I will not lie, things are a bit confusing right now. I feel like I am at a bit of a stalemate this year coming into my LLC. I am currently still waiting on district protocols on how and when I am allowed to proceed with using my space and the resources therein contained. There are many details my school is still organizing and things are just not normal! If this were a regular year, I would have set-up the shelves in my library to display new books in the collection, I would have pulled the "welcome to school" titles and had my kindergarten book bags ready to go. Instead, I have pivoted and tried to acclimatize myself to the changes needed for this strange time.
So, my foci this year at its heart will be familiar but in looks may be a little different. I want to engage my students and continue to build their love of reading (even while operating outside of the LLC), I want to build community in my school (even while we are in class bubbles) - looking at online collaboration, I want to navigate, investigate and evaluate many of the digital resources touched upon during remote learning that excited my learners (even if the opportunity to use devices may be limited). Digital literacy will continue to be a focus for me as well. Many of my students were called upon to navigate online in June; I saw a lot of discrepancies in levels of ability and I really want to make sure they have a basic understanding of safety and practical skills should the need arise again.
For fun this summer, I attended a STEAM workshop at Science World and had the opportunity to try my hand at a myriad of different coding tools. We also discussed the the importance of teaching computational thinking beyond just teaching students to code. I would love to delve into this a little more, especially in the work I do with my Challenge (gifted) students. This will apply especially to the ADST curriculum.
I am oscillating between feeling a bit overwhelmed right now but also hopeful and excited to work with my students again. I know that as things regulate and we get more into the flow of things, it will come together. Just as this is a brainstorm of big ideas and many parts, pieces will float to the top and solidify and I know it will be good to learn and share as a group. We are in this together!
This is a good first post. You have explored a range of ideas and themes here and have identified strong keywords and topics for further investigation. I appreciate your narrative structure and the connection to your personal context. I am interested to see where your learning takes you. For your next post, you may want to include some multimedia elements such as images, links, or videos. These add another layer to your post and further enhance the reading experience for your audience.
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