My friend Kelly Gillespie (@DrKellyFromKS) once taught me the difference between complicated and complex. She described that piloting an airplane is complicated. There are gauges, switches, levers, and instruments that must be understood. There are checklists, procedures, and protocols that must be followed. Mistakes may be fatal. But, piloting an airplane is not necessarily complex. Education is complex. Education is complex because there are thousands of moving pieces intertwined and many of those "pieces" are people with different backgrounds, different values, and different ideas. Teachers have to make hundreds of instantaneous decisions based on their knowledge of content, policies, procedures, students, and students' backgrounds. A teacher has to make instructional decisions for what to do when they notice "Joe" walked into class with "that look" in his eyes again; a decision that will not only affect Joe's education but potentially the education of the twenty-four other students in the class. THAT's complex!!
I love the complexity of teaching! The complexity is what makes teaching such an engaging profession!! What do you do when no one in class is paying attention? What do you do to help that struggling student make sense of new information? What do you do when Jane doesn't turn in her homework (again)? What do you do when the cell phone is more engaging than today's lesson? Every day is like a puzzle where the challenge is to make the biggest impact possible on student success. For sure, some things are out of your control. But, that doesn't mean that you don't do everything within your control to make an impact.
This brings me to the turbulent times we face in education in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak that's sweeping our country. What an important time to be a teacher!! Our nation is facing a shutdown that our generation has never witnessed. Our schools are closing for extended periods of time, and education leaders are exploring online and distance learning alternatives to the traditional school model. This can be a scary time for teachers because we've never been forced to think of our classrooms in these new ways. But, I believe our education systems will be strengthened by navigating our way through these education issues.
I don't have the answers, but I love sitting around a table with educators to find solutions to complex problems. As with all things in education, I am certain the answer is not a one-size-fits-all program that will meet the needs of all students in all communities. The answer is MUCH more complex!
First things first, of course online/distance learning is not what's best. It's much more difficult to build meaningful relationships with students through a virtual portal. However, we should be asking ourselves, "How can I create a virtual learning environment that allows me to build real human interactions?" Can we utilize Zoom or another conferencing program to meet as a whole class or in small groups? Can I send personalized letters/notes/pictures through the mail to my students? Can I help my students form a deeper connection with the other people in their family? I know the issue is complex, but we should explore solutions.
Another problem with online/distance learning is access. I live in a community with significant generational poverty. Access is an issue. So, we should be asking ourselves, "How can I ensure access for all my students, including the ones without devices or internet access?" Does my classroom have devices I can loan to my most vulnerable students? Does the school have wifi enabled busses we can park in neighborhoods to provide free internet access to students? Does the school have community partners that could help provide internet access for students in need? Can we send hard copy resources to families without access? Just because some families do not have access to devices or internet access does NOT mean we should not utilize those tools. It means that we should explore options and solutions to help provide students and families with access to those tools.
What about students with special needs? We should be asking ourselves, "How can I meet the individual needs of our students?" Is there a possibility of home visits or tutoring sessions at the school? Virtually? Can our Special Education educators help us modify lessons in new ways for our students? What strengths does my student possess that I can utilize to help her learn or demonstrate knowledge of this concept? How can the student's family help meet the student's needs?
What if students refuse to do any work? We can't force them to "sit through" six hours of class per day if they're home or in the hospital. True. Some students may not engage with us. Some students may not engage for very good and valid reasons. Some students may not engage for reasons we believe to be weak or invalid (we should be careful here... we all value things differently, and different values do not equate to "wrong" values). However, the question we should ask ourselves is, "Why should my students engage with me during this crisis?" This is a pretty deep conversation. Why should our students engage in learning with us? If our answer to this question is because the law says they have to, then we have some soul searching to do. Instead, we should be seeking ways to add value to our students' lives through engaging, meaningful lessons that enrich our students' lives. Would we do things differently if school was optional? If so, maybe it's time we start pretending school is optional, and build learning opportunities where students want to come to engage in learning with us. What does that look like? It might look like students researching and recognizing an unsung hero in their community or family. Want resources for a project like this? Check out the Lowell Milken Center for Unsung Heroes (https://www.lowellmilkencenter.org/programs/projects). It might look like students studying the statistical trends of the COVID-19 virus and using different mathematical models to make predictions about the number of new cases tomorrow, next week, or next month (this would be a great project for students K-12 with more complicated models to be utilized through higher grade levels). There are many meaningful projects already created for teachers to build learning opportunities around. Connect with my friend Ginger Lewman (@GingerLewman) or Kevin Honeycutt (@KevinHoneycutt) for more ideas. I started thinking differently about school when I created a summer STEM camp for middle school students. It forced me to search for learning opportunities that students would want to spend their summer exploring. I asked pre-teens to give up their days at the pool or in front of the iPad to help me build underwater robots that could help clean up the oceans. It wasn't hard to engage them in learning; it was often harder to get them to leave for the day! Here's my point, some students may not engage in online/distance learning for reasons outside of our control. But, we can (and should) build learning experiences that attract students to this new learning environment and spend our resources on the things we can control which includes building the best learning environment with engaging activities that we can create.
There are many more questions, and many of them are extremely complex. There are no easy answers. But, we're not educators because it's easy. Of course, the solutions to the problems created by the COVID-19 shutdown are complex, but that doesn't mean that they're not worth solving. We MUST do something! Remember, our goal is to create the biggest impact on student success. How do we make the biggest impact possible today? We will make mistakes. We will try new techniques and strategies that will not work as planned. We will reflect. We will learn. And, we will continue to improve our practice. This growth will help us be even better educators when things get back to "normal." The lessons we learn from engaging learners from a distance or through electronic mediums will prove to be valuable as we continue to look for ways to improve education for each student. No matter what happens over the course of the next month, two months, six months, or year, we should work our best to lead with compassion. Although our delivery may move online, it is the importance of relationships and compassion that lies at the heart of our profession. There is no one I trust more to solve complex problems than a teacher.
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