Day 9: A new week, gloomy weather....

Day 9: A new week, gloomy weather....

      Okay, that was all fun and games last week to be in this novel, stay at home world. It's hard to overestimate how uplifting it was last week to have sunshine and a hint of spring to liven up the otherwise potential sobering reality of our enforced social isolation.
      This week? Not such inspiring weather with temperatures just above freezing and cold rain falling most of the day (although the lightning storm last night and pea sized hail was a bit of a thrill).
      What does the new week bring? I guess a bit of the uncertainties are becoming a bit less uncertain (is that tentative enough?). Was it Thursday afternoon that the Governor told us schools would be closed for the remainder of the year? I was surprised more about the timing of this than that this was the decision I kind of expected. It seems this finality could have waited until late April or something, but I think the Governor wanted to lessen the uncertainty and make sure that schools took seriously making plans for real remote learning and didn't just try to bumble along for a few weeks hoping to get back to "regular school" and be told then they'd still be out all year.
      So it is somewhat settling to know we're in this (or more accurately, our of this) for the duration of the school year. Our next step is planning the calendar from now through June. There is so much of our spring plans we regret missing, but we think we can reframe some of the most essential elements (minus, of course, the Global Connections trip to Mexico we hope to reschedule for next fall, and Spring Trips that will have to wait a year).
      We'll discuss this at faculty meeting tomorrow, but it looks like we will keep our regular remote courses in the core subjects, along with our enrichment activities, through the end of April. Then we will have Project Week(s) for 2 weeks in the beginning of May, with Portfolio Week(s) in the second half of the month.
      This seems a good mix for variety and for engaging in different kinds of experiences that tap into different skills and proclivities. The regular classes will hopefully give students a sense of regularity and tie into the classes we began in person before school closed. This can allow kids to build a structure for organizing their worktime and have teacher direction for expectations and feedback.
      Project Weeks asks for somewhat different skills from students and asks for more independent learning but gives students wide berth to choose project(s) that interest them so are usually pretty motivating. We're going to have to figure out if we offer any group projects (probably yes, especially for younger students who often struggle to choose topics and especially now when some kids need more structure provided for them) and if we have students work on just one project for both weeks (we usually have only about one week so one project is enough) or if we ask them to do two (and if so, do they do one one week and one the other or do them simultaneously or should one be required to be "academic"?)
      I've often said if I could make only one small change in American schools; it would be to propose Project Week (PW) for all schools. It's not that PW is all that profound, basically being having kids propose a project of interest to them to do the last week of school, when teachers are tired and busy with year end requirements and kids have usually finished up most learning and testing. It's a lot better than watching videos and playing kickball and more importantly, it allows some kids to shine in ways teachers may never see in normal, teacher directed classes. Some students who are less inspired by regular classes will shine when given the opportunity to rebuild a model T or build a trebuchet or try to write a novel in a week. These students feel better about school when they show off their talent. And when teachers see these often less motivated students shine and have insight into a student's interests, this can lead to possibilities in future years to tap into this inspiration to connect to other work in school.
      I think Project Week is a good opportunity for students to access the opportunities they can when stuck in their own home. They can do home construction projects or explore their local surroundings or expand skills with computer tech or learn new skills with cooking or gardening or do something in the arts or more academic like work with writing or reading or intriguing science experiments.
     Finishing the year with Portfolio work asks students to reflect on their learning under social distancing and the rest of the year. Students need to exercise their intrapersonal skills (in addition to organization, decision making, critical thinking, writing, etc.) while looking back on the year and looking ahead to the future. I'll write much more about our portfolio process in the future; all I will say here is this is in countless ways the culmination of our year and the most gratifying thing any of us Compass educators have experienced in our careers. Having students do this reflection and sharing their learning and growth with a roundtable committee of supportive adults and peers is an incomparable experience and rite of passage.
      The other evolving certainty may be financial aid from the stimulus bill. This is pretty unclear at the moment, but it seems the small business loans may help us pay salaries and expenses during this pandemic. I'm not sure the process to receive funds or how we qualify, but it would help us immensely and perhaps thereby help families with some relief with tuition payments perhaps. Without this support, if some parents can't keep up with tuition payments, we would then be unable to pay teachers (or other bills) and then this could be one more trickle down impact on the overall economy. Hopefully this is exactly the kind of problem the stimulus bill can help us all avoid. Fingers crossed.