Principal’s Corner
Dear Brent Community,
At Brent, we use that word frequently and in many contexts: community. The way we think about community has evolved, at least temporarily and perhaps permanently. Right now “community” is far less defined by place and far more defined by collective values, goals and a sense of fellowship. The emerging societal mantra “together but apart” speaks to this emphasis.
Week One of Brent’s Distance Learning set the foundation of our “together but apart” approach. Students, faculty members and families found new ways to connect with raucous morning meetings, individual phone calls and video chats, emails that described grade-level distance learning goals, and personalized technical support.
During Week One, we also learned about what worked and what requires adjustment. We will refine communication so that it is timely and easier to digest (see our revised communication protocol below). We found technical glitches and raised the importance of digital citizenship and platform guidelines. And we found places where we could lift access to reach the demand for equity.
This week, Week Two, we will introduce live and recorded instruction and the correlated student assignments. As we take this next step, we continue to encourage you to attend to all the learning you can while giving yourself grace or time to catch up to the things you miss. We will continue to reflect, revise and plan from the experiences we have with live and recorded instruction this week, and we will continue to value that while we have common school goals, specific grade-level approaches may vary. Those variances allow us to learn from a variety of approaches and ensure that we are meeting a range of developmental needs.
We still miss seeing our students each and every day but remain committed to doing this together but apart. Because no matter what, we are a community.
Sincerely,
Norah Lycknell
Dear Brent Community,
At Brent, we use that word frequently and in many contexts: community. The way we think about community has evolved, at least temporarily and perhaps permanently. Right now “community” is far less defined by place and far more defined by collective values, goals and a sense of fellowship. The emerging societal mantra “together but apart” speaks to this emphasis.
Week One of Brent’s Distance Learning set the foundation of our “together but apart” approach. Students, faculty members and families found new ways to connect with raucous morning meetings, individual phone calls and video chats, emails that described grade-level distance learning goals, and personalized technical support.
During Week One, we also learned about what worked and what requires adjustment. We will refine communication so that it is timely and easier to digest (see our revised communication protocol below). We found technical glitches and raised the importance of digital citizenship and platform guidelines. And we found places where we could lift access to reach the demand for equity.
This week, Week Two, we will introduce live and recorded instruction and the correlated student assignments. As we take this next step, we continue to encourage you to attend to all the learning you can while giving yourself grace or time to catch up to the things you miss. We will continue to reflect, revise and plan from the experiences we have with live and recorded instruction this week, and we will continue to value that while we have common school goals, specific grade-level approaches may vary. Those variances allow us to learn from a variety of approaches and ensure that we are meeting a range of developmental needs.
We still miss seeing our students each and every day but remain committed to doing this together but apart. Because no matter what, we are a community.
Sincerely,
Norah Lycknell
