THREAD. I've been spending some time this week speaking to exceptional teachers across a variety of school types (trad. public, charter), demographics (mid and low-income student populations), geographies (large urban, small urban, rural.) Here's what I'm learning:

1/ Caveats: a) This is a small sample size, but I intend to continue this over the coming weeks; trends may change. b) these teachers were identified as exceptional by parents or past colleagues whose judgment I trust, but I haven't verified that with past student ach. results.

2/ Trends on 'time': these teachers were typically spending significant amounts of time. It basically broke down to: recording instruction (25%), personal student/parent outreach/check-ins (35%), grading (40%). That surprised me a bit.

3/ One quote on this that was fascinating: "Grading and feedback is more important now than it has ever been. It's the most important way I use my time."

4/ Across the board, when I mentioned some larger urban districts had put teacher hour maximums into agreements, there was a feeling that was absurd. "Well, I'd just have to ignore that. I focus on what my students need."

5/ Trends around needs: two needs kept surfacing, and this came from both younger teachers (2-3 yrs experience) and veterans (> 15 years).

6/ The first centered on resources, especially literacy resources and BOOKS. Even with Kindle Unlimited giving free access, etc, teachers need to get their students access to way, way, way more books. Needs to be a priority. Public/private partnerships on this?

7/ The second centered on defining the bar of rigor/excellence. The excellent teachers I've spoken with, regardless of years in the classroom, were largely being left to their own judgment on this and that was creating second-guessing and some frustration.

8/ They're asking for further guidance - especially if distance learning stretches into the fall. Seems like an area that pedagogues, think tanks, and districts should explore further. Lots of questions around revisiting standards vs. teaching new ones, for example.

9/ Trends on instruction: broad agreement that asynchronous instruction was critical right now, given that homes with many children have limited devices, differing schedules, etc. HOWEVER...

10/ This has to be paired with broad agreement over what these teachers see as a real hunger and need of their students (some as young as first graders) to have socialization and community building.

11/ One teacher shared (and I think this is very smart) that she's keeping academic lessons asynchronous, but is having hour-long synchronous morning meetings on Mondays and Fridays. 99% attendance at those; the kids love them.

FIN/ That's it for now. Lots to focus on, but I promised these teachers I'd articulate their needs. For now, that means access to BOOKS and guidance around rigor and standards. Seems like those are both problems that can be solved - quickly, even, with our collective effort.