ETHOS • FALL 2020
greatly affect their abilities to learn. Our job was to quickly transition to a virtual system of learning while consciously developing ways to maintain vibrant and engaged classroom communities. We knew that such an online program needed to be built upon support, trust, predictability, routine, and teaching methodologies that engage students with each other and their learning in all content areas. At the time we did not know how long the closures would last, but we did know that the sooner we could make ACS Virtual feel “normal” for students, aka predictable, that stressors would decrease and fight or flight cortisone levels would fall, allowing students to learn more effectively. The careful planning that followed not only helped students to settle in with their learning and increase retention, but also allowed teachers to adapt and innovate learning experiences, while being as fully present as possible for their students.
Flattening The Curve Of Disruption “When Everyone Else In Athens Stopped Learning, We Started Again... In A Different Way!” by David Nelson, Academy Principal
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hen schools closed across Greece during the first week of March 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, ACS Athens Academy students missed only one day of instruction before we reopened school online with ACS Virtual. Parents and students received an email from me that ended with what would become my tagline, “When everyone else in Athens stopped learning, we started again... in a different way!” For our students, we knew that doing things differently in the “classroom”, especially within the context of such immense disruption, would be accompanied by tremendous stress, anxiety, and even grief that might
Unprecedentedly, the global pandemic disrupted the world and brought a new scale of uncertainty and unpredictability to our lives. I’ve used the illustration below throughout the experience to describe that disruption from an individual school perspective. While epidemiologists devise ways to flatten the curve of viral transmission, educators think of how to “flatten” the disruptions in students’ minds so that they can focus on their learning. In the ACS Athens Academy, the virtual learning structures and learning support did just that.
The “new normal” has also brought new ways of thinking into our everyday lives that have so quickly become mainstream that they have even replaced the way we think about connecting, communicating, and learning with others. “Let’s zoom later.”, “...sent you a Meet invite”, “Are you interested in this webinar?”, or for ACS Athens students, “See you on BBB!”, have become so ubiquitous that few pause to wonder, and most feel at ease with such invites. What we continue to see is that as things become more predictable, students are able to focus on their learning, and teachers are even more equipped to guide them with doing so. I recently attended a webinar conducted by the National School Reform Faculty out of Bloomington, Indiana, featuring Psychologist and author David Gleason, also a long time friend and supporter of ACS Athens. “Live in fragments no longer, only connect”,
