As we head into our second full week of school closures in Massachusetts, I have great gratitude for the collaboration going on behind the scenes with school leaders. There has never been a more important time for us to collaborate and share resources. Our main focus is clearly reaching out to students and families putting the social emotional needs of our school community first. The connections and relationships that our teachers build with students within their classrooms is something that simply cannot be replicated virtually.

With this in mind, we need to find ways to free teachers from too much planning and allow them to continue to connect with students as much as possible during this time where are students and their families are feeling more anxious and isolated. Share across schools, across districts, and across states so teachers can spend their time connecting.

Along these lines, I am trying to share this common experience that we are going through in our district with a daily series of check-ins with different teachers. I think this will be helpful for students and families to hear from teachers and how they are adapting. What are the routines that people are putting in place as our previous routines have been turned upside Sharing our common struggles and successes is more important than ever.