Distance Learning

Distance learning updates, guidance and resources.

Updates

May 6th Town Hall Meeting Audio and Video Recordings

Guidance

Educational Philosophy
In the context of COVID-19, our Golden Bridges School educational philosophy remains unchanged and we are committed to the education of our students and providing support to families, teachers and our greater community.

Golden Bridges School operations follow the guidance of the San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH), the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). We appreciate our community’s responsiveness as we share information essential to our Golden Bridges School operations and will continue to keep our community updated as to current guidance, offering supplemental information and resources as they become available.

We are standing up at this challenging time, in this place and for the community we love.

Golden Bridges School operates in service to our community, leveraging new tools and new resources to support our Waldorf-inspired pedagogy - our students are learning, our teachers are teaching, and our community is pulling together to support one another in remarkable ways.

Though the essence of Golden Bridges remains unchanged, the method of how we meet the children is ever evolving in step with the changes to our daily lives. With careful consideration for the needs of the teachers, students and families, we have created a thoughtful distance learning program, including a weekly and daily schedule of LIVE online classes, brought in conjunction with asynchronous (flexible and not scheduled) instruction for all students and their families via Google Classroom.

The decision for our school to use screens across the board, with children of all ages, was not an easy one. We have wrestled mightily with the implications of this method of instruction, which challenges our ideals around how we bring education to the student and how they experience this education. Our highest endeavor is to bring age-appropriate, experiential education, nourishing the whole child through all of their senses. This is compromised through screens. However, our passion for relationship and connection in the teacher-student partnership is paramount.

We aim to continue the rhythm and richness of our education, even from within the confines of our individual homes. Children are transported back to the familiar classroom when they hear sound of a teacher’s voice when they begin to sing the morning greeting of circle, or the finger game that was always done before lunchtime; the tune of C on a recorder; the feeling of yarn held between two knitting needles; the clap of a familiar hand game upon your own lap; the puppet that came to visit the children every day with a new story; sharing the growing plants of your potted seeds with classmates; and the sensation, and ritual, of a colored pencil creating your main lesson book.

Alongside our work processing and responding to these serious and complex ongoing considerations, we have also heard the needs of our community and felt the longing in our own hearts for connection with the children we love. Our faculty and staff are innovative and inspired in how to transform our pedagogy to meet the current situation. Our Waldorf-inspired education is not an impulse of the past but instead lives in the present moment of the time and place in which we exist as humans and the time we find ourselves at this juncture is unprecedented.

Morning Glory Kindergarten Teacher, Melanie, with a puppet show of her handmade puppets delivered to each student in her class.

5th Grade Teacher, Ms. Delafkaran, continuing botany studies from Google Classroom with a video created in the parks of San Francisco.

Resources

Distance Learning Resources
The above link redirects offsite to Google Classroom our distance learning tool for parent resources and student instruction.

Distance Learning Support
The above link directs requests for technical support to a shared inbox monitored by parent volunteers and staff.

Public Health Information and Resources