Article Silver Linings in Self-Directed SIP Days
Lynette Thrasher
It seems to be the nature of the human race to look for the positives in a dark situation. As early as 1634 Milton asked, “Was I deceived or did a sable cloud/Turn forth her silver lining on the night?” And in the midst of a global pandemic, we find ourselves still scanning the skies for that silver lining. At Momence Community Unit School District #1, a rural, public PreK-12 district in Kankakee County, one of our silver linings was discovered through our need to adapt our School Improvement Planning days to meet social distancing and quarantine restrictions. Looking for Solutions As we prepared to return to school in a hybrid model in August, it became clear that the traditional form of teacher development days was not going to work. We had teachers being quarantined, we couldn’t meet in large groups, and we didn’t want to cross-expose people in different buildings. And yet, we had just adopted a new math curriculum-including enhanced digital offerings. Teachers needed and wanted training to learn to best utilize these resources and to up their remote teaching game in general. Our district, like so many, was rapidly expanding our 1:1 capabilities through Covid relief funding. What good would all these devices and
SPRING 2021 | VOLUME 67 | NUMBER 1 | PAGE 56
