"Through this disruption, there has been a recognition that schools play a vital role beyond learning. Their custodial and community roles are central to a healthy society. As we grapple with the issues of reopening schools in this uncertain time, we must seize the opportunity to reflect on what has been learned, and what matters most..."
"Over the last decade, student engagement has plummeted. Almost one in every five students does not reach a basic minimum level of skills to function in today’s society (OECD) Moreover, many school systems have not maintained pace with technological advances; schools have not provided widespread access to digital tools. When the pandemic hit, 1 in 5 students did not have access to the internet or a device to support them in lockdown. This disruption revealed systems that already struggled to support all learners...."
"Aside from the widespread technological deficits that hampered learning for all, this period also revealed that digital alone could not replace the social and pedagogical impact of teachers. Parents recognized that the craft of teaching is not as simple as it appears. Teachers also play a vital role as relationship builders and connectors. In response, teachers embraced technology to reach out to students and families..."
"To put it plainly: it’s time to situate education as an instrument of individual and societal good."
- Michael Fullan & Joanne Quinn New Pedagogies for Deep Learning
***********************************
As we look forward to the remaining four months of this school year, continuing with cohorts, multiple layers of precautionary actions and limited opportunities for collaborative, innovative and creative learning in-person, teachers are considering strategies that will begin to bring students together intentionally, without disrupting precautionary measures, to re-establish the idea of 'shared learning experiences' as fundamental sources of learning, while also fostering opportunities for learner-to-learner support.
Strategies for cooperating with each other, demonstrating curiosity as well as questions and suggestions, listening and attempting to pull new ideas together while advancing opportunities for learners to provide feedback for each other are significantly important elements of the collaborative learning process. These are not easily learned processes or strategies - they require repeated opportunities for students to engage in learning alongside their peers in different environments, working through various questions or problems, using critical thinking skills like questioning, clarifying, organizing, inferencing and problem solving together. What one can accomplish on one's own may be enormously amplified and improved in the company of innovation and curiosity of others. Learning is advanced and enhanced in collaborative settings.
As teachers, we are considering virtual, distanced, innovative ideas for designing and developing shared learning experiences that will enhance and provoke thinking without infringing on the precautionary actions we have set in place to help promote a healthy place to learn. This week we launched our new 'EHS Coulee School' website where we will be able to document and link all our activities across the school related to student learning in our Twelve Mile Coulee. With multiple entry points available for students, Coulee School can ensure they are outside studying, comparing, contrasting, questioning, researching, sharing stories. Or they might be virtually working together from different sites to gather information, make recommendations, find ways to connect each other's understandings in an interesting and innovative way. Students might be working independently for a short period of time, then move back into a virtual group to test new hypotheses and ideas. Coulee School has been part of our learning since we opened five years ago; now we have a way to track and build on those experiences while also looking forward to being 'out of the pandemic' and into a period of high collaboration both inside and outside the building.
We are also exploring ideas to generate greater well-being and social/emotional wellness within our student population. Given that wellness tends to improve through contact and sharing of experiences and ideas with each other, there are currently barriers to this work as well. Together, teachers generated many ideas and suggestions over the past couple of weeks - and now we need to begin threading some of these together to weave a tight wall of support and help for our learners.
We know our young learners need to be/love to be active! Learning is stimulated by activity - what one can learn from sitting is increased enormously when one is active. And our children need to be - deserve to be - as active as possible.
Contemplating the next four months, we are planning to find ways to foster greater opportunities for collaboration, both in-person through being outside and in the Coulee and virtually. We expect to enhance social/emotional wellness through shared wellness experiences - like whole school projects, scavenger hunts, music, active learning or building literature knowledge. We also are seeking ways to keep our young learners as active as possible - learning to slow down is an act, not a never-ending story.
Once we have successfully developed a plan and begun to navigate the shores of a waning pandemic, it will be time to look beyond the next four months to the 2021-22 school year and begin to envision strategies to engage, support and provoke creative and critical thinking and learning with all our students, whether they stayed with us through in-person learning, moved to the Hub, or chose to home school directly. Multiple entry points will become an even stronger element of our classrooms than we could have every imagined!
I suspect it may be a bit of a bumpy ride, these next 4 months, and that we are going to all come out the other side with a much greater appreciation for our learners as individuals, as critical and creative thinkers and as citizens of the world.
The pandemic may have interrupted our 'flow' but it did not stop us!
And we will persevere and see this thing through till it begins to fade away - as we begin to emerge from the shadow of the pandemic this school year, and contemplate shifting the tectonic plates of teaching and learning with school re-entry next fall.
So many things to think about! So much excitement - wrapped up tightly inside precaution - but worth the thinking!!
Lorraine Kinsman
Principal, Eric Harvie School
No comments:
Post a Comment