A reflection on the past year

It's been close to a year since our world changed abruptly due to the COVID-19 virus. This time last year we thought that this would be a short-term situation and that it would all be over in a matter of weeks. Little did we know at the time how long term the situation would become. I was interviewed recently by KMOT and was asked to reflect on our experiences over the last year. This caused me to look back at my emails, notes, agendas, and planning documents. It became an opportunity for me to reflect on the past year and all of the challenges, logistics, and frustrations we faced.

On March 9, 2020, we asked educators to talk to children about COVID-19 in their classrooms and help reduce their fears and anxiety. We began instituting a mandatory handwashing schedule at both the elementary and high school. Cleaning and disinfecting were ramped up by teachers and custodial staff. Food service changed, we no longer allowed self-served foods and this greatly reduced our lunch offerings. Attendance incentive programs were suspended at both schools. We placed travel restrictions in place for students and staff until April 3rd (little did we know that this would remain in effect for the rest of the year). We started to educate ourselves and others on the importance of handwashing, cleanliness, and staying home when sick (which was hard to get used to for many). We began talking about masks and face coverings (yikes). If you traveled out of the state at the time you had to quarantine for 14 days. This was only the beginning...

Thinking back, I could feel a cloud that hung over the week of March 9^th – March 13^th last year. Cancelations and state shutdowns were occurring across the country and there was talk within the superintendent circles that North Dakota may shut down as well. I can remember the somber feeling at the regional basketball tournament at the time. Our team had just advanced to state, but all in attendance were uncertain of the future. Schools were eventually closed by Governor Burgum on March 15^th (today). It was a Sunday evening, this left us scrambling to get a plan together. We went to work the next morning with teachers and began planning the next two weeks. Immediately we were thinking about the students and how we could educate them. We quickly realized that we needed platforms to help us deliver instruction remotely. We began researching Google Classroom and Zoom. Those two platforms became the delivery models that we continue to use to this day. We worked quickly to develop content that could be accessed easily by students and parents. At this point, we didn’t have a directive from the state, we felt we needed to provide our families with something at home. We worked quickly and were able to provide course content remotely a week later. We held our first Facebook Live on March 19^th to update families – close to 700 people connected to hear our plan. Facebook and the Live feature became our social media platform to share and gather information with our school community. We held around 7-10 Facebook Lives over the next year.

Logistics was a challenge from the beginning. I am so THANKFUL for our people, I was feeling overwhelmed with the immensity and our team pulled together to problem solve. Within a few days, we were able to provide breakfast and lunch deliveries and pickup sites, we took our show on the road 😊. Our food service staff did a tremendous job making this happen.

We were very concerned about student mental health. Our kids were isolated and their school year had just come to an abrupt end. There was so much uncertainty for them, would their activities continue, would we have prom, would we have graduation? Our counselors began calling their regular visitors to begin connecting remotely. Our therapist modified her schedule as well to meet her student’s needs.

Equity was a major problem at the beginning of the pandemic. Many students lacked high quality internet. We worked hard to provide free internet to those that could not afford it, the internet companies were great to work with! Remote learning was not appropriate for many students with special needs and the pandemic exposed equity issues that existed in our district. Some students lacked the support at home to log in or complete their work at home.

We needed to get technology deployed to families that did not have a device. We issued around 200 total Chromebooks for families throughout the spring of 2020. Our teachers needed training, we were not ready for a full remote learning transition. Fortunately, we had local experts (our educators) that were able to get all staff up to speed and comfortable with technology. We worked quickly to get our content uploaded to our remote learning platform. Students were able to access content by March 23^rd from our school website (a week later). Educators prepared lessons that were tied to the remaining essential standards. We began having conversations about how long should students spend on a device, what was appropriate? How would we mark attendance? How should we grade them? What about security issues related to Zoom?

Eventually, we were required to create a distance learning plan that was to be implemented by April 1^st. We began to realize that we may end the year in this distance format. We started talking about the "new normal” which later became a cliché. As we progressed in this new environment, we learned along the way through trial and error. Week by week we got better together, and these experiences prepared us for the 2020-2021 school year.

It’s hard not to get emotional when I reflect on these experiences, I am so proud of our district. We have been able to be in session all school year face to face. I could not have done this alone, and I am so grateful for our educators, support staff, parents, and students at Rugby Public Schools. We have navigated what might be the most challenging experience we will likely face in education in our careers. We have done it with a positive and “whatever it takes” attitude. We still have a way to go with this pandemic, but I am confident that we can handle whatever gets in our way. Little did we know how real the last line of our vision statement would become: Our vision is to create a safe and caring environment in which all learners are engaged with authentic, innovative, standards-referenced learning centered on collaboration, communication, creativity, and critical thinking. Every learner will be empowered to pursue personal excellence and make a positive impact in an ever-changing world.

Thank you!

Mike

Instructional Rounds

Medical rounds have been used in the world of medicine for many years for improvement. Instructional rounds are a spinoff of this process. We began researching a more robust process for our teachers to observe each other and improve their practice in the spring of 2020. We started with our Teacher Leader Academy educators and have since rolled out a formal process for this school year. Our two instructional coaches (Mrs. Seykora and Mrs. Hager) have provided a simple five-step process to follow for our teachers. We are currently targeting our newer staff and their PLCs. 

1. Identify a problem of practice

Your PLC will identify a problem of practice. The problem of practice is something that would make a difference for student learning if you improve it. A rich problem of practice includes:

• Observable goals 
• Actionable goals (is within the teacher’s control and can be improved in real-time)
• A broad strategy of improvement (school, system)
• High-leverage actions (if acted on, student learning would be significantly increased)
• A focus on the learning you want to see, not teaching (focus on students, not teachers)

2. Observe the team's practice

Each PLC will observe all team members; also, you may observe other teachers.  You will try to improve learning in a network, not evaluate any educator. Be descriptive, not evaluative. Focus on what students are actually doing, not what the teacher has asked them to do. 

Questions to help identify what evidence will be collected and shared:

• What are teachers doing and saying? 
• What are students doing and saying? 
• What kinds of evidence would the group like to gather for the host teacher? 
• What did you hear and see? 

3. Observation debrief

The purpose of the debrief is to consider the collected evidence together and to move from agreeing on what people saw to eventually agreeing on what learning would result from what they saw. There are three steps to the debrief: description, analysis, and prediction. 

Basic principles for debriefings: 

• Stick to evidence
• Designate a facilitator/timekeeper and a note taker
• Debrief by questions or by classroom
• Share talk time (everyone speaks once before anyone speaks twice)

4. Reflection

Individual teachers should continually assess where they are at concerning the learning goal. What support do they need? Is student learning effective as a result of the goal? 

5. Next level of work 

Group members think together about what the resources should be and what kinds of support will best meet the needs of teachers to move instruction to the next level (i.e., Watch Lincspring lessons together, read research on the topic, record sample lessons, etc.). 

Here is the guiding document we have developed to guide this process in our district. 

If you're looking for an excellent resource on this topic, you'll want to check out this book: Instructional Rounds in Education

Frequently Asked Questions: Petition to close street and alleyway reroute

You should read: No More Telling As Teaching

Direct instruction or lecturing have always played a significant role in classrooms, but is it really the best way to engage students in the content? No More Telling As Teaching does not demonize lecturing like the title may imply. It simply recognizes that lecturing may not be the most effective instructional technique. We are often drawn to lecturing, because it might be the quickest way to cover the myriad of standards that exist in each content area. By the way, I don't like to use the word "cover" when referring to teaching the content. I'm in favor of the less is more philosophy to develop deep understandings for learners. 

We need to consider who is doing the work in the classroom. I would argue that if the teacher is doing most of the work in a classroom, I would bet most of the learners are likely compliant or unengaged. Tovani and Moje ask us to consider these three things when we think about engagement: a learner must know how to behave in a way that is productive to learning, a learner should be connected to the topic emotionally, and a leaner should be intellectually stimulated. The "pedagogy of telling" may not be the best method to achieve behavioral, emotional, and cognitive engagement.

According to Tovani and Moje (2017) the best way to learn is through a mix of classroom experiences. 

"They should include projects driven by questions or problems, whole and small group discussions, participation in real-world activities that make use of targeted learning skills, the reading and writing of multiple texts, interactions with challenging problems, and yes, just-in-time lectures (the best are usually interactive)" (p.21).  

To me the most important statement in the above mentioned quote is the focus on applying concepts from the content in a real-world environment. I have seen deep levels of engagement when teachers embed opportunities for learners to engage in the world outside of our school. Learners are more engaged in the activity when they know their work will be viewed by those on the outside. Too many times students don't find value in their work, because it is often done in a silo and we fail to make connections to our community and the real-world.

Tovani and Moje provide some questions to ask ourselves when we plan for our learners.

• How can I connect my content to the world outside of school?
• Why should my students care about this? What real problem will they be attempting to solve?
• What will they create? Is it something that exists in the real world? Which disciplines will they be relying on to solve this problem? 
• Who will hear or see their work besides me? 

Content needs context. 

I ran across this on Twitter recently. I think these are some good guidelines for all of us from young children all the way to adult learners. 

Check out No More Telling As Teaching