It's been almost four months since I've posted on my blog, and I'm truly sorry if you, as my readers, have felt "ghosted". However, I'm not apologizing for my brief blogging hiatus. That may sound blunt, but it's my truth.
Since this school year started, I simply have not had the time I had during the 2020-2021 school year to devote to consistently writing meaningful content for my blog. So, I'm giving myself some grace, and I hope, if you're following along with me, that you will too.
During the 2020-2021 school year, I was working from home as an Educational Technology Specialist and Instructional Coach for the Professional Development department of my school district, which actually turned out to be pretty wonderful. Because I wasn't spending an hour getting myself "ready" in the mornings to be presentable at an office, not commuting 40-45 minutes to work and back each day, and not driving around to school sites all over my district, I found myself with the glorious gift of time.
In addtion to starting and maintaining my blog, I found the time to get my Google Educator Level 1 and 2 certifications, as well as complete my Leading Edge Digital Educator certification via #leadingedgeflex on the Alludo platform through RCOE.
I was able to attend and present at virtual conferences, provide virtual professional development to teachers, curate a digital mountain of resources for educators, and effectively coach new teachers in the CTI program who were working towards clearing their credentials. I was able to do my job well, pursue my own professional development, work on my passion projects, and even maintain somewhat of a consistent exercise routine without having the guilt of any of this taking precious time away from my family. Although that year was awful for many, I found that working from home created a much needed balance in my life.
Currently, I find myself craving that balance once again.
The 2021-2022 school year started for me at the end of July and August preparing teachers for back to in-person instruction. After presenting at Google Camp, I jumped right in planning and facilitating the New Teacher Academy for our new teachers, attending curriculum and quality first instruction professional development and training, preparing for Lead Teacher meetings, and establishing coaching relationships with my CTI candidates. In our little EdTech world during this time, one of the members of our trio accepted a job as a CTO at another district, so my partner Terri and I had to figure out our new "normal" without our admin.
Then, because of COVID and teacher shortages, my other coaching colleagues and I were called to cover classrooms all over the district as substitute teachers during August and September. With my new "subbing" schedule, I had to figure out ways to do all my "normal" job responsibilities in just two days out of each week, while subbing classrooms the remaining three days.
In October, my job responsibilities changed once again. Because of a variety of COVD related circumstances, our Independent Study program and our Academy of Innovation Online school systems became overwhelmed; so my colleagues and I were asked to switch from subbing classrooms to providing a temporary program option to students in our district who were transitioning from their home school sites to our online school. These students are temporarily on independent study, but we are checking in with them daily and providing virtual support in all content areas each week until they transition either back to their home school site or fully to our Academy of Innovation online school. Here's a peek at what this schedule looks like for us in just one grade level:
