s best if your child can sit with a wall behind them.  
    • Please respect the learning environment and do not sit with your child on camera during Zoom.  Just as you would not be sitting with your child in a physical classroom, please respect the Zoom class as a space for just teachers and students.
    • Please set alarms for your child’s Zoom classes so they do not miss them.  Zoom classes are at different times each day based on your child’s individual schedule.

 

September Family/Student Town Halls

  • We will be holding our monthly Town Halls for families and students on Tues 9/29 and Wed 9/30 
  • Please see the schedule and links here – this month we’ll talk briefly about PupilPath before we go into Q&A for any questions you might have

 

If you have a DOE ipad, we recommend purchasing a keyboard

  • Students in secondary school need to type longer papers and compose more emails
  • We recommend purchasing a keyboard (like this one: lightning keyboard $41) to attach to your DOE ipad
  • If you need financial assistance, please email Scill and the school will help get you a keyboard

 

THANK YOU for your incredible generosity with our Amazon wish list

  • Families, THANK YOU for helping us to get everything on our BCS Amazon Wish List – we are now well prepared for outdoor learning!
  • We truly appreciate your generous contributions during this tough budget year!  WE ARE CREW!!

 

Log into Operoo to complete the blue card and media release form

  • Parents, please search your email for login information from Operoo – this is our new online system for handling forms like the emergency blue card
  • If you cannot find the email, please email Scill and she will send you login information for Operoo
  • Please fill out the blue card by Thurs 10/1, thank you!

 

All-remote schedule in case of temporary closure of school building

  • BCS has an all-remote schedule that is our back-up plan should we be required to close the school building temporarily (e.g. we have two positive cases of COVID or the DOE closes school buildings, or snow day, etc.).
  • Your child’s Tuesday schedule is an example of what that all-remote schedule will look like, including what Zoom classes your child will have if they are in Group A
  • If our school building is closed, we will send out more information immediately – we just wanted to give families/students a heads up that we have an all-remote schoolwide back-up schedule ready to go

 

Additional Staff Re-Deployed to BCS this year

  • As part of the city’s efforts to ensure that schools have appropriate staffing to implement blended learning, we have been centrally-assigned additional staff for this school year
  • Please help us welcome:
    • Ashraf Aweeda – School Guidance Counselor 
    • Atiya Francis – Social Studies teacher
    • James Fraser – Attendance Teacher
    • Charisse Nelson – Science teacher
    • Sharif Parker – MS Generalist teacher
    • Jill Siev – Special Education teacher

 

Join the BCS Instagram: TheCollaborativeChronicle

  • Immerse in our community by joining our BCS Instagram
  • We have Spirit Mondays, Teaching Tuesdays, Shout Out Wednesdays, Throwback Thursdays, and Friday Facts… it’s a great way to stay connected with BCS life on social media

 

FOR BLENDED LEARNING (IN-PERSON) STUDENTS ONLY

 

Schedules/Pod Classroom

  • Your pod classroom number and teachers for your in-person days are listed in your PupilPath schedule.  

 

Metrocards

  • Students will get metrocards on their first day of blended learning – for Group B that’s Thurs 10/1, for Group A that’s Mon 10/5.  
  • Students in all-remote (Group D) do not receive metrocards.

 

Daily Health Screening

  • All students who come to the building need to complete the DOE health screening – you can access the website by clicking these QR Codes (Eng, Span, and Chinese) or this website for easy online completion.  Students, please get in the habit of completing this daily screening and holding up your screening results for staff to screen at entry each morning.
  • All students, after holding up their screening on their phone, will receive a temperature check either with a hand-held or wall-mounted thermometer.

 

Dress in layers

  • Our ventilation system in the building is a combination of exhaust vents in each classroom and at least 50% of a classroom’s windows being open
  • As such, depending on the weather, students may be hot or cold so please dress in layers
  • As the weather gets colder or on windy days, classrooms will be colder so students should dress appropriately for school

 

No lockers

  • To minimize surfaces that are touched in the school for health reasons, students will not have access to lockers this year
  • Since students will remain in the same pod classroom all day, there is no passing from class to class so students do not need to carry their belongings with them, they remain in the pod room all day

 

Supplies

  • In-person students will receive their supplies on their in-person days

 

Orientation Video and Building Norms/Protocols

 

All of our classrooms are set up for pod in-person blended learning

  • Our hardworking staff have cleaned and set-up all the pod classrooms based on social distancing requirements, and we’re ready for in-person blended learning to begin!
  • Check out photos here

 

DOE ANNOUNCEMENTS

 

Free and Low-Cost Internet Options

 

COVID Testing

  • It’s up to all of us to keep our school communities and families safe by wearing face coverings, keeping our distance, washing hands frequently, and getting tested!
  • Help us keep our schools open and school communities healthy by getting tested for COVID-19. It’s safe, free, and easy for everyone, regardless of immigration or insurance status.
  • Find a testing site(Open external link) near you.  Students in 3K through twelfth grade can get priority testing at 22 Health + Hospitals testing sites throughout the school year.  Find a location near you.
  • Beginning in early October, we will begin testing a random sampling of students and staff in every school. This is essential to keeping your family and school community healthy and safe.  The DOE will be sharing more information shortly and a link to a parent/guardian consent form.  
  • Parents who do not consent to the DOE COVID testing program must go all-remote.

 

Notification to school if a sibling/parent has to quarantine

  • If you have a child who goes to another school who has to quarantine, or if an adult in the family has to quarantine, your BCS child should quarantine as well and not return to school until s/he is not showing symptoms for 72 hours and/or if your child has a negative COVID test
  • Please email Scill if this happens

 

PREVIOUSLY ANNOUNCED

Attendance is taken in Zoom class every day – be on time with cameras on

  • This year, DOE attendance policy is that a student is marked present if they are present in their synchronous portion of their remote day – that means students are required to attend Zoom classes (with video on) in order to be marked present.
  • School is everyday from 9:00AM-2:30PM.  Our period times are listed here.  On your remote learning days, when you do not have Zoom classes, that period is spent in self-directed asynchronous (independent) learning using Google Classroom.

 

YWCA Afterschool is starting for Grades 6-8

  • Afterschool is free for all students in Grades 6-8
  • Application is here: https://discoverdycd.dycdconnect.nyc/ or you can email our Afterschool Director Janet Cooper <janet@bcs448.org>
  • Students experience academic and recreational activities, fully supervised and socially distanced, on their in-person blended learning days from 2:30-5:30pm
  • They will also have remote programming for students on remote days so you do not need to attend in-person, you can choose the activities you would like to participate in
  • Please apply!!!

 

No Visitors to the Building

  • As per DOE policy, for health and safety reasons, no visitors to the building are allowed.  All family meetings will be held on Zoom.  Families who come to the building will remain at the School Safety desk and will call upstairs for their questions.
  • Due to limited staffing, we have closed our Main Office – please call 718-923-4700 x4163 or 646-483-8644 (Scill) if you need to reach the school.

Published in BCS News and Family Announcements