This last week the Blended Learning Support Team has been part of several year-end celebrations and reflections. 

We have been using a travel metaphor and suitcase to capture the realities of the past year of pandemic response teaching and learning. It truly has been an incredible 15 months with teachers, students, caregivers and communities working throughout to respond, adapt and support wellbeing and learning. 

We are now shifting our lens from responding to transitioning to life after a pandemic. In this way, we can begin to reflect upon and consider the possibilities offered through digital tools and online, collaborative spaces. We leave this school year with an increasing understanding of digital resources, troubleshooting practice, and truths about learning and our learners.  

Now, we breathe. We look forward to a summer and the possibility for small gatherings, good conversations and the promise of being face to face again. When we return, our landscape will be different, but we will have increasing flexibility in our decision-making and practices. No longer will everything need to be adapted for the online classroom. Instead, we can look to the online classroom as another tool and space to support students and their caregivers.  

For our team, we will transition back to our classrooms. We will take with us the learning, conversations and curiosity from the past 6 months and share it with our learners and colleagues. We will maintain friendships and collaborative partners who have shared their successes, struggles and ongoing determination to reach their students in once unfamiliar spaces.

For our partners and colleagues at the District, thank you for your guidance, support and the space to explore, take risks and grow.

To each and every teacher who attended a session, asked a question, offered support, shared a strategy or invited us into their collaborative spaces, thank you. In a time characterized by separation, you never felt too far away. 

We are packing our suitcase for the next journey, it is lighter in some areas and bulging in others. Next year, we will unpack it with the knowledge of the past year: our resourcefulness, adaptability and commitment to reaching our students. 

What will you be leaving behind from pre-pandemic learning? What will you take with you?