It is nearing half-time in our academic year. In the semester break respite, we are called to review the successes, challenges, and failures of the the first half of the school year so that we can learn from these and be more successful in the second half. So, what have we learned?
In the prior blog, Lesson #1 is that the world does not stop for a crisis. In every regard, the world, our nation and state, and our communities and schools kept spinning – we are constant motion. Nothing in our world stops, not even for a pandemic.
Lesson #2 today is that we have the choice to adapt to the changes and demands in our world or not to adapt. Normally, we want to hear more about the options if we do not choose to adapt. Somewhere down the list, we will find something that is less odious, less threatening, and does not give into full-fledged adaptation. Today, the story line is this – adapt or rethink your future as a teacher. The Time of COVID is a game changer in teaching. Adapt to the changes because teaching is no longer what it was and it will not be that way again.
Teaching used to sound like this:
- I am the expert in the classroom. Children look to me for answers, what to do when, and for permission to do it.
- Students come to me and into my classroom to learn.
- My lesson plan today may well be the same plan I used last year or the years before to teach this unit.
- I use the 80-80-80 rule. I want 80% of the children to understand 80% of their instruction 80% of the time.
- I talk with the parents of my students during conferences and Open House and only occasionally beyond those times.
- School and home are separated in my life. No students have been to my home.
And, the list of “used to be’s” is long.
Night fell on this scenario last March.
The following citation gives insight into how the pandemic has changed, for better or for worse, the teaching practices, professional considerations, and feelings about teaching of professionals around the country.
It is naïve to think we will return immediately to pre-COVID schooling when the pandemic is over. No, naive is too soft a term. It is illogical, unrealistic, and irresponsible to believe that schooling will return to its pre-pandemic life when the virus no longer has its illness/death grip on our nation, First, non-pandemic time is still long off and we will be teaching and learning in the hybrids of in-person and at-home for several semesters to come. We will continue to create more effective pandemic teaching methodologies, make better use of remote technologies, and refine our educational services for children regardless of their location. We have not yet seen the real and lasting adaptations in teaching and learning as a result of the pandemic.
Second, some children and some teachers will not return to school. Choice of “where”, now a fundamental pandemic decision, will continue to be an overarching decision in our future. Just as choice of homeschooling, charter schooling, and virtual schooling took hold in our educational world, families will have the option of at-home learning in the post-pandemic era. Some, not all, children do better outside the classroom and school. Some parents who can be at-home during school hours will demand that their children remain at-home learners. Likewise, teachers who have become effective teaching from at-home or who have persistent underlying health conditions will want to continue teaching outside their classroom. Highly effective remote teachers will have the weight of their success as an argument. Additionally, our successful experiences will have demonstrated that off-campus teaching is a realistic option. School boards wanting to retain enrollment, its accrued funding, and the talents of highly effective teachers will make at-home learning a local and ongoing option. Teaching in the future will continue in hybrid modes.
Third, our hybrid practices are evolving and causing children to learn. Hybrid (we will use this term more and more) assessment processes will point us toward children whose learning is lagging and we will attack these deficits. Because we must, we will have closed the deficits of COVID Slide before the pandemic is over. Our own effectiveness will make hybrid education a continuing option.
Fourth, the pandemic has caused us to discern essential education from non-essential. Every veteran teacher recognizes the presence of “filler” activities in a school day, school month, and school year. Some filler is necessary in transitioning children between classrooms, to and from lunch, and other school day activities. Some filler is used to accommodate children who finish assignments before their peers. There are other types of non-essential time in school. Once we eliminate the waste time, why put it back? Keep teaching and learning focused on essential education.
Lastly, change too often happens in glacial time in public education. The pandemic moved us into real time change. In the glacial era, change in a school was contingent upon the faculty’s willingness to change. Some teachers rode out change efforts for years and retired without making a single change from their preferred practices. Closing and opening campuses based upon health data is real time change. Not having a classroom is a real time change. Teaching through cameras and video screens is a real time change. Each of these real time changes have been non-negotiable and factual. Change happens. The need to adapt happens.
Lesson #2 is the pandemic makes change and adapting to change real and necessary. Most in our schools understand this new dynamic and are working hard and diligently to adapt. Some are not and will not and will be not.