Connected

Today I spent three plus hours in a Google Hangout…I know we’ve all spent our fair share of time in one virtual environment or another in the last ten days. Today’s meetings went by in the blink of an eye… because I got to reconnect with each grade level team at our school. It was the first time I had seen many of these people in two full weeks. It was the first time I got to ask them how it was going and check in with them in the closest way we could get to “in person.”

I was anxious going into the first meeting. Were teachers stressed and overwhelmed? How were we going to move forward with instruction and connecting with kids in this strange new world?

Within the first few moments of my first meeting, my worries evaporated. These were the same people I know so well, doing the same good work…just in some new and unusual ways.

As we talked about plans moving forward, I was excited to hear teams thinking about the work we had been doing in classrooms and how they’d been thinking of creative ways to continue. For instance, our kindergarten and first grade teams have spent much of this year strengthening their guided reading instruction. Both teams shared ideas for continuing this work through distance learning…because they know the value and they are eager to get it going again.

Our upper grade teams shared the ways they’ve kept the work from their classrooms going online. Many had recorded read alouds that they were in the middle of when school closed. Their kids are writing and revising, going through the writing process without missing a beat.

More importantly, the teachers shared about ways they’ve been connecting with kids…how eager kids are to share their adventures being home, sending videos to show their work, and how they sometimes get emotional when on a call with their teacher. The teachers glowed as they recounted conversations and connections made with their students. And, in every meeting, we talked about creating more opportunities for kids to connect to one another and our school community.

My three hours were over before I knew it and I’m pretty sure I was glowing too. It felt good to be connected again with my people, talking literacy, and being a community working towards something great.