Friday Reflections

We are coming up on the last full week of October!   Praise the bridges that brought us thus far.  When I stop to think of my bridges, it’s special people who come to mind - the ones who helped me cross over to higher ground.   We have a bridge in our building - it’s Anna.  Anna has our severely handicapped three and four year old preschoolers.  Anna has fought and advocated to bring her students into the building.  She has pleaded not to wait until the entire school goes into the hybrid model.  She spoke up often and empowered us administrators to take the risk of moving her students to in person instruction.  Just soak in the image of Anna with her students.  You will see how significant Anna’s presence along with her wonderful pre school team in the lives of her kids - in the lives of her kids’s parents.  Kudos to you, Anna.  You and your team’s absence in the lives of your students was a huge void.  You built the ...

Whiplash, anyone? It seems that the longer we are into this pandemic, the longer the list of concerns and the list of questions. The big election, the big megaphones, the little voices all trying to break through the fog to move safely through daily personal and work life.  We want to pull the covers over our heads and not get out of bed; but, being responsible, caring, professional adults, hiding from reality is only occasionally an option. A special badge of heroism belongs to the preschool, kindergarten, 1st grade and special education staff who worked their tails off these past weeks to be prepared to teach hybrid next week. All of you stepped up – with the mixed emotions surrounding hybrid because that was what was needed.   You wanted to be meeting and smiling in person to little ones who surely would finally see you in person and greet you with warmth and excitement.  Probably more than any other single classes, the little ones need in person learning.  T...

We are all in this boat together – sink or swim.  Certainly, we are better off mentally when we swim.  When Mary first announced that we need to start planning for our hybrid model, I felt like I was sinking and occasionally coming up for air. I’m going to try to nail down my mindset over the last few weeks.   I struggled with thoughts like “I’m not ready for hybrid”, “we’re not ready for hybrid”, “I wasn’t expecting this”, “I don’t know where to turn”, “I don’t know how to turn”.  Helpless and looking for help – all in the same breath.  I felt anxious and frustrated.  I looked for reasons to prolong the start date and convinced myself that my thinking was correct. I continued being anxious and frustrated until a lightbulb went off for me.  I needed to be honest with myself about why I didn’t want to face this transition.  F...

I had a Friday reflection all set to send out this week, but I'm switching directions after our School District's board   meeting about our potential move into hybrid.  Most of us have found a comfortable rhythm with virtual learning - and   now a big wrench is thrown into it.  The introduction of Hybrid is on the calendar and it is indeed a daunting task. We   know there is no template for moving forward - not neat little grid where we can fill in the boxes - no clear cut roadmap.   Several staff members shared the following concerns: Can we keep students socially distant in our spaces with our current resources? Will my current class list go to the wayside after I just spent a month building camaraderie?  Will teaching assignments be shifted to different grades? different schools?  How do I protect the vulnerable people in my life? Is there a concrete statistic that will be using to make the call on staying remote, going hybrid, and going back r...

So where are we at in the middle of September?  Where are you at in the middle of September? I venture that we are questioning certain aspects of our school day and feeling good about other parts.  One of the biggest concerns for me is the gnawing concern about our youngest students.  Primary grade kids are participating well but will they learn to read etc through zoom lessons?   One thing I'm feeling good about is the presence of students. I love seeing the few kids who are in the building. How did it happen that these few kids were brought into school?  It happened because their educators insisted on it.  Caroline along with Kim made it happen for the kids in their structured classroom.  They knew their kids would be frozen, even regress, without spending in person learning time with them.  So, Caroline sent out a survey to her parents before school even started asking for their comfort level with having their kids in the building. Next, C...

Another week under our belts.  I’ve continued my journey into classroom zooms and have been impressed with what I’ve seen.  It’s inspiring to think how far we've come in such a short amount of time.  But, one glaring missing component in my observations in this virtual world is “learning with others”.  If the kids were in person, I would see students learning and interacting with their peers all over the school;  hearing teachers say “turn and talk to your partner about XYZ” was just as common as hearing the lunch bells. Recess, lunch, Friday fun time, classroom parties, and so on were times where students were able to socialize with each other without teachers orchestrating the dialogue of the group. Interacting with peers is a huge deal in the elementary setting.  Students need to “click” and make friends with the other students in their class.  The skills we learn from forming friendships in elementary school lay the foundation of how we relate to o...

Another week has come and gone.   Last spring when the end of the school year was in sight, virtual learning seemed more manageable. Now -we see no definite end in sight. It’s a new ballgame on a different playing field, and we don’t know what inning we are in. But we are showing up each day for each other and for our kids.  It’s obvious to me that we are getting our footing.   I went into Tyler and Rosemary’s classroom this week to get a deeper understanding of the complexity of our new way of teaching. By sharing what I saw, I hope you might gather some insight that may help you with the dynamics of virtual learning. Connection: They begin with a “Good Morning” greeting - greeting each student as they pop into the zoom. When announcing each individual student, they referred back to a personal tidbit that the student shared earlier in previous days: for example, “Sean, how is your dog, Rubble?”   Student Behavior Expectation: Students were reminded ...