Friday Reflections

Amanda Gorman wrote and delivered the perfect message for all of us.  The poem’s title is spot on “The Hill We Climb” - and its message is so fitting for schools. This week we moved up the hill when our kindergarten and first grade hybrid kids came back into our school -   their school .  A kindergarten girl came into the building and said "I've been waiting years for this day".   A first grade parent stopped and said we were thinking about the timeline and our daughter has spent more time in remote learning then actually in the school; parent and child were both excited to be back in school and the girl remembered most of the building. And, when teaching began, you began the delicate balance of teaching to the kids now in front of you and teaching to the Zoom kids.  You are the maestros conducting the wonderful orchestra of learning.  For sure, hybrid throws off your rhythm, rattles your securities, but what you accomplished this week is monumental! It’s you climbing up

After reading each group’s notes on their “do’s” and “don'ts”, all of us pulled out the major points from the  EdWeek article    I wish we would’ve had more time with the article - because discussing ideas allows us to extend our thinking.  But as we find our way in these next months we will return to many of these insights.      Below are some thoughts expanding on some common threads we all pulled from the article: Do play to your strengths.  I hope you know your strength/s; your strong characteristics and your best practices will enable you to be successful. Do reach out - in other words, do not go it alone.  Share the work.  Share the wealth of what you know with each other.  Others may have tips/experience - ask...ask...ask. For help.  Do streamline your work load.  Most of us are in the midst of transition - kids on screen and kids in person.  What you're doing right now with remote learning with the entire class, may continue to be very effective in this hybrid situation

On this last day of the week, I don’t want you to overburden your already overburdened hearts and minds with work related issues. Today, the Friday after Wednesday, the day the Presidential electoral votes were to be counted, we are all Americans. We have experienced the democracy that we have taken for granted be shaken to its roots.  And, it is unsettling, to say the least - to see the seat of our government taken over.   Isn’t there enough going on with our very lives threatened by the Covid?  Many of our families being jobless; many of our neighborhood businesses closing or close to closing; our school staff taxed to the max in terms of adapting to virtual leaning and then to hybrid.  Enough. We look at the events of this week and are aware more than ever we need to build bridges, not walls.  And, as educators, we have the tools and the mindset to build moral bridges that will unite not divide. This weekend take time to clear your heads and lift your spirits. Think about how import