Take a walk with Shawna through her Q & A session with Wendy Zdeb, MASSP Executive Director. Learn about Shawna’s experience as she transitioned from middle school principal to becoming the principal for both middle and high school in St. Charles.
Read about her transitional challenges she faced becoming the 6-12 principal, how she approaches students, what it's like to be face-to-face 5 days a week, students responses and more!
1. You just completed your fourth year as the Principal at St. Charles Middle School and this year (during a pandemic!) you were asked to become the 6-12 Principal. What has been the biggest change?
It was an honor to be selected as the High School Principal! The biggest change has definitely been working with so many additional staff, students, and parents. What’s really nice is the MS and HS have always shared some staff so I already knew many of them. Also, I’m fortunate to have had all of the HS students when they were in Middle School. With so many other changes, knowing everyone has been a huge advantage and a sense of comfort.
One unique change has been having two separate offices which poses a challenge when something I need is in the other office. I’ve started a new organizational system, instead of using so many post-it notes, I’m using Google Keep to keep me focused.
2. What do you see as the most significant differences in the MS and HS age group? Do you find yourself adjusting your approach or your communication?
I think maturity is one of the biggest differences between the MS and HS students. Our HS students tend to stay out of drama and understand how to solve academic and personal problems. While MS students are still learning how to problem solve academic and personal problems, which sometimes leads to a little bit of drama.
My approach definitely changes depending on the age of students and the situations. I always approach situations in a caring manner and look at ways to help students solve the issue or prevent an issue from arising in the future. MS students tend to need more time to talk through things to really understand it. The HS students understand and most are ready to move on pretty quick.
I was a HS AP before becoming a MS Principal. It’s nice to be able to work closely with HS students again. I’ve found that I really love working with both age ranges. They are so unique in their development and personality!
3. Your school is fully face-to-face 5 days per week. What does your schedule look like? How have you been able to socially distance students?
This is a loaded question….Like so many other schools our schedule looks different than what it has in the past. We were a traditional six hour day and we had a small virtual school that kids from all over attended.
We have switched to a non traditional block schedule with students attending three classes per day. They attend three classes one day and the other three the next day. We alternate classes every other day so teachers can keep the same lesson plans and keep their classes on track.
St. Charles has had a virtual program for 10 years so we were slightly ahead of the learning curve with virtual school. We have about 30% of our secondary students attending our virtual school. Those students use Edgenuity as their learning platform. We have an administrator that oversees the program, a teacher, and a paraprofessional that support the students. We also have some teachers that are face to face that help those students if they need tutoring.
With so many of our students attending our virtual school this year we have less students in the building, which helps with social distancing. We are doing our best to social distance students throughout the day. Some of our teachers changed classrooms, we moved a classroom into the media center, and opened accordion walls up between classrooms. They were very creative in spacing out their rooms and moved unnecessary tables, shelves, and cabinets from their classrooms. Many teachers also switched from tables to desks in order to social distance.
When students arrive at school they can go to their locker but then must report to class. At the end of the day they can go to their locker as well, but we dismiss them slowly so kids are not congregated at lockers. Student’s are not allowed to go to their locker during the school day as we are trying to reduce touchpoints and areas that kids tend to congregate.
Since our students only go to three classes per day, they only pass between classes twice per day. Which reduces desk cleaning and the number of contacts students have with others. At lunch we have two locations where students eat. We have students spaced out at tables and desks so they are not sitting right next to each other. They are close enough to chat and visit with friends but not near as close as in the past. We have two lunches happening simultaneously at three different times each day! It’s a busy time of day!
4. How have your middle school students responded to the new expectations?
Our students have all responded very well to the new expectations. Do they like them...no. But they know that if they want to be face to face we have to follow them for safety. Our first week of school we had half of the students come in for two days and then the other half for two days. We created an expectation slide presentation that all teachers gave the 1st hour for all students. This really helped to get all students on the same page. That way when all students came together, the next week, everyone already knew what to expect. I am very proud of how well they have adjusted to so many changes.
5. What support/training have you provided for teachers to prepare them in the event your school has to go remote due to a COVID outbreak?
The MS and HS has been one to one Chromebooks for four years, so students and staff are used to using Google Classroom and technology in the classroom. That was very helpful in the spring, but like most schools we learned about some areas where we had opportunity for improvement and we wanted to be prepared in case we had to go virtual again.
First we had to adjust the number of PD days we had before school started. Normally we only have one. We all knew that just wouldn’t be enough. Our LEA was really great to work with to adjust that to three days of PD. Once we had time we surveyed our staff to get ideas regarding their needs.
One day we focused on creating consistency with how our teachers use Google Classroom so we could continue to use it as an LMS. We also asked Ryan Cayce, from MASSP, to visit and give a presentation to our staff on ways to engage students using a virtual platform. He was wonderful! He shared a wide variety of tools with our staff and gave them time to create something useful within the tools.
Teachers then had one day of virtual PD of their choice to focus on what they needed. We had a variety of PD options to choose from where they could receive SCECHs. We felt it was important for staff to be able to choose what they needed so they could have a strong start to the year and feel as prepared as possible.
We also had a County Wide PD on October 5th, where Google Classroom Guru, John Sowash, was the Keynote Speaker. There were also a wide variety of other breakout sessions throughout the day. All of these PD opportunities have helped prepare staff in case we go virtual again.
6. Anything else you'd like to share?
I know our system isn’t perfect. No system is. I have heard concerns from friends and colleagues in other districts about their systems too. This year has been very tough on so many staff, families, and students. We need to continue giving each other (and ourselves) grace and remember why we are in education.
Shawna Groulx, Principal, Anna M. Thurston Middle School and MASSP Board of Directors Representative