Request textbooks and materials
Why?
The strain of remote learning has exacerbated parental worries over the excessive screen time required by BSD’s remote learning program.
Currently, our BSD children are expected to do the vast majority of their work online. This includes the reading of both electronic, as well as electronically scanned school materials, as well as using learning apps—in addition to meeting and seeing other students through the use of Teams.
We, Bellevue residents and taxpayers, would like Bellevue School District to provide ALL STUDENTS with hard/paper copies of the textbooks and workbooks normally used in each classroom.
We would like the option of having all testing materials distributed in hard copy format, when possible.
This would help provide students with screen time relief and help provide a beneficial resource that may help diminishing reading skills that have been shown as a result of online learning/remote learning.
Additionally, we would like teachers to help promote the reading and/or use of these hardcopy text- and workbooks, as an integral part of students’ learning experience.
We expect that each classroom is equipped with these textbooks and other supplies and would like the District to quickly develop a plan for distribution to all students.
Facts
Too much screen time is unhealthy for children and teenagers
Experts say too much screen time may have alarming effects on developing brains. A landmark National Institutes of Health study [1] of 10,000 children that began in 2018 found that those who spent more than two hours a day using screens scored lower on language and thinking tests.
Some children with more than seven hours a day of screen time also experienced thinning of the brain’s cortex, the area related to critical thinking and reasoning.
A recent Brookings Institute Study [2] on Student Achievement affected by COVID revealed the removal of students from consistent in-person school, and attendance of school online has probably led to 1 out of every 3 students [2] losing skills in reading and writing.
Read more about it:
[1] https://abcdstudy.org/[2] https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2020/05/27/the-impact-of-covid-19-on-student-achievement-and-what-it-may-mean-for-educators/)
Standard email to request textbooks and workbooks
To: [teacher]@bsd405.org; [school_principal]@bsd405.org; kautzs@bsd405.org;
Dear (Teacher and Principal), Sharon,
My child is personally struggling with the overuse of electronics to learn, and would benefit physically and emotionally from the use of the hardcopy workbooks and textbooks that are provided each year for use.
Please make available to my child all of these materials including (subjects here). I would like to arrange a mutually convenient time to pick the materials up.
Best Regards,
(Parent and Child Name)
You can find your child's teacher and school principal's email at https://bsd405.org/help/staff/
Sharon Kautz is in charge of textbook distribution at BSD.