I want to thank Garrett Rogowski for his fine leadership during this time known at the pandemic. I also want to thank him for the article he sent out from Dave Stuart Jr. on using enrichment during distance learning. Dave Stuart Jr. is a high school teacher who also writes and researches about literacy, motivation, and the inner work of teaching.
I truly believe this is how we should be helping our students through this experience. Learning at home is not always an easy task, but we can make it work and make it fun by helping to develop the skills and traits necessary for our students to have success. We have so much more we can teach them about life and how to handle each situation that comes their way. This will not be the last crisis they face. Let us prepare them for the next one that comes their way. When it happens, they can look back at how we handled this one and how we made their experience better. Hopefully, they will consider us as a good example of how to handle a crisis.
Too often we believe that what we are doing is the most important thing in the world. To us maybe, but it is not to everyone else around us. We need to step back and enrich their lives at a time that is possibly the most stressful time to date in their lives. We may think that they are just sitting at home enjoying themselves. Some may be. But, most are not. They are missing things that are very important to them. This pandemic has taken away their face to face interaction, playing on playgrounds and basketball courts, going out with friends, the camaraderie of playing sports, being in a school play, playing for state solo and ensemble, and many other things. For some of our students they have lost things they will never be able to do again. Let us enrich them and make the best of the situation. Let's not make it a chore to get up every morning and despise what they have to do for us. But rather something they look forward to in the morning once they wake up. This pandemic will pass. Let us make Wittenberg Birnamwood the school district that people will remember as the district that came alongside their students, walked them through an unimaginable time in history, and made them not only better students, but better people. Let us help make this a memory that will have changed and enriched their lives in a way they will talk about for years to come.
I know you have it in you to rise to this challenge. I believe in the Wittenberg-Birnamwood staff and look forward to hearing of your creative solutions for our students.
Thank you,
BIll
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