Melissa Thompson

If you followed any educators on social media over the last year, you would have seen MANY posts advising teachers to “let go” during this crazy COVID year. Let go of trying to teach online exactly the way you would in person; let go of standardized testing; let go of the pressure you put on yourself, be ok with being ok…

I’ve been slightly embarrassed to admit publicly that these memes didn’t always resonate with me. Switching to a hybrid/hyflex/concurrent model wasn’t easy…but it excited me! COVID scares the $%@& out of me, but for some reason, it didn’t debilitate me at work. I didn’t want to stop working, I didn’t want to stop creating, I didn’t want to stop exploring and learning and improving what I was doing and sharing with my colleagues. Was there something wrong with me? If so many people were expressing these emotions online and many of my colleagues were sharing similar emotions in school, clearly I must be the one who was missing something. 

This was quite uncomfortable for me for a while. I kept finding myself teetering between conflicting emotions. I wanted to be sympathetic and supportive of those who were responding differently than me, but there were times when I also felt frustrated. This is our job! Actually, this is our profession. Being a teacher isn’t a clock-in/clock-out type of job. We are professionals, and we have students who are looking to us to support, guide and teach* them.

* I’d like to specify that teaching students during a pandemic doesn’t necessarily mean checking off all the curricular outcomes. As a teacher in a private school, we have somewhat of the luxury of focusing in on what we think is the most important right now, and adapting what and how we teach to help students work through their own emotions. Being honest and transparent with your students is OK!

On one hand, I feel like we’ve passed the point of responding to COVID as an emergency, and need to pivot towards a new normal. But on the other, the pandemic is not yet under control, and as we begin to wind down on our school year, COVID is ramping up in Ontario! As schools in the US start to re-open for in-person learning, our school has just switched to distance learning again, along with all schools in Ontario.

During one of our Educational Leadership Team meetings, my Head of School, Jon Mitzmacher, raised the discussion of trauma reactions, outlining that there are typically two opposite reactions to trauma — dissociative, passive and withdrawn on one end, and vigilant, hyper-aroused and hyper-resilient on the other. He also shared an excerpt from an episode with Brené Brown where she discusses a similar concept, that when faced with anxiety, people either over- or underfunction.

Well that explains it! When faced with the anxiety and stress of COVID, I’ve mostly responded by being an overfunctioner. As I continued to reflect, I realized that in my own way, I too have been choosing (slash been forced) to “let go” of certain things all year long. Both professionally and personally, there have been things that have been beyond my control, and I have been trying hard to practice the mindset that everything happens for a reason, and to trust the journey.

One of the hardest things I had to let go of this year was the teaching portion of my portfolio. For personal reasons, I was not able to consistently teach in person in the classroom, and needed to work from home for extended periods of time, multiple times throughout the year. At first, I was able to teach virtually while a supply teacher supervised and supported the students in the classroom. This was an invaluable experience, as it helped me empathise with my students who were learning from home on a full-time basis. I understood what it felt like to be sitting online waiting for the rest of the class to join the Meet. I understood the frustration of something being shown on the screen in the classroom that wasn’t shared online. I understood the challenge of not always hearing the questions or discussions being had by the students in the room. When I returned to school, I was able to pay attention to these things to better accommodate the students who were at home. Additionally, I was able to share this experience with my colleagues so they could better support their students as well. Beginning in February though, it was no longer feasible for me to continue teaching from home, and it became increasingly challenging for the students to adjust and adapt to different supply teachers. For the first time in 15 years, I made the difficult decision to take a leave from teaching. I have always thought about what is best for my students, and under these circumstances, this was the best choice for them and for me. In the meantime, I’ve been able to continue working part-time from home (let’s be real, when is a part-time job actually a part-time job in education?), focusing on my role as Teaching and Learning Coordinator

One challenge I’ve had as the Teaching and Learning Coordinator, even pre-COVID, was getting my colleagues to work with me more regularly. Jon and I have had many conversations about this…Should it be mandatory for teachers to meet with me? Should I reach out to them? Should they reach out to me? With all the experience Jon has had with this in all the schools he’s worked in, he shared that no matter the official setup, the challenge seems to remain the same. I expected that with the changes our teachers were facing with the introduction of hyflex learning, I would be busy meeting, brainstorming and collaborating with teachers. In reality, the stress levels have been so high, that often another meeting is seen as an added stressor, not as a welcomed support.

So what did I do? I tried my best to let go of the notion that meetings were the best way for me to support my colleagues, and used my PGP as Network Weaver to collect, connect, and create resources for teachers that they could access and use in their own time. More recently, I have created two resources specifically for teachers at my school to help them easily access the tips and tools I have shared. Each week, I send out a “Weekly Roundup” within our faculty bulletin, sharing links to things or people I have discovered that I feel would be interesting or beneficial to the teachers. As the weeks went on and the collection of resources grew, teachers started asking me to remind them about a resource I shared, and suggested I create a landing spot for everything. From this feedback, the two resources were born. 

The first is a Digital Resource Directory, housed on our Faculty Info Hub (a private site just for teachers, otherwise I would link to it here) where teachers can easily see all the different tech tools and apps that are being used in the school. I was inspired by Becky Lim, who created a similar resource for teachers in her district. All the apps are organized into different categories, are linked to their website, and have a brief explanation of what the tool can be used for when you hover over it (watch the video below for a sample). Teachers themselves are always discovering new tools, therefore, we also added a section at the bottom where teachers can suggest an app that should be included, or request a tutorial that should be made. 

I then took all my Weekly Roundups and added another page to our Faculty Info Hub, where teachers could easily find all my posts in one spot. 

Slowly but surely, teachers have been reaching out to make meetings with me for support. I have let go of the notion that I need to meet with ALL teachers in order to be successful. I am highly enjoying the time I spend with those I do meet with. Some teachers ask for meetings. Others ask for help finding resources.

I always get excited when a teacher asks a question, and I’m able to send them a link to one of our tutorials that are housed on the Info Hub.  

This year more than ever, each time I meet with one of my colleagues, I get that excited feeling you get after attending an amazing conference session…that feeling of excitement and invigoration, itching to get into the classroom to try something new to see how it goes. We have so much to gain by sharing with others. It’s my hope that the more I work with some teachers, through the grapevine, others will start to hear and be inspired to reach out as well. 

Network Weaver….no it does not involve yarn and needles, nor is it something you’d read about in a dystopian novel. It is, however, the focus of my professional growth plan (PGP) for this year. Every year at OJCS, each teacher chooses an area of growth to work towards. You can read about mine from years past here.

My definition of a network weaver is someone who helps others build their Professional Learning Network (PLN). The job of a network weaver is to constantly be building their own PLN, and making connections between like-minded individuals who can help each other. These connections come in many different shapes and sizes. At our school, we talk about teachers climbing the blogging ladder, but today I’m going to focus on the PLN ladder.

The idea of a PLN is not new. In one article I read on Edutopia, written back in 2013 by Tom Whitby, he talks about how he learned of the concept 6 or 7 years prior. Whitby defines a PLN as, “a tool that uses social media and technology to collect, communicate, collaborate and create with connected colleagues anywhere at any time.” When I think about the PLN ladder I see it like this:

My goal for this year is to become a stronger network weaver for the faculty at OJCS. In order to achieve this goal, I first have to continue building my own PLN and figure out what I want to share, with who, and how.

Building my PLN

Twitter is my main platform for connecting with other educators. One change I have made this year is that I am trying to actually connect with the people I follow. If I see a post I like, rather than simply retweeting or liking it, I try to think about how I can amplify and add value. Occasionally I will comment on the post to thank the author for sharing, and make connections to my own experiences or how I intend to use it.

If I find a post I think will be useful for others, I’ll mention them in the comment to help them become part of the conversation, and perhaps introduce them to an educator with whom they can collaborate.

I recently started following an educator in Australia, Lesleigh Altmann, and she sent me a private message thanking me for the follow. I thought this was such a simple, yet powerful strategy to making connections. In that moment, I didn’t feel like just another nameless follower, but someone she was recognizing and open to collaborating with.

I also want to build my PLN beyond Twitter and speak with people in other schools and organizations who play a networking role. Gerry De Fazio, who I met through our school’s work with NoTosh, and who now works as Director of Learning, Strategy & Innovation at Montcrest School in Toronto, continues to be a valued colleague and mentor. She and I meet bi-weekly to share ideas, experiences, resources and thoughts. While I look forward to each of these sessions immensely, speaking with other educators, or even other professionals outside of the education world, continues to be an area I’d like to develop in the coming months.

What to Share, With Who and How?

Due to COVID-19, a main focus of my position as Teaching and Learning Coordinator at OJCS has been around Hyflex Learning. Our teachers have had the challenging job of teaching students in class and online concurrently. In support of the added workload and planning this type of teaching requires, our administrators have kindly given over all staff meetings and professional development days to individual and team meetings. While this is amazing from a “prep” perspective, it poses a challenge for coaching and sharing useful strategies that would otherwise be addressed during these staff gatherings. In response, I’ve begun creating interactive resources that teachers can use at their leisure. Here is the first one I created to help teachers plan for a Hyflex Learning environment. Many of the tips and strategies I suggested were designed to build routines that could continue to be used whether we were teaching in person on not  (** I say as we begin our second week of remote teaching**)

In addition to this, each week as part of our Faculty Bulletin, I share “Melissa’s Weekly Roundup” – a list of useful tools, blog posts, articles, videos, resources, books, podcasts or educators I have come across that I think will be useful to our teachers.

One challenge for me has been that I rarely receive feedback from my peers as to whether these resources are helpful or not. I know a few teachers have implemented choice boards into their practice, and others are using stations to find time to meet one-on-one or in small groups with their students, but I am not certain how widely adopted it is. I recognize that bandwidth is limited this year. It’s my hope that one post, one week, one time, will prove useful to one teacher, and that teacher will become my network weaver, sharing the value with their colleagues. I also intend on following up with teachers to see how the work they did before the lockdown impacted their transition into remote learning, post winter break.

Up to this point, I’ve talked a lot about all the valuable resources I’ve found by looking outside my own school. But the truth is, our fellow teachers in our own building hold just as much experience, knowledge and resources! As our North Stars says, “Each person is responsible for the other,” “We learn better together,” and “We are always on inspiring (Jewish) journeys.” Often, those journeys intersect. Every teacher at OJCS is working on a PGP of their own, yet we are not always aware of what those PGPs are. To help build connections amongst our own faculty, I have created a Trello board outlining all the PGPs this year, and grouping similar projects together.

I have slowly started inviting faculty members to join this board so that they can see for themselves who is working on what, and start reaching out to their colleagues for support, feedback and guidance. Not everyone has joined yet, and some who I have invited have been hesitant to share. Like everything, it is a process and they are slowly moving up their own rung of the PLN ladder.

Baby steps are better than no steps!

During pre-planning week this year I led a session with the faculty at my school titled, A Foot in Both Worlds. The goal of the session was to help teachers begin to understand the new reality we would be facing at our school.

From what I have been reading online, there is a mix of what school boards and schools are doing depending on where you live and which board you are a part of. Some schools are only offering online programs, some schools are only offering in person programs, some schools have adopted a hybrid model (some days in school, some days online) and some, like my school, are offering a blended version, or HyFlex option, where teachers are expected to teach students both in school and online, at the same time.

This isn’t an easy task. And the first week of school proved just how challenging it would be.

First, let me share some of the new policies put in place to help make our school as safe as possible:

• All students K-8 must wear masks at all times inside the school building (we’ve implemented this for the first two weeks as students come back from summer holiday. After that period (as of right now), it will be mandatory for grades 4-8 and optional for k -3) All teachers must wear masks at all times.
• Students’ entry and exit from the building is staggered to eliminate cohorts mixing with others they never see throughout the day and limit contact. They must maintain physical distance while they line up and sanitize their hands when entering the building.
• Students will be eating with their classmates in their classroom.
• Recesses are staggered, with only 2 or 3 cohorts outside at the same time.
• Students in grades 4-8 will have outdoor education (rain/snow or shine) and students in K-3 have an extended recess time added into their schedule to make up for the lack of P.E.
• Art is taught asynchronously by the art teacher, with students working in their classrooms supervised by their teacher
• There is no Music class this year.

As you can see from this list, many precautions have been put in place to help our students and faculty stay as safe as possible. However, it does add extra supervisory duties to the schedule that were not previously there. Our administrators worked exceptionally hard to work out this impossible jigsaw puzzle and have taken on over 20 duties themselves, but it was impossible not to increase the number of duties each teacher needed to take on.

In order to facilitate HyFlex learning, teachers share their calendars at the start of each week on our class blogs. These schedules are very similar to what we had been using in the spring when our building was closed and we were learning from home.

What did I learn in week 1?

• For the most part, my student who is learning from home full time was engaged in the class and participating well. He is an extremely self-motivated learner though. I had two students home sick halfway through the week. One was well enough to continue learning online, but had more difficulty following along and staying on task.
• I like that parents and students can see quickly at the top of the schedule which documents they need to print for the week. However the schedule itself felt busy and hard to follow. In week 2 we will be trying to keep the schedule less cluttered and each teacher will link to a more detailed plan. Here’s the one I have created, inspired by my colleague Faye Mellenthin. 

• We are trying to include as many asynchronous/student-paced lessons into our synchronous teaching periods. The hope is that this will reduce the amount of planning we need to do as teachers for both students at home and in school. It will also free up more time to meet individually with students, something we weren’t able to do as much of in the first week, especially for students learning from home.
• Something else I’d like to do but did not manage to implement in the first week is class jobs. Last year I read Who Owns the Learning by Alan November, and blogged about it here. Inspired by his Digital Learning Farm a session with Sharon Reichstein, some of the jobs I’d like to implement that will help build community are:
  • Recess buddy (plays online with those who are at home)
  • Morning Activity leader
  • Chat monitor
  • Researcher
  • Documenter

In the past, students would move from one classroom to another for their various classes with different teachers. This year, students stay put in their classrooms and the teachers are the ones who move in and out. Another idea I had that I would like to try once I run it by my colleagues, is to have a set iPad in each classroom. There would be one Google Meet link that students would stay in for the whole day, and teachers would have the student there on the iPad when they came into the room, rather than having different links for different teachers. From the feedback from our teachers, especially those who move around a lot (our French teachers can teach up to 5 different classes) it’s not easy to pack up one room, run to the next, set up your supplies, and login to the Meet. It’s not impossible obviously, but my goal is to come up with ideas, protocols, and templates to make life as easy as possible for teachers. When you consider all the “newness” our teachers have had to take on this year, including extra duties, the more we can do to support them, the better.

Here’s to week number 2!