As we wrap up an extremely unconventional 2019-2020 school year, emotions are heightened. This goodbye was not the one we wanted and certainly not one we ever could have imagined. Still, there are several lessons to be learned. While I did not get to hug my students goodbye on the last day or pose for senior selfies as they joyfully strolled through the halls after senior breakfast, we did have moments that I will remember forever. We endured an extraordinary experience together, which in some ways will bind our memories and connections even more significantly than ever before.
As we step away from our makeshift classrooms now in living rooms, basements, or corners of our homes into the summer sun, we should take time to pause. We just endured a trauma. We brought our students through a collective trauma while attempting to offer some sense of normalcy and structure to their lives.
My students handled this quarantine with amazing grace and strength. They struggled, as we all did, but they learned the importance of vulnerability. They learned how much they value human connection, and they even realized that they missed school. Some had to work; some took care of younger siblings. Some closed their Chromebooks for a much-needed break; others found their strength in completing their school work. In whatever way they chose to cope, they all filled out their attendance on a Google form that contained a daily question and a video message that I created each morning at 6 AM in the hopes of staying connected, motivated, and inspired.
No matter what school looks like in the fall or well into the future, some themes remain the same. Conventional education, as we knew it, is most likely gone. Perhaps it will return to a more traditional look and feel for younger grades, but the older the student is, the more we can use the lessons from today to mold their experiences. So what are those takeaways?
As the Boy Scouts teach us, preparation is essential. We were given a moment's notice to shift all of our curricula to e-learning. Some teachers were more versed in educational technology or blended learning principles. Regardless of technical prowess, none of us were fully prepared for the social and emotional toll this situation would take on our students. None of us were fully prepared for the social and emotional toll this situation would take on us. Regardless of what tools or LMS platforms we use, we need to be prepared to find ways to foster relationships, encourage engagement, and support students academically and emotionally. As such, we need to seek out training and create plans to efficiently and effectively meet the needs of our students.
Having a standard building and district plan can help to create continuity and provide support for teachers. Thank goodness for the approaching summer months to become prepared for a tentative fall schedule. Now that we’ve built the airplane while flying, we can take time to land, regroup, and enhance our preparedness.
2. Classroom structure is important.
What helps increase comprehension and alleviates stress? Structure. Having clear classroom structure and routines allows students to know what to expect and increases personal productivity. The best feedback I received from students was that they liked having a week of content at a time. They liked knowing what was coming for the week, when assignments were due, and how a day fit into the week. During reflection time with students, they expressed feeling surprised often when they only knew what a class was covering in a single day. Similarly, they felt overwhelmed when they had an entire month’s calendar pushed out at them. Providing students with week-long guidelines gives them enough flexibility and understanding to manage their time better, prioritize their class load, and feel confident in their ability to finish. Students will find more success with a clear classroom structure and a picture of what is to come in the immediate time frame.
We establish routines and patterns in traditional classrooms. Likewise, we need to find ways to increase that structure in digital environments. Finding ways to mirror that structure in and out of the classroom can help us be more prepared for the shifts in learning that we may be doing moving forward. We need to anticipate being ready to leave school and be out for two weeks, one month, or longer. Having too much information pushed out to students can be overwhelming. Not enough information available frustrates them and makes them unable to budget their time.
3. Vary your instructional approach.
After talking with my students about structure, the amount of information provided, and the instructional approaches that their teachers took, one common theme was variety. Students said that some teachers provided too much rote work, meaning that they did the same learning activity day-in and day-out. Reading passages and worksheets have their place, but they are not the best practices. As educators, we know that worksheet after worksheet is ineffective, and we would never do that for eight hours a day in a regular classroom. In a remote classroom, with the summer to prepare, we need to up our game. Finding tools that can vary the learning experience will engage all types of learners. Tech tools that involve video creation and different learning modalities will allow students to learn in a variety of ways, much like what we would do in the classroom.
While we cannot recreate the classroom experience fully, teachers can use their toolbox of instructional approaches to find ways to challenge students. My students’ favorite tools were EdPuzzle and Flipgrid. They liked EdPuzzle (especially in math) because it forced them to interact with the video. They loved Flipgrid as it allowed them to engage in discussion asynchronously. In my classroom, I found that students seemed to be highly engaged with Pear Deck Student-Paced Mode. If I had to teach or introduce a concept, I made the presentation a Pear Deck, and I was amazed at the increase in engagement and interaction with course concepts. Taking risks leads to powerful learning experiences, even if the lesson fails. Do not be afraid to vary instructional practices; the results may be better than you ever imagined.
4. Leave no man... or gym uniform behind.
One of my biggest regrets on the last day of school in March was that I assumed we would be back in two weeks. I left many materials behind that I would have liked to have. For me, I left books. Others left technical equipment such as document cameras or other devices. Students left their gym uniforms, which then fermented in lockers for 70+ days. Whatever we left behind, the lesson learned from this quarantine is leave nothing behind if there is a warning of a school closure. In the future, closures will hopefully be much shorter and infrequent, but we must be ready for them. It is easy to take our school facilities for granted. Working from home comes with countless layers of challenges, but by taking a moment to stop and reflect on a few small items that may make the time at home easier or more productive definitely will pay off in the long run.
5. Be vulnerable.
Vulnerability is often associated with weakness. While I see the world shifting on this statement, I grew up being told by society that being emotional was a negative attribute. Emotions are our strength. Wearing my heart on my sleeve is what draws students in and keeps them returning. Creating a space for them to express frustration, and then giving the tools to take action to overcome a situation is empowering and life-giving. We are allowed to feel what we feel, but then we have to find ways to cope. We need to put our own oxygen masks on first before we put on everyone else’s mask. Processing through these experiences with my students at our weekly Google Meet check-in gave us all a space to be honest and receive encouragement. They each said a goal during those meetings, and I would follow up with personal emails later in the week. Holding them accountable for finishing their Calc homework or running the two miles that they wanted to accomplish kept them motivated, showed them I cared about them beyond how well they wrote a paper and gave us a sense of normalcy. I joked with my seniors that this would be the time that we were fighting - that they would be experiencing overwhelming senioritis, and I would be on their case about getting in that last paper. We would be fist-bumping as they walked out the door, and they would be showing me pictures from their ditch day adventures. While we did not have the opportunity to do those things, I believe that what we gained will prove to be far greater someday.
There is no playbook with how to cope with what we have all experienced. There is, however, a distance learning playbook that Jim Knight, a leading educational coach, is crowdsourcing with approximately 70 instructional coaches from around the county, but that is a blog post for another day. While we are still processing the challenges that have recently crossed in front of us, we know that the meaning of hindsight is that 2020 certainly makes us more prepared for whatever presents itself in the fall.
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