Day 15: More Sunshine
Another day of sunshine, before what looks like a return to that cold rain that can be a drag in April. Although I think there continues to be struggles for students with our remote learning, it seems like we are getting more positive reports from teachers, students, and parents.
At faculty meeting, our list of students of concern continued to drop as several kids are more connected with individual teachers and making progress with their school work. There continues to be a crew of kids who aren't getting much schoolwork done (meaning none at all). But at least several of these kids seem to be finding all sorts of somewhat worthwhile pursuits to fill their time (skateboarding, running, playing music, making videos, building things, etc.). Our requirement for enrichment activities is meant to encompass and value these activities so we just need to get these kids to document some of this to add to their portfolio of learning.
We're learning that a good number of teens don't exactly need us adults to help them fill their time, even when they have no school to take up their days. It's easy for us adults to question exactly what they're doing, but apparently some can be pretty happy playing computer games or watching videos or being on social media or even getting more sleep than they may have had for years.
Another positive about the remote learning environment is that teachers report connecting with some kids more than they might in regular school. This seems especially true for some quieter kids who may not get as much attention in the busy world of school and now are connecting one-to-one with a teacher. Away from peers, some kids will be more open with adults. And some introverted kids are in their wheelhouse when away from others and able to pursue personal interests away from the anxieties of more social learning environments.
We also had a board meeting tonight and were able to hear feedback from some students and parents. The students shared how they felt upperclass students were pretty happy with the openness of the learning process, although some 12th graders were feeling gypped by this being the end of their senior year. They thought younger students may be more challenged and need more structure, although they were pleased to hear there were different structures for different ages.
Maybe most affirming was hearing from parents who have kids in other schools and their praise for the program and response from Compass. As I've said before, I don't envy larger schools and systems who just have more stuff to juggle. As I also like to note, Compass has no more staff per student and, in fact, has much less funding per pupil. So we don't have more resources or money available to be more personalized. But we do have intentionality and structures that we've developed since our founding to be able to be responsive and nimble, to work well together among faculty but also with our students (and families), and to empower teachers and students to be feel ownership for our shared learning community where we all are part of supporting each other in our continued learning and growth.
One element that helps us remain positive as a staff is concluding every faculty meeting with celebrations. This is one of those, "if there was one reform that could change schools," this would make an enormous difference. There are all sorts of frustrations in schools. At least in middle and high school, there are all sorts of ways kids can fall short of adult expectations. Parents may not be as skilled as we wish them to be, and the society around us has all sorts of difficulties. So finishing every meeting with celebrations, which mostly are about individual kids but sometimes honor our colleagues (and even parents at times), helps us identify successes and, most importantly, appreciate that kids who let us down at some points often show growth at other times. This is a valuable perspective that I think teachers need to continually be reminded of.
Be kind to yourself and others.
At faculty meeting, our list of students of concern continued to drop as several kids are more connected with individual teachers and making progress with their school work. There continues to be a crew of kids who aren't getting much schoolwork done (meaning none at all). But at least several of these kids seem to be finding all sorts of somewhat worthwhile pursuits to fill their time (skateboarding, running, playing music, making videos, building things, etc.). Our requirement for enrichment activities is meant to encompass and value these activities so we just need to get these kids to document some of this to add to their portfolio of learning.
We're learning that a good number of teens don't exactly need us adults to help them fill their time, even when they have no school to take up their days. It's easy for us adults to question exactly what they're doing, but apparently some can be pretty happy playing computer games or watching videos or being on social media or even getting more sleep than they may have had for years.
Another positive about the remote learning environment is that teachers report connecting with some kids more than they might in regular school. This seems especially true for some quieter kids who may not get as much attention in the busy world of school and now are connecting one-to-one with a teacher. Away from peers, some kids will be more open with adults. And some introverted kids are in their wheelhouse when away from others and able to pursue personal interests away from the anxieties of more social learning environments.
We also had a board meeting tonight and were able to hear feedback from some students and parents. The students shared how they felt upperclass students were pretty happy with the openness of the learning process, although some 12th graders were feeling gypped by this being the end of their senior year. They thought younger students may be more challenged and need more structure, although they were pleased to hear there were different structures for different ages.
Maybe most affirming was hearing from parents who have kids in other schools and their praise for the program and response from Compass. As I've said before, I don't envy larger schools and systems who just have more stuff to juggle. As I also like to note, Compass has no more staff per student and, in fact, has much less funding per pupil. So we don't have more resources or money available to be more personalized. But we do have intentionality and structures that we've developed since our founding to be able to be responsive and nimble, to work well together among faculty but also with our students (and families), and to empower teachers and students to be feel ownership for our shared learning community where we all are part of supporting each other in our continued learning and growth.
One element that helps us remain positive as a staff is concluding every faculty meeting with celebrations. This is one of those, "if there was one reform that could change schools," this would make an enormous difference. There are all sorts of frustrations in schools. At least in middle and high school, there are all sorts of ways kids can fall short of adult expectations. Parents may not be as skilled as we wish them to be, and the society around us has all sorts of difficulties. So finishing every meeting with celebrations, which mostly are about individual kids but sometimes honor our colleagues (and even parents at times), helps us identify successes and, most importantly, appreciate that kids who let us down at some points often show growth at other times. This is a valuable perspective that I think teachers need to continually be reminded of.
Be kind to yourself and others.
Comments
Post a Comment