New Normal, E Team Adapts & Looks Ahead
During the COVID-19 school closure, students and teachers aren’t the only ones connecting remotely. In support of over 100 school districts and BOCES, coordinators in the Western New York Regional Information Center have also had to adapt to the new instructional climate to meet the needs of teachers and their students.
“Our job has completely changed. We’re used to being in district and having face-to-face meetings. Just like everyone else, including the teachers, we have had to move to remote meetings through Teams, Google Meet and WebEx. Our goal is to provide teachers and internal departments with the training they need,” Joseph Roaldi, CSLO/Model Schools supervisor, said.
Roaldi and Jessica Karches, supervisor of leadership, mentoring and professional development, agreed their team has been busy in their mission of support.
“I think we have seen more requests because each district and within it, each grade level is in a different place and needs support in different ways,” Karches said.
The team first collaborated on the Online Learning Toolkit in Case of Emergency Closure as well as bringing in expertise from other departments, including data protection from Scott Przywara, library resources from Alicia Thompson and materials from R-BERN.
As the situation and the need for support changes, the E team has adapted its response. For example, many members of the team did research on the best ways to provide instructional support, which has yielded the multipronged approach to provide asynchronous learning opportunities, Q&A webinars, and virtual office hours with the coordinators. Susan Cyrulik and Kim Louttit provide support for teachers in a session on Instructional Design to model this process for teachers.
There are a variety of learning opportunities which include technology support, using a Padlet for social studies, developing readers and writers virtually, and Kate Huber’s physical education and wellness meetups that have attracted educators from across the state to share best practices on how to keep moving and stay healthy from home.
Despite the physical separation, the team has found ways to collaborate and connect.
“We have more opportunities now to connect remotely,” Karches said. “Normally, our coordinators will communicate, but now we have them partnering up for remote PD sessions in a way we have not done before. It has been working well for one person to instruct while the other answers questions in the chat.”
Roaldi added, “If one positive comes out of this, I hope we learn as an organization to collaborate better to meet the needs of our clients in ways we previously did not.”