Page 23 - DistanceLearning
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By the Campfire
By Maria Barcelo Martinez, Ed.D.,
Principal, Anna C Scott School,
Leonia, NJ
The Anna C. Scott School (ACS) teachers Most importantly, the teachers are continuing their community
and the ACS Literacy Library teachers have engagement and community service work even though we aren’t
physically in the school building. The literacy teachers have host-
strived to create a website that is useful for ed open office hours with the Leonia Public Library to share their
families and students during this pandemic. resources with ACS families. They also held a conversation on the
There are weekly activities aligned to current literacy units of study importance of having the right to an education, and invited a board
for children in grades Pre-K through five. In addition, there is a tips member to share his experience creating Bottle Schools in Gua-
section for families to use while working with their children. The temala. The literacy teachers are also regularly meeting with the
tips section has valuable information about free resources like ELL Student Council members to create service projects based on their
classes and food bank information, as well as tips on how families interests. They are doing this work via Zoom and Google Class-
can help their children with literacy work while they are learning room. Some projects that the children have already started are:
from home. They recognize that adults need to have tools to help recording themselves singing uplifting songs to be sent to medical
their families and want to support them in any way we can. The workers, writing thank you letters to pharmacists, creating masks
website also includes a hub of resources for kids and families to for others, and creating virtual entertainment pouches for children.
use if they want ideas of other ways to keep their kids engaged The students all recognized the importance of keeping spirits up
at home. Our students’ emotional well-being is most important to and having positive attitudes and their projects will spread that
us. Literacy teachers have shared a book about the coronavirus cheer in a safe way.
with their youngest students and have given them time to share In addition the ACS school counselor and the ACS music teachers
their feelings with them on Zoom. The book is also available as create and send out an interactive video of our weekly community
a resource for parents on the website. The literacy teachers are assembly, the ACS campfire, to the ACS families. These weekly
also working on ways to engage with the school community in fun videos contain mindfulness activities and songs which students
ways. They are starting an informal movie club for students and sing together during our campfires, including the Anna C Scott
families. Each week they will select a movie for families to watch school song.
together and will then host a Zoom call to talk about the movie.
This fun activity will bring students and families closer together in
this time of social distancing.
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