A Message from Principal Jay Bland

In the effort to be as transparent as possible, I want to keep you in the loop on everything that has been happening in our district and school.  By now, you of course have heard the news about our school system moving to virtual on-line learning for the next two weeks and possibly more. What this means is that our teachers, faculty and staff are still clocking in remotely, monitoring student work, participating in virtual meetings and planning with each other as normal.  Of course, there is flexibility involved in this. Many of them, including myself, have young children that will be at home as well! Trying to balance the workload of pushing out assignments, grading, meeting, managing time cards and district expectations above all else is challenging and requires much flexibility! Please bear with us as we work to make this time away from the school building a success.  

Here are a couple of pointers that can help you along the way: 

• Please visit Morris Brandon’s Distance Learning site, where you can find expectations and general information per grade level  HERE

• While the expectations for grade levels may vary, teachers are providing up to 2 hours of work a day for students. All teachers have set up google classrooms, sent home student work packets or demonstrated to our students how to access and log on to platforms like Studies Weekly,  MyOn Learning, and Dreambox Math. You can access this Padlet for parent resources to support at home use of Dreambox Math

• All 1st and 2nd grade students have been instructed to take their iPads home with them, including the students whose parents opted out of the take-home option- per APS

• Students are now able to take AR tests from anywhere (home, public libraries, etc) via MyBackpack.  This will be available throughout the duration of our distance plan. AR Quizzing from Home. 

• We are also providing LIMITED chrome books to students who do not have any digital devices at home.  We do not have wireless hotspots however Comcast is offering up to 60 days of free Wi-Fi service. Click  HERE for more details

• We have shared information with our teachers that should go out in their daily newsletter regarding food access should anyone need it over the extended digital learning time.  This includes the Atlanta Food Bank, 5 schools in APS that will offer pre-packaged meals from 10-12pm daily as well as our partnership with Goodr. Info can be found HERE

• If your students need any help with assignments outside of school hours, TutorATL provides homework help for students and can be accessed through mybackpack.apsk12.org

Since all teachers are still working, and on the clock for their normal business hours of 7:30am-3:00pm, they are available to answer emails if you have any questions or concerns regarding our digital learning.  Please keep in mind that our teachers will not have any more info than you do on when school will reopen. Please continue to stay up to date on when APS will reopen by visiting the district homepage. I also want to remind you that our Morris Brandon’s Got Talent show was rescheduled for May 15.  Please also mark your calendars as we rescheduled the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory performance for May 14 since the two dates overlapped. There will also be more info in the coming days around Night of the Arts that is scheduled for March 31. Furthermore, all SST/504 and IEP meetings will be rescheduled by the case manager upon return. 

Lastly, while online learning is important and daily reading and math fluency is critical, the most important thing is to remain healthy!  That means having fun, playing outside if possible, being physically active and eating healthy. Please continue to help our children find balance.

I look forward to continuing our communication over our extended digital learning time and of course, reach out to me or a member of our admin team with any questions or concerns you may have. 

Until next time!

Principal Jay Bland