Here we are in mid-October and we only know slightly more now than we knew prior to school opening. We know that we want our students and teachers to be in safe environments, engaged in meaningful work, and supported in every way possible. We don’t know when school will be fully F2F for all students in all buildings as they were in February 2020. So, what does that mean for us here and now?

Well, this is still a new year brimming with energy for new learning, a “rebirth” if you will. Of course, this “rebirth” is not the same as it’s been in the past but there are some things in common: 1) students still need to be engaged; 2) teachers still need ongoing and consistent professional learning opportunities; and 3) technology is the means of communication keeping us connected while we are maintaining our social distancing. We still need to become acquainted with our students, their needs, and learning styles. As coaches, we still need to familiarize ourselves with how teachers learn and what they think about how their students learn. We still need to ensure that our teachers have multiple opportunities to share ideas, “visit” each other in their workspaces, rethink what they are teaching, assess how they are teaching, and reflect on ways to improve teaching and learning. We still need to follow the BDA cycle to support professional learning. That hasn’t changed even though the instructional delivery may have changed.

On the other hand, we need to remind ourselves that we cannot approach the year with the same systems in place, the same personnel providing support for both F2F and virtual classes, the same rules and regulations, or the same plans to move learning forward. We need to reconsider our modus operandi and build on our previous successes in ways that continue to encourage growth, reimagine learning, collect data about how and what our students are learning, address the disparities that distance learning has highlighted, and restore our commitment to teaching and learning regardless of the venue. Students still need to learn and teachers still need to be supported. 

What did you do F2F that you can adapt and implement in a remote environment?