This COVID-19 event is one that changes rapidly. In fact, it was only about a week ago when my son called me alarmed after Harvard experts spoke to the people on his Harvard-affiliated team. That was a wake-up call for me. After that, my brother-in-law sent an equally alarming story from Italy which inspired me to read even more.
On Thursday, the systemwide leadership in my school district made the wise choice to cancel school and send third through fifth graders home with computers. Earlier in the week, district leadership began the conversation about at-home learning and that conversation continued after schools shut down amongst educators and between district leadership and our local union. Last night, the Governor of Massachusetts shut down schools in Massachusetts until April 6. Then today we received district guidelines related to learning supports and upcoming virtual faculty meetings. Online learning support is scheduled to begin formally on March 19th providing teachers with two days to plan with their discipline and grade-level teams.
Wondering about what's ahead more led me to read about the predictive models that exist for this virus. The model predictions are daunting, however, with social distancing and self-isolating, there's some hope that the event won't be as disastrous as the models predict.
As far as educational support for students, there are many perspectives at play since we are attempting to provide an educational support program that we've never actually tried out before or discussed in earnest with the many educators that serve students daily. Schools are mainly based on time-on-task supports from countless individuals including teachers, teaching assistants, special educators, specialists, coaches, guidance counselors, and therapists. That adds up to lots of people with lots of specific roles including many roles that don't fit nicely into an online program. That said and acknowledged makes me realize that we have tread gently with one another as we create, share, and monitor these supports for children and families who choose to take partake. There may be many, many reasons why some students and families don't take partake including family matters that take priority including illness and other factors.
At this time, the best we can do is create our own schedules for good, healthy living including the support we'll provide our students, our loved ones, and possibly others. We're navigating new waters here and we must have patience and demonstrate care toward one another.
On Thursday, the systemwide leadership in my school district made the wise choice to cancel school and send third through fifth graders home with computers. Earlier in the week, district leadership began the conversation about at-home learning and that conversation continued after schools shut down amongst educators and between district leadership and our local union. Last night, the Governor of Massachusetts shut down schools in Massachusetts until April 6. Then today we received district guidelines related to learning supports and upcoming virtual faculty meetings. Online learning support is scheduled to begin formally on March 19th providing teachers with two days to plan with their discipline and grade-level teams.
Wondering about what's ahead more led me to read about the predictive models that exist for this virus. The model predictions are daunting, however, with social distancing and self-isolating, there's some hope that the event won't be as disastrous as the models predict.
As far as educational support for students, there are many perspectives at play since we are attempting to provide an educational support program that we've never actually tried out before or discussed in earnest with the many educators that serve students daily. Schools are mainly based on time-on-task supports from countless individuals including teachers, teaching assistants, special educators, specialists, coaches, guidance counselors, and therapists. That adds up to lots of people with lots of specific roles including many roles that don't fit nicely into an online program. That said and acknowledged makes me realize that we have tread gently with one another as we create, share, and monitor these supports for children and families who choose to take partake. There may be many, many reasons why some students and families don't take partake including family matters that take priority including illness and other factors.
At this time, the best we can do is create our own schedules for good, healthy living including the support we'll provide our students, our loved ones, and possibly others. We're navigating new waters here and we must have patience and demonstrate care toward one another.