Part 3: Leading in a Time of Crisis – a Conversation with Associate Director of Middle School Teaching and Learning Kim Pence
“We’ve trained our teachers along the way to be patient in their communication with families and try not to introduce a whole lot of tools that their students aren’t familiar with, that might be overwhelming for them, and that will be overwhelming for the families. And so we’re trying to slow down. We don’t need to be perfect.”
Kim Pence - Associate Director of Middle School Teaching and Learning
Today on Getting Unstuck
Most of us are living in an unprecedented time. Not since World War II, have we experienced something that can literally impact every person on the planet. Getting through the COVID-19 pandemic is taking incredible resources and resourcefulness. It is also forcing us to look at one another and work with one another differently. And one place of work where that is extremely evident is in U.S. schools
What follows is one conversation in a series of conversations we’re having with educators across the country on how they are leading their schools in this time of crisis. Because these educators are extremely busy helping their schools and communities to pivot, we’ve intentionally limited these conversations to 15 minutes.
It’s our hope that these conversations will provide nuggets of solid advice and emotional support to other educators on the front lines of change.
In this episode we hear from:
Kim Pence, Associate Director of Middle School Teaching and Learning, Forest Hills School District, Anderson, OH
Listen for:
Beyond coordinating the logistics of online instruction, the work is all about
Leveraging the thinking that has already gone into establishing the district’s E.P.I.C. culture – Empower, Personalize, Innovate and Collaborate
Taking deep breaths and being reasonable while still setting high expectations; focusing on what is known and controllable
Reaching out to families to check in on communication and performance; reaching out to other districts to learn from each other
“One of the things I think Forest Hills has done well is we’ve used social media to leverage and to really show what our teachers are doing. And so they’re taking pictures of some creative things. But then we’ve also asked our families “What are some creative things that your kids are doing at home?”