Remote Learning Orientation

Dear Hargrave family:

I trust that you’re well and keeping safe during these uncertain times. With this week coming to a close, I hope your cadet has made it to a place of safety, and is prepared to engage in our first week of remote learning following spring break. The COVID-19 situation continues to be fluid, and Hargrave’s intent is to focus on the tasks that we can control. Your cadet’s faculty, advisor, and/or Guidance staff have been contacting your young man this week (initially via email) to ensure each cadet has access to reliable internet and coursework materials. In addition, the faculty has worked hard this week to craft a “Hargrave at Home” experience for your cadet until circumstances allow his return to campus. We have specifically looked at the feedback from your cadet, “lessons learned” from other schools, and our individual and collective experience with the teenage male learner.

The purpose of this letter is to provide details about the general structure of your cadet’s upcoming remote learning experience. Based on those details, we welcome your feedback so that we can prepare for a parents “Town Hall” meeting to be scheduled for early next week. The meeting will be held on the “Zoom” platform (details to come via email). This meeting will help you to understand the current situation and expectations for your cadet. Cadets will receive a more detailed briefing in the latter part of next week. Look for a calendar invite in your email.

Structure:

Daily Schedule

We will continue to use the A&B day schedule with which your cadet is familiar. We will modify the daily schedule to encompass all 6 “Blocks” (class periods) per day. This is also familiar to your cadet, although they may relate to an on-campus experience of 3 morning “classes” and 3 afternoon “IIT/SH”. We will maintain our general “2 day” expectation for “homework” (items assigned on Monday are due on Wednesday; items assigned on Thursday are due on Monday after a weekend).

Selected Portion of A&B Schedule.

Calendar from Mar 29 to Apr 25

Daily Schedule. All times are Eastern time.

TimeA-day eventB-day event
Prior to 0900Home responsibilities, Chapel Message, contact IT, faculty, advisor, PT/train as scheduled or needed
0900–0950Block 1Block 4
1000–1050Block 2Block 5
1100–1150Block 3Block 6
1200–1250Home responsibilities, Chapel Message, contact IT, faculty, advisor, PT/train as scheduled or needed
1300–1350Block 4Block 1
1400–1450Block 5Block 2
1500–1550Block 6Block 3
1600–1630Chapel Message, contact IT, faculty, advisor, PT/train as scheduled or needed, otherwise released to Home responsibilities

Cadets will be expected to log into Google classroom (https://classroom.google.com/) (and Zoom as needed) every school day for morning and afternoon Blocks. The activities during that time will be determined by individual faculty as they navigate course material and monitor the level of learning of their particular classes. We expect a mixture of learning activities: faculty-led presentation of material (through uploaded videos, textbook material, or even teacher-led discussions via chat, voice, or video), faculty-cadet interactions (Q&A for cadets wrestling with the “one-way” nature of the previous item), and the all-important cadet-cadet peer/group work. Similarly, the afternoon class isn’t solely “do reinforcement homework with the teacher available to tutor” but for the teacher and cadet to understand that some additional “learning” should be expected to occur in the afternoon.

Accountability:

Attendance

We will report to you if your cadet has not made his check-in times. A cadet needs to report to his faculty in Google Classroom by the time specified by the faculty member. You will be able to help us by outlining any extenuating circumstances and faculty can ask for accommodations from the Academic Dean on a case-by-case basis.

Homework

Faculty will generally use Google Classroom as a mechanism to collect and grade assignments. While not all assignments are cleanly “packaged” onto Google Classroom, parents have been invited as “Guardians” to Google Classroom (see your email for login information for https://classroom.google.com/). Rather than flooding your email with individual items, Google Classroom will send you a “Guardian email summary” (daily or by the week, per your selection) to include:

  • Missing work—Work that’s late at the time the email was sent
  • Upcoming work—Work that’s due today and tomorrow (for daily emails) or work that’s due in the upcoming week (for weekly emails)
  • Class activity—Announcements, assignments, and questions recently posted by teachers

Marking Periods/Exams

We currently plan on maintaining our current academic calendar for marking periods and the calculation of course grades.

Support:

Advisor

Your cadet’s advisor will check in with your cadet every Tuesday, just like normal, using Zoom or a Google Classroom. The advisor will determine a suitable time that allows both a “group check-in” (issues that each cadet might have in common) as well as some individual counseling. Individual (academic) counseling may spin off of these sessions as needed.

Academic Support

Mrs. Martin, Mrs. Olsen, and Mr. Veshi are monitoring trends in attendance and academic performance. Mrs. Martin ([email protected]) will continue her work with the cadets previously assigned to the Academic Learning Center. Mrs. Olsen ([email protected]) will continue her work with those cadets previously identified as well as be available for school counseling tasks. Mr. Veshi ([email protected]) is continuing with college guidance (see his note below).

IT Support

Mr. Jones will be available to provide support should faculty not be able to immediately help. His contact email is [email protected].

We will continue to update you as the situation changes. Thank you for your support and understanding! If you have any questions, please reach out to me (cell phone works better than my office phone). Otherwise I look forward to seeing or hearing from you at one of the Zoom meetings next week.

Sincerely yours,
Dr. Jim Tung
Academic Dean

Hargrave Military Academy logo.