My juniors’ writing prompt today starts with the NYT article “Reopening Has Begun. No One is Sure What Happens Next.” Those discussions have started about schools, too; and while I can’t even begin to claim I have answers, I’ve started coming up with the questions we’ve got to answer as we plan for reopening in the fall.

Most important among them:

• How do we make sure our students, staff, and community are safe?
• Which goals or tasks are most important in our schools and classrooms? Which ones can we let go? (There will be more than enough work to go around–we will have to prioritize in order to get the right stuff done.)
• How do we build community when we might not all be together at once?
• What works for student learning? (Equally important: what doesn’t work?)
• How can we make sure everyone has access & support when we aren’t in the school building?

There are school, district, state, and national groups meeting to work on answering these questions; as we wrap up this school year, I’ll start looking towards next year (and asking for your opinions, too) in order to make it the best I can. I certainly don’t have control over a lot of things, but I can start with our classroom, and doing what I can to make it work for us all!