Being quarantined in place seems a bit like being in a glass bottle. I can see everything going on outside of me, but I can’t move ‘out there’. Limits are rigid and ideas seem to quickly go stale. Now we have taken the cork out of this bottle, but restraints on how we move and have our being are everywhere. I have heard the media say, in the future we will talk about this year as “In the time of Covid…” Some are teaching from inside the ‘bottle’ of a computer. Some are teaching behind the ‘bottle’ of space and precaution. Both restrict our natural personal flow that has become our familiar student/teacher relationships.
If there is a ‘message’ in the bottle of Covid Time, can we read it? Will it lead us to future treasure? Will it help us rescue a shipwrecked student? Will it lead us to a great mystery? You see, I think that teachers will write that message. We teachers will tell the story of this “time in a bottle” and we teachers are charged with learning our message by heart and translating it into meaning for the future of education. Our concept of the ‘how and when’ of effective student learning is being challenged. How much do individual differences in a students’ physiological and emotional readiness disrupt their receptiveness for the teaching moment? What are the effective actions teachers can do to mitigate the extremes for their students? Is traditional presentation an effective communicator? Is whole-class practice possible or desirable? Is traditional assessment our only tool for evaluating students’ success? Is a grade the motivator we want to use for student ‘work?’
This ‘bottle’ we are in can become a magnifier for challenges we have already been facing. Educational ideals and beliefs are always under scrutiny, but in this time, we have a rare opportunity to gather experience (and data) to demonstrate what we believe about how students are motivated and given opportunities. We may be getting a lot of “that doesn’t work,” but keep looking to examine the why and how of what DOES work. It is something we must harvest from this shipwreck of education in the “time of Covid.” In the future time of renewal, we can push for the means and will to make the changes in plans and schedules that we know make a difference for students.
RecapitulationSong 