April 17, 2020

Dear Administrator,

I suggested a pass/fail system weeks ago, but did not pursue that path since all of us have been trying to figure out remote teaching. I am also in favor of the Moorestown Friends model. Whichever system we choose, we need to stand by it. Moreover, as a faculty we need to be compassionate and forgiving of our students.

The Zoom meetings have already jumped the shark. My courses are being run as independent studies with fifty-six individual students. My AP Literature students can pull this off far better than my ninth graders. Distance teaching has transformed me into an instructor; I am no longer a teacher.

This has been a trying time that has tried all of our souls. In retrospect, I wish we had focused more on community building, ethics and personal growth rather than academics, but we’re here now, and I hope the administration will continue to take a sympathetic approach to our grading policy.

Thank you for listening as well as your guidance.

Sincerely,

Richie

sent in by Richard Fulco, a high school English Teacher in New Jersey

April 29 2020

Dear Students,

The San Francisco Creative Writing Institute has started a website “Dispatches From The Quarantine” featuring the voices of professional and emerging writers in our community. Your shelter in place essays, and your creative writing assignments have been so powerful- Please consider sending them to Dispatches From The Quarantine. Even if you are shy about your writing- The SF Creative Writing Institute is willing publish your work as a living record of our city.

Again, I am so proud of you and honored to be your teacher.

— 

Nicole Henares

English Teacher

Lowell High School,

San Francisco, CA.