Panic in Education Can Lead to Innovation

When our schools closed down right after spring break, I was worried about the 28 student teachers that suddenly had no classroom to practice in. With 5 weeks left of the semester, as faculty, we suddenly needed to advocate for our student teachers both with our licensing boards and with the public school mentors who also were in a very precarious space where the information from principals and superintendents changed daily for a little while.

These kinds of uncertain times are the best teachable moments for a long time educator like me. It calls for purposeful innovation, calm, and Tim Gunn fortitude to "make it work." What I found out from my student teachers was that they were missing one or two formal observations. These formal observations are our way to help student teachers to "turn the corner." I am not sure how else to describe this phenomenon but I know it when I see it. When student teachers "turn the corner," it is my "all is right with the world" moment. I know that they can take care of their own classrooms, and although they will probably still struggle in their first years, the students are in good hands. That makes these formal observations very important to our program.

Instead, the student teachers were challenged to take their lesson they would have done, shorten the time from 90 minutes to 20 and put it online to teach synchronously on Zoom. They knew that they would specifically be assessed on engagement (from Danielson: pacing, grouping, materials, activities). They also were pushed to think outside the box and perhaps try apps that would encourage differentiation, individualized feedback, and online formative assessment.

The student teachers were stressed, but they also know that I like to allow them time to grapple and feel that discomfort that comes from active grappling with challenges. To me, they all stepped up, but the truth is in the pudding so I am sharing an excerpt from their post lesson reflection of one of my math candidates.

From this lesson, I learned that distance learning can be both effective and engaging. When I first heard the requirements for this lesson I panicked. I wasn’t sure how I was going to make learning math engaging. Making math engaging is already a challenge in and of itself, but to also do it online through distance learning seemed impossible. After scrolling through Pinterest, I found some Desmos activities and remembered that I learned a lot about Desmos last year and that the teacher/student mode in Desmos is very engaging. I’m glad that I got to play around with the teacher/student mode in Desmos and it’s definitely something I would bring into my future classroom.

This lesson has greatly expanded my views on teaching because distance learning is becoming the new normal. Before this whole COVID-19 pandemic, most learning has been traditional in person classes. Now, teachers are stepping outside of their comfort zone and trying new methods to teach students. I’m not usually comfortable with stepping outside of my comfort zone, however this lesson has shown me that it’s not so bad stepping out of the box. This lesson is just the start of my distance learning experience. Because of this lesson, I’ve looked into a flipped classroom, as well as making videos for students to watch. My advice to those who are worried about distance learning, is to just do it. Research different ways to implement distance learning, and try them because there’s so much that teachers can learn from stepping outside of their comfort zone, like I did with this lesson. 

We are learning to teach in this new normal together. There is discomfort. There is panic sometimes, but persevere and persist we must. After all, the students are still counting on us. Just do it.