By Dale Ernst, DMS Para Professional and Retired School Administrator On Sunday, May 17 the Howard Winneshiek Community School District held their commencement for the graduating class of 2020. Like the rest of the country this year’s commencement has been anything but the usual fare of proud parents, graduation parties, and anxiety about the future. This senior class was literally born in the shadow of September 11, 2001, and these students are now graduating at the beginning of the COVID 19 pandemic in 2020. What incredible boundaries and challenges these students have to recognize and navigate through to become the best people they are meant to be. I had been thinking how I could be supportive of a group of graduating seniors, I did not know or had connections with.
During the length of my career in higher education I had marched as an administrator, or been invited to speak, at countless commencement ceremonies. I live a block from the high school in Cresco. The commencement and its finale was to be a parade of cars with all of the graduates taking part. It was going right past my house. I decided to get out my academic robes and medals and stand on the corner and wave at the graduates as they went by. I had made a large sign that said HONK if a graduate, parent, or friend. For the sake of truth and transparency, I also had a couple of very “special” hot chocolate as it was a very cold and windy afternoon. Little did I know what was coming at me. I was out in the street at the appointed time. I thought I should practice my wave so I caught the cars going into the high school to see how this would go. Most cars honked and most rolled down their windows and shouted at me -all positive comments. After the graduation in the high school parking lot there was a hundred car parade back past my corner. All of the graduating seniors along with their parents were smiling and honking and waving as they went by. The seniors were excited to be graduates and many parents rolled down their windows and expressed appreciation and thanking me for being there. Afterwards I was thinking about the afternoon and I realized what I thought was a fun and goofy way to fill an afternoon and provide a reason to get out of the house in the middle of the pandemic turned out to be something entirely different for the parents of the graduates. Sometimes it is the everyday things we do that matter for people - in this case parents. After attending so many commencement ceremonies I still think that graduations are more for parents than the students. I did not realize until later in the afternoon how recognizing the senior’s academic achievement mattered greatly to parents. In the middle of the world we live in they seemed to appreciate it more than ever. I had forgotten how as educators either in front of a classroom full of students, or in this case, in front of our community we live in, we lead by example. While it was a cold, windy, and rainy day the sun was shining somewhere for the people that mattered on Sunday.
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By Sarah Nowack, DMS 5th Grade Teacher Anyone who knows me, knows that I like structure and predictability. During the first few weeks of the COVID experience, like most teachers, I was on a roller coaster of emotions. At first, there were all of the concerns about the future - and my students - were they getting enough food and were they in a safe, loving environment? But then I thought, hey- this is nice- finally, a spring break! I am guessing you had similar thoughts! However, the bottom line is that it was hard. It still is at times. Early on, I was looking for a way to connect with my students, so that first week of closure, I wrote a postcard to each student. That was something… but it wasn’t enough (emotionally) for me. I held my first Zoom with students on April 1st (no fooling) and that was a turning point for me. The much needed personal connection for both the students and myself was palpable. Who would have thought that seeing my students via video conferencing was going to make such a difference for my own emotional well being?! I have heard from many parents that Zooming was a lifeline for students, as well. Even though it was on a screen, it filled an emotional hole for all of us. From that moment on, I continued to attempt things outside of my comfort zone while still using the familiar as a foundation. I started using Zoom to hold class discussions, and that eventually led to more. I was a teacher, and pandemic or not, teaching was what I needed to do! So, how was I going to do that?? Here are some examples of how I pivoted: Then something happened that pushed me even further out of my comfort zone. Prior to closure, one of the extension activities available to my students during WIN was to write a letter to military personnel serving overseas. Shortly after closure, my class received a letter from one of those individuals and said she was willing to continue communicating with us. Insert the LIGHT BULB moment for me!!! I asked if she was interested in Zooming with the class and her response was a resounding yes! Then, my mind was on hyper-drive! With nothing to lose and my continued dive into the uncomfortable unknown, I reached out to see who could be an “expert guest speaker” for my students. The response was beyond my wildest dreams.
I was surprised that:
I did not sign up to teach remotely. I repeat…. I did NOT sign up for this. But lemons = lemonade, right? The more engaged I became with my students during closure, the more I felt like I was getting my purpose back. I miss lunch with my colleagues. I miss hugs from my students. When we return, I will soak it all in. For now, I will live in this new normal and find things that are good for my students and good for me. And, as I ask my students to take risks and try new things (things that are hard), I will do the same! By Dana Bockman, Facilitator of Instruction and Assessment The week of April 27th must have been a tough one all around. Mr. Lane noticed it in our admin team meeting. I noticed it as I led the coaches’ weekly meeting a day later. I saw it again as I sat in on a building meeting at the end of the week. The realization that school is going to look much different next year was hitting a wider audience and being discussed in more depth. A grieving of the loss of what had been was evident. So many extreme changes in such a short amount of time has certainly taken its toll on all of us and, rightfully so, we are feeling a variety of emotions. It would be easy to dwell on the negatives. In recognizing our collective administrative team mood, Mr. Lane shared a story. A reminder to his team that good can be found within the bad. Joy can be found amongst the chaos and uncertainty. Positives are happening during this less than ideal situation. The COVID-19 crisis created circumstances that led to an incredible gift I will treasure for the rest of my life. My grandma, Neva Eggimann, is 96, and lives alone in a senior residence community in Jefferson, Iowa. She is an active and independent person, and the isolation of social distancing has not been easy. My mom, Kathy Lane, has driven from Des Moines to Jefferson on Wednesdays for years to visit my grandma, take her to the grocery store and on other errands, and to enjoy lunch and visiting. These Wednesday visits have continued during the pandemic, but my mom and grandma stay in my grandma’s apartment. About five weeks ago, I got home from work on a Wednesday evening, and my wife said, “did you see your mom’s Facebook post? You have to check it out, it's so awesome.” I opened Facebook and discovered a video my mom had made of Grandma Neva reading a picture book to the camera. She made the video for my nieces Maggie and Sally who are 3 and 18 months and live in Ankeny, and then posted it to Facebook. As I listened to the story, I closed my eyes, and was instantly transported back in time. I could feel my young self sitting on my grandma's lap listening to that same voice. It was an incredible moment. Since then, I have eagerly anticipated my mom’s new Grandma Neva book reading posts each Wednesday afternoon. I am delighted to know I will have access to these videos for the rest of my life, and will always be grateful for the circumstances that brought me this gift I didn’t know I needed. Books Grandma Neva and I Highly Recommend
Grandma Neva sharing a Maggie Hathaway favorite, Everywhere Babies. Find the good in every bad situation has been a mantra I have lived by and so Mr. Lane’s story was a good reminder to consider some of those “good” things. It struck me that having our college freshman home for the past few weeks had created many bonding opportunities for him and his father that never would have occurred had there not been school closures. I could do without the increased grocery bill, but am excited that a lot of projects I wanted done were completed by the two!
That is only one of the joys I have found during this time; there are more. Sensing the need for the coaching team to also take some time to reflect and consider the positives, I assigned this very important work for them the morning of May 1. Step away from your computer, close all the tabs in your head too (stole that from Twitter), and enjoy the weekend weather. Get outside, don't think about school, enjoy your families, enjoy nature, go for a walk or hike, maybe do some yard work, get in the sunshine, look at the clouds, look for early blooms and trees starting to get color, think about all the positives in your lives, look for even more positives around you, and just relax and enjoy. As early as you can possibly begin this assignment today the better. Today, I assign each of you this same task and ask what joys this emergency closure has brought to you? What are the positives you have found? What would never have happened if it were not for the Covid-19 emergency? By Steve Peterson and Matt Amundson Are you looking for a repeated reading routine to help you reach readers who are not-yet fluent? Matt Amundson and I developed a repeated reading protocol that would provide support for readers and would allow these readers to listen to themselves reading (and to hear their improvement!) Overview For this project, Matt and I record ourselves reading short reading passages using Screencastify, an easy-to-use screencast tool that easily deposits the video into a folder in Drive and provides an “Anyone Can View” link automatically. This provides a model of fluent reading for the student. We embed this screencast in a Google doc so kids could listen to fluent reading PRIOR to their own reading. Finally, we pushed the document out to students using Google Classroom, but Canvas will work too. So, what are the steps? The sections below should give you a pretty clear idea of how to do this for your own students. Find Leveled Stories Any short story will work for this project. We chose to use the stories that you can access via Text Help: Fluency Tutor because they can be easily sorted by Lexile level. Just set up a free account and you have access to the stories. At some point, we would like to extend this to other kinds of literature and, perhaps, even poetry. Create a Google Doc We copied the stories onto a Google doc template that looks like the screenshot below. (You can make a copy of this doc, then substitute your own links to get you started.) Note that we highlight words that we think students will have difficulty with. That serves to remind them not to skip over the words, but to focus on them as they listen to us read the passage. Store Your Work on Google Drive Matt and I have a shared folder where we put leveled readings and our screencast videos. Here’s what that looks like: Inside each one of these folders are several reading passages at that level: Record a Screencast We like to record a screencast of us reading the assigned reading so students can have a model of fluent reading to listen to. It also helps students know how to read more difficult words. You can listen to the screencast by clicking on the link in Step 1 at the top of the doc at this link. Basically, it’s just a video of one of us reading the passage so the student can follow along with the words as we read. Push the Assignment to Student We used Google Classroom to push the assignment out to students. However, Canvas assignments are equally as easy to use. Students listen to the screencast (Step 1), then read several times either alone or with a mentor, another student, or a teacher. After they record themselves reading (using Screencastify), they turn in their work. In Canvas, students would record themselves directly within the assignment and submit using the built in media function. Teachers can efficiently check assignments, listen to recordings, and have reflective conversations using the Canvas SpeedGrader feature. We can easily check to see who has turned in the assignment, listen to their recording, and have a reflective conversation with the student. In Google Classroom, the assignments look like this: We developed this workflow because we wanted to help students do more work on their own. If you would like some help setting up a similar work flow for your students, please talk to either Matt Amundson or Steve Peterson. Shannon Quandahl can also help with using the Canvas platform to share this with students.
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April 2024
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