People just love our Educator Guest Panels, especially the ones that feature Lessons Learned in Our Digital Transition. That’s because our guest panelists don’t hold back. In what has become our no-holds-barred feature, panelists tell it like it is. But they also offer their solutions, often hard-learned and well-earned. In this Guest Educator Panel, you’ll hear from Rochelle Griffin, Director of Virtual Schools and Online Learning at Shelby County Schools, Allison Fisher, Principal of the WCS Online High School at  Williamson County Schools, and Matt Hollowell, LMS and IT Specialist at Williamson County Schools.

According to Rochelle Griffin, Director of Virtual Schools and Online Learning at Shelby County Schools, “Our parents were, and students are only familiar at this point with the synchronous instruction that we provided the district last year during the pandemic, and it has been quite a bit of shell shock. I think that kids have run circles around us, old people and technology, for some time now. Their ability to ramp up quickly is the nominal. I think the problem that we're having is the adults on both sides, at home and at the school, being able to clearly articulate exactly what that looks like and what the expectation is, and then to be able to support students in doing that.”

Allison Fisher, Principal at WCS Online High School, in the Williamson County Schools says, “We have a group of really compassionate teachers who also want to make sure that they're meeting the needs of these kids. And when you take on a student body, where 75 percent of them have really high anxiety or social emotional needs, or an environment where possibly they're not supported educationally, and trying to navigate that on their own, it's another lift. And so I can go a lot of different directions on it, but I think the other piece is we try to teach our students too. We've always tried to teach our students to handle that in one way, you either do a help desk ticket when this is broken or you go ask your teacher. And the problem is, we are immediately in need of 17 different ways to do this.”

Be sure to catch this fun, enlightening and fast-paced look at our lives in the digital transition and the many lessons we are all learning along the way.