MIDDLE SCHOOL
IN THE MIDDLE SCHOOL By Kevin Boland HEAD OF MIDDLE SCHOOL
This spring, the Middle School was presented with unexpected challenges due to the rapidly evolving COVID-19 pandemic. In the weeks leading up to the closure, we saw what was happening on the West Coast and began planning for a potential shutdown. This meant meeting with the leaders at the other schools, conducting research, meeting with faculty, and reaching out to other educators. When Maryland Governor Larry Hogan announced state-wide school closures, our virtual learning plan was already in place, and students had taken all their belongings for spring break. We used the day before our break for faculty training and reviewed our extended closure protocol with the faculty. At the time, we anticipated a closure of between two weeks to a month. Our objectives for that time was to maintain a sense of normalcy for students and mitigate academic backsliding. Faculty worked through spring break to overhaul course pages and prepare for launch. We soon realized that our distance learning might go longer than initially anticipated. We learned much about how students dealt with the loss of routine, normalcy, seeing friends, sports, and school activities. Teachers navigated that loss and made small changes from week to week as we became familiar with our students’ needs. While live instruction is vital for teacher/student engagement, we saw the benefits of a balance between synchronous and asynchronous instruction. Having unique, teacher-created content needed to be a priority. This page: Nikhil Krishna ‘27 Facing page, clockwise from left: Riley Easter-Kenner ’27; Bryce Fox ’25; Ella Madhok ’26
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SPIRIT OF THE DRAGON
