Change is pervasive right now. It surrounds our professional and personal lives as we all surface from the first wave of the pandemic in B.C. and as we actively prepare for what lies ahead. If there ever was a time for stepping outside of your comfort zone it is now, which to be honest is kind of tough since there is an element of just wanting to turtle under a big rock right now after all that has happened over the past four months. I am feeling like I am tired of stepping out but as Barnett Berry, of the University of Southern Carolina, said at yesterday’s Global Education Academy “when change comes it comes quickly” (2020). The time to turtle isn't now.

We have a really cool opportunity in the West Vancouver School District to begin the 2020-21 school year with 2-days of professional learning before we officially re-open our school. Today we will be working with district colleagues, including our teachers' union president and vice-president, to shape this opportunity.

Day one will focus on developing the necessary synchronous/asynchronous instructional practices and will be centered on building digital capacity. It will shaped around the theme of a 'Google Summit' led by our teachers who have demonstrated passion and expertise in utilizing and maximizing the opportunities in the G-suite. My colleague and I have been tasked with taking the lead on day two which is to be shaped around social emotional learning, anti-racism and trauma informed practice. These were the three requests that came forward from the teachers' union district survey of pertinent topics for professional learning. It is somewhat daunting, but our pitch will be one that will be built on the year ahead and sustaining the momentum and urgency to delve deeper into our ability to meet our students, families and each other where they are disrupting the narrative around where they should be. We will be pitching working with the Trauma Informed Practice resources and working towards weaving together a continued professional learning plan for the year ahead.

I am working through the right approach to gently but strategically tap into this opportunity through an inclusive educational lens. The challenge is how to make this meaningful in light of the appetizer of time. As I am working through the 'pitch' to move this away from a smorgasbord of fast food sessions, I am using Cohen and Mehta's five characteristics of reform alongside of yesterday's rich conversations in the Global Education Academy to orient the pitch. We want this opportunity to ground our teachers as they return to an uncertain landscape, this is an opportunity to build momentum, capacity and inspiration. The question is how to do we sustain the momentum for the complexity of the year ahead.

As I toss ideas around to prep for the pitch, I've mapped out some of my thinking to help steady my approach. Column one illustrates the Cohen & Mehta's (2017) 5 essential elements of educational reform, alongside of 5 things/areas to consider in order to sustain momentum for continued professional learning in 2020-21.