Psyched About School

 Congratulations! You’ve jumped in to the challenge of providing synchronous remote instruction this new school year. Navigating the new technology and this new way of teaching can be truly anxiety provoking.  This is truly a “new normal” (Have I said “new” enough times?)  You’ve faced technology issues completely out of your control such as NCEDCloud failures and Zoom outages.  During those times when you have been able to provide synchronous instruction, hopefully your students have been attending and participating, and things have been going smoothly.   However, some of you may have already started experiencing some problematic behaviors from your students during synchronous instructional times. Maybe a student has used inappropriate language or gestures either in the chat or by unmuting themselves. Or you may have observed a student teasing another student either in the chat or video. Managing problem behaviors can be difficult and challenging when stud...

It's hard to believe that we're still only a few months into this pandemic, but it's true.  (I'm pretty sure I didn't wear a mask while Christmas shopping 8 months ago, did you?) As the media tells us almost constantly, medical science is racing to conduct research and provide new insights into exactly how COVID-19 works - and how to stop it.  The social and behavioral sciences are also working overtime to address the many, many effects of this virus on how we feel, think and behave. We just discovered this article  on research conducted in Germany and wanted to share some new data with you.  The researchers originally set out in December of 2019 to measure coping skills in the workforce and planned to do followups every 3 months for a year.  And then there was COVID-19.  Seeing an opportunity where they had baseline pre-pandemic data, the researchers quickly adapted and started doing monthly followups, instead, as Germany went into "lockdown" approximatel...

Welcome to the 2020-2021 school year! If you are like most of us, you hoped things would be back to normal by this point. Unfortunately, concerns regarding the spread of COVID-19 continue to present challenges for schools, families, and society. When the pandemic caused the shutdown in March, schools had to quickly develop a plan for online learning. There were a number of obstacles that prevented some students from engaging in the online platform. Moving into the current school year, WS/FCS administrators, teachers, and staff have worked diligently to address those challenges in order to help all of our students learn in spite of these extraordinary circumstances.  As a school system, we recognize the critical role parents and guardians play in the success of our students. That role has become even more critical while students are learning at home in this online platform. Given all of the uncertainties surrounding the new school year, we know many parents/guardians have questions ...