March 23 Update

Dear Evergreen Community,

You may have seen that today Virginia Governor Ralph Northam announced that VA public schools will remain closed for the rest of the school year. And Maryland Governor Larry Hogan has ordered the closure of all nonessential businesses and organizations as of 5 p.m.

Like MCPS, Evergreen will follow the closure advice of State authorities and the CDC.  At this time, we do not have any information on what may happen in Maryland next week.  Our teachers are prepared to continue with our distance learning plans next week and beyond.

Thank you for your patience last week as all our faculty become adept at using the online tools, Vimeo, Zoom and others.  Classroom work plans are now being archived in classroom news feeds on the class pages in the Parent Portal.

Importance of Self Care and Community
More than anything, I encourage parents and teachers to take ample time everyday to practice using your self-care tools so that we can better maintain our inner calm as caregivers to our children. As best we can, in a crisis like this, we should try to insulate our children from our adult-world anxiety.  Although our lives and livelihoods may be upside down, our children need assurance and love from family, teachers and loved ones.

I have no doubt that everyone in our Evergreen community is doing the best they can managing family, work, health and faith through this time of incredible uncertainty. I hope that you find maintaining a connection to your children's teachers and friends continues to be a resource during the next few weeks ahead.

Many of us chose Montessori specifically because of its emphasis on social/emotional learning... and being away from our classroom communities is particularly difficult at this time. Stay in touch and maintain connection. We are in this together.

And don't forget to post to the closed Evergreen Facebook group  :)

All the best at this time,