What will the 2020 Kindergarten School Year look like?
Honestly, I don’t think anyone really knows. Every state and school district seems to have it’s own ideas and potential plan(s), but nobody appears to know what those are or what it looks like. Yikes.
Our school district only submitted one plan, but hasn’t yet voted on it. The plan is a blended hybrid model. Students would be placed in 2 cohorts, A or B. Cohort A students would be in class on Mondays & Tuesdays and distance learning for the other 3 days. And cohort B students would be in class on Thursday and Friday, with distance learning on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. The Wednesdays are for teachers to have staff development and also work on the distance learning.
Has your district released their plan yet? If so, please share in the comments.
Practical Tips for Preparing for the 2020 School Year
Normally I have a plan for the new school year and share my to-do lists and ideas for the first few days/weeks of school. But this year is different for many reasons. Yet, instead of focusing on what teachers CANNOT control, let’s focus on the things teachers HAVE control over. I know that I feel a lot better when I can focus my time and energy on something, instead of worrying and getting nothing accomplished.
- Assess what you know and from your past experiences of distance learning
- What digital platforms did you previously use that worked and what didn’t work. Is there something different you want to try? Now is the time to try out different platforms and digital tools.
- Will you be providing hybrid/blended resources?
- Is there new curriculum that you need to look at? Has the pacing for this school year changed?
- What did you use for parent communication? Do you want to try something different this school year? Do you need to set up a new account?
- What will be the accessibility of tools for you (as the teacher) and also for the students?
- Make a list of the items you think you might need for this school year. Will your students need individual supplies? Do you have to prepare cleaning kits? How will lunch be handled in your classroom? Will you be providing supplies or will you ask families to provide supplies?
- Will you have different policies and processes? Will you need to update those printables?
- Do you feel like you could use more training on learning platforms?
- SELF CARE!!! Take care of yourself!! We are in very unpredictable and uncharted territory…give yourself grace and don’t forget to take lots of deep breaths!
Get more Training…
After my school year ended in May, I realized how unfamiliar I really was with the Google Education platform. Our district initially approved all digital-learning and video-conferencing platforms, but quickly instructed us to move to everything Google. I was overwhelmed and did not have to time to really explore the different extensions and options. But after school was out, I started exploring Google and found out that you can become a Google Certified Educator. This is not sponsored or affiliated or anything, just one teacher sharing info with another teacher. Head over to teachercenter.withgoogle.com or edugoogle.com/teacher-center for more information!
I realize that you might have been hoping for ground-breaking planning tips for the 2020 school year, but the reality is that we have to use the information we already know and have worked with and make flexible plans with what we have. The key here is flexible…but at least you are focusing on what you can do and not floundering in what you can’t change. YOU CAN DO THIS!!
Thanks for coming to the 3rd day of #31daysofkindergarten here on my blog! In case you missed the previous posts in this series…
Abigail is a Kindergarten Teacher, Curriculum Writer, National Speaker and author of the website, Kindergarten Chaos, LLC. She lives in Las Vegas, NV with her husband and 3 kids. She provides professional development to schools and districts all over the country. If your school or district is in need of professional development for everything Kindergarten, please email her at kindergartenchaos2@gmail.com
My summer break just started last week and I gave myself a full 7 days of complete self care. I was just overly exhausted and Zoom’d out. It’s hard not to think about what Fall will look like because us teachers are used to planning out the next school year even if it’s at our leisure during our summer break. I’m hearing the”hybrid model” being thrown out a lot, so I plan on learning how to use Screencastify before school starts. If you have any tips on that or other platforms that allow you to pre-record mini-lessons, I’d love to hear. I’ve been hearing a few teachergrammers using ESGI and am curious to see if that’s something I can use. The price tag is what’s made me hesitant though. Hope to win your giveaway! 🙂