What could be or could have been...

 

 

In a Year What are Going to

 Remember from COVID?

What could be or could have been...

In a field like education it is easy to say change happens quickly because our technology changes, our students change, grading changes, tools change and so much more.  However what doesn't seem to change is...us.  The people running the classroom, working with the students daily, the ones who have the power to make any change work or not work. Yet in the era of Education during COVID, we have had to throw our fundamental thoughts of education out the window.  We had to change everything we do.  Finding new ways to meet the needs of children, modifying our content, eliminating topics that were not essential, allowing us to dig deeper not broader.  We grabbed onto every technology that could help us.  Searched out blogs, Twitter, Facebook, along with every other site or resource available.  We have collectively worked harder than we ever had before, and I couldn't be more proud to say I am an educator.

What should come as no surprise to those who have been in the field for a long time is that as announcements came and we could be returning to a 5-day in person schedule, we heard from all aspects of the COVID spectrum.  From those who would be nervous to those excited to get back to the normal life of school.  However, should it be asked what we are missing?  What did we learn?  What can we take with us that will lead to changes for the better of our students?  Has what we have been through been all bad?  Or, is returning to the 5-day schedule just more normal and we all need a breath of normal?  

Personally, I feel it's a combination of a lot of things more than any one thing.  However more than anything it is the fear of taking the positives of the last 11 months and mixing them with our past theories of instruction.  Fear of the work it will take to acknowledge those positives and what it may mean to what has been done in the past.  Isn't that what we really do?  We are educators but more than anything we are people who are willing to work hard to evolve and make the best learning opportunities possible for our students.  Or at least I hope we are.

Let's take a moment and review some of what we have learned:

• Students need more students around to help with social/emotional needs
• Having a day for reflection for students, with a proper amount of support can be powerful in retention and creating depth in learning.
• Yearly instructional goals can be achieved with a drastically reduced schedule
• Students without support, along with those with other needs, can be drastically disadvantaged without daily contact in school.
• Teachers have the ability to provide support at very high levels through the use of technology.
• The amount of work necessary to co-exist in a synchronous/asynchronous environment may not be sustainable for many educators over long periods of time.
• For the majority of students, current academic performance is comparable to the performance in a 5-day face to face environment.

I teach in an A/B schedule with Friday's serving as flex days to call in students who needed something additional in support or extensions.  I use an LMS at a high-level to assist students in organizing their learning embedded with videos and activities to expose and deepen instruction.  On the days I meet with my students in person we try to focus on either content instruction or activities to deepen learning.  Some personal reflections from my classroom:

• It took me a semester to refine my methods and figure out how to make this system work for almost all of my students.
• Structure for the students was vital with clear expectations including deadlines.
• Students, like always, want to learn but need a connection to the teacher to be successful.
• Students, like always, want to feel like they have some ownership of their learning.
• We can release content, focusing on depth, with greater results than in previous 5-day schedules.  
• Students, when they are not in class daily, are excited to come to class.
• There are still students who will make choices that prevent them from succeeding.
• Meeting with students every day is not necessary to have high achieving students.  It shocks me to consider the time spent in previous years to teach the same content as this year.  
• Students come to class eager because they know that class time is effective and important.
• Having a day to work with students in a 1:1 or small group scenario is priceless, especially when they can control when they come in and get support.

What we need to do is take these outcomes and determine what parts we can mix with the successes we have had in the past to make the future better.  To do that, we need to communicate openly with each other.  What follows are several ideas that may or may not be great but are worth discussing.  

1. Keep the flex day.  Having one day each week to meet with students in an RTI setting has been the largest win of all changes occurred this year.  I question if that is the same for all classrooms.  Did some teachers not meet with students or have much need to meet with students?  Isn't this more an administrative issue than one that should negatively affect students?  Eliminating the flex day would negatively affect all students ability to succeed.  An argument could be made that Wednesday would be a better day for the flex day.  We could even follow guidelines based on age and offer a later start/end time for school hours to accommodate the high school students preferences.
2. Given an hour, I wouldn't need to meet with my students daily.  It could be said that with time to reflect on the learning students have come to class with better questions, more engagement, and honestly more interest in the topics.  There seems to be a more relaxing atmosphere when given a change in a day-to-day schedule. 
3. In math, I still want the ability to have my students do something daily however, like I do now on their off days it should be limited to 10 minutes.  Just a touch point to keep them thinking, refine a skill, or expose a topic for future discussion.  Eventually, I would love to use these times to pose a "thinker" but I am just not quite there yet - give me a week or two.
4. I could foresee, with the limited number of quality teachers available, one teacher takes a double schedule.  Picture this, instead of having 5 classes of 30 students I have 5 classes of 60 students but only half come on a given day.  I see 5 classes of 30 students and repeat that every other day.  To do this there would need to be an aide to support record keeping and some day-to-day activities.  Scheduling could be interesting but in a school the size I currently teach in, this is possible to do for some classes.  One really strong teacher - with support can do this and the affect is your strong teacher reaches twice as many students.  That is a win!
5.  There are so many resources available that a teacher with only a few years of experience no longer needs a textbook.  I feel safe saying the web-based resources, with discretion are solid.  Especially if a teacher utilizes a mixture of them to meet the needs of all learners.
6. Some classrooms will want to meet daily.  I feel we could make that work alongside those that meet every other day.  Giving students the flexibility to leave campus or have an open study area has proven to be effective.  Let's treat our students like the young adults they are and not hamper the opportunities of many for the actions of a few.  Maybe this option can be earned?

There are many other ideas or thoughts to make education better.  It should be noted that none of these are curricular or instructional.  There was little mention of videos to support learning or giving students voice and choice.  Little mention of how we structure our communication or the specific expectations we hold our students up to.  What I unfortunately believe is that if in 2021-22 we start the year as we did in 2019-20 our opportunity to make a major move in the innovation of education could be missed.  

Let's not delay.  Let's begin the hard work of planning quality learning for all students!

Summarizing the Initial Weeks of COVID Era Instruction

                            

So weeks 1 and 2 are in the books.  We meet with the students every other day and Friday is designed to call in students who need additional support or extension.  If you were to ask me my concerns prior to starting the year they would have been:

• The students remembering what it means to learn
• Trying to figure out how to teach a year of material with depth of understanding while only seeing the students half the time.
• Figuring out how to personally get to know each student
• Safety

As it turns out, safety is the one I feel comfortable with.  My classes are typically filled with sound but this year, with masks, you could hear a pin drop on my carpet.  

I spent a good deal early in the year in the pose of the upper left image and last Friday lived in the pose in the upper right.  Essentially, I will have spent the same amount of class days on a topic I did last year, which means it is going to go twice as long because of the every other day process.  This is not an option!  Furthermore, every time I tried to condense or trust their at home learning skills I was disappointed.  And now, I feel very much like I want to do this:

You see, I needed feedback.  I gave the students an online portion of homework (I love DeltaMath) and a short, thinking-based 10 question online formative.  FYI - last year when we were face-to-face daily I had similar expectations with excellent results.  This year, of the 105 students I have in Algebra 2:

• 53 didn't attempt the formative
• 33 haven't started any of the homework (due tomorrow morning - it is now after 10pm)
• 7 - yes SEVEN finished it

So here I sit, typing when I should be reading or dare I say sleeping, trying to get these thoughts out of my brain as it works overtime.  I've been continually going over this for the past several hours (ok it has been days of this but I didn't want anyone to think I was obsessed) and coming to the same conclusion.  If the students aren't going to do anything when I am not there to encourage and support them this will not work.  Now that I type that I realize it is the same as when we are face-to-face daily but seriously!  We are being asked to do the impossible.  Teach students who forgot what it means to learn and be a student, in an environment that is unwelcome, in half the time...all while accomplishing the same goals in learning.  

So what do I do now....

1. We are reviewing the concepts from the useless formative because ultimately there are 52 students who need quality feedback.
2. I am slowing down to make sure they get the information I need them to this week.  If they are struggling with this the rest of the year is going to feel like climbing Mount Everest.
3. I created a DESMOS activity to support learning that I am giving them for Friday as a pre-teaching session.  I can track who has gone through it.  It has a coding glitch but frankly it is so small I bet only I see it.  If you want to check it out, here it is.
4. I am calling in students (all of them) who didn't finish the formative and/or the homework on Friday.  I am guessing this will be most of my classes.  That should be fun...(sarcasm alert). Oh, and we have been told attendance may be sketchy on Friday's due to travel inability (I kinda get), home life (starting to not totally agree) or work needs (NOPE - sorry, I cannot get behind that).  
5. Monday, we are having a little heart to heart.  Maybe I should just email them this blog and let that do the work for me.  It might be more effective.  
6. Then, and finally, we are going to press a bit.  I am going to force the issue my making the non face-to-face day more rigorous.  Up until now it has been practice and reflection which should have amounted to 30ish minutes a day.  

As a truly dedicated, creative and dedicated teacher (yup, said that twice) this is maddeningly frustrating.  It needs to work.  There is no option and I totally agree this form of instruction is the best we could do at this time.  However, that doesn't mean those of us who care about the kids won't get frustrated.  We will and do.  This is one massive, high risk puzzle.  Last year we patched together a quarter and the outcomes were not great.  This year, we can't do that.  Studies say that 1-year with a bad teacher can take 2 or more to recover from.  Imagine 5 quarters of partial instruction where the issue isn't the teachers effort or ability but the students.  Can one recover from that?

Now, I will pick up a book, read for a while and see if the brain is willing to shut down long enough to recharge.  Then, go to work and see what I can make the day bring.  After all, it is another chance to solve this puzzle.

Equity, Standards, Pathways, and Options Part 2

 Equity, Standards, Pathways, and Options 

Part 2

After a week of reflecting on the most recent meeting I am ready to discuss what we met about on the standards revision committee.

The 2+1 model is clearly the way we are heading and rightfully so.  The idea of two core classes (more than likely Algebra 1 and Geometry, not necessarily in that order, or an integrated approach to the two) makes so much sense for so many students.  Then, choosing the course that means something for the student.  This could be a UW-Gateway course such as College Algebra (Algebra 2 equivalent), Quantitative Reasoning or Statistics.  It could also be a different elective a school offers.  However, all of this is dependent on the standards.

To that end, we started looking specifically at the standards.  The overwhelming consensus from the statewide feedback was that major changes were not necessarily needed but there was cleanup that needed to be done.  The initial question:  Is a + standard a standard?  I don't believe it is and the longer I consider that idea the more I settle on that realization.  It is by definition "beyond the core."  Therefore, not a standard.  Does that mean it is not meant for instruction?  Not necessarily.  It can and should be instructed for students seeking a career in STEM.  Not for students who are not desiring a career in STEM.  These are courses beyond the 2+ level.

What are some of these standards we are discussing?  They are things like complex numbers.  We are still working through the standards but complex number concepts are common standards that are discussed regularly.  Does every student need to know and understand what a complex number is?  Or is it enough that they understand when real solutions do not exist.  So far, the latter is a stronger argument.

Tomorrow, I personally am looking forward to the additional discussions and reviewing the remaining standards.  If we can reduce them to a more manageable quantity while focusing them without drastically changing them, it will help students.  If, while doing this we can organize them in a manner that promotes equity while maintaining rigor we have a major win.  

I actually feel we will get there soon!