Education in the time of Corona: Views from Vermont

Blogging time was put on hold as I was focused on being present for our Graduation Portfolio Roundtables held over the past 5 days. As always, these are the highlight of the year for all involved. For us teachers, it is probably the most gratifying activity of our year. Celebrating the growth of a student along with fellow educators, family members, and outside community members reminds us of the power of our work. For the graduating senior, this is an opportunity to reflect on their journey and be affirmed by the many kind words of others. Parents revel in pride, but also mark this transition of their child through a gateway to adulthood. And invited community members get insight into the educational process and be energized by meeting an adolescent who can renew our hope for the future. For everyone at the roundtable, this is a special time, where, as one graduate observed, "It's not often you get a format that allows you to truly appreciate someone." We can never do...

First off, a little mini rant. 1) What do small business owners not understand about the PPP money and how to avoid this being a loan they have to pay back? All the news articles I read note their conundrum about how they don't know how to use this if their business is closed or having only limited hours and that they hope the time frame is extended or they don't know how they will ever be able to pay the loan back.      Maybe I'm missing something but it seems a pretty straightforward program that was meant to put money in employees' pockets for this 8 week period, whether or not they were doing actual work. This was a way to avoid unemployment, to keep employees connected to their workplace, and to help people pay expenses like rent and food.      As much as small businesses would like other aid to help them in the long term, this program wasn't intended to do this (although having government finance your payroll plus 50% for utilities and rent and all...

Happy Janus Day!      Actually Janus Day was last Friday, but as I've been learning, finding time to blog is harder that I had expected (as so many have learned, the idea of having loads of free time just hasn't really materialized since the shutdown).      Anyway, for those not familiar with this, Janus is a Roman god of looking back and looking forward. Our Janus Day celebration is a somewhat goofy ritual to reflect back on our personal growth and successes this year and to look ahead to our hopes and commitments for this last stretch of school. At Compass, the end of April-beginning of May involves a shift from our regular academic classes to a set of learning adventures that engage students in different experiences that culminate the year.      In a normal year, this involves the 11th grade Global Connections international travel, Spring Trips for other grades, Senior Projects, Portfolio Week, Project Week and some other culmi...

This is maybe officially the new normal. Six weeks since school closed and it seems on one hand to be just the other day and on the other, it seems like forever ago. It's crazy anytime I think about the worldwide nature of this whole experience. There is no other event I can think of that comes close to affecting the whole world. What even comes close to this reach? The World Cup? Maybe 2 billion watch the final. Some eclipse? Only a swath of the planet, and then only in sequential time. Even these events are one off, short duration occurrences. Nothing comes close to the scope of this shelter in place phenomenon impacting basically the whole world. Since everyone is under similar limitations, I'm not sure my personal perspective has much to offer others. It's hard to really know what others are going through, since mostly I'm not interacting much with others. But from various sources (mostly podcasts and a little through calls and on-line meetings with individuals), ...

     We're back from "vacation" although it's not clear how that week was different from this week. It may be my main roles are somewhat removed from the students and teachers daily work and the weeks are more distinctly different for them.      Although I don't think I'm doing that much (although it seems my days are full and a lot of my time is related to "work"), I think leadership in this situation involves shepherding the whole school in short and longer term sustainability. Maybe that is what leadership always is, although what "sheep" you're herding probably differs greatly depending on the circumstances. I guess this goes back to the old idea of "situational leadership" (Ken Blanchard I believe, if I recall my grad student days:)--the idea of what leadership entails based on the situation.      This situation seems to be calling for a couple areas of attention.      First of all is financial stability. This involves...

     Another week under stay at home rules and another week of trying to identify what exactly I've been doing all week. Trying to recall in general: Running, walking, biking, a fair bit of school work projects, cooking good food and lingering conversations after dinner, some house and bike repairs, reading in bed in the morning and watching a bit of tv but since I only really do this after dinner and that is usually almost 9 pm, that is pretty limited. Somehow that pretty much fills my time.      I'm interested in the messaging about how long we'll be under stay at home orders and how that is periodically extended. While part of this is just the evolving nature of what experts are learning, a lot, I think, is helping with people's psychology. I think if we had been told on March 15, these orders would be in place until May 15 (or beyond), so many would have pushed back, felt overwhelmed, or think it is futile to even try. Aiming to get through a couple we...