This is one of my many talented educators. He is being vulnerable and real and honest. And as a leader, as his leader, it is both heartbreaking and humbling. https://twitter.com/marchioneem/status/1311435459336245248

To my virtual educators: it has only been 11 school days. That isn't a long time to figure all of this, any of this out. This is new. This is different. This isn't how we were trained to teach. It is HARD. Your emotions and exhaustion and frustrations are all valid.

I have tried to consider, as a leader, what has prepared me for this, what can I lean into?...What I keep coming back to is, what I learned from walking through the classrooms of many @DesmondHDSB teachers for the last two years...

...I am going to struggle to explain this, the classroom educators would do a much better job, but what I saw were educators who taught students to value the idea of iterations - the idea that your first attempt isn't your final attempt - that the learning was in the process...

...was in the failures, was in the challenge. That is was through all those obstacles that the final outcome was better...and that with that growth mindset, with that resilience and ability to look at an approach, or problem, or solution in a different way, we learn and develop.

I think we need to remind ourselves, as virtual educators - that we aren't doing any of this 'wrong' - it's just our first iteration. It's our first attempt. ELEVEN DAYS. We are all emotionally exhausted because we are trying to do something brand new - and do it well.

This year, in Virtual Ed, it isn't a sprint, it is a marathon. We need to pace ourselves. And more than anything, we need to give ourselves grace. ELEVEN DAYS.

TY for your vulnerability @marchioneem, we might be physically distant but we are all connected in this experience.