3/20
TGIF. Friday is always the end of the week, no matter what the week has been like. This one has been as busy as each day this week because there is still so much to do. Teachers are doing double-duty: creating and delivering activities for all Mahoney students while learning how to stay closely in touch with students, teachers, parents and our specialists so that essential information is shared and everyone enjoys success. During the course of normal teaching days there’s a lot to do; it really is like herding cats. Today it feels like trying to herd cats that are on a ranch miles away.
There were lots of person-hours today spent in virtual meetings. My own camera was active for over 4 hours in the first part of the day. We worked on solutions for problems we didn’t see coming, such as the issue of our kids being able to take over synchronous Hangout Meets. (Google hadn’t designed Meet for adolescents still learning the etiquette of virtual meetings. Absolutely fabulous, still, that Google has made their premium vehicle for distance collaboration freely available to schools, and we all appreciate that.) We learned through exploration the work-arounds for that and several other issues. Ideas for rich learning done by distance continue to pop up as the education community around the world does what it does best, sharing innumerable resources that will help to make this time work. It’s energizing and at the same time enervating; many of us feel like the plate spinner made famous on the old Ed Sullivan Show. (I’m giving away my age here...)
The middle of the day was an hour long staff meeting with 60+ colleagues together in our own homes sharing successes and concerns. Plans for contacting those students who haven’t yet connected with us were made. More resources were added to the ever growing list of what works for Mahoney From Home teaching and learning. And it was good to see familiar smiling faces, and to look around the huddle and to know we have each other's backs.
Late in the day, Superintendent Kunin announced to the entire community that we would not be back in school before April 27. So spring begins Saturday, crocuses will start to poke up, more birds will drop in, and the smell of mud in Maine will return while we “work our way through this,” as my friend and colleague Alan Hawkins would often say. I think I hear Andee Schmearer singing down the hall: ‘The sun will come out tomorrow...”
5 days down.
spk
><>
TGIF. Friday is always the end of the week, no matter what the week has been like. This one has been as busy as each day this week because there is still so much to do. Teachers are doing double-duty: creating and delivering activities for all Mahoney students while learning how to stay closely in touch with students, teachers, parents and our specialists so that essential information is shared and everyone enjoys success. During the course of normal teaching days there’s a lot to do; it really is like herding cats. Today it feels like trying to herd cats that are on a ranch miles away.
There were lots of person-hours today spent in virtual meetings. My own camera was active for over 4 hours in the first part of the day. We worked on solutions for problems we didn’t see coming, such as the issue of our kids being able to take over synchronous Hangout Meets. (Google hadn’t designed Meet for adolescents still learning the etiquette of virtual meetings. Absolutely fabulous, still, that Google has made their premium vehicle for distance collaboration freely available to schools, and we all appreciate that.) We learned through exploration the work-arounds for that and several other issues. Ideas for rich learning done by distance continue to pop up as the education community around the world does what it does best, sharing innumerable resources that will help to make this time work. It’s energizing and at the same time enervating; many of us feel like the plate spinner made famous on the old Ed Sullivan Show. (I’m giving away my age here...)
The middle of the day was an hour long staff meeting with 60+ colleagues together in our own homes sharing successes and concerns. Plans for contacting those students who haven’t yet connected with us were made. More resources were added to the ever growing list of what works for Mahoney From Home teaching and learning. And it was good to see familiar smiling faces, and to look around the huddle and to know we have each other's backs.
Late in the day, Superintendent Kunin announced to the entire community that we would not be back in school before April 27. So spring begins Saturday, crocuses will start to poke up, more birds will drop in, and the smell of mud in Maine will return while we “work our way through this,” as my friend and colleague Alan Hawkins would often say. I think I hear Andee Schmearer singing down the hall: ‘The sun will come out tomorrow...”
5 days down.
spk
><>
RSS Feed