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HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!
-Justin
HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!
-Justin
We are looking forward to collaborating as a distance learning team at our staff meeting next week. Earlier this week, the staff meeting agenda was sent out. Please be sure to come prepared to the meeting by:
Reading pages 102-111 in the Distance Learning Playbook.
Completing your Continuum of Engagement by making a copy and filling in your students where you feel they are the majority of the time.
Being prepared to share a formative assessment that you have used.
Teacher Clarity
“Do your students know what they are supposed to be learning? Or do they see the class as a list of things to do? There is a big difference between these two. When students know what they are expected to learn, they are more likely to learn it.”
These sentences have caught my attention in The Distance Learning Playbook multiple times. When I think of things I’ve embedded into PD in Google Classroom in the past or used with students online, I feel a pang of guilt thinking about the “list of things to do” part...guilty! :s What a great reminder that when students know their end goal, their focus and understanding gain depth as they move through connected practice.
Check out this brief reminder for teachers and a connection for families around clarity from The Distance Learning Playbook and The Distance Learning Playbook for Parents!
In the spring, we suddenly had the added schedule item of "office hours." We tried to make ourselves available for our students and parents. And now, this year, as we begin the year remote, our "office hours" can at times feel like they are taking over our lives. I know I have spoken to some of you and you are making calls to parents late at night or you are answering tech questions and brainstorming over the phone throughout the day or you are up early responding to the never ending emails. During this new way of teaching, our jobs can easily become 24/7.
But that is not sustainable. That is certainly not an expectation, being available at every hour of the day. And it has the potential to very quickly burn us all out.
So I propose a new requirement. I am calling this new expectation "family hours." I expect that we all set aside some time each day designated to "family hours." During this part of our schedule, we cannot answer emails, we cannot call parents, we cannot plan lessons. This is a time to do something for yourself unrelated to work. This is a time to spend with your family. This is a time for you to fill your emotional cup back up.
I need to be the example. I need to model "family hours" for all of you. I recognize that I will have a mental breakdown if I continue to physically leave work, but mentally keep bringing it home with me. I plan on scheduling this time on my calendar so that I have a visual reminder to focus on self care every single day. I am thinking I may even add it to my email signature so everyone knows. I propose that you all do the same thing. Give yourself the time. I need you and our students need you this whole year, through the good, the bad and the ugly. Set some limits. Do not work 24/7. Schedule in "family hours."
You are the best staff around. I expect the best and want the best. You don't want or deserve what's left of me. So I don't want what's left of you. Time to reinvent our office hours. Family hours. Pencil it in. Schedule it into Google calendar. Turn off your notifications. Take care of you.
Happy May 28! This is our last post for this blog.... What a crazy, yet fun year! Think back to August when we were all thinking "wha...