Dear Starfire Families,
I hope this message finds you in good health and your first day with the kids home from school went as well as can be expected. Day one is behind us but each day ahead will be a learning experience. We are all in this together and will take each day as it comes.
At Starfire, we are excited about the possibilities of virtual classrooms to help engage your children in STEAM activities. We are collaborating with our teachers and partners to pull together a comprehensive curriculum plan to be delivered via a Starfire Virtual Classroom.
Our goal is to bring the Starfire hands-on, learn by doing, critical thinking, problem solving pedagogy to the virtual classroom. We believe that the sessions should be a balance of education and entertainment, and understand younger students in particular will need special attention to keep them engaged in the virtual classroom and are keeping this in mind as we develop the experience.
The Starfire Virtual Classroom will provide live video sessions with Starfire teachers over Zoom, a video conferencing platform that allows teachers and students to see and interact with one another. All virtual sessions through Zoom will be recorded so that you can rewatch the lessons with your child at any time. We plan to test the live video sessions starting late this week or early next week.
Starfire Virtual Classroom classes will be organized by subject, grade and level. The kindergartner classes will be capped at four students, and the upper grade classes will be capped at five or six students, depending on the subject. We plan on offering classes five or six days a week and we will publish a schedule so you can select the subject and time that works best for you.
During the virtual classroom sessions, your child will have the opportunity to meet students from other schools which will help expand their network and allow them to be social with others during this isolating time.
In addition to our virtual classes we will offer 1-1 tutoring via Zoom for math, science, engineering coding, and languages with Starfire teachers.
To make this shift in our after-school programming work, we will need the assistance and support of home caregivers, and appreciate your help in advance.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding Starfire classes at your school please email info@starfireed.com or call me at 650-649-9575.
These are difficult times for us all. Thank you for your patience and kindness during this challenging time.
We wish all of you good health as you navigate the times ahead.
Sincerely,
Bob Cerf
President, Starfire Education