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Taking What We've Learned This Year Into Next Year

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Taking What We've Learned This Year Into Next Year

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After a yearlong crash course in digital tools and remote teaching, a teacher reflects on what will stick in her brick-and-mortar classroom.

Cavan Images / Alamy Stock Photo

For some students, virtual school has been a boon: They feel less anxious, have more quiet time to work and reflect, and feel empowered to design their own schedules. Online learning has freed students to contribute their voices in new ways and has improved teachers' efficiency by transforming previously dead time-when students are waiting for the teacher to introduce the next learning task-into time in which students can exercise increased freedom and choice.

Going forward, here's how I plan to harness virtual school observations to support more differentiated instruction and increased student agency.

Rethink the Daily Agenda

A virtual agenda, inspired by my colleague, has become a cornerstone resource in my English classrooms, and its benefits have persuaded me to keep it around when we return to in-person learning.

Instead of a static daily agenda written on the board, create a digital agenda for the unit that includes each day's lesson outline, relevant hyperlinks, the rationale for each activity, and homework. Practice the routine of accessing and following the agenda each day in class, and remind students to refer to it at home to avoid that sinking "Wait, what did we do today?" feeling.

A living agenda-one that is updated every day-supports self-paced learning, allowing students to move on when they are ready, rather than waiting for everyone else to finish. Moreover, because a virtual agenda allows streamlined access to all unit materials, students can see clearly how their learning builds. It also supports conferencing, allowing teachers to refer students to previous materials to help them fill gaps or to offer a refresher of a lesson from weeks earlier.

Re-create the Chat

We have learned how to use the Zoom chat to engage and hear from quieter students, assess understanding, solicit quick feedback, and check in one-on-one. These powerful modes of communication and connection underscore the need to make space in our physical classrooms for back-channel engagement.

Using tools like Mentimeter or Google Docs, or even chart paper and whiteboards (bonus if kids must move in order to join the conversation), make it routine for students to engage nonverbally with the material and their classmates. Ask students to respond to others' ideas during or after discussion, synthesize lesson concepts after direct instruction, or echo important moments or beautiful language from their reading.

If more students want to contribute to discussion than time allows, use the chat space as a parking lot to capture ideas you'll return to later.

Build In and Leverage Mindful Breaks

Remote learning has made breaks nonnegotiable, and there's no reason why we should abandon those benefits simply because of a change in environments.

Make breaks a given, especially for longer instructional blocks, and vary preplanned synchronous breaks with providing students a choice of when to take their break. Review and practice break norms (avoid breaks in the first 20 minutes of class, for instance), and assign accountability tasks to complete before or after a break.

If some lessons don't lend themselves to student-selected break times, transition back from a group break by building community, perhaps asking students get-to-know-you questions or playing a brief round of content-specific trivia, or ask students to report back from their accountability task as you transition into the lesson's next segment.

A break during class opens up possibilities for teachers too: Check work to catch misunderstandings, review submitted homework to form readiness groupings, or pause to reflect on the lesson so far and adjust for the next class. Or, take an actual break with the students, modeling screen-free mindfulness.

Split Whole-Group Discussions in Half

Student-driven, full-group discussion centered on shared texts is an English classroom staple. Zoom breakout rooms have presented an opportunity to break the class in half; discussions have become more intimate, with more room for students to speak multiple times as the conversation gains momentum-and less room to hide if they aren't prepared.

When you return to physical classrooms, assign half of the class a quiet, independent task to complete while the other half engages in discussion; then switch. Perhaps allow some non-discussing students to locate a quiet spot outside if they find the other group distracting (and equip them with a clear deliverable task and a timer), or offer the non-discussion group the option to use headphones to focus on their work so that any neighboring discussion is in the background.

Solicit Student Feedback

Remote learning has found many teachers eager to know what's going on behind those small squares of students on their screens. In online learning contexts, more frequent solicitation of student feedback on learning pace, methods and modality, and homework load has proven critical to supporting both learning and students' mental health. This feedback can be gathered through surveys, as well as informal check-ins and polls. What better way to send the message that we value students' agency in our classrooms than by asking them how it's going, regardless of the learning context?

Use students' survey responses to help guide instruction both during and after a unit. Whether you are virtual or in person, these surveys underscore that you and students are partners in this invigorating but unpredictable journey that we call learning.

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After a yearlong crash course in digital tools and remote teaching, a teacher reflects on what will stick in her brick-and-mortar classroom. Cavan Images / Alamy Stock Photo For some students, virtual school has been a boon: They feel less anxious, have more quiet time to work and reflect, and feel empowered to design their own schedules.

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How 2020 Gave Us A Chance to Re-Invent Learning

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How 2020 Gave Us A Chance to Re-Invent Learning

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If there is a silver lining to the heavy emphasis on remote and hybrid instruction during the pandemic, it is this: Students are getting more opportunities to work independently and at their own pace-and in the process, they are becoming better problem-solvers.

At least that is the take of educators working in schools where personalized learning is the centerpiece of instruction. They say the shift to remote and hybrid instruction has given them an opportunity to deepen their commitment to learner-centered approaches and build new strategies that will continue to be applied once all students are able to return to school buildings at full capacity.

"When we had to shift to remote, that mindset was already there-the mindset of pulling small groups, developing independent learners, making kids own their own learning," said Katie Speth, the principal of Disney II Magnet School, a personalized learning pre-K-12 school in Chicago that is remaining fully remote for the fall semester. "In terms of logistics, remote learning is incredibly difficult-people don't realize how much more time it takes teachers. You don't have that instant feedback, you don't have the ability to scan the room, but I think the mindsets were [already] there: 'I know how to set the stage to help students.' "

Schools in personalized learning networks such as High Tech High, LEAP Innovations, Rocketship, and Summit Learning have had to make teaching and learning adjustments whether they are fully remote this semester or having students come to campus some or five days a week. These changes, educators say, have helped them become even more focused on the primary goals of personalized learning: tailoring education to address the individual strengths and weaknesses and personal interests of students.

One cautionary note, however, is that the research on the effectiveness of personalized learning was limited, at best, before the pandemic, and some personalized learning initiatives have prompted pushback and criticism from parents and students, who say the programs put too much emphasis on the use of technology and software algorithms to drive learning.

Here are some of the lessons learned so far.

1. Educators have no choice but to be flexible these days, and that's a good thing.

Personalized learning has always required some degree of flexibility, but teachers say they must be even more nimble now. In schools that are still remote, teachers have to account for students' individual situations and limitations at home. And in schools that have resumed in-person instruction, educators have to be ready to switch the mode of instruction on a dime as positive or presumed positive cases of COVID-19 occur.

"We're realizing that we don't have as much control over what the final product or task is going to look like," said Heather Morrison, the instructional coach for Disney II's high school campus. "It's really pushing us to think of what are the different ways we could have students demonstrate what they know."

For example, she said, teachers previously would assign a different type of final project to each unit-a writing assignment, video, etc. But now, depending on what it is they're assessing, teachers are allowing students to choose which final project works best for them.

Said Speth: "I have really flexible teachers, but [remote learning] is even increasing that flexibility. Teaching is a profession where we like to control things, and there's been a lot of letting go of control, [which is building] stronger, more-independent students."

Prairie Heights Middle School in Evans, Colo., meanwhile, has resumed in-person instruction all five days a week. But Principal Stephanie Knox said teachers there have continued to use online tools so learning isn't disrupted if students have to quarantine for two weeks due to a positive or presumptive positive COVID-19 case. The school already used the Summit Learning platform, but Knox said teachers are being even more creative with technology now than they used to be. (Summit Learning receives significant financial support from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, which also provides support to Education Week for its coverage of whole-child approaches to learning. Education Week retains sole editorial control over the content of this coverage.)

"Some of the tools [students have] been learning, like annotating text on Zoom-you would have never, never seen that in a classroom prior to the pandemic," she said. "We're developing different skills in students."

2. Targeted support and explicit instructions are key.

Morrison said Disney II teachers have started recording themselves modeling tasks or delivering short lessons and posting those videos onto the school's learning platform.

That's a practice that teachers will likely keep when students return to campus, she said. Not only does it let students review instructions whenever they need to, but it'll help them work more independently without relying on teachers to answer basic questions.

At Kairos Academies in St. Louis, students were already used to working online and at their own pace through the Summit Learning platform, but they had to adjust to doing the work without a teacher nearby. This semester, half of students are remaining completely remote while the other half are coming to campus two days a week.

The personalized learning public charter school, which serves 6th and 7th graders, has had to redesign its schedule to provide more support to students. Kairos introduced self-direction days at the start of the semester, where students were able to work independently from home.

"What we found was there was just no accountability there, and kids were just missing interactions [with their teachers and peers]," said Riley Foster, a 6th grade math teacher at Kairos. Now, teachers have increased the amount of time they spend with their students on self-direction days, including two facilitated virtual classes, a virtual group lunch with friends, and supervised work time for students who need extra support.

3. Students may need extra guidance managing schedules and completing assignments.

Kairos Academies also increased the level of support students had from their coaches. Since the school was founded two years ago, teachers have had a group of 10 students for whom they provide one-on-one support for executive functioning tasks, such as completing assignments on time and maintaining productive study habits.

Students used to meet with their coach one or two times a week, but last spring, the frequency increased to five times a week. "Coaches could check in every day: 'I know you're alone at your house, let's set some goals. Do you know how to log in?' " recounted Gavin Schiffres, the chief executive officer of Kairos.

Schiffres said the full-time coaching model was so successful that teachers are continuing to meet with their students more frequently, even now that students are back on campus some days. This semester, Foster said she has been meeting with her "podlings" individually for 10-15 minutes three times a week. She helps them set goals for their learning, makes sure they're on track with their assignments and able to navigate the Summit platform, and encourages them to channel their interests into their projects.

"There are some students who really thrive working on their own, and some who struggle a bit more and lack the skillset," she said. "If it weren't for the coaching model, self-directed learning would not be successful. [It's] getting them to the point where they can take control of their learning."

4. Project-based learning is still possible when done virtually.

Project-based learning is a key tenet of personalized learning, but educators say the switch to remote, hybrid, or socially distanced instruction made it difficult to do the same kind of robust projects that students previously did in person, with no social distancing limitations.

Still, the transition sparked new learning possibilities, said Brenda Vogds, the director of the Institute for Personalized Learning, which serves school districts that are engaging in personalized learning. She has seen educators more frequently encourage students to connect with experts over video chat.

"You're not limited to the resources in your school walls," she said. "You now have the opportunity to reach out into the community to make connections you may not have been able to make before."

And some schools brought projects to their students' homes. Eesir Kaur, the senior director of humanities and professional development for the Rocketship Public Schools network, which is still providing mainly remote instruction this semester, said campuses hosted a distribution day where families picked up materials for hands-on projects. For example, students picked up markers, paint, and poster boards to create a "get out the vote" campaign for a civic engagement lesson. For an engineering lesson, students picked up popsicle sticks to build a catapult.

5. Students still need opportunities to speak up and collaborate.

Educators also have to find creative ways to foster collaboration and student talk time in this unprecedented school year. Knox, the principal of the Colorado school that has opened for full in-person instruction, said students can't have their desks side by side or work closely with one another, in order to maintain social distancing. They might still join a Zoom meeting from the classroom or use other virtual tools to work together without being nearby.

"It just takes a couple extra steps," Knox said. "An easy way out would be to say, 'Nope, everyone's going to sit there and do the same thing at the same time.' That's not what we believe in."

With remote instruction, Kaur said, one initial challenge was making sure young students had enough opportunities to talk in class. Typically, they'd do "turn and talks," a classroom practice in which the teacher poses a question or discussion topic and students turn to a peer and discuss. But breakout rooms on Zoom were cumbersome for kindergartners.

Instead, one kindergarten teacher told students to bring their favorite stuffed animal to virtual class. That stuffed animal, the teacher said, would be their study buddy. Students would be responsible for sharing their thinking with their study buddy or telling it the sound they were learning.

In other words, the stuffed animal served as a "turn and talk," Kaur said. The concept was so successful that Rocketship has replicated this practice across the entire network for grades K-2.

"You see little Lilos and Stitches everywhere, or parrots or teddy bears," she said. "It's really awesome."

6. Remember that the challenges are helping build more independent learners.

While there have been some roadblocks over the past nine months, educators say they've seen students grow as problem-solvers and learners.

"When we transitioned to distance learning, it emphasized the idea that you move at your own pace because you are only trying to compete against yourself, you're only trying to be a better version of yourself," Rocketship's Kaur said.

Krista Purnell, a school and district success manager for Summit Learning, added: "Once the pandemic's over, there may be something else that comes along in the world, but having those habits of resilience, self-regulation, agency ... we're helping schools build that now."

In fact, Vogds of the Institute for Personalized Learning said this transition has forced schools to take a hard look at their instruction and make sure they're centering it on students and their individual needs.

"Education's future is not direct instruction, education's future is learner-centered practice," she said. "If we miss this opportunity, I'll be very disappointed."

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6 Lessons Learned About Better Teaching During the Pandemic

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If there is a silver lining to the heavy emphasis on remote and hybrid instruction during the pandemic, it is this: Students are getting more opportunities to work independently and at their own pace-and in the process, they are becoming better problem-solvers.

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Here in Scotland, it looks unlikely that many - if any - children will be back before the summer holidays are due to start, other than the few who are already there.

It has all left me pondering what I really miss about being in school.

I mean proper interaction. I miss the little throwaway comments and the chat. I miss the seeing the learning sinking in there in person, and being able to spot when something isn't clear then adapting my teaching to suit. Working online has been great: it has allowed us to continue working in a certain way and give pupils structure and routine, as well as really high-quality work. But it doesn't allow for these nuances that you only get when the pupil is there in front of you.

I've always been funny about going on too many work nights out with colleagues, because "I see them all the time". But, hey, after a few weeks of only seeing them via video meetings, I'm missing the chat and the banter. I've missed talking to like-minded professionals about our profession, to people who care about the work that you do.

Reopening schools in the UK and Ireland: what we know
Coronavirus and school closures: Who's zoomin' who? 'Five weeks ago, I still thought Zoom was a lolly' 'I miss the atmosphere of a classroom'
3. The thrum of a busy school

I've really missed the hubbub of schools. Being at home with my wife and two young children is noisy and crazy in its own way, but I've missed walking through the school open area and sharing that sound that's familiar to us all.

4. Me time

I guess I'm missing that little bit of time away for myself. I had a short drive to listen to the radio or a podcast along with a lunch break where I could switch off from school or family life if I wanted to. I don't have that now and, selfishly, I'm looking forward to those few small moments in the day where no one else is around.

5. Structure
Adam Black is a teacher in Scotland who, in the 2019 New Year's Honours list, received the British Empire Medal for raising awareness of stammering. He tweets @adam_black23
We have all done our best to find our own structure that suits our own needs. And these past couple of months have worked well for us as a family: we have focused on doing our jobs as best we can, and our boys have had plenty of space to play. Personally, though, I'm looking forward to getting back to how things were before the pandemic.

Call me sad but, yeah, I've missed work. Am I the only one?

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'The 5 things I miss most about being in school'

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Here in Scotland, it looks unlikely that many - if any - children will be back before the summer holidays are due to start, other than the few who are already there. It has all left me pondering what I really miss about being in school. I mean proper interaction.

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Weeks have gone by since most teachers have been inside their school classrooms and seen their students in-person. Things at home may be incredibly quiet in comparison, but that isn't necessarily a good thing for educators! We recently asked our audience, "What's one thing you miss about school that you thought you'd NEVER ever miss?" The answers below made us only miss being in the classroom even more. ❤️🥺

We miss our classroom routines and prep.

"Morning duty when I would get a chance to visit with former students and actually I really miss seeing them interact with each other. They would have their inside jokes, stories they shared, and I even miss their roasting each other for fun." -Meg A. via Facebook

"The routine. Preparing for distance learning and all it entails in special education (services, confidentiality, how to do IEP meetings, etc.) has been so overwhelming!" -Sarah C. via Facebook

"Putting on real/professional clothes." -Veronica M. via Facebook

"The before school 'quiet before the storm' time. 😔" -@morgan_s_goodman via Instagram

We miss all the teachable moments with our students.

"What I miss that I didn't think I'd miss is that constant struggle to keep them focused, keep them on task. I think what is so hard about this is when things are uncertain or upsetting, kids really need that reliable structure they get in the classroom, and that is the very thing that is gone now." -Donna M. via Facebook

"The life lessons I get to instill in the midst of handing out a consequence to a student as a High School VP. It's essential teaching students the 3 C's: Compassion, Communication, Consequence." -@vp_jbrown via Instagram

We miss hearing our students' voices-even if it was maybe a little too often.

"I probably answer a question every 5-10 seconds out of the day, and it makes my head spin some days, but boy oh boy I miss those questions right now. I miss having to be on my toes, and the desire the kids have to learn new things. I miss my kids." -Candice E. via Facebook

"Reminding students to stop talking while they're working. I'd love to hear their chatter now! I also miss them needing my attention at all times!" -Janny P. via Facebook

"Hearing my name 20,000 times a day, getting interrupted 30,000 times. I miss their voices, their questions, and their silly stories!" -Abby C. via Facebook

"The constant talking. It drives me crazy but I miss their energy!" -@mrsstubbs via Instagram

We miss our students' personalities and silliness.

"I actually miss some of my most challenging personalities the most, you know the ones that would interrupt your lesson just to tell you a random story about their cousin's hamster or some such crazy thing. 😂" -Teresa W. via Facebook

"I never thought I would miss checking my pants pockets for the sticks, rocks, and wilted dandelions that I was keeping safe during recess. It has been three weeks since I have received kindergarten pocket treasures. I miss them dearly." -Emily M. via Facebook

"One of my kids shouting in the middle of the lesson, 'My tooth fell out!' And everyone cheering. ❤️" -@samantha_raq via Instagram

#TEACHERS : All of my students literally, even the noisy, naughty ones! I also miss the jokes and conversations I had with them about social topics ❤️ and their fights together it made me laugh which always made them laugh back in turn 😭❤️

- 𝓩𝓮𝓲𝓷𝓪 (@ZeiNaelsheikh) April 2, 2020

We miss physically being in school with everyone else.

"The crazy loud hallways before and after school. I miss all the high-fives, good mornings/byes, interacting with the kiddos outside of the classroom. It always caused a level of anxiety because of the noise level, but I truly miss it." -L. Robin S. via Facebook

"Hugs with them... they don't leave me until they give me a hug or high five. Wish I had known that might be the last time I would get to do that!" -@ragenbeth via Instagram

"The ability to teach in person." -@idfishqueen via Instagram

We even miss the parts of being a teacher we thought we dreaded most.

"Lunch duty ... which is the loudest, craziest time of the day. But I miss getting to interact with all the grades. And getting to talk more with my 4th grade group outside of class, who are so silly and crazy but so much fun. ❤️" -Madolyn G. via Facebook

"Sitting in the library around other tired bodies for a staff meeting that could have been an email." -Robin C. via Facebook

"Walking around the classroom all day until my feet hurt at the end of the day. Now my rear end hurts from sitting all day while on the computer answering emails and teaching online." -Jill S. via Facebook

"I actually MISS being so, so tired at the end of the day! I slept like a baby at night." -Lisa E. via Facebook

I NEVER thought I'd miss this view: 3:00 pm car rider duty, rain or shine, 98 degrees or 40 degrees and raining, the cars just keep on coming, wrapped around both corners at the end of the street until 3:30 pm! Calling about 200 names into the radio. pic.twitter.com/Nbcimz56sI

- Jennifer Haynes (@LovePrimarySTEM) April 3, 2020

Okay, maybe not ALL of us. 😅

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- Mrs. Kachur, NBCT (@ElizabethKachur) April 3, 2020

At the end of the day, this Instagram reply summed up what we miss the most about being in-school.

"Everything." -@scut67 via Instagram ❤️
What do you most miss about school during this time of distance learning? Come and share your answer on our WeAreTeachers Helpline. Also, see what it looks like for other teachers who are teaching from home.

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What Teachers Miss the Most About School During Distance Learning

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Weeks have gone by since most teachers have been inside their school classrooms and seen their students in-person. Things at home may be incredibly quiet in comparison, but that isn't necessarily a good thing for educators! We recently asked our audience, "What's one thing you miss about school that you thought you'd NEVER ever miss?"

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Enhance In-Person Learning through Online Communities

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Enhance In-Person Learning through Online Communities

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"What is another strategy we can use to solve this problem?" I asked during a synchronous online session, and I waited for responses to show up in the chat box.

No one had their camera on. All microphones were on mute. No response yet. When I was teaching in person, I would spend that wait time scanning the room to see students' facial expressions or reactions as they pondered how to answer the question. When I'm teaching via screen, those few seconds of silence can feel like an eternity.

Although remote instruction has been challenging, it has offered new ways for teachers like me to engage students and build relationships online. The digital skills that teachers (and students) have developed over the past year can help us build and sustain communities-both online and offline-to improve K-12 education.

For example, social emotional check-ins with students are much easier to facilitate online than in-person. I often use Pear Deck's SEL templates , such as "What's filling your bucket today and what's draining it?" and "Stress Check," to assess how my students are doing. Students know that their responses are anonymous so they are more comfortable sharing their successes, and more importantly, their struggles. To help students recognize that they are not alone in their struggles, I share the responses and results with the whole class so students can see that their classmates share similar experiences. Through these online interactions, students become cognizant of their own feelings as well as those of their classmates. They learn to become more empathetic and supportive.

Through remote instruction, I have also successfully engaged students who normally wouldn't participate during in-person instruction using Pear Deck. While wait time in a remote learning environment may seem long to me, it enables my students to better focus their thoughts with fewer distractions than when they were in-person. In addition, they can participate anonymously on Pear Deck, without fear of sounding silly in front of their classmates (which explains why the chat feature is not a popular way for my students to participate).

The Positive Benefits of Online Learning Communities
Student-centered communities and learning experiences are no longer limited by our bell schedules or class programs. By extending our in-person class community into the virtual space, we empower students to authentically engage with classmates and peers beyond the classroom. Students with special needs or those who are English language learners can participate and contribute at their own pace, which makes our classrooms more equitable and diverse. These online class communities offer students the opportunity for more accountability in their learning.

Here are some additional benefits of establishing and maintaining online learning communities:

Online learning communities can help us better foster relationships with our students and families. These online communities allow students to celebrate one another for their efforts and successes. Students can share their experiences, learning, and struggles related to their academic journey. Additionally, parents and family members can easily stay connected with what their children are learning and accomplishing.

Online learning communities inspire our students to become lifelong learners as they research, explore, and engage with one another outside of the classroom. Online communities also develop and strengthen students' 21st-century skills. Students are more cognizant of how they express themselves online because they know their postings will be read. They might proofread and edit their responses before posting. Because these online communities are available during and after school, students have the opportunity to interact and collaborate with classmates asynchronously. Online learning communities are especially helpful for students who are not able to attend classes in person on a consistent basis.

What to Consider as You Build Your Online Learning Community
As you plan your online learning community, consider these questions:

What types of activities or projects are suitable for building and enhancing your online learning community?

How would you like the student experience to feel?

What technological devices would students need to access the online community? Are there apps available for them to stay connected?

What parental consent is needed?

As school districts continue planning for the upcoming school year, we can anticipate that the need to build relationships and community will be paramount. We have a great opportunity to leverage what we and our students learned remotely and foster sustainable and engaging online learning communities that will lead to stronger connections among students and teachers, promote 21st-century skills, and most importantly, put students in charge of their own learning.

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Enhance In-Person Learning by Nurturing Online Learning Communities - Pear Deck

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In our newest blog series, we've asked educators and administrators to answer the question: "What is the greatest opportunity we currently have to improve K-12 education moving forward?" This week, we hear from Zuobin Tang, a math and computer science teacher in Brooklyn, New York.

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Turn and talk

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Doing hands-on science labs and activities across all units.

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Classroom discussions, role playing, pancake parties :(

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Classroom discussions, role playing, pancake parties :(

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Using proximity to students to keep them focused or on task. Facial expressions while teaching/talking. Hands on activities in science. Group work, sharing materials between students.

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Calling Antioch Pizza to order a "boneless pizza."

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MDG intro activity with Smeigh
Group work for real...
Bananagrams

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Instruments in Music (Recorders, Boomwhackers, African drums)

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alternative seating- shared spaces like couches and different chairs that students share

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alternative seating- shared spaces like couches and different chairs that students share

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Working with partners or small group more often

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Working with partners or small group more often

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Bananagrams, Using the Library, seeing what the kids are reading

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Bananagrams, Using the Library, seeing what the kids are reading

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Competitive less competitive and skill based groupings

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Competitive less competitive and skill based groupings

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Coffee Cart

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Community experiences to practice and reinforce social skills and career readiness.

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Community experiences to practice and reinforce social skills and career readiness.

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End of quarter Spanish research project celebration.

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Libre to check my blood sugar:)

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6th graders keep calling themselves "baddies"

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Watching videos of other people play video games.

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Watching videos of other people play video games.

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Facebook, Flow Free, and 7 Words

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bruh

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Walking around the classroom while students work in their groups

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bruh

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"sheeeeeee" in a really high pitched voice

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Preserved Frogs
Pond Water

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Showing up to the meet and not participating

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Showing up to the meet and not participating

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I'm looking forward to getting my novels back!

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I'm looking forward to getting my novels back!

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The ability to say BRB

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Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes

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Using the excuse "my internet is having issues"

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Using the excuse "my internet is having issues"

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What resources will you take from this year and bring with you into next year?

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What resources will you take from this year and bring with you into next year?

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Jay McClain is an assistant superintendent for Hopewell City Public Schools in Hopewell, Virginia, a district that serves about 4,200 students in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade.
As an educator for over 30 years, serving as a teacher, principal, and assistant superintendent, I have never seen a school year like this one. This hasn't just been an unusual year, it has been a year of shared trauma. And like any traumatic experience, it takes a while to realize what has happened and how we have been shaped by it.

As COVID has shuttered many schools and caused a strange masked and distant environment in others, the first thought that many seem to have is that this has been a "lost" year. It is certainly a year of great loss. Loss of an incomprehensible number of lives. Loss of the basic human connections and interactions that we crave and take for granted. But a "year of loss" and a "lost year" is not the same thing. When we say "lost year," the loss we are describing is "normal school."

Let's take a look at this "normal" that many say we want to regain. Our education system is mostly unchanged from what it looked like a century ago, in spite of enormous societal changes in professions, life skills, and communication. Normal is the growing number of students disenchanted with school: the percentage of students engaged in school drops from 76% to 44% in the years from elementary to high school. Normal is also an institution that was never built for our Black and Brown children, and sends a highly disproportionate number of them to be pushed out, suspended, or on the path to prison. Normal systematically bars them from programs that could provide them increased opportunity.

The longstanding crisis of racism in education is compounded by the current crisis of the pandemic. As with the first crisis, races are experiencing both differently. Just take a look at the recent poll by the C.S. Mott Children's Hospital, which found that the top health concerns among Black parents was racism, followed second by COVID illness. Neither racism nor COVID illness made the top ten concerns of white parents. Instead, white parents' main concerns are social media, followed by healthy eating and exercise habits. Since the start of this year, in communities where in-person learning is an option, white families are disproportionately choosing in-person learning while many Black families are choosing to stay home.

Can we really respond to these two crises by just returning to "normal?"

With the pressure to reopen, it is far too easy at this point for us to grab hold of the narrative that we need to begin to return to normal, and thus find ourselves recommitting to the out-of-date, racist education system we are used to. This would be a grave mistake. Let's look at this double crisis as a call to find ourselves. Let's look at this year as a welcome jolt to find the soul of what education should be for our students and families.

For example, there have been four persistent elements in education that should instead be viewed as variables to fit students' needs: Time, Place, Group, and Curriculum. If we see this as a found year we have the opportunity to use these four elements to transform and reinvent schools.

TIME
Prior to COVID, time has been fixed in many ways across our schools. While some schools have explored and used block schedules, or a slight change in the time school starts, the packaging of time within the day is fixed into bell schedules tied to isolated subjects. The variations in school time have been linked usually to the logistics of transportation, not tied to what may most benefit students, such as teens' biological sleep patterns.

During this pandemic, learning time has looked different. Some schools began with a regular full day of online synchronous instruction and soon found that this was not sustainable. Students were rarely able to maintain attention on the screen for seven hours. Thus, schools began to look at the mix of synchronous and asynchronous time, and also began to experiment with providing student choice with when to do the asynchronous work.

With this in mind, last summer I was consumed with trying to find opportunities to wrap the school day around what families needed rather than the other way around. This led us to start looking at ways to experiment with a shorter synchronous day, more student choice with activities, and more time for individual check-ins with students and families. Our district launched an option for some classes to occur in the late afternoon and evening times to meet a COVID family schedule, and there has been no shortage of interest by families. Some of these families needed the school time to look different for their own survival as they balanced health and the need to maintain jobs and income.

It is time to rethink time. As we look to a post-pandemic era, this is an opportunity to create choices for when students are in school. Time can become a choice in terms of when most of the learning happens - morning, afternoon, or evening. This goes well beyond just making it possible for teenagers to have a schedule more aligned with sleep schedules. Think of the impact that this could have for high school students who need to have a job, watch their siblings, or whose parents work a late shift. We are due for a mindset shift in which the time of school gives students and families the best option for success.

PLACE
Before the pandemic hit, the concept of place was rarely challenged in the model of schools. Students came into a building at the same time each day and were separated into classrooms. In most communities, students attended a school based on their address. Learning was seen as taking place while students were at school, and what happened outside of school was not a part of the learning process, except for students doing homework.

The concept of place certainly changed during the pandemic, and this happened nearly overnight. That is the most visible change and one that will likely live on beyond the pandemic, as a growing number of families are likely to choose virtual schooling options rather than brick-and-mortar. And, I'm not sure the choice needs to be one or the other. What if it was more like a sliding scale where families choose the amount of in-person instruction from a continuum of options?

As something like this is put into effect, another aspect of place that can change is a school attendance zone. With fewer students in school buildings at one time, there could be more choice offered across a geographic zone. In our district we piloted classes where students who needed a different timing and version of school were joined across attendance zones, with plans to bring these students together in spaces outside the school. If students are coming in-person with less frequency, and possibly in smaller groups, there is the ability to use a wider array of spaces for learning - including libraries, parks, and more.

All of this depends on ensuring that we have the wifi infrastructure and accessibility to technology across communities that has been so lacking. Access to the internet is understood now, more than ever, as not only essential to commerce and the operation of government in a pandemic, but also to the learning of students. We cannot allow this to be subject to the ability of a family to afford it, but rather it needs to be as much a basic right as a mailbox for one's home. Learning should be able to happen anywhere, and for that we have to ensure that the technology infrastructure is in place.

GROUP
Before March 2020, nearly all schools operated on a similar concept of how students were grouped. Starting in kindergarten, students were assembled by age and moved in lock step through the grades until graduation. In elementary school, classes were composed of a similar number of students and decisions on placement into a group were made by the school - there really was no choice of parents or students to what group/class they were in. The only groupings that went beyond class placement class itself were the ways teachers grouped students within a class, such as with reading groups. The only place where there was a true choice of groupings was usually in high school. Even then, "choice" was normally superseded by "tracking," so the only area where students could be guided by their own interests were extracurricular activities.

Most schools did not change the typical class groupings during the pandemic. A 3rd grade class was still a 3rd grade class, an algebra class was still an algebra class, and so on. However, in some places teachers became specialists in virtual instruction or in-person instruction so that they could better meet those students' needs. Students who had always attended one elementary school were now in virtual classes with students from other schools. In our district we also challenged the notion that students had to be in a class with students of only the same grade level as the way they were grouped. We found advantages to having students grouped by similar needs for learning, such as an evening class, to be perhaps more important than being grouped by the exact same age.

However, the potential to re-think learning/class groups goes far beyond this. With there being more variability in place and time, groupings could also change to have less large group synchronous time and more learning in small groups and individual check-ins. A greater portion of teacher time could be with those individual check-ins to support and coach students through their learning and life skill development, as students can access more of the typical "lecture" online.

There is also the potential for students to be grouped by interest rather than randomly. Colleges and universities have already begun work on this with freshman writing courses. In these classes, all students are in a writing course, but they are able to choose a topic of interest and are thus grouped accordingly.

From a teacher perspective, thanks to the possibilities of in-person or virtual learning, there is also the possibility of regrouping students throughout the year, and mixing-up student rosters based on new interests over the course of the school year. By removing the confines of the four walls of the classroom, teachers can collaborate and work across boundaries with students in flexible ways unlike ever before.

CURRICULUM
The standards and standardized testing era that started in the latter parts of the 20th century caused schools to rigidly adhere to a set of standards for what was taught in each grade level and subject. Accountability structures at the federal and state level reinforced adherence to the long list of sometimes isolated skills and knowledge. While the intent of this effort was to raise expectations for all students and try to ensure we were serving students equitably, it rarely played out that way. Instead, students who had the most barriers to overcome in order to achieve the standards were in schools most often punished and branded as "failing." This only further intensified the efforts to focus rigidly on standards, and it put pressure on teachers to teach a narrow set of skills. In other words, the identity and value that students bring has been overlooked by the need to comply with a set of standards.

A fundamental shift that has long been needed is with the balance between a common curriculum and the context of each child - his/her needs, interests, styles, and passions. Our nation's "standard" model for education is to impose a common curriculum and then, when possible, we try to tie it to a child's interests. It is time to flip this paradigm. Imagine scaling back to a smaller set of high-leverage skills, such as reading, writing, investigation, and critical thinking, and then providing space for students to be able to learn in their areas of interest and passion.

What this could look like in 4th grade, for example, is that students are still focused on learning a core set of skills around reading, writing, math, history, and science, but they have choices of whether to do this by learning through a project of constructing a city park playground or working with the animal shelter to develop a new advertising campaign. These projects could shape the class for a year, a semester, or a quarter. The learning context, and ability to bring the individual students into the learning, need to become the primary focus and the core skills of curriculum become infused into this learning and wrap around the student passions. In this way, we can be more culturally responsive to our students and cause our students to feel a sense of belonging and purpose and not just be taught how to conform.

FINDING A NEW PATH
Before the pandemic, the last several decades have seen efforts to increase choice for students and families. This has occurred to widely varying degrees across our country, with charter schools making a strong inroads in some communities and not at all in others. The primary choice has really been for the more privileged families who send their children to private schools or choose to homeschool. In each of these cases, the focus of choice has been much more about which school to attend, rather than choices that may occur within a school.

It is time that we finally make a fundamental shift on what schools have been for the last century or more. But the change is not to create a new one-size-fits-all. The needs of our families, the passions of our students, and our own humanity demand that we meet students and families where they are and give them choice so that we wrap around them, not the other way around.

Choice could be at the school level, where students have more variety with curriculum, classes, teachers, and format, or at the district level, where students have more options among schools for the learning approaches and interests of the students. And for once, where one lives does not need to be such a strong predictor of their likelihood of future success. Choice does not mean we need to take away the elements of our current system that work for some families. Rather, it means we provide a variety of pathways that will work for all families.

It also does not mean we shy away from accountability. Rather, it focuses accountability on how well we are meeting student needs, regardless of the pathway. It has the potential to refocus our accountability on more meaningful measures than ever before - the ability of students to have not only academic skills and knowledge but also the ability to interact with other people in a meaningful way to make a difference and transfer those skills into real-life situations. It is time we create the choices that provide for student need, passion, and ownership.

WHERE WE GO FROM HERE
The pandemic over the past year has caused everyone to do school differently and it will continue to impact schools for a while to come. We had little choice in how schools could immediately react to the pandemic and we coped with it the best we could. But we do now have the ability to determine whether we will use this as an opportunity to reinvent education or continue to follow a one-size-fits all system that truly fits very few of our students.

The pandemic and the broader awakening to racism (at least among white people) have provided a tremendous shock to our system. We have all experienced a shared trauma. Trauma in my own life called me to reevaluate my priorities and change what I spent my time on and what I let go. It helped me see through new eyes and see more clearly what matters.

As we come out of the shock of our crises, we have an opportunity. We have a choice. We can choose to be awakened, to come out of the wilderness, and truly shape learning around our students and families. Or we can choose to pretend this never happened and revert to what wasn't working. The choice is ours.

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Lessons Learned from the Pandemic: Can We Reinvent Education?

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Jay McClain is an assistant superintendent for Hopewell City Public Schools in Hopewell, Virginia, a district that serves about 4,200 students in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade. As an educator for over 30 years, serving as a teacher, principal, and assistant superintendent, I have never seen a school year like this one.

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Doggie daycare!!!

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Home Depot with my Stanton co-workers Stanton

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Home Depot with my Stanton co-workers Stanton

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Monkey Trainer

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(not human animals)

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Google Meets - not in place of in person but when needed

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Google Meets - not in place of in person but when needed

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Running store clerk

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I would live happily until our alien overlords come and take over the Earth.

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Google Meets & Microsoft OneNote;  Whiteboard.fi maybe?  

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Google Meets & Microsoft OneNote;  Whiteboard.fi maybe?  

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easier to get kids caught up that miss or cannot come to school consistently.

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Quizizz

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I would survive and thrive because I follow the rules of Zombieland

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Zombies got nothing on me...I have tiger blood!!

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Zombies got nothing on me...I have tiger blood!!

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especially for students who finish work early

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5 minutes

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Reading student faces to see if they are struggling.

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Reading student faces to see if they are struggling.

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Flipgrid, choice boards, chrome music lab

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Flipgrid, choice boards, chrome music lab

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Using the patience I learned this year with me to the future years to come

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Using the patience I learned this year with me to the future years to come

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Nanny