Pivot. When we started our faculty orientation in August, I knew it would be different. I talked to the faculty about how we had never seen anything like this before, and we did not know what the year would hold - both personally and professionally. I stressed one word to define the 2020-2021 school year: pivot. In my mind, this word was always associated with the Friends episode where the characters are trying to get a couch up to Ross's apartment in a narrow staircase. Ross keeps urging his friends to, "Pivot," as they try to get the sofa around a curve. It doesn't work. We never learn what happens to the couch, but can assume it makes it up to his apartment and all is well.

 

Pivot has taken on a whole new meaning this year. Teachers and families have had to turn on a dime with regard to schooling. We are remote, we can bring 10% back, we can bring 25% back, we can bring K-2 back, we can have after school athletics - the shifts seem endless and without much warning. You, our Brawerman families, have been patient and flexible throughout all of our pivots, and I am grateful.

 

Brawerman teachers have also pivoted. They have gone from teachers in a school building, to remote teachers, to teachers who are sometimes remote and sometimes in person. They have gone from using Smartboards and live interaction to Zoom to webcams to Owls. They have reimagined how to teach given health guidelines. They have reconfigured classrooms and learned more health protocols than they ever imagined. And, they have done so gracefully, quickly, and positively.

 

As Brawerman enters its next pivot, bringing back to campus more than 100 students at once for the first time since March, I am incredibly proud of this faculty. They have worked tirelessly to reimagine instruction and what it means to be a teacher. I know the work is far from done - this past Friday Grades 3-6 teachers met to discuss ways to get upper grade students on campus in the new year following the 25% guidance. We do not know what the future holds, but I do know that I could not be more honored to work alongside such a dedicated group of educators.

 

Andrea Weinstein

Interim Principal, Brawerman West