Dear SAS Families, 

I hope this message finds you safe and healthy in the current lockdown environment. In light of our Head of School Marcel’s Gauthier message, I wish to confirm that we will be doing everything we can in these circumstances to provide the most reliable and high-quality Distance Learning experience possible. 

The survey administered at the beginning of the break allowed us to further understand the parent perspective on the first three weeks of Distance Learning, prior to the period of lockdown. Here are a few key elements that surfaced from the data: 

• 90% of parents state that their children have found a Distance Learning routine that works for them. This is an increase from the survey conducted at the end of week 1.
• Schoology / Seesaw are seen as supportive and highly supportive of student learning at over 80%, and MS Teams at over 90%
• 66% of parents rate 4 or 5 out of 5 the level of engagement with class content, 57% the engagement with faculty.
• The response rate is similar to last time, with 6% of parents electing to respond.

Qualitative comments share appreciation for the work of our faculty and the overall quality of the Distance Learning program. Concerns most often relate to amount of screen time, balance between synchronous and asynchronous learning, and excessive workload at some grade levels. Parents also share their children at all grade levels miss going to school and seeing their friends. 

Based on this feedback, as well as student and faculty input, principals in every division have made some adjustments that have been or will be communicated at a division-specific level. As an example, elementary school grade level teams have worked toward reducing the amount of synchronous engagement in the core areas, as the day was perceived by all stakeholders as being too heavy for students. These changes remain for now within the structure of the current daily schedule, with the same start and end time, and will be implemented starting tomorrow. In middle school, some changes were made to how advisory time is used and implemented, here also to allow for greater flexibility. In high school, an emphasis is put on implementing the initial plan with fidelity and ensuring that a long block is not fully dedicated to synchronous learning. This is to reduce the amount of constant engagement on screen and allow for more autonomy in learning.  

The circumstances, though, changed dramatically since my last message over two weeks ago. The lockdown situation is radically altering the context in which students are learning and faculty are delivering, both from a logistical and psychological standpoint. The school is doing everything it can to support the entire community in these challenging times. Nonetheless, the lockdown will continue to create disruption in the Distance Learning experience while it lasts, as students, faculty, and parents must attend to procuring essential necessities or participate in group testing. We may have to make further appropriate adjustments in the coming weeks to ensure a sustainable model that also takes well-being into account. We must remain dynamic to respond to the exceptional character of the times. Shall further changes be made to the structure and schedule of Distance Learning, I will keep you appraised in upcoming communications. 

Much gratitude for your efforts and partnership as we continue to serve SAS students in the coming weeks. As always, for any questions or comments regarding your child’s Distance Learning, please feel free to contact your divisional leadership or write to me. 

Emmanuel Bonin 
Deputy Head of School / Chief Academic Officer

Dear SAS Families, 

While the break starting today is not the one we all hoped for, it still comes as a welcome respite for our students and faculty eight eventful weeks after Chinese New Year. I hope you make the best of your family time, including helping your children engage in creative activities, away from screens!  

Please take the opportunity over the next two days to provide further feedback on your child’s experience by filling out this SURVEY. It will remain open until Sunday, April 3 in the evening. We will triangulate this data with the input we collected from students and faculty through focus groups and surveys. We will then decide the week we return if further adjustments need to be made for the rest of our Distance Learning time. In my next communication on April 15, I will report on our findings. In the meantime, principals will continue to communicate to their divisions any minor changes that do not significantly alter our approach to Distance Learning. 

Until then, I wish you all a restful time, inside or outside, depending on your specific circumstances. I leave you with a few inspiring images of a Kindergarten Distance Learning art project. One of our Schoolwide Learning Goals is Creative Learners, and these images remind us that our students can be incredibly creative indeed! They also illustrate the importance of our home-school partnerships, as such projects would probably not be possible without parent support in a DL environment. 

 

 

 

Have a wonderful break, 

Emmanuel Bonin 
Deputy Head of School – Chief Academic Officer 

Dear SAS Families, 

Thank you for your ongoing partnership in Week 2 of Distance Learning at SAS. I speak on behalf of the Academic Leadership Team when sharing how proud we are of our students’ agility to adapt to their new learning environment, as well as of our faculty’s poise and creativity in the implementation of our Distance Learning plan. As I observed classrooms and engaged in professional conversations this week, I was struck by the incredible amount of adult-to-adult team collaboration required behind the scenes to allow for effective online instruction. SAS faculty is truly answering the call and going the extra mile to provide the most engaging and meaningful learning experiences for our kids. 

Many thanks to the 145 parents who answered last week’s survey on the Distance Learning experience. While we recognize that the 6% response rate may not be representative of our entire community, we uncovered the following findings: 

• 82% of respondents’ children have found a distance learning routine that works for them.
   
• When asked to rate on a scale of 1 to 5 whether their children were able to engage effectively with course content, two-thirds rated 4 or 5. And for whether their children were able to engage effectively with teachers, over 60% gave a similar rating. Less than 5% of respondents gave a ranking of 1 or 2 in these two areas. 
   
• While some expressed appreciation for the degree of preparedness on the school side and effectiveness of transition, others are concerned students are spending too much time on a screen, specifically about eyes and fatigue. 
   
• Some parents felt our current program does not always give enough autonomy to students to plan their day. 
   
• Finally, when comparing ratings by division, it is clear Distance Learning is more challenging for our younger learners compared to upper elementary, middle school, or high school students.         

Based on this feedback, we are reminding faculty in every division to implement the Distance Learning plan to the very best of their ability. The goal is to ensure the right balance between on-screen engagement and independent work time within the live sessions to avoid students spending an entire day continuously in front of a screen. Also, should Distance Learning last longer than we would hope into the month of April, we will consider occasionally inserting a few screen-free days for students to disconnect from their computers and engage in active, offline learning. For our younger learners, our elementary school leaders compiled a series of recommendations that are shared below. 

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PreK – K Distance Learning Tips 

The Early Childhood Distance Learning experience provides students and families with a variety of synchronous, asynchronous, and home-based exploratory tasks. 

During synchronous sessions, students participate for a brief time in: 

• Connecting with their friends and teachers 
   
• Practicing oral language skills 
   
• Being exposed to new concepts and experiences 
   

Asynchronous learning and home-based tasks allow for students to engage in: 

• Learning activities that are aligned to synchronous sessions 
   
• A variety of voice and choice to explore interests 
   
• Opportunities to create, build, and discover 
   
• When possible, go outdoors to explore nature and the environment 
   

During this time of Distance Learning, you might notice a variety of responses in how your student is engaging in Distance Learning. Here are some suggestions to optimize your student’s experience in Distance Learning: 

• Provide a balance of quiet time and movement 
   
• Follow your student’s lead. Some students might be hesitant to participate in synchronous sessions, or might feel more comfortable watching, but not being on camera 
   
• Limit screen time throughout the day and provide screen breaks 
   
• Maintain a consistent schedule with regular meal and sleep times 
   
• Provide opportunities for your child to go outdoors (biking, playgrounds, nature walk, etc...) 
   

If you have any questions about how to support your child’s learning during this time, please reach out to your child’s teacher. 

  

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PreK Yoga in PE class! 

 

In my communication next week on April 1^st, I will provide an additional opportunity to give feedback. We will then analyze results again and spend time as a leadership team considering your input in relation to information currently being collected from students and faculty. We have developed age-appropriate approaches to elicit input from students. As an example, here are a few questions asked from focus groups of high school students on both sides of the river to inform our thinking: 

• What is something that has worked really well in a DL class you have had so far? 
   
• Some of you have as many as 7 different classes. How is it working to shift among different classes/subjects? 
   
• Your teachers may only know their class. What is one thing that you wish your teachers knew about the rest of your day/schedule/experience? 

A high school focus group sharing their DL experience with the principal 

 

Thank you again for your trust and support in these times. As always, if you have any questions about your child’s experience, please feel free to contact your child’s teacher and/or your divisional leadership. For any general comments or questions about Distance Learning at SAS, please feel free to write directly to me. 

Warm regards, 

Emmanuel Bonin 
Deputy Head of School – Chief Academic Officer 

Dear SAS families, Congratulations to your students for transitioning to their online learning environment! And congratulations to you for providing the needed support at home to help them find success in this context. I am immensely grateful to our faculty, teaching assistants, instructional coaches (including technology coaches), counselors, librarians, and tech support team for all the efforts that went into a fast and effective implementation of our Distance Learning Plan. And I am humbled to work with an extraordinary Academic Leadership Team that spent the last two years in the background preparing the school for such an occurrence. I had the opportunity to visit several classrooms this week and to witness the engagement of our students. You will find below a few screenshots that illustrate the variety of what is happening in live sessions to provide continuity of learning. This is just a small insight and, as I mentioned in last week’s ALA, we want to hear from you on your child’s experience in this short SURVEY. Your input will be key to help validate our choices, celebrate what works well, as well as understand where some adjustments might best support your child’s learning experience.   An engaging elementary classroom with the teachers and principal present in the room!   These middle schoolers know all the strings of Distance Learning!    Teams in Chinese!   This Week’s Highlight: Elementary School Providing an early childhood, lower elementary, or upper elementary education online is incredibly challenging as so much at this age depends on social interactions, body language, immediate feedback, and behavior in a spatial context. Through our study of best practice, professional learning, and partnership with Global Online Academy, we learned a lot over the last two years and have evolved our program to a balanced approach between synchronous (live session) learning and asynchronous (offline) independent study. Our program encompasses not only our core subjects but also our Chinese and specialist areas. Our learning platforms Teams and Seesaw promote an online environment that is active, social, and based on clear lesson objectives.  Active: There are no sit back and listen lectures. The schedule and how we teach mimics how a school day looks on campus.  Social: In both settings learning is social. In the synchronous setting students share ideas with each other and the teachers in whole group or breakout rooms. There are always 2 teachers/TA facilitating each session. Also, teachers provide a variety of descriptive feedback on student work that they share on Seesaw.  Lesson objective based: Each lesson or learning task has a clear learning target. This is often introduced by the teacher before students begin.     Being aware that an online learning experience significantly increases time spent in front of a computer screen, we encourage you to be even more attentive to your child’s screen time outside of the school context. Also, please remain attentive to your child’s well-being and social-emotional learning needs. For additional information, please see the Distance Learning Resources provided by our Student Support Services department.  As always, should you have any questions about your child’s specific situation and needs, please contact your child’s teacher and/or your divisional principal. For any comment or questions on the Distance Learning program in general, do not hesitate to write to me directly. Finally, as was mentioned in a school communication on Wednesday, we are aware the current handling of the COVID situation may impact on the quality of your child’s learning experience. We know students may have to exit a class to be tested within their community. Similarly, the situation could force a teacher at home to end a class prematurely. We appreciate and thank you for your understanding as all of us continue to partner to offer the optimal learning experience to our students in the current set of circumstances. Warm regards, Dr. Emmanuel Bonin Deputy Head of School – Chief Academic Officer

Sunday March 13th:

Dear SAS Parents, 亲爱的家长们，大家好 !

Since the spring of 2020, we were privileged, except for a single day last fall, to be among the few schools in the world to engage continuously in on-campus, face-to-face instruction. Even within this period, we have had and continue to have situations by which a faculty member outside of the country has continued to successfully deliver instruction at a distance. All along though, we knew the question was not whether we would have to move to Distance Learning (DL), but when. When is now. 

The current situation is different from two years ago: with a few exceptions, we are all – students, faculty, staff, leaders, and parents alike – on the same time zone and in our regular dwellings and environment. This makes a tremendous impact on our ability to deliver instruction and manage our students’ well-being and social-emotional response. Also, since I initially introduced our refreshed Distance Learning Plan in December 2020, we have engaged our faculty in regular training and drilled our students on the use of online tools in preparation for this eventuality. In short, we are ready as a community to switch to DL.

I invite you to read one more time our Distance Learning plan and familiarize yourself with the principles of online instruction. DL is the continuation of our SAS instruction grounded in our Mission, our Learning Goals, and our Learning Principles. The online environment invites us to add the Global Online Academy (GOA) Norms: build trust, challenge students, redefine time, support agency, diversify interactions. GOA has been our professional learning partner for faculty on key aspects of online instruction so that they are well versed in these norms. 

As was the case all around the world in the last two years, effective online instruction requires a stronger than ever partnership between parents and the school. Further below in this ALA, you will find tips from our Distance Learning plan on how you can support your child. Finally, we also provide a list of student responsibilities below. Please make sure you are familiar with them, as you will play a key role in supporting your children in fulfilling them. 

While we are confident in our approach and understand that it is important to have a stable and consistent implementation of our Distance Learning Plan, we also want to be agile and provide regular opportunities for feedback. Starting this week, we will share a weekly DL parent survey to help us fine tune and iterate our approach. Students as well as faculty will also have regular opportunities for input.  

I have the highest confidence and trust in our school’s ability to pivot with agility to an online learning environment. Thank you for your renewed efforts and partnership in service of our students and our community. 

Sincerely, 
Dr. Emmanuel Bonin