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Holiday Connections
During COVID
I would like to take the opportunity to thank teachers, parents, and the community at large for your support and sacrifice throughout the first 3 months of the school year. Your efforts have helped to keep our schools open and safe during this pandemic. Looking around the state, many schools have been forced to transition into distance learning for long periods of times, thus separating children from their friends and the resources they rely on.
Throughout the first part of this year, MCW has been fortunate to keep students to our buildings. This speaks to the commitment of our staff and the community to do their part during this difficult time. Thank you again for keeping your child(ren) home when they are ill and your honest communication with office staff. Together we are capable of keeping our schools a safe and welcoming place where students can thrive and excel.
In speaking with many parents, it is clear this holiday season is anything but traditional. Many I talked to are conflicted between meeting with relatives and confronting COVID-19. I have heard many unique and innovative ways in which families continue to connect while mitigating the risk of spreading COVID. Here are some ideas that stand out: - Drive-up Movie: SmartTVs have allowed for the flexible placement around the house. If you have a SmartTV, you could place it in a window or garage so family members can park nearby and enjoy the movie.
- Virtual Dinner Party: Set specific times to meet and enjoy a common meal together. Apparently, this has developed into a competition between households as they compare meal presentation and cooking skills.
- Nightly Stories: Households take turns reading to other households in a video chat or conference call. The family which shared this idea took this one step further! They all had the same book and each household would alternate pages during the video chat. Also, if there is a favorite family memory, one person could tell the story and each household can create a picture. At the conclusion of the story each family shares their picture through video chat or texting the picture to everyone.
- Virtual Game Night: Most families have a favorite board game. One parent explained how 4 different households came together to play "Sorry". In this case, they took a phone and streamed the position of the game pieces on the board.
- Mail Real Cards: This holiday tradition is one of the favorites in our house. Getting a card in the mail is so fun for my kids. They love to open the envelope and see their cousins on a holiday card. My parents like to send a family letter and my kids listen carefully to hear what everyone is up to.
- Send Food, Flowers, and Gifts: There are many options for delivery of food, flowers, and gifts. Sometimes just a little something out of the blue really brightens our day.
- Car Decoration: If you live near relatives, a car decoration/parade might be a fun idea for you. This idea came from a family with grandparents who are housebound. To celebrate all the holidays throughout the year, each household decorated their car and then drove past the grandparents' house. The grandparents would then determine a winner. At first, window paint was used the most, but has evolved into lights, costumes, and theme music.
- Remote Movie Night: If your family has a traditional holiday movie and all the households have the movie, in a video chat or conference call, synchronize the start of the movie together and share the experience together.
On behalf of all staff in the Martin County West School District, we wish you all a safe and health winter break.
Chad Brusky, Interim Superintendent of Schools
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Martin County West Schools is Accepting New Open Enrollment Students Martin County West Schools has many great things to offer our students: - Student centered environment
- Small elementary class sizes
- Variety of educational choices and opportunities
- Safe, orderly schools
- High graduation rate
- Technology integrated at all levels
- Recently updated facilities
- 22% of our students open enroll to MCW from other districts
Please contact one of the schools show below to open enroll your students to MCW: - Sherburn Elementary (K-2) 507-764-4461
- Trimont Elementary (3-6) 507-639-2081
- MCW Jr/Sr High (7-12) 507-764-4671
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