May, 2020 -- The New Face of Learning

Good Morning and Welcome back to the Westside.

First and foremost, I want to thank all of you who take the time out of your day to read what has been happening here at West Leadership Academy. All of your positive vibes and the energy that you send to the campus ( and now to every household that houses our students) is very much appreciated. 

The past two months have clearly been a roller coaster of a ride. The virus has affected all of us, and it has shown the vulnerabilities that we all share. I will be the first to say that my “creative” cap that I have worn these past two months has been at full strength.

However, it has also shown us that when we face adversity, we must be united against it. Our students health & safety is our priority, which is why I commend WLA’s administration’s response to the pandemic.

March 15 was a day that our students didn’t realize was going to be the last day they would see each other in person. In the middle of the week when the NBA shut down their operations, the adults figured that we would be next. That Friday, I saw all five of our classes. I couldn’t help but feel as though our students reaction to having spring break three weeks earlier was expected. 

What I mean by that is that our students weren’t so much worried about the virus so much as they were ready to leave on break an earlier 3 weeks than expected.

I did my best to explain the situation to them and explain the gravity of what was going to happen. I was honest, I was upfront, and I was careful to give them facts of what would happen. 

It wasn’t easy, as I realized as the day went on that we would not be seeing them for the rest of the semester. Obviously, as an instructor, I chose to stay cool, calm and collected but I definitely internalized some my other sensitive emotions that I was feeling. 

After everyone left, I stayed behind disinfecting my chromebooks and my classroom for as long as I could, as I did not want to leave my home away from home. Slowly but surely, I realized that from here on out, things would never be the same. But that isn’t to say that it is going to be all negative. 

The way our students and our teachers have responded to this pandemic has been nothing short of amazing. 

The way our organization has helped our students has been by Coach Dino Abeyta, our family advocate, collecting food and making care packages to our students in need. Our Mentor Leadership Team has been working on coming up with engaging weekly journals and weekly discussion topics as well.

I have been doing the lessons in a variety of ways, specifically tailoring our social-emotional learning curriculum around the pandemic. The first two weeks I had live sessions during class answering questions and delivering content around the virus. Now, I record the sessions delivering the content and I have the students watch it at their own pace. For the most part, our students seem to be engaged towards the end of the week, but there have also been many of our students who have experienced some very hard times as they are away from the school. 

For example, I narrated a lesson on accountability during the pandemic, specifically how and why some of our publicly elected officials are not held accountable for not wearing masks in public or the lack of enforcing rules and regulations by some businesses.

One other video I uploaded was content around bullying, specifically people from Asia and Asian-Americans here at home and how the stigma that now surrounds them has unfortunately made it acceptable to discriminate against them.
Here is an example of that video:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-r-Sy7XYoLlW7Qb9C3mpi6dNKTZ3vuEE/view?usp=sharing

Right now, our teachers are the face of a consistent “I can do it” attitude. No matter the circumstances, I always tell our students we need to find a way to succeed. In other words, find a reason to keep moving forward. I commend the tenacity my colleagues have shown in these uncertain times. It is a unique situation we are all in right now but it is up to us to rise to the occasion. There is not anything our amazing teachers cannot do, just supply us with coffee and donuts, and we'll find a way to get it done.

My attitude has been, and always will be to strap up my shoes, roll up my sleeves, and get after whatever challenge has come my way. 

I will have one more blog before the end of the year, in which I will officially bring forth the official parting of the ways.

As always, thank you for taking the time to read this blog. Keep taking care of yourselves, keep taking precautions and keep taking care of your loved ones.

Happy reading, y’all.

Cowboys, Out.