The Janney Journal

There’s no doubt about it, the 2020 school year was like no other. The Covid-19 pandemic left school districts scrambling to find ways to effectively educate students. Parents had to make the tough decision about sending their children back to school or allowing them to participate in remote learning.  Simonson et al. (2019) states, "no organization should enter the distance education marketplace without a clearly thought-out plan that has the consensus approval of all key players" (p. 291). However, the pandemic did not give time to think out a plan, nor achieve consensus of all players. School districts did the best they could in the amount of time they had. As a remote teacher, I felt many challenges of distance education.  Challenges of Crisis Schooling by Dana Janney Family and Community Engagement "The quality of student support services available and easily accessible to a distant learner will play a major role in determining whether that student learns, enr...

Picture it:  Your classroom is ready and decorated beautifully. You and your partner teacher are anxiously awaiting to welcome students back from a five month "vacation." You get a phone call from your principal telling you that she needs to talk with you in person as soon as possible. You walk into her office and are told that since you are a team teacher , you are going to need to teach your first graders virtually beginning in about two weeks.  The first day we were suppose to team teach The thought of providing ALL instruction online scared me to death! I was not a confident user of technology at all and knew I needed to quickly grow in this area. I was so relieved to hear that there were going to be two more first grade teachers from my school in the same position. I seriously wouldn't have made it without them!   via GIPHY Distance Education The definition of distance education has evolved over time. According to Simonson et al. (2019), distance education can be def...

All Calera Schools use the slogan, "you're an eagle, what you do matters." Every morning and afternoon, our announcements end with this statement. Here lately, it has really made me think about how this applies to everyone in our building...not just the students! One area where I would like to see an improvement is with my school's communication. I feel that I have learned a lot about this area and I could help bring us to the next level. "If you don't tell your story, someone else will" is a statement made several times in the book  Digital Leadership: Changing Paradigms for Changing Times (Scheninger, 2019, p. 180).  via GIPHY I feel like my school does a great job communicating information with parents in several ways. Every teacher sends home paper copies of newsletters, many teachers use a digital form of communication, and our office staff sends out emails. We also have a school Facebook page. Parents are well informed of upcoming events and ways...