Introduction to Rivers Remote Website (3/20/20)

As I mentioned in my video to everyone, our primary goals in setting up our remote-learning spaces are two-fold: First, to ensure that our connections to one another—the core of our community—-remain central to everything we do; and, second, to ensure continuity and engagement in the learning experience for everyone. We’ve built our schedule and program in the remote space with these goals in mind, and we will continue to reassess as we get started and see how this is all working.

While we are not on campus together, school is, nonetheless, in session beginning Wednesday, March 25. We will be expecting students to be on time for classes, to be dressed appropriately, to participate, and to continue to be responsible community members within each “classroom” in which they work.

Parents can be helpful in making this approach successful by making sure that students have an appropriate workspace set up in the house, and by helping to create the routine children need to maintain focus and to learn effectively.

We have created new schedules for Middle and Upper Schools, so please look closely at those. You’ll see that we have added extra advisory time in both divisions and an altered pattern to our days in the new setup that is designed to help us all make the most of our work and downtime.

We have included a Frequently Asked Questions section that we hope will answer most of the questions that come to you, as well as contact information for additional questions that come up along the way. We understand that this transition might bring some challenges as we get started, so please use these contacts for more information where you need to.

You’ll note on the site we’ve created that our counseling department has set up protocols so that they can be available to students as needed, as will our teachers, advisors, and administrators. 
      

We ask for everyone’s patience and flexibility as we get this new system up and running. We’ve been practicing and training for it, but there are bound to be places where our best efforts don’t fully work as we intended. Our promise to you is that we will continue to assess and adjust as we go to make this work, and we’ll be offering plenty of opportunities for student feedback through advisories so that we can develop the learning spaces in the most productive way.

We ask also for everyone to remember that many of our faculty members are parents of young children who are at home and in need of care. That means you might expect some informality in the learning environment from time to time as children come into the picture or are in need of attention. Our teachers will be working to minimize those interruptions, but we know they will occur and ask your patience with them as our teachers navigate these dual demands on their attention. By the time this is all over with, it’s highly likely that you’ll know the names of all of your teachers’ pets!