A Beautiful Message

Since school campuses have closed here in Florida, teachers have had a tough time connecting with kids and trying to make them feel like there is some sense of normalcy. Our learning curve has been steep but, after a few weeks of e-learning, we've worked out many of the bugs. One thing that both teachers and students are sad about is not being able to be in the same place for school. So much of education is personal interaction and soft skills that make our days a joy. We can capture some of that in video chats with the kids but so much is lost due to the separation. That is why you hear teachers say that Shelter at Home is tough on them. We want to see our kids but we know that we cannot. For the safety of everyone, we must shelter in place.

Our Lely Elementary Reading Coach, Karen Pelletier, came up with a way for us to communicate our love for our kids directly to them. She wrote a poem, had each teacher take a picture with one word from the poem, and she put all of the photos together to give a strong message to our kids. They loved it! This is one of the many ways we are showing our kids how much we love and miss them.

We miss our Lely Lions,

that we used to see each day.

So we thought we'd get together,

so you could see us say:

We still love you and we miss you,

and together we'll get through.

But we have to say

school's not the same

without our Lely crew.

We remember all the kindness,

that you showed in many ways.

The smiles and love you gave us,

still warm our hearts each day.

Even though we're in different places,

and each inside our home,

we'll get through this together,

you will never be alone.

 Love,

Your Lely family

Out of Our Comfort Zone

One of the things that we teachers take for granted is that we will see our kids every day. The routine of the school day almost guarantees it. We teach our students, we learn from them, and we share our lives. School is a comfortable environment where everyone can flourish and grow as learners and as people.

The Coronavirus Pandemic has changed everything. We are no longer in school with our kids, we don't have the classroom environment to foster, and we don't have the comfort of knowing that we will see our kids everyday. This has been a difficult transition for everyone. It is a massive undertaking to conduct school over the Internet. I would venture to guess that only a very few schools were ready to make a seamless transition to online learning. Those schools probably had a large online component to their school days anyway. Most schools probably did not, and so the learning curve for teachers and students was massive and is ongoing.

In our district, we got notice that we would be transitioning to online learning and had about a week to prepare. We had to learn the online platform, Canvas. Now, we had switched from Angel to Canvas this year but most teachers were still just tinkering with it, not really delving in. We all thought that we would have plenty of time to learn the new platform. Well, not so much.

In a week, we took a course on how to use Canvas, we had a few teachers who were trained as "power users" and we relied on them to help with questions we might have. Teams of teachers collaborated and did troubleshooting about the platform and about how to best conduct online classes. It was a crash course on virtual learning.

Some teachers felt more comfortable with online tools and some did not feel comfortable at all, so the learning curve varied among our staff. We all had to learn about the components of the new platform, incorporate videoconferencing into our weekly plans, and figure out the best ways to communicate with our students and our colleagues. It was a herculean task.

We are just finishing our second week of teacher-directed online learning and so far, things seem to be going pretty well. There are still many teachers with a lot of questions and that is to be expected. But every single teacher has taken on the challenge to bring a first-class education to their kids even though it all has to be done online. Our teachers are not making excuses; they are accepting the challenge and moving forward.

This is wayyyyy out of many teachers' comfort zones. But our teachers know that the learning lies in the space of the uncomfortable. It is the same for the kids. For many teachers, they have to teach the kids how to use the tool before the kids can engage in the class and assignments. But they are doing it. They are rising to the occasion. This is an all-hands-on-deck moment, and together, we are succeeding.

Everyone in our district, top to bottom, is contributing. Our food services team has set up distribution points for kids to get their breakfasts and lunches. Our ELL staff has been on the phone talking to parents and kids about the best ways to approach the classes. Our teachers have worked tirelessly to prepare the best virtual lessons they can. Our administration has been flexible and supportive during this time.

One of the good things to come of this time is that when we do eventually return to the classroom, we will have learned so many new ways to reach kids. We can extend our classes beyond the four walls of the classrooms. We can incorporate more online learning in our regular classes. Many of the accommodations we have made to reach kids now will come in handy when school returns. The tools we are using, the conferencing apps, and the avenues of communication that are effective will still be effective later, when kids are back in class. It's like every teacher has expanded his or her repertoire of tools to use to educate our kids. This is one of the huge benefits of this tragedy. We are better teachers because we had to learn more, be creative, think outside the box, and make it work. It is uncomfortable to be sure. But this whole situation has made us better teachers.