This Wednesday we begin our first attempt at hybrid learning at Lincoln School. With most schools coming back hybrid in February, we are one of the first schools in Costa Rica to come back to some form of in-person learning. Our leadership team has worked incredibly hard to iron out all of the logistics and details to ensure that we maintain appropriate safety measures and protocols. Our teachers have been working diligently to put everything in place to offer both quality in-person and distance learning. Our maintenance teams have been working around the clock to ensure the physical campus is ready to go.
On one level, I’m very pleased with the degree of preparation and planning. You begin to realize just how many small details go into the day to day operation of a school – from drop-off and pick-up, to recess and lunch, to classroom transitions. With COVID protocols in place, every single one of those details has undergone some important shifts and adjustments, and the communication challenge of sharing all of that information with families and students is intense. We’re holding another round of information sessions today, specifically to try to review all of the processes and protocols we’ve designed and will be putting into place. I joined the meeting with our preschool families this morning, and it became apparent very quickly that there are still a lot of questions – all of which need to be addressed so families know what to expect.
Yet, despite all of the preparation, the information meetings, and Q&A sessions, I think at this point the most important thing is to start. We’re calling this next quarter a “transitional period,” and that is by design. We’ve tried to communicate and remind all of our stakeholders that we will have to learn and adapt and improve during this time of transition. Pick-up and drop off procedures have been adjusted, daily schedules are adjusted, and teachers will be trying to simultaneously teach in-person and distance learning students – all for the first time. That’s a lot of change to manage.
To help us manage that change, we’re trying to stagger our formal return dates. This week we’ll start with preschool and high school. Within two weeks, we’ll have everyone back in the rotation. We’re also starting with a 4 hour shortened day schedule – again with the idea that we’ll be learning quickly about what works and what needs further adjustments as we go.
As I mentioned in my blog post last week, my main goal is to stay close to what is happening in the classroom. How are teachers managing the challenge of simultaneous in-person and distance learning? What strategies are they using that seem to help, and what challenges are they facing that we can, as administrators, work to address quickly? I’m hoping to make those questions the focus on my blog entries in the coming weeks.