Balance in eLearning
It has been a challenging week to say the least, our lives have all changed immensely as this COV-ID19 crisis has shut down the physical world so many of us are used to interacting in daily and forcing us to re-think school in virtually (pun intended) no time in order to provide consistency and balance for everyone. We have had to redefine what balance means in our personal lives and in the world of education.
In the world of education, administrators have taken a deep dive to develop a meaningful and supportive eLearning environment tirelessly on behalf of all stakeholders. Our teachers have embraced this new reality for the most part or have come to accept that it is going to have to be for now but either way, they are deeply dedicated to finding a way to make it work for their students. Some are troubled by the new realities their families face and are seeking solutions by arguing about school schedules to try and figure out how to manage supporting their own kids schooling and their responsibilities as educators, others are worried about family members losing jobs and becoming sick, others are alone at home that are using work as a means to not feel so alone in this challenging time. No matter what the reality is for our educators and other constituents, I find one thing to be true, our school is a community of learners. A place where everyone comes together to continue to grow in different ways that are meaningful to them. I wrote in an earlier post about the need to redesign schools and I wonder about what we will learn from all of this that may inform our practices moving forward.
As a school administrator, I like to think I see the bigger picture of the purpose of schools. I have found myself during this time spending hours looking at what we can learn from schools oversea's who have been doing this for weeks already instead of thinking that we know and can do this better. I find the questions and issues around equity incredibly troubling during this time and again wonder how this all relates to us finding balance as a world and as an educational system. I will readily admit that I live comfortably in a world of privilege and that one of my favorite phrases after visiting Africa several years ago is that much of what we face are #firstworldproblems but I know they are very real for myself and others. The big question is how do we redefine and find balance during this challenging time?
After reading through all these resources, thinking about equity and the challenges many are facing at home here is what I find to be most important: we need to remember that the fundamental goal of school is to inspire our students to grow as human beings and to find balance in their daily lives. What this does not mean is looking at curriculum through the lens of what is absolutely necessary to get to the next course in the sequence as the first and primary function of our teachers, and figuring out alternatives to the almighty test. Instead it should mean that the primary role of all educators is to build connections with students, model best practices of being digital leaders and healthy citizens, whom practice self care and find ways to engage with learning that is meaningful and purposeful to all students and their lives. Some examples might include allowing students the choice of passion projects in different area's of interest, asking students to start a blog to journal this process and document their growth over time, or providing high school students with the myriad of resources on Twitter to design and develop lessons to connect with younger students as role models, having choice in reading books or articles or audiobooks (whatever works best for the individual learner), connecting with our families, and connecting with each others passions as learners to build a community. I believe that this is a time where we can redefine the future of education for all learners and enable the disabled by finding their passions and bringing them out as opposed to figuring out how to teach them about the next lesson in a math sequence or a lesson on the civil war. How about they document what their daily reality is right now to look back on for future generations, as this is surely a time that future generations will look back to in order to learn when the next pandemic comes in 2120's... history appears to tell us that, so lets use the tools at our disposal to document this moment. We could also ask our students to seek solutions to eLearning because I bet they would come up with some pretty cool ways to do things, they have grown up in this world, we have come into it over the course of our lives. Lets put them in the drivers seat for a change and be comfortable with coaching them.
Since we do not know how long this will last and perhaps that is the most uncomfortable part of it all, after working tirelessly for 7 days straight (including the weekend), I have decided to be a role model for our learning community and my beliefs and to share this moment in history. When my crossfit gym closed this past Monday, it was a huge blow for me, I miss this community greatly but I engage with them daily through social media, text chains, etc. and am still trying to find the time to get on the Zoom workouts that they are doing but I have been committed to doing them on my own every other day and taking daily walks with my dog (who does not practice his social distancing well at all). This is incredibly important to me as well as checking in with my family who I have a strong connection with and a lot of concerns about during this challenging time. I spent some time yesterday trying to explain to my autistic stepbrother through a social story why he has to stay home and that because he coughed and his temperature was taken does not mean that he has the corona virus. He did not understand this, something I think that many of us take for granted. So I used a social story one of our amazing teachers had shared with me to talk him through this in our very own version of eLearning and then was able to get him to a place where he was comfortable to go on with his day without panic that he was going to die. I have also decided to re-engage with my love of learning language and at the suggestion of one of my favorite people and my partner in presenting all over the globe, purchased Rosetta Stone tutorials and re-engaged yesterday with learning Italian, a language I was once fluent in. I hope at the end of this journey to find a way to travel again far and wide and to continue to broaden my horizons beyond my own narrow view of the world, be thankful and grateful for all that I have including this space to share my thoughts with you. For now, I wish you all the best and hope that you find some ways to find balance for the time being and re-engage with your passions, while ensuring you stay connected to those that are important to you, people really need each other right now. Be well.
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