On January 19, the Board of Trustees approved five at-home instructional days for all GISD students.  The approved days are designated in green on the revised 2020-21 calendar.

The good news is this does not change the school days; we have just designated the mode of instruction. 

On these five at-home PreK-12 learning days, which are all Fridays, teachers will post self-paced lessons online for students to complete while at home each of these days:

• Feb. 5
• Feb. 19
• March 26
• April 23
• May 7

The reason teachers need additional planning days is that disruptions due to COVID-19 have created significant learning gaps. In the best interest of our students and to keep teaching and learning on track, we are using the five at-home learning days to allow students to continue independent learning while giving teachers valuable time to work on differentiated lesson plans for each student. 

The Texas Education Commissioner has given school boards across Texas the latitude to provide teachers additional days to plan effective lessons for each individual student.  COVID has caused learning gaps wider than ever before.  These five days will allow teachers to design lesson plans that are adapted for each student. This will provide our teachers the opportunity to work with their colleagues to provide cross-curricular support. So, for example, a science teacher who finds a student hasn't mastered the math skills needed to make scientific computations might work with the student's math teacher to boost instruction and skill levels.  Further, teachers will be able to share ideas, techniques and strategies that have worked well with other teachers throughout their grade level throughout GISD.

In the best interest of our students and to keep teaching and learning on track, we are building in five at-home instruction days that will allow students to do independent learning while giving teachers valuable time to work on differentiated lesson plans for each student.

GISD is providing on-campus learning for families who signed up last week. On-campus learning is being held at L.P. Waters for PreK and Bowie Elementary for K-6. Instructional support and hands-on learning activities will be facilitated by GISD staff. Grab-and-go meals will also be provided for all GISD students.