We have been paying close attention to how our students are doing in navigating the complexities that have been coming about due to the pandemic, particularly during the challenging months when we returned to school following the winter break. During our professional development day in February we had an opportunity to talk about our learners and share our thoughts and reflections through a padlet and see if some patterns are emerging. In regards to the strengths we were observing, we explored the questions of:

• What do we know is going well?
• How do we know we are making a difference?

The two attached photos below share some of our thoughts and reflections. Overall our staff communicated that our students seem excited to be arriving to school each day, have a good amount of energy and enthusiasm, and are engaging in their learning and are seeking out connections with others. We also felt that they were doing an outstanding job in following the health and safety protocols and that the time and effort our staff have been placing into SEL in their classroom has been bringing about some positive results in our community.

We were also noticing though that the pandemic has brought about some changes to our learners and some stretches seem to be emerging. Through some of our discussions during professional development days, staff and team meetings, and ongoing day-to-day conversations as colleagues we were developing some wonders and curiousities about what might be hard for some of our learners at this time. Some of our thoughts included: 

• some students were having difficulty in self - regulation during the school day
• it was hard at times for students to take risks in their learning but also be resilient when the learning becomes challenging
• it seems as though students were showing increased levels of anxiety and didn't quite have the "tools" or strategies to support themselves when facing or experiencing anxiety

As a staff, we wanted to explore some of the stretches for our learners a little more and go a little deeper into learning about what they are telling us. We then decided that scanning our students once again would an appropriate next step.