A Tale of Three Schools
“My teachers are exhausted from teaching virtually,” an administrator told me on a call. He explained that his staff were teaching all student sections live online, based on the schedule followed when everyone met in the building.
Some students had un-muted mics while others looked like they are multitasking watching videos unrelated to the course topic. Teachers did not know how many of their students were paying attention. With six to seven periods, teachers and students were attending live online classes using mostly traditional teaching methods of lecture and teacher-led questions and answers.
“No wonder the teachers were exhausted, they are working harder than the students,” I thought. And the students must also feel exhausted from sitting in front of a computer screen all day for traditional instruction.
At a second school, a teacher team expressed frustration that students did not complete all assignments. Or, they did not turn in work on time. The tasks were worksheets and questions that focused on abstract concepts, without making any connection to applications in businesses or the workforce.
They discovered that they needed to make two changes. First, build purpose and meaning to the assignments by showing connections to real world applications. Second, they needed to teach their students ways to better manage their classwork schedule.
At another school, the administrator shared a different perspective. Her teachers met with their students in smaller groups, two to three times a week. Assignments were posted on their classroom platform. Tasks were a mix of traditional work and activities that were aligned to students’ interests or gave them choices for how to complete assignments.