Reflections on the 2019 - 2020 School Year



As our 2019 - 2020 school year came to a close last week, I've started to reflect on all of the changes and transformations that took place. In the summer of 2019, I welcomed my second daughter into the world and really grew as a mother during my maternity leave this fall. When I returned in the winter, I was excited to continue my work as our district STEAM Innovation Coach. January and February were filled with moments of impact, but perhaps nothing quite as transformative as what March had in store.

I'll never forget the day of Friday, March 13th, 2020. My colleagues and I had spent that morning teaching 8th grade social studies classes and were coming together to debrief the lessons during lunch. The governor had just announced that due to COVID-19, schools would be closed for the next three weeks and that would lead into our spring break, making it four weeks. We had so many questions of what would happen over the next three weeks: Would we be coming into the office? What would our roles be? How might we best support teachers during this time? How might we support students and families? Would it really just be three weeks?

Overnight, education as we knew it was about to change and be forever disrupted. Before March, I had only used Zoom a handful of times for meetings and once to share our design challenge pitch-fest with those that wanted to join remotely. Suddenly though, video conferencing became our main way of communicating with our colleagues, hosting distance learning webinars, and being available for small group and one on one support. There really was no roadmap of what we should do at that moment, but we knew that we were all going to come together to design and figure things out. 

I am grateful for many of the choices and supports that our district leaders put in place over the past few years that made our distance learning transition as smooth as possible: investing in teacher coaching, providing numerous technology trainings, year-long innovation cohorts, our middle school one to one take home Chromebook initiative, one to one Chromebooks in upper grade elementary classes, and funding robust technology and instructional teams. We have also had amazing teacher leaders (Seesaw Champions, Technology Integration Coaches, STEAM Innovation Leaders, etc) who have been so excited to innovate their own teaching practices, take risks, and to share their learning with others. The enthusiasm, resiliency, and empathy of our Campbell family has truly created powerful learning experiences for our entire community.

We are only half way through 2020 and it has already proven to be quite a remarkable year. I'm starting this summer with a grateful heart for all of the amazing work and rapid learning that we have all embraced over the past few months. I believe that we will do even greater things next year and look forward to continuing this work with a positive mindset and an eye towards curiosity. 

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