November 9, 2020
Focus: Press pause, and pair up

Dear Colleagues,

I hope this Monday Musings finds you all well and that you have enjoyed this gift of blue sky and 75° weather.

As I began to plan for WT1, I reread the The Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning (CTTL) Top 10 List of what to keep in mind when planning online or in-person classes. As I read the list, I felt like our students must feel when we ask them to retrieve prior content: I was relieved when I realized I had been successful in some areas but frustrated when I hadn't been as successful in others. Having said that, I hope that this list reiterates how much more we know about teaching online now as opposed to last spring and how much we have all grown as educators.

On Tuesday, the teaching faculty will press pause in order to begin to reflect and plan for WT1. The suggestion of a collaborative google doc to prepare for and facilitate this work may feel like just another thing added to our plates. We know, however, that the best professional growth is sustained, relevant, and collaborative and that a collaborative doc allows and encourages that work. It also allows us to look out for each other - with each suggestion, we reduce the workload for a colleague, with every question, we pull someone into a discussion that will better our teaching and, most importantly, our students' learning.

Therefore, in preparation for Tuesday, please take 3-5 minutes to add your thoughts to this reflection doc: what have you found to be effective, what have you found to be ineffective, and what you are still considering and/or would like some help on? Please begin each line with a bullet point and add your name if you'd like so that a colleague can reach out to you to collaborate, offer an idea, or ask a question.

As announced in last Friday's faculty meeting, The Kravis Center will host three sessions on building and designing asynchronous lessons: November 17 at 6:30, November 18 at 2:00, and December 2 at 10:30am. These dates will also be listed on the Kravis calendar. As mentioned earlier, collaborative sessions allow us to take work off our plates by helping us to plan purposefully, recycling and incorporating our colleagues' wisdom. We will take time to pair up and share our lessons with colleagues in order to get further insight on our lessons.

My greatest hope for this MM is that we take advantage of this time to "press pause, and pair up". Reach out to a colleague, or two, or three using this this reflection doc. In isolation, we do not grow. Collaborate, share, explain, ask, identify and, as always, reach out to anyone in the Kravis Center if you would like to talk something through. We are always happy to chat about the online teaching world.

Have a great week.

Sara, on behalf of the Kravis Center

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"... half as much". by Varghese Alexander of Asheville School, co-Director of the Klingenstein Summer Institute was published in Medium on October 31, 2020.

Articles on student well-being

With Stress in Schools Increasing, Simple Strategies to Stay Calm, Laura Lee, Edutopia

Isolated Students May Struggle to Stay Mentally Healthy, Carolyn Curtis, Edutopia

Hackers Smell Blood as Schools Grapple With Virtual Instruction, David Uberti, Wall Street Journal

Virtual Signs of Mental Health Problems, Isaiah Pickens, EdSurge

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Professional Development Opportunities

On Saturday, November 14, Learning and the Brain is offering a session on Meaningful Virtual learning. Click here to find out more.

Learning and the Brain is offering numerous PD options for teaching during COVID. Click here to learn more.

SEL in the classroom: Here is the link to the numerous PD opportunities through One Schoolhouse, one of which is Protecting Student Mental Health in Hybrid Learning Environments with Lisa Damour

Harvard GSE programs for educators - so any worthwhile workshops for teachers.

Hybrid Teaching and Learning: Resources and articles

As our ratio of online to in-person learners has changed, we've had a big increase in the number of teachers teaching hybrid classes this term. Hybrid, at Loomis, simply means having an online learner in an in-person class section. There are two guides (which are updating and changing frequently) about how this might function for those classrooms. The first outlines the technological options we have (the "hardware"), the second contains more best practices and FAQs.

Here is a Padlet for those who are teaching hybrid to post thoughts, ideas, etc and for those who are not, to see what it's all about!

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