Saint Paul's Choir School transitioned to remote learning more than three weeks ago and and we are thriving. If you'd like to learn more about our first three weeks and initial work with remote learning, please see our homepage's link to Covid-19 Updates.
Teachers and administrators have been refining our digital programming as we learn more and more about the platforms available and our students' responses to them. We are making excellent use of Google Classroom, Google Forms, Screencastify, Zoom, and SeeSaw, among others.
It has been an interesting time to be a teacher. This pivot has afforded us many opportunities to experiment with our teaching methods. In addition, it has forced us to critically examine our pedagogy and which skills we want our boys to hone before the end of their school.
There are a few true highlights about Saint Paul's Choir School's response to Covid-19 and remote learning.
Our boys did not miss a single day. The Friday before in-school hiatus all boys who needed it were provided a Chromebook and all students received instruction in using the Google Suite of online tools: G-Mail, Docs, Forms, and Classroom.
Our boys are advancing their learning. Teachers are focused on skill-building and using the digital tools available to them to provide meaningful feedback and coaching on those skills.
Our community is still highly active. Boys are still receiving "house points" and working in social (though distant) peer activities such as LEGO challenges, a meme contest, Zoom assemblies, stock market club, etc. Virtual career day is coming soon!
We are still heavily invested in educating the whole child. We are continuing with opportunities to explore the many faiths our families celebrate. Families are meeting over Zoom to pray the Rosary, Masses are streaming. The advisory program and staff team meetings continue, allowing us to coach boys in academics, study habits, and organization.
The music department is meeting regularly. Boys are journaling their home practice, vocal coaches and piano teachers are meeting over Zoom, and the boys are exploring the importance of the classic Handel's Messiah.
Moreover, we hope you are encouraged by the feedback we have received from parents so far!
