August 24, 2020
Clackamas Middle College Students and Parents,
I am excited to take this opportunity to fill you in on more updates regarding the 2020-2021 school year at Clackamas Middle College (CMC). In this week’s communication I would like to share with you: our district’s efforts to support families during the pandemic, key terms to understand regarding Comprehensive Distance Learning (CDL), what the CMC high school schedule looks like, and key dates and times of things to come within the next three weeks. Please use this information to help support your son/daughter during the upcoming school year.
Since early spring, we have moved quickly to address the safest and best educational model to implement during this pandemic. During this time, it was necessary to reach out to families, students, and staff to build upon our experiences from the spring to deliver a much better model for the 2020-2021 school year. In this communication (see attachment), our superintendent describes the guiding principles, and feedback NCSD used to ensure a better educational model than the one implemented in the spring.
Other information (see attachment) pertaining to Comprehensive Distance Learning (CDL) at Clackamas Middle College (CMC) are the key features, key terms to understand (synchronous, asynchronous, and applied learning), along with highlights, and a common CMC high school schedule. Please take some time to review these terms as they will be important in order to support your son/daughter during the school year. We will also include these terms during student and family orientations to ensure the success of each of our students.
We took the feedback from spring and summer and created a schedule with many improvements from spring trimester. This schedule includes the following:
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- Classes from 8:30-3:45pm
- Most students will be enrolled in this four-period schedule
- Provides a consistent, simplified schedule for teachers, students, and families while ensuring: Four periods per day on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday & Friday
- Classes earn half a credit in a trimester
- Student group and club time will be built into this schedule
- Students are scheduled into classes based on high school and college need
- Synchronous learning scheduled for each day
- Asynchronous and applied learning scheduled for each day
- 45-minute lunch break
- Wednesday- College Readiness Seminar (CRS) from 10:15-11:15 am
- Check-in, community building, social-emotional well-being, opportunities for additional support, and college and career guidance
- Teacher/Counselor office hours connected to each period of the day for extra academic support and guidance
CMC staff is working diligently this week to schedule students in required high school classes for graduation. We are working to get students their schedule of classes by early next week. Students in our college programs will take online courses through CCC and can access their college schedule through their college account.
The last piece of communication this week is to give families more information pertaining to Student and Family Orientation Week: September 8-11th. This year, because we are implementing a new education model (CDL), we want to utilize the first week back to help students and families navigate Comprehensive Distance Learning successfully. During this week, we will cover topics such as: meet the CMC staff, expectations, resources for families and students, access to academic and emotional support, technology training, and finally other communications pertinent to the school term/year.
The orientation is important to ensure that students, families, and CMC staff: are familiar with the tools and resources used during Comprehensive Distance Learning (CDL), build community and connection, and build confidence and a culture of support and partnership.
As I mentioned in my earlier communications, we, at Clackamas Middle College, are committed to provide the best possible education to our students. Together, with your partnership, our students will succeed and move toward college and career opportunities while enrolled at CMC.
If you haven’t had the opportunity to complete the following survey, please click on the following link. It is to ensure each of our students has access to reliable internet and a computing device.
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- Technology Access Survey Link (see letter and link under Recent News on our website)
Thanks again for your patience and flexibility, and I will reach out next week with more detailed information pertaining to the school year.
Take care, stay safe, and have a great week!
Respectfully,
Brian Sien, Ed.D.
Principal
Clackamas Middle College