I am currently getting ready to teach a course at High Tech High Graduate School of Education, which is one of my favorite things to do. I love to meet the students, connect with each of them, get to know their questions, passions, and see how we all grow and create new and better ideas throughout the course. Like teachers across the world, however, I am now redesigning this course on the fly to make it work remotely while I work from home and teach my own children too. I am anxious and sad to miss out on the face to face connection but am learning from so many how to evolve in my role.

As I have talked with teachers over the few weeks of quarantine and school closures, I know that teachers showing up for their students and colleagues and are redesigning on the fly, learning new tools, and doing everything they can to support their students and make sure they are healthy, safe, and learning. This is not always easy in the classroom and much harder currently. 

I know that not all kids have devices, support, or consistent routines at home and it makes connecting and learning challenging. Like me, many teachers have their own families at home that they have to tend to and cannot be available like they were when they were on regular schedules and their own kids were in school or daycare. And if you have kids under 5, it’s likely impossible to get anything done at all! Sending all the love.

I appreciate many who have highlighted that our efforts right now are an emergency response to a global pandemic (no matter how many times I write that it never quite seems real). We are in crisis mode and every family is living their very own version at varying levels of severity and therefore our approaches in the classroom do not translate to our current reality. 

I love this post from AJ Juliani who acknowledges just that.

This is emergency remote learning.

It was not planned for.

Most school’s curriculum was not crafted to be online or distance learning experiences. 

Most teachers and staff have not been trained in teaching online or through virtual tools.

Most kids and families have not had the opportunity to be prepared for this change in learning.

And yet, here we are, everyone doing their best to make this work.

It is normal and feels safe to transfer practices that we have used in the classroom to an online or remote model, yet if we substitute classroom practices that are standardized and designed for efficiency in the classroom, we quickly find that these same practices become inefficient, if not impossible to sustain over time.

Change can be scary but allowing that to keep us from connecting with students and supporting them has propelled many forward.  Everyone is working so hard and we are all learning. As Maya Angelou says, Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.  Wherever you are, I hope these examples of how educators are evolving affirms that where you are is ok and can provide ideas and resources for your next step.

1. Connector

When I told my children that school most likely wouldn’t open for the rest of the year my daughter immediately started sobbing. My son spent the rest of the night isolated and wouldn’t talk about it until the next morning. They are in 4th and 5th grade mourning the loss of friendships, routines, and promised activities that were seen as a right of passage.

Relationships are foundational to learning and what makes school so special. The teacher plays a pivotal role in connecting with individual students and their families, while also creating the community where students develop relationships with one another. It has been amazing to see how teachers have learned new tools, resources, and methods to maintain and extend these relationships. This connection to one another and the community is more important than ever.  

One on one or small group check ins: These can be personal check-ins on the phone, video calls, or emails to see how learners are doing. Michelle Bangara, a middle school teacher, shares that she has a sign up for students to join a check-in 2 days a week and only 6 kids could sign up at a time and the floor was open to whatever they wanted to discuss. 

Class Meetings:  Not all kids will be able to make it and flexibility is key but many teachers have scheduled weekly or even daily class meetings. It has been fun to see my kids get so excited and for their class meetings. You can do a quick check in to set goals for the day, show and tell, do a book talk, share something that you have learned or created or just check in to say hi. 

Message/ Discussion Boards: Creating a place for students to chat and share what they are learning and doing in an asynchronous can be a great way to connect kids without having a set meeting time. Just like many teachers have places in their classroom for kids to share ideas, class challenges, or share pictures. A virtual space for this can make kids feel connected to you and the community.

2. Co-Designer of Powerful Learning

Since we can’t expect all kids to be sitting at a computer for 6 hours and recreate the school day online and each child, family, and circumstance is unique, we have to be compassionate and flexible to allow learners to engage in a variety of ways. This is an opportunity to design experiences that empower learners to practice and develop foundational skills such as reading, writing and speaking, as they learn to be problem solvers and critical thinkers while we don’t have to get through the curriculum or prepare for a test.  

We know learners are more engaged and motivated when we design authentic, participatory, and relevant learning experiences. Outside of the structure of a classroom it matters more than ever that kids are engaged on projects that matter to them. Consider how you can best leverage the desired learning goals, interests, resources and context at home to meet the learning goals in a way that makes sense for them. 

Passion Projects– Talk with kids and see what they are interested in learning about or spending their time doing. Maybe they want to build a treehouse or learn to cook. Maybe they want to paint? Give kids opportunities to pick their own projects and help them set goals and check in points. 

Family History Project– Interview family members and write up the family history

Quarantine Documentary– This will be a moment in time the historians will use our stories, pictures, memes- how do you want your story to be recorded? Document a day in the life through journal, photography, art, video journals

Service Learning Projects– have students find a problem that they notice and do some research to find out what they can do to help others. This could be a neighbor, family member, local business

Design challenges– Check out these design challenges for some ideas- make a mousetrap car, make something out of recycled materials, 

Teach someone something– The best way to learn something is to teach it. Have your students teach someone else something and document it. This could be in person, with a friend via video or they can share it on social media with the world depending on their access and comfort level. 

3. Community Developer

Although teachers are pretty amazing as we have seen, with so much information and new content and tools being created each day, it is impossible for anyone to know everything.  If you are allowing learners more flexibility in their projects, connecting them with resources, experts, peers and a global community of learners can help them learn from and with others while also developing their skills to learn how to learn. 

As teachers we can  connect students to the community, and resources that require them to develop the skills, knowledge, and dispositions to solve authentic problems. If we want to ensure students have the skills needed to be successful and productive citizens, it is critical that we model and practice them in our interactions online and offline.

Curate Resources-  Instead of having to be the expert, there are so many resources out there and information is abundant. One way that you can scaffold the process for learners and families is to curate a set of resources from a variety of perspectives and experts like articles, podcasts, how to video, and let learners choose resources that best suit their needs and goals.

Learning Circles– One way that I love to connect learners is through learning circles or collaborative groups. It can be a text that they read, a common challenge they are working on or anything but they meet regularly to check in and learn together based on your goals and objectives, or theirs. 

Book Clubs or Lit Circles- We want kids to be reading and they want to be connecting with each other. Book clubs are a great way to provide structure and motivation to read and connect. Have students decide what book they want to read or give them a few options, set the reading schedule and provide some guiding questions and a place for them to document and share their insights.  

4. Activator

John Hattie’s research shows significant impact on student learning when teachers activate learners and guide them on their learning path by providing opportunities for feedback, goal setting, verbalizing and monitoring their own learning. 

Meet learners where they are: Depending on the learning goals and the needs of the learners, the teaching methods can and should move flexibly from more direct teaching, to more collaborative or facilitative approaches based on the needs of the learner. 

Goal setting and check-in: The more and more I learn and engage with people about assessment, I see more ownership, progress, and growth when skills and goals are named explicitly and the learner owns the process. 

Feedback: The educator can coach, give feedback, and assess but when the goal is the grade or the mark, that becomes the focus not the learning. While many grades are not required, this is a perfect time to provide authentic and meaningful feedback

5. Partner in Learning

As our world rapidly changes, the tools and resources we have access to dramatically impact our opportunities for learning.  However, for educators to truly embrace the new models and resources to create compelling learning experiences for their students, they have to embrace the need to be learners themselves, first.

Model your learning: This is an opportunity to embrace your role as a learner and gain empathy for your students too. Teachers, as partners in learning, model lifelong learning and empower students to explore their passions and interests, and learn to do something about it, rather than solely consume information.

Collaborate with Colleagues: With so much is in flux, this is a great opportunity to leverage team of teachers to meet the needs of students. Instead of one teacher being solely responsible for creating content, checking in and learning all the new tools, teachers who are collaborating and creating flexible schedules that meet the needs of their families and students are able to dive the workload and be more productive.

Connect with families– With the families as your co-teachers now, it is helpful to communicate with them and get feedback on their needs, provide guidance and support to help them at home.

This is new and hard and it is so important that you give yourself the grace to make mistakes and take time to take care of yourself and your family. Thank you to all the teachers who are embracing their evolving role and doing all they can to for children and families across the world.