It is almost that time again! Summer is winding down and preparations are being made for the 2020-2021 school year. CAUTION: Plans subject to change without notice. With new confirmed COVID-19 cases on the rise, districts are faced with tough decisions about reopening schools. When schools DO reopen, they certainly won't look the same as they did before March 2020. Everything that was social about learning in schools has to be redesigned. School Classrooms aren't big enough to maintain adequate social distancing protocols. Teachers are often not equipped to transition to online content delivery. Students are sometimes unable to connect to online content delivery from their homes. My district with over 26, 000 students will be operating on a rotation schedule. Three groups. One week of face to face instruction followed by 2 weeks of remote learning. Factor in the time for multiple bus runs (bus capacity is limited) and the time for mandatory health screenings for all that enter the buildings, instructional time will be reduced. But that face to face time is invaluable. It will be the time to begin relationships and establish norms and protocols for online class time. Hopefully, we will make it through the first three week cycle before anyone has to quarantine or self-isolate due to COVID-19. While legislators and parents are advocating for schools to reopen, no one is providing the financial support so that it can be done. Extra bus runs mean more money on fuel. TO be prepared for devices for in school and at home use, devices need to be purchased. Programs to help support online learning need to be upgraded and/or purchased. Many teachers have sought out the necessary professional learning opportunities to build their online teacher skills. Luckily many are free. The schools with dedicated digital learning coaches have not missed a beat! They have been building capacity in their teachers since BEFORE the school closure began. Sadly, many schools do not have that role. Some districts prioritize it, others do not. Those that don't have struggled the most. UPDATE: After this was posted, our district switched to ALL REMOTE LEARNING for the first nine weeks. Back to planning!
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AuthorJeannie Timken Archives
March 2023
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