How do you bridge the K-12 world with the world of higher education? Yokiko Hayashi-Saguil from the Washington Student Achievement Council joins Dr. Scott Seaman to discuss how WSAC programs, tools, and resources can get more students college-bound students and what their financial aid options are. A must watch for high school principals and counselors. And for a follow-up, WSAC Executive Director Michael Meotti joins our Scott Friedman to talk more about all the programs, tools, and resources the Student Achievement Council provides, as well as what college applications look like in the age of COVID-19.

Change is normal and while it's normal to question and wonder how the world will change, I believe the bigger and more important question to ask is, "How will I improve and grow from the change?"

One unforeseen consequence of a statewide closure has been the massive forced push for all of us to engage in the virtual meeting space. We might have dabbled before in Zoom, Skype, Google Hangouts, and Microsoft Teams, but now we are all exceeding standard. AWSP is offering weekly Office Hours for members to engage with with the AWSP Executive Team and K-12 principals from all over the state. This is a wide open session of give and take, but more importantly, to hear our members (principals, assistant principals and other school leaders) share challenges, successes, and barriers they are facing as newly assigned digital leaders. It is so incredible to watch these natural and organic conversations take off each week that I find myself thinking, "Why didn't we do this sooner?"

I had always been appreciative of the love and support of other caring teaching mentors and leaders in my system. They looked out for me, mentored my blossoming teacher leadership skills, and encouraged me to pursue school leadership and my passion for supporting students and families in my community. This support and encouragement put me on a path to school leadership and eventually, an AWSP-trained principal mentor in my district.

In this episode of AWSP News, we discuss establishing some new boundaries around your time, accessibility, priorities, and work-life balance, some great icebreakers and team builders for virtual meetings from AWSL, planning and preparing for virtual senior year-end events, innovative ways to educate each and every student, guidance from OSPI about grading, subscribing to our blog, the 2020 NASSP Advocacy Champion of the Year, Ready WA’s hashtag PlanYourPathWa student voice video contest, and a feel-good story.

AWSP supports OSPI’s and their workgroup’s guidance for grading. The guidelines are the right thing at the right time. They give districts a clear framework while maintaining the flexibility for districts to find the right solution for their students and community. The guidance was developed with input from a huge array of stakeholders, including our own Associate Directors Kurt Hatch, Gina Yonts, and Scott Friedman. The key message from OSPI and the guiding workgroup: do no harm.

Seniors across the state of Washington have been left without the opportunity to participate in many traditional celebrations including graduation. Our time during this webinar will focus on how we can collectively create create celebrations that students and families will remember.

My daughter was a 4.0 high school student with an impressive resume of accomplishments during her high school career. She went on to the University of Washington where she graduated with a 3.9 and two degrees in three years. While in high school, she tore herself apart studying and preparing for the SAT. As the testing date approached and her anxiety grew exponentially, I had to continually remind her that it's just one test, one indicator, one factor that colleges use for admissions, but certainly not the only indicator. That didn't matter. To her, because of such strong social pressures among her peers, the test was either the beginning of or the end of the world. "I'm forever labeled because of that score," she once said.

Our educational system struggles to avoid layering privilege upon privilege, often measuring punctuality and compliance rather than discernment, critical analysis and habits of mind.

We all know that self-care during this pandemic is important. Our wellness partner, Kaiser Permanente, has lots of great resources to help with this.

In this episode of AWSP News, we discuss our grade-level specific Office Hours, Our Networked Improvement Community grants, Kaiser Permanente's resources for self-care, the “Equity through Master Scheduling: Creating College Ready Transcripts Workshop” offered by OSPI, the “Labor and Management: Coming Together to Further Outcomes for All Students” workshop sponsored by CSTP, weekly discussions about the Science and Culture of Hope with Rick Miller, a Zoom discussion with educators about preparing other ideas to support the Class of 2020, and a fundraising campaign to help us bounce along until we can reopen our Learning Centers.

Principaling has always been difficult, but now the role building leaders play in our system has grown exponentially, even though they are not leading a physical building. Principals sit in the middle of policy (state and district) and practice (what happens in the classroom) and are expected to answer to both sides of the sandwich. If being in the middle was a challenge before, what's it feel like to be a digital principal in the sandwich now?

Seniors across the state of Washington have been left without the opportunity to participate in many traditional celebrations including graduation. Our time during this webinar will focus on how we can collectively create create celebrations that students and families will remember.

The weekend leading up to the closure, all of our schools in the district were buzzing with teachers feverishly putting together work packs for students. Copy machines were running at full steam and teachers were bundling materials to keep learning alive amidst a Governor Proclamation that all schools in the state were to be closed by March 17th, 2020. Everyone has gone above and beyond to implement this new normal. Principals and district office staff have converted space in their home as their new office and teachers have transformed a space in their home as their new classroom.

Throughout these challenging times the voice of the students should be at the core. The AWSL Student Voice and Advisory Council took time to share their thoughts, questions and perspectives on how Covid-19 is affecting their academic, social, and personal livelihoods.

We assembled an expert panel of state, regional, district, and community partners to provide guidance, resources, and advice on child care during the COVID shutdown.

Looking to connect with other school leaders at your building level? Join us on Zoom for these upcoming grade-level-based office hours.

The Ed Leaders Network, or ELN, is offering three free webinars coming up. Register for Strategies for Leading Through COVID-19, an ELN Virtual Tour, and Preparing Students for College, Careers and Civic Responsibilities in the 21st Century.

We recently reached out to our contacts at online schools including Washington Virtual Academies and K12, Inc. They know that teaching students in an online environment presents challenges and are graciously sharing lots of resources with us.

In this edition of AWSP News, we discuss your amazing leadership during these unprecedented times, better work-life balance and selfcare, the Governor’s school closure announcement, information, resources, tools, and ongoing professional learning, our Weekly Friday Zoom AWSP Office Hours, separate office hours next week for grade-level specific virtual convenings, some upcoming online learning sessions from Inclusionary Practice Demonstration Sites from around the state, emergency rules that allow school districts to apply for greater flexibility in awarding diplomas to seniors impacted by closures, a Virtual Commencement Toolkit for every high school in our state, a 60 second survey, an upcoming webinar, and National Assistant Principals Week.