The materials below are NOT REQUIRED for participation in Salem Middle School’s Remote Learning or Virtual Academy.  They may, however, make your child’s remote learning experience more structured and productive.

A Table or Desk to Work At that Allows Your Child to Put their Feet on the Floor. 

If your child were at school, they would be sitting at a desk with their feet on the floor during learning.  Something about that position sends the message to learners that it is time to focus.  Creating a similar workspace for your child at home -- as opposed to allowing them to learn from their beds or laid back in their favorite recliner -- will help to encourage them to think of their Virtual Academy Lessons as “schoolwork.”  

A Small Dry Erase Board.

Like any lesson, your students are going to be doing lots of brainstorming, free thinking, and problem solving during their lessons in Salem Middle School’s Virtual Academy.  It may be easier for them to do that work on a small dry erase board than it would be to do that same work on notebook paper or in separate tabs in their web browsers.  

A Desk Organizer.

If your child were learning at school this year, they would have ready access to things like pencils, pens, post-it notes and paper clips.  By keeping a stocked desk organizer at their work space during remote learning, you will leave them better prepared to meet any material needs that arise during synchronous or asynchronous learning.  

A Pair of Blue Light Blocking Glasses

While we will do our best to build breaks into our instruction, students learning in Salem Middle School’s Virtual Academy will be spending more time behind screens than students learning in classrooms.  As you know, exposure to the blue light produced by screens can cause eye fatigue and interfere with the body’s production of melatonin - a hormone essential for healthy sleep patterns.  

To mitigate the impact of extensive screen exposure, think about buying your child a fashionable pair of blue-light blocking glasses.  Doing so will help with both eye strain and sleep patterns.  You can also explore the blue light filtering options on your child’s device -- or look at software programs that filter blue light automatically from the screens that your child will work behind.

Seating that Enables Fidgeting.

Let’s face it:  Regardless of age, kids need to fidget.  In school, we see students sitting on their feet during lessons.  We see students kneeling in their chairs during lessons.  We see students standing behind their desks during lessons.  

Odds are that your child will want to do all of those things during their remote learning experience in Salem Middle School’s Virtual Academy.  

So, think about where they will be sitting.  Does the chair you currently have make fidgeting easier?  Can your child pull their feet up or sit on their knees -- if that is how they most like to sit?  Can they move easily to the left and right on the chair that you have for them?  

You can also try out alternative seating options like exercise balls or wobble chairs if your child likes to move a lot while sitting down!