Another school year launches, and a mention in Forbes!

Like many districts across Kentucky, tomorrow is Shelby County's first day of school: my ninth one since joining the district in 2014.   Also tomorrow, back in the district where I live, my youngest daughter will be starting sixth grade.  I'm definitely experiencing a lot of emotions as I look back both at my professional journey in Shelby as well as thinking about my daughter reaching the halfway point of her schooling.  

Today, however, was celebration and kickoff.  Shelby held its Opening Day ceremonies at the Martha Layne Collins High School gym.  One of the highlights was members of the Shelby County High School Rockets choir treating us to a lovely rendition of "True Colors":

Opening Day! @shelbycountysch educators, let your beautiful true colors shine through this school year. #IL3 #ShelbyInspired pic.twitter.com/vsRbJeFGEn

— Adam Watson (@watsonedtech) August 9, 2022

In the opening remarks, there was discussion about promoting the legacy and story of Shelby County, including our recent mention in Forbes!

A quick recap for context: back in 2020, Lora Shields (the former Shelby County Public Schools Staff Developer) and I co-created and co-led our first "Shelby Speaks" vodcast series where we interviewed staff during the pandemic to share their challenges, their successes, and how their learning was going to be applied post-pandemically.  Several months later, I created and led the second "season" in the vodcast series, with SCPS teachers sharing strategies on how to teach in a hybrid/concurrent model.  The vodcasts were highlighted in a national report by Next Generation Learning Challenges  -- with Shelby the only Kentucky district mentioned by name. (For more on the report itself, click here; for more on the vodcast series, click here.)

That brings us to last month. In an article about the NGLC report in Forbes magazine, our vodcast series was mentioned again at length.  So glad to see the hard work of SCPS staff recognized!

Educators, I wish you the best as your new school year launches!

Vodcast Series Highlighted in Next Generation Learning Challenges Report!

Education during COVID-19 -- and COVID's lingering impact on learning post-pandemic -- will likely be researched and studied for years to come.  One such study was conducted recently by Next Generation Learning Challenges, which surveyed 70 schools and districts in 2020 and 2021 who, despite genuine challenges, were having some successes.  The key question was: how and why were these schools and districts succeeding despite distance learning issues and other pandemic obstacles?  This is reflected in the final report's title, "What Made Them So Prepared?"

The full report was released today and it's a fascinating study.  From NGLC's press release, I'll quote three big themes that emerged from their findings:

• The common-sense assertion: To help students become capable, caring, self-directed learners and creative problem-solvers, our schools should model those same attributes for them – in their design of learning, but also in our adult working culture and operating habits. 
• The research finding: Schools and districts that had made this commitment pre-COVID strongly benefited from it during the pandemic, enabling our communities (including students) to respond adaptively and creatively. Agentic learning and operating approaches, efforts to create a healthy culture supported by strong relationships, and resilient, flexible systems made districts feel prepared to face the pandemic’s many challenges.
• The value to ALL schools and districts: Ed leaders seeking positive ways to move past Omicron and rebuild forward momentum can use this project’s findings and resources to build on their own school or district’s examples of resilient, adaptive innovation during the pandemic. This research offers a productive way forward at a time of urgent need.

One of these 70 schools and districts that NGLC picked to interview was Shelby County Public Schools, and we are highlighted in their report!  SCPS is mentioned briefly on page 9 (PDF page 5) as one of several districts that have a Profile of a Graduate, but more prominently, we are featured on page 7 (PDF page 4) for our two "Shelby Speaks" vodcast series that we uploaded to our YouTube channel in May 2020 and January 2021.  I was proud to co-create and facilitate these interviews with our fantastic SCPS educators from many different role groups -- general education, ECE, English Language, librarians and more -- who shared their reflections on tips, tricks, strategies, successes and challenges of distance and hybrid learning.  (For more on these vodcasts, please read my blog entries here and here.)

We are thankful to NGLC for the chance to contribute to such a historical project, and I encourage you to read their full report.

Our newest vodcast series "Shelby Speaks: The Concurrency of Our Classrooms"

Happy New Year 2021!  

Back in May of last year, I shared in Edtech Elixirs that Shelby County launched a vodcast series on YouTube titled "Shelby Speaks: Looking Forward."  The videos consisted of interviews with our district educators which focused on answering two main questions:  what new things are you trying during this non-traditional instruction (NTI)/emergency distance learning, and how might that transform your teaching or classroom in your future?

In November 2020, I discussed our support for teachers attempting a concurrent/hybrid model of teaching (i.e. teaching students at home and in person at the same time).  One of the important pieces of this support was creating a Concurrent Classroom Dashboard Doc, which contains resources, tips and strategies; as part of those resources, we were blessed with Shelby educators who created self-made videos to share what they were doing that was helping them be more effective.  Via screencasts, recorded teleconferences, or cellphone filming, our staff discussed everything from hardware configurations to online discussion strategies to virtual classroom management to basic blended learning best practices.  In several cases, educators that shared their reflections in "Shelby Speaks: Looking Forward" returned to discuss how their experience last spring led to continued growth and success this fall.  

We soon realized that was a lot of valuable footage which could be helpful beyond our own district needs.  What could we do with those videos? And how could we further celebrate their work beyond the Dashboard Doc?

The answer to those questions -- and the bringing together of both threads above -- lead us to our newest vodcast series "Shelby Speaks: The Concurrency of Our Classrooms."   The videos are on our Shelby County Public Schools YouTube channel, and the Playlist for the series is here.   When all editing is finished, we plan on publishing a total of thirteen episodes.

As an excellent example to showcase the series, here's episode 3 with Kelly Hudson.  Ms. Hudson, an eighth grade ELA teacher at East Middle, emphasizes the importance of consistency and norms in a concurrent classroom.  She also shares her digital organizational structures to ensure that learning is the constant, regardless of where the students are located, or whether it is a synchronous or asynchronous environment:

We definitely are grateful to Kelly and our other Shelby educators who took the time to make the original videos. Special thanks to our district PR Coordinator Cyndi Skellie for editing the footage and publishing our newest series!

We hope you find these educator insights helpful in these challenging times.

New Vodcast Series for Educator Reflection During NTI

First, we must honor the date of this entry!  Not only is today Star Wars Day, but it is the start of Teacher Appreciation Week.  Has there ever been a school year where all teachers have not easily earned the rank of Jedi Knight?  I can't imagine one.  Thanks to all of the compassionate teachers out there who strive to innovate in these challenging non-traditional instructional (NTI) times...and that includes a nod toward the parents and guardians who are co-teaching these lessons at home.

It was an awareness of our Shelby educators who are innovating during NTI that inspired Lora Shields, our district Staff Developer.   Knowing that some hard-won professional learning was happening out there, she proposed a vodcast that could both capture this moment in time as well as share the learning with others.   As we teamed together to make this happen, we shaped the focus of the vodcast series to be guided by two questions:  what new tool or strategy are you currently learning to use during NTI, and in what ways will that transform your teaching when you return to the brick and mortar of your school buildings in the future?

Thus, the vodcast series "Shelby Speaks: Looking Forward" was launched, sharing our facilitated interviews with the creative educators of our district.  As of today, over half of our recorded episodes have been published (see the playlist on SCPS's YouTube channel), and we have already earned acclaim from other education leaders and even local television news:

Love these! “There’s a difference between a project and PBL...” Well-done, @shelbycountysch team! @loratshields @watsonedtech @DugleSusan @rltmartin @JamesNeihof https://t.co/QeXN3zsBfb

— Jonathan Vander Els (@jvanderels) April 26, 2020

Loving these Shelby Speaks series led by @watsonedtech ... this one is on how PBL & exhibitions are still happening for 8th grade, just digital now! Nice work Casey, LaPorsha, & Sarah!! Awesome creativity and innovation with digital tools. Well done. #KyEdNext https://t.co/AWgmjvCLqx

— Dr. Justin Bathon (@justinbathon) April 28, 2020

Teachers @shelbycountysch share how online learning lessons will transform their classrooms: https://t.co/iKki6dsMKf | @SaraSideryWDRB pic.twitter.com/pEwGw1ne0H

— WDRB News (@WDRBNews) April 24, 2020

In particular, I'd like to highlight three episodes that address a few of my favorite educational topics: project based learning and libraries.

In Episode 3, Martha Layne Collins art teacher Lukas Allison talks about how important cross-content PBL and design thinking is to his lesson planning (9:43):

In Episode 5, West Middle School teachers Casey Robinson, Sarah Buchanan, and LaPorsha Jackson talk about the process of moving PBL exhibitions to an online space (12:26):

Lastly, in Episode 10, Julie Webb (Shelby County High School) and Emily Northcutt (Marnel C. Moorman, our K-8 school) discuss how librarians and libraries play an essential role in NTI (18:20):

Thanks to all of the educators worldwide who are attempting the Herculean task of continuing student learning at home, even when our students face substantial inequities of Internet access, food insecurities, and understandable anxieties about our unprecedented present.