April 3, 2020
Dear Middle School Families,
I pray that this letter finds you healthy and blessed in the midst of this global pandemic. To say that I miss our middle school students, families and my colleagues is a gross understatement. “Connection is why we’re here. We are hardwired to connect with others, it's what gives purpose and meaning to our lives, and without it there is suffering.” (Brene Brown, Daring Greatly). Our nation and world are suffering on multiple levels and the lack of human connection is most definitely one of them. But we serve a much bigger God, who is already working in grand ways to enable us to find new ways to connect with each other and with Him.
I appreciate the opportunity to explain how we are delivering our online curriculum at Faith Lutheran. As you might already gather, private schools across the country are turning to Faith Lutheran for ideas of how to do distance learning well. Our teachers were already well prepared to transition to online curriculum because we have emphasized the use of creative, diverse, digital tools both inside our on-ground classrooms and in our High School during our Online Learning Days. Faith Lutheran has been proud of giving our teachers the professional freedom and flexibility in their physical classrooms to construct the best possible learning environment for your child. We are committed to providing our teachers the same affordance in the virtual environment by ensuring they can use multiple modes of instruction. In the classroom, there is not one single mode that works the best for every topic or concept. As we transitioned to an online space, we wanted to make sure that same philosophy was carried over.
Schools that are trying to deliver content, assessments, and learning activities to their entire class on Zoom, following their normal ground schedules, are quickly finding that it does not promote the best learning. Why? This fully synchronous schedule is far from ideal and does not model strong, on-ground teaching. Inside of Faith Lutheran’s on-ground classrooms, you would not find teachers lecturing for the full 80 minutes. There are digital tools that foster better and deeper learning activities and support individual student learning styles much better than 80 minutes of Zoom. That is why Faith is employing both Asynchronous (students completing work on their own schedules) and Synchronous (students required to join activities at a particular time) learning.
Updates, Reminders, Encouragement:
All of that said, our Heavenly Father is bigger than a global pandemic - He is mighty to save! The Lord is not surprised, puzzled or perplexed by any of this and has all of us in the palm of His hand. As we enter into Holy Week this coming Palm Sunday, may we not forget the meaning of this week; Jesus’ death on the Cross on Good Friday and His victory over death and resurrection on Easter Sunday. Nothing your student learns or experiences at Faith Lutheran is more important than that truth.
Where, O death is your victory?
Where, O death is your sting?
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 15:55-57
Parents, thank you! Those two words don’t seem to sufficiently articulate my gratitude for you and for sharing your students with us, for putting your trust in our wonderful teaching faculty and our school at large to continue to educate and minister to your children and family remotely.
Until we meet again, the Lord bless you and keep you!
Sarah Harper
Middle School Principal