As I have met with educators and lead professional learning or design sessions, I have been asking people to check in and name how they feel (I am a big fan of Marc Brackett’s Mood Meter). There is an overwhelming tension between hopeful or optimistic about creating a new and better future and the crippling frustration that people feel about standardized testing and “grading schools” as if everything were status quo. In each session we define a new and better normal, we dream and ideate about how to create a community where the social and emotional needs of students, teachers, and administrators are prioritized. We discuss how to engage learners, map out how to support teachers, and envision accountability systems that tell the whole story of a student and measure what matters to our students and communities. 

Each one of these conversations inspired me to think about what is possible and highlighted that educators have some thoughtful and practical ideas about how to do it. We know that educators need to collaborate and learn from each other. We know that flexibility, access, and meaningful work are critical for students to show up, be engaged and learn. And most importantly, we know that if students don’t feel connected and valued, we don’t really stand a chance at teaching them. 

Yet, in spite of the Pandemic and the whole host of challenges that come with it, too often teachers tell me they continue to march through their pacing guides and assign work (even though many can’t keep up with meaningful feedback) because they feel like they have to prepare students for the test. Administrators are navigating this as they too know that more pressure to perform on a test is not going to improve learning or what is needed or helpful. Navigating the mounting pressure amidst demands to teach learners remotely, in hybrid contexts and sometimes both at the same time has them feeling frustrated, overwhelmed, ineffective and anchorless as one educator shared in her description of her feelings. 

The 4 Ps of Teaching, Learning, and Leading in a Pandemic

In light of these conversations and the overwhelming sense of urgency that I feel to use this time to evolve practices and policies in education, I was reminded of the 4Ps. Kaleb Rashad, an incredible person, leader, and friend shared about how he intentionally works to create a culture where teachers and students can take risks to be creative and innovative. He calls it the 3Ps: Permission, Protection, and reduction of Policies. I wrote about this is Learner-Centered Innovation and I added eliminate Perfectionism. Recently I was on the VrainWaves Podcast talking about these and we decided that we could use the 4Ps to create the conditions for effective teaching, learning and leading during Pandemic and beyond.  

Permission- Give people permission openly and remind them often that they have your permission to try new things in the best interests of the learners.

I believe that teachers (and everybody for that matter) are doing the very best they can right now and so are the administrators in the district and state departments but guess what, they have never done this before either and they don’t know your kids and their circumstances nor do they have visibility into what your day to day is as an educator. Some are operating out of fear and want to control the situation because that is how we cope and manage. But compliance will never create the experiences that our students need nor get us to the outcomes we desire. 

This isn’t just about administrators giving your teachers permission or teachers giving your students permission, it’s about giving yourself permission too. As one teacher shared with me, “there is nothing worse than teaching something in the pacing guide when you know that there is a better way to teach it.” I would argue that there is something worse, not doing it.  If you know that there is a better way to meet the needs of learners, you owe it to them (and yourself) to try it.  

You might think that following the rules is the easiest course of action but it’s not always the best thing for kids or as fulfilling as an educator. Instead of being compliant (or expecting others to be), let’s understand that the best educators are most effective when they are responsive and adapt to the needs of their students to meet the desired outcomes, not when they blindly follow the curriculum and policies. 

Protection- Assure people that you will protect them when things go wrong. When you are trying something new, they will fail and that has to be honored in the process.

Students, teachers, administrators, families are all forced to try new things. Learning new tools, strategies, and practices can be hard, it’s clumsy and we are bound to fail. This is certainly part of learning, but the bigger picture to me is acknowledging that success will look different this year and probably the next. Learning is a process that takes time, effort, and growth to achieve success even when we don’t see it. This is the time to try new things and learn not try and force an outdated model that didn’t work for everyone to begin with online. 

We have to show up for each other and we have to figure out how we can take this moment in time and look to our learners. Let’s use this opportunity to try something new- even if it’s not perfect- and give each other grace and protection to create something new and better for the educational community, for our kids, and our collective future.

reduction of Policies- Remove barriers and policies that encumber people from putting innovative ideas into practice. Empower them to make choices within reasonable boundaries rather than creating hoops to jump through.

I have heard many lament how many kids are failing classes right now because they have missing assignments or are struggling to keep up with school work and demands of their new normal. I loved seeing a message from a teacher who was actively removing barriers for students to help them succeed instead of marking off points and penalizing them (still looking for the image). We need more of this at all levels.

The best educators I know have always looked to their learners and used their experiences, background, and professional expertise to make decisions. There will be challenges- lots of them. There is no precedent set for how to teach in a pandemic or what “best practice” is. We are all learning, drawing on experience, research, practice, intuition, and putting ourselves out there to figure it out. So here is the deal, I am not saying that we do whatever we want without regard to the rules and regulations, that never goes well. But I am encouraging  educators at all levels to evaluate policies and procedures that inhibit learning and not just blindly follow the rules just because someone with more authority made them. 

elimination of Perfection- Focusing on continuous growth over perfection in our schools will require deviating from the notion of best practices. The safe and perfected lessons that might have worked in the past might not be the best for the learners now. 

Perfectionism is an unattainable goal. If we expect perfection (or more accurately, the illusion of perfection) of ourselves or others, we miss out on the opportunity to create something better for individuals, communities, and possibly the world are setting ourselves up for failure. Brene Brown describes it like this, “Perfectionism is not about striving for excellence. Perfectionism not about healthy achievement and growth. Perfectionism is a defensive move. It is the belief that if we do things perfectly, and look perfect we can minimize or avoid the pain of blame, judgement, and shame.” I had never thought about perfectionism as a defensive move, but it makes complete sense if you think about it. If you follow the pacing guide and teach by the book, you can’t be blamed if your students don’t succeed because you did what you were told to do. 

If students follow the formula and memorize all the answers for the test, they are safe because they did exactly what you told them. When we do things to please others and receive positive feedback for doing it right, it can be frightening to try something that is not tried and true with a clear recipe for pleasing others or being seen as perfect. This fear of the unknown can be crippling if you are used to operating in this perform, please, perfect cycle as Brene describes it. The risk can seem far greater than the reward.

Toward a New and Better Future

Consider some of the best practices that have shifted over time. It was once a best practice to put babies to sleep on their bellies, which we now know can be dangerous, so practices were updated with recommendations that babies sleep on their backs. When students misbehave, best practices used to include paddling them.  This is no longer looked upon favorably and is even against the law in many places. At one time (and in some places, still might be), a best practice was giving ten minutes of homework per grade level, yet a great deal of research shows that this has little to no impact on student achievement and today it’s irrelevant when kids are home to begin with.  Will we continue as status quo because it is a cultural norm, or will we push back to create better practices that meet the needs of learners in a pandemic today? Learner-centered innovation requires understanding the context, learning to improve, and assessing the impact of our practices on the learners we serve to determine what is working and what might be next. 

I have seen visionary leaders tell teachers that they have freedom to teach what they feel is best for their students and they are free from pacing guides only to be frustrated that many still cling to the pacing guides for fear of not doing it right or not being sure of the new way. It’s hard to blame them. Many have been trained to do it this way and rewarded for being compliant in many cases. The same thing happens when teachers tell their students that their projects are open ended and that they can explore topics of interest. Instead, students beg for the worksheet or the formula to just get it right rather than have to think and learn in a more ambiguous, unknown space. You can’t tell people to do something different or simply give them permission without showing them that they are protected and actively work to remove the barriers. You have to intentionally create the culture of learning and innovation every day. 

Permission, protection, and reduction of policies are important to create the conditions for those you serve to take risks, but changing these habits and behaviors that are deeply ingrained in a culture takes time and willingness to eliminate the notion of the perfection that is unattainable and prevents growth.