This Pandemic may have given the educational system an opportunity to press the reset button on how we develop and educate our students!
Teachers and administrators everywhere are brainstorming how to make returning to school in the fall successful and keep our country safe from COVID-19. There is so much to consider when making the appropriate changes. How exactly do teachers return to their best practices while integrating new practices that they are quickly learning.
We have an opportunity right now, to make our school even better than they were before.
We have been given this gift of time to really dig deep. Yes, we were thrown into this new remote way of learning, but look at us, we are doing it. There have been pros and cons for sure. But in order to make our new normal better, we need to take action!
School leaders for the first time since I’ve been in education have placed Socio-emotional needs above academics. For teachers and parents alike, this has been a breath of fresh air. Hearing our leaders say, “worry first about the well being of our kids and their families” really means a lot. For the first time, there are no state tests. For the first time, we have an opportunity to look at what can be fixed in our educational system.
4 Things to Consider in Reinventing our Schools
1. Consider Where the Students Left Off
What was the last thing you assessed of your students work? What was the last standard in each subject area that you graded?
Academically, we have to restructure the beginning of the school year. Our students will not have the same prior knowledge in the academic content areas when they come to your classroom in the fall. They will have missed units of content. Students will be behind in the emergent areas. We will be teaching new material that is typically review from the previous school year. Vertical alignment will help grade level teams to know where to begin at the beginning of the year.
2. Consider Time
How much time will we actually be in the classroom each week or each day? Will our year be cut short due to moments of quarantine (again)?
At this point there is no guarantee that school will resume in the fall. Will we be back full time, part time, or not at all? Will we be in and out of full time school based on the way this virus does? We need to plan for all of it. Consider the amount of time you will have with your students before you determine just how much you plan to accomplish with them throughout the year.
3. Consider Priorities
What are the priorities in the grade level and subject that you teach? Other than the academic standards, what else plays a role in what and how your students learn?
For a child to learn successfully we must consider the whole child: physically, mentally, developmentally, emotionally, and academically. We need to prioritize these areas in order to decide what the focus is on. The answer to this question will be different for every grade level. When you look at EVERYTHING that goes into a child learning successfully, it is much more than just the academic standards.
For example: In the primary grades our students have so many developmental needs. They need to establish a love for learning. They need to gain self-confidence and independence. They also need to develop a growth mindset in order to teach them the importance of effort and attitude. We need to help them to continue to develop their motor skills, social skills, executive function skills, and a foundational literacy skills. Lack of these developmental skills in early childhood can lead to frustration during the learning process and in turn hinder their academic learning.
In elementary and upper elementary you may see the same needs for learning as described above, however, each year the academics become higher on the priority list.
Middle School and High School have very different needs. A middle school teacher may prioritize the needs of student in a much different way.
The Big Question is: What is essential for learning? What do students absolutely need to learn before progressing to the next grade level.
It’s no longer a race to the top. It’s a race to care for the needs of our students, that will provide them the best chance to learn the most.
In each school (primary, elementary, middle school, high school) The priorities will fall differently. School leaders need to gather their experts: teachers, counselors, school psychologists, Occupational Therapists, Speech and Language Therapists, Special Education Teacher, etc. to help make these considerations.
4. Consider what can/cannot be taught, practiced, and assessed remotely.
Our students need our teachers! They need to be with them face to face. Students need to learn and practice all the little tricks that great teachers use. What parts of your day cannot be done on a computer? What parts of your school day would be most valuable to do in class? What do your student need you (not a parent) for?
Becoming an Agent of Systematic Change
What if this pandemic has created a gift for our students. This gift is an opportunity to change our educational system for the better.
In a podcast called Truth for Teachers, Angela Watson interviewed Dan Heath, author of NY Times Best Seller, Upstream: The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen In his book, he explains how us the idea of Upstreaming to be an agent of systematic change, which means, rather than being reactive to situations, we can work to prevent what caused the problems. Making a change in this way will prevent suspected future problems. Angela Watson asked Heath how teachers could utilize “upstreaming” to assist in making systematic change in education. Could this idea help us to reinvent our “New Norm”?
Dan Heaths idea of Upstreaming is brilliant! There is no time like now to do this in education. I have been teaching for a lot of years, teaching and learning today is very different from when I first started. I’ve viewed the educational world from the eyes of a teacher and now as a parent. I will have 3 school age kids in the fall. I want my kids and yours to have the best educational experience possible.
How can we use the idea of Upstreaming to Make our System better?
Identify the Pitfalls: What are some of the pitfalls in our education system?
One example that is heavy on my heart is the anxiety rate in students and the increase in teen suicide rates in the last decade. In the last decade our education system has taken a turn. This turn has been good and bad. We’ve gone from one spectrum to the other on the learning pendulum. This change, I believe began with The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. It gave educators nationwide focus and acountablilty. However, the race for school districts to be rated the best, the pressure put on teachers for their own evaluations, and the pressure that state mandated testing has put on our students has caused a pandemic of its own. Anxiety!
There is a theory about how Early Childhood Education has played a role in this educational pitfall. You can read more about this in my blog post titled Pandemic Helping Pandemic. In a nutshell there is a professional belief that academic rigor is creating anxiety in kids.
Academic Rigor in Early Childhood Education prevents students from developing a firm foundation for learning. Lacking a firm foundation for learning makes learning more difficult. Creating anxiety in students. Could Early Childhood Educators use upstreaming to make this systematic change?
I believe this problem can be solved by shifting the priorities in Early Childhood Education.
Why not have the priority of K-2 be strictly foundations for learning: developmental skills, social skills, fine motor skills, executive function skills, and developing a love for learning. Students will still learn and progress!
If you’ve ever taught a primary grade you know that this is what they do…the progress made in these early years is phenomenal. With a focus and priority on these foundations for learning, doesn’t it make sense that the learning will come more easily when the learning gets harder in the higher grades? I would venture to say, that we will continue to see achievement if not more, if we made this systematic change.
With schools reinventing a new normal, this is the perfect time to make a change for the better. Grab your free download at the bottom of this post that will assist your school team with working through this process.
Let’s Be Their Difference!!! Who is with me?
