Dancing My ABCs

Dancing through life as a principal…one alphabet letter at a time

One Week in the Books

March20

Check out my Twitter reflection by clicking on the image below:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


5 Things that Made Me Smile this Week

-curating a newsletter to support teachers with e-learning resources
-top 3 challenge from a teacher in my district
-collaboration across our K-12 district
-teacher’s jumping in with things outside their comfort zone
-seeing my child’s learning firsthand

4 Words to Describe My Week
new, historical, nerve racking, successful

3 Things I Plan to Do This Weekend
-try not to check my email
-have a popcorn and movie night with my family
-eat chocolate

2 Things I Learned This Week
-breaks are important for kids AND adults
-the importance of instructional coaching positions

1 Goal I Have For Next Week
-trying to enjoy spring break

Day One of E-Learning

March16

Our e-learning plan started today. I cannot even begin to express how proud I am to work for the curriculum department. We have worked tirelessly on a plan to best support teachers, students, and parents during this time. While it will be a work and progress for sure, it feels good to be ready to go during this historical pandemic.

Yesterday, students K-3 were able to go to their home school and pick up their school issued Chromebooks from 3pm-5pm. Grades 4-12 take their devices home, so we wanted to make sure all students had access to technology.

As instructional coaches, we decided that since there were so many emails coming in this week, that we would each take a day to be “in charge”. We have a group email account and so if it was our day, we would be the main one responding. We of course could reach out to each other if one of us was better suited to respond.

In terms of life at home during this time, my husband is still able to go into the office and my youngest could go to daycare. This really did allow for me to work remotely AND assist my oldest son in his e-learning activities. After our first day we realized two things:
1.) Making a to do list helps ensure we have completed everything we need to for the day
2.) Schedule breaks and lunch is important so we don’t forget

While it may not have been perfect, it was a pretty successful day one of e-learning. Here’s also to turning 38!

Check out my day one reflection post by clicking on the image below:

One for the record books..

March13

Check out my video reflection by clicking on the image below:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5 Things that Made Me Smile this Week
-being asked to help the superintendent in an e-learning plan
-working with an amazing team of people
-having a district wide LMS
-the power of having a PLN to lean on and reach out to
-caffeinated beverages

4 Words to Describe My Week
chaotic, unprecedented, difficult, emotional,

3 Things I Plan to Do This Weekend
-relax
-appreciate and spend time with my family
-celebrate my 38th birthday with friends

2 Things I Learned This Week
-importance of relying on others
-that I can summarize if I put my mind to it 😉

1 Goal I Have For Next Week
-trying to remain calm during this unprecedented time

Here we go…

March11

When you get an email request from the superintendent that reads, cancel all of your appointments and meetings for the day and come to the district office at 11am….it is going to be a day. This is the message the curriculum department received today and it definitely threw us all for a loop. It turned out that word on the street was the Governor was going to close school for the next few weeks due to the spread of COVID-19. Our superintendent wanted us to be all hands on deck for the next three days should this go into effect. Best case scenario was a week of e-learning, then spring break, then back to school. Worst case scenario was longer but to come up with a plan that could transition into longer if needed. It was a lot to process.

Now it was go time. We determined since we were a Canvas school that this LMS (learning management system) would be our main source of communication. Teachers could utilize Google tools and/or Seesaw but everything had to be housed in Canvas. This would streamline communication for everyone. We knew that we would need to analyze where staff was with Canvas and also create video tutorials to support teachers that could be watched during PLC today. We also had directions that it was only to be reviewing and no introduction of new content was to occur.

For elementary it was determined there would be a choice board. Each grade level at each school would create a choice board where students were encouraged to complete at least one activity per row. PLC time would be a great time for teachers to begin filling out their choice boards and have the opportunity to see what other grade level teachers at other schools were doing too. Secondary would just need to make sure to have items located on Canvas for students to review.

Finally, we decided that we would be available at one of the schools from 1:30pm-4pm for teachers to come and get help and/or ask questions during PLC today.

PHEW! It was then dividing and conquering, typing up emails, creating templates, finding/creating examples, recording tutorials, and checking Canvas pages. I am so proud of how well we worked together to come up with a plan to best support teachers, students, and parents during this time. It also felt good to be recognized as someone who will be vital to helping and assisting our school community.

Tomorrow, we are continuing to reach out to other schools and members of our PLN for advice/resources, checking Canvas pages, coming up with what other video tutorials need to be created, thinking of how to communicate the plan out to families, and checking in with teachers who may need support. We got this!

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