by Dennis Harter, MS Principal
dennish@isb.ac.th
The true measure of the strength of a community is how it perseveres in the face of unexpected change or difficulty. With this in mind, I want to share my appreciation for the professionalism, dedication, and hard work of the teachers during this week of virtual school. It is not easy on a weekend’s notice to adjust practices from live classrooms to online ones, so that learning continues in a completely different format. Middle School teachers have collaborated, learned new skills, and created new content to ensure that students continued to make learning progress in virtual school.
I also have to thank the efforts of our parents too, who have had to change home routines and support their children in new, evolving circumstances. We know that for every family there have been challenges, successes, and struggles. We have always said that student succeed best when home and school partner together. We have seen that this week more than ever. If you are still looking for supports to help your children focus, we have put together this MS Virtual School Checklist for setting routine and staying focused.
Finally, thank you to our students. Not surprisingly, we had to do some chasing at the start of the week, as students figured out the expectations and whether they would be held accountable. It is middle school, after all! But as teachers reached out, as parents checked in, and as counselors followed up, students recognized the routines, focused, and engaged in the learning. Well done, middle school students! You continue to do us proud.
Uncertainty, constantly changing circumstances, diminished social contact, and global and local health concerns can cause a lot of stress for us as adults, but also our young adolescent students. In order to achieve our mission goal of healthy, active, balanced lives, we hope we have structured our virtual school to balance screen time with opportunities to be active and social. We had great turnout today at our live online advisory meetings using Google Meet. We saw smiling faces and students shared how things have been going. If at any time, you have concerns around how your child is coping with the situation or other stressors, please reach out to our school counselors.
Winston Churchill said this about facing difficult times:
“The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”
These “difficult” times have tested us, for certain. Maybe it is the optimist in me, but what I have seen – through all of the challenges for students, parents, and teachers – has been the best of our community rising to support kids, to demonstrate respect to all, and to value school to continue learning. A community that sees this difficulty as an opportunity to care for one another.
I remain proud to be part of this ISB and Middle School community.