I've always been one for a dramatic title, this week is no different. And yet, the drama adequately reflects what I see as the biggest challenge to learning in the coming years. Operating out of fear is always a bad idea and we have allowed the learning loss data to morph into an evil mythical creature of epic proportions. How will we slay the dragons, keep our funding and keep from going insane in the process? There is only one way. High quality teaching, one small bite at a time. Yes, there may be a few tweaks, but hopefully, you are simply going to be doing your best--like every year.

The educators I know are already doing a phenomenal job of being responsive to the needs of their learners, hopefully you are too. Here are a few guiding tips: first, let's approach this year from the position of strength. What have your students learned during the pandemic? Tenacity, team spirit? Have they learned to care for each other remotely? Have they learned to take more responsibility for their families and themselves? Have they simply survived the worst global crisis of their lives? Praise them for it. Remind your students and yourself that we have all learned things that no test developed for a pre-pandemic world will measure. Start there. 

Next, don't let the data scare ya. You can still only do your best for one student at a time, one class at a time. Do that. Do what you do best. Resist the urge to take your anxiety home about what will happen if you don't "catch the kids up". There is no such thing. We will never return to a pre-pandemic state of learning. The whole world is in the same boat. So remember, and remind your students, parents and even admin if you need to. Celebrate wins, learn from losses and do your best, just as you (hopefully) have every year of your career. Take care of yourself, take care of your kids. The rest will come.

Do your best, do what you can to augment learning (cause, hey, isn't that what you do anyway?) but spend this year just being grateful that we all survived.