Important Back-to-School Information
Dear Kreiva Families,
We hope you have had a wonderful summer. The Kreiva team is excited for back to school and you should have received an email which has important information regarding your student’s cohort number, course schedules, orientation, and academic and technology updates.
The letters after each cohort number signify days of attendance for hybrid students, students who are full remote, or students attending through VLACS.
COHORT A: Hybrid students attending in person on Mondays and Tuesdays
COHORT B: Hybrid students attending in person on Thursdays and Fridays
COHORT C: All remote students participating in the full daily course schedule virtually
COHORT D: VLACS students fulfilling academic requirements through the VLACS offering and participating in Kreiva Crew each day
No matter how students are attending this Fall, all students are required to log in and take part in Crew every morning to maintain enrollment at Kreiva. Each student will stay with their cohort throughout each day. Teachers will rotate from class to class to provide instruction throughout the cohorts and limit interaction amongst cohorts to maintain as safe a learning environment as possible. Students will have the opportunity to work with small groups during classes that will be a blend of students that are in person or remote on any given day. Look on the schedule, find your students cohort number, and then follow the schedule down vertically to see the daily order of classes. Please view the daily schedule here.
Back to School Orientation
For Hybrid Students: Your student will attend Back to School orientation on the days that they would normally attend based on their cohort letter. In-person Back to School orientation will be held on Tuesday, September 8th and Wednesday, September 9th for Lower School Cohort A and Upper School Cohort A and on Thursday, September 10th and Friday, September 11th for Lower School Cohort B and Upper School Cohort B. Students should bring a lunch for the first day of orientation. Lunch will be provided on the second day of orientation.
The orientation schedule for the first week of school for hybrid students is as follows:
Cohort A Tuesday, September 8th from 8:30am to 3:30pm: Bring lunch Wednesday, September 9th from 8:30am to Noon: Lunch provided
Cohort B Thursday, September 10th from 8:30am to 3:30pm: Bring lunch Friday, September 11th 8:30am to Noon: Lunch provided
For Full Remote and VLACS Students: All Full Remote (Cohort C) and VLACS students (Cohort D) will take part in orientation on Wednesday, September 9th from 1:00pm to 3:30pm. Orientation is a time for community building at Kreiva regardless of how you will be attending this fall. We will participate in team building activities during the orientation time, as well as offer important technology and health and safety training for students.
One of the exciting aspects of being a school that embraces project-based learning is the many opportunities afforded students to make connections between their coursework, personal interests, and the real world. During the last several years, we have reflected on how to offer our classes to best support project-based learning and student mastery of competency-based learning goals. To this end, we are excited to announce the following updates for the 2020-2021 school year:
Upper School and Lower School Teams Each team will have math, a science, and two humanities teachers. Each trimester, student schedules will have math, a science, two humanities, and an enrichment course. Students will be placed in math classes based on their level of mastery of course content. Students will be placed in science and humanities courses based on maintaining a balance of students at various grade levels and student needs. Note: During hybrid/remote instruction, students have been placed in cohorts based on math groups to maintain safety and health protocols. Cohorts (the same group of students) will stay together throughout each day in classes.
Transdisciplinary Course Connections Teams have adopted a powerful theme for each trimester that will weave throughout courses. Themes will meaningfully anchor courses and enable students to apply what they are learning across disciplines while inspiring higher-order thinking and powerful connections. The more students can make meaningful connections and apply what they are learning, the deeper understanding will be. Students will not need to register for courses. Each course will feature engaging, rigorous content and opportunities for students to relate to course topics through their project work.
Interactive Online Learning Platforms and Professional Development After a thorough review of our online learning model from this past spring, we recognized a need to better translate our “hands on” project-based learning approach in a virtual environment. We have invested in several software and digital learning platforms that will help us provide a more engaging and interactive online learning experience for students. We are excited to launch our fall program of learning enhanced with Zoom, Nearpod, and AgileMind Mathematics. During the back to school orientation program, all students will participate in training sessions for how to use each of the technology platforms we will be using this fall.
Additionally, we invested in substantial professional development for all staff through PBL Works (https://www.pblworks.org/). PBL Works is an internationally recognized leader in developing teacher capacity to design and facilitate quality Project Based Learning and developing the capacity of school and system leaders to set the conditions for teachers to implement great projects with all students. Much of that training and development was evident as our teachers worked collaboratively over the summer to develop a curriculum that will provide a quality learning experience whether in the in-person mode or remote form of instruction.
We are deeply committed to creating an educational program that honors the personalized learning journey of every student. Thank you for your continued support and we look forward to working with you and your students this fall.
Please do not hesitate to contact me, Jenn Siegfried, Director of Academics, at jsiegfried@kreiva.org if you have any additional questions.
Your Partner in Education, Jenn