Disrupting Leadership: Five Considerations for Professional Learning in the New Normal
By Scott B. Freiberger
We’ve seen the nascent news. We’ve contemplated myriad upcoming conundrums and perceive what’s coming down the unpliable pike. Get your game plan gloves on. Decisions of gravity require heavy lifting. In these turbulent times, this instructional coach and aspiring school leader delved into data-driven dialogue with several top school leaders, recognizing research-based, nouveau realities. Which prudent path should school leaders pursue to reimagine learning? Here are five considerations for professional learning in the new normal.1. Soft-Serve a Superabundance of SEL
This is a tumultuous time for everyone: administrators, educators, and chiefly, children, and I had penned about the importance of infusing social-emotional learning (SEL) into curricula both here and there. Now nearly everywhere, children need to feel connected with authentic texts and have opportunities to reflect on feelings. Given the need to raise students’ academic readiness coupled with emotional regulation, professional development (PD) that emphasizes remaining authentic, consistent, and empathetic should prove superb for scaffolding students’ academic and social skills.
Keep Respect Alive and Increase the Peace
In the words of John Dewey, “…education is life itself.” Due to base behavior broadcast worldwide, it would also make sense for PD to encompass trauma-informed learning to ensure students connect, reflect, and share feelings and thoughts in addition to authentic work artifacts. Whether in brick-and-mortar buildings, online virtual environments, or a blended batch, creating a safe, healthy space for students should lead to more desirable discussions and original outcomes. Provide positive, SEL-related PD and empower educators to create, teach, practice, and reflect in an upward spiral of cognitive collaboration coupled with collegiality.
Teachers may also want to try Culturally-Responsive Teaching (CRT), pedagogy that not only acknowledges, but also celebrates the beauty of cultural diversity and provides classroom equity and curricular access across grades. CRT is said to promote positive perspectives and complement contemporary classroom instruction within cultural contexts. With high expectations for student achievement and the teacher as facilitator rather than lecturer, the syllabus is student-centered, sparking student choice and vivid voice, more than mere motivation. Resources may include readers and supplementary supplies, and activities authenticate students’ backgrounds. Learning is cooperative and inclusive, and integrated units may revolve around pertinent projects and timely themes. Remaining flexible, open-minded, and good-natured also transcends cultural borders.
2. Tap Teacher Talent
If appropriate PD may not be forthcoming from the district office or accomplished educational consultants due to budget constraints, consider ways to cultivate community by tapping into teachers’ talents and sharing in-house resources. For example, consider a school-wide faculty book club. SEL topics, for example, may include classroom management, bullying prevention, and fostering resilient learners. Each teacher is unique and may have untapped talent to enhance cadre capacity. In general, transparency engenders loyalty. Clarify contemporary conundrums, survey staff, and share singular skills and areas of aptitude. Being resourceful is more than a simple state of mind; it’s a necessity given our current state of economic affairs.
3. Cultivate Cognition
Margaret Mead had posited, “Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.” Create a school-wide culture of cognition by ensuring that while cheeky chants may be challenged, children themselves, for opining their authentic opinions, should not be. Modeling vulnerability, overcoming obstacles, and making mistakes to achieve mastery revitalizes resourcefulness and leads to augmented accomplishments.
Challenge students to think outside the Xbox, and above all else, value their thinking. A genuine interest in the success of all students increases character, confidence, dignity, and morale. Visual thinking routines summon students to delve deeper; they step inside themselves and brainstorm, explore, interpret, synthesize, and organize au courant conceptions. Providing PD to make thinking visible also enhances and sustains 21st-century skills: the wisdom, work habits, and character traits that scores of sprightly students and prescient people will need to succeed in today’s tech-savvy society.
4. Getting Smart? Consider Clever
As the tremendous tintinnabulum from the Great Disruption, the global pandemic affecting global markets, school systems, and once-teeming theme parks around the world continues to chime, one tenet continues to ring strikingly true: “less is more.” This adage has proven particularly apt for online as well as in-person learning. The sudden online thrust led many school building and district leaders to consider how to provide the most full educational experience possible via remote learning. Yet a plethora of digital platforms introduced at once to administrators, educators, parents, and families may have left many feeling overwhelmed.
In the corporate world, platforms that connect apps and help synthesize the virtual reality experience for all employees are proving popular. Why not consider a similar approach in the education sector? Peruse platforms that empower educators to infuse a variety of learning resources from one digital source. Clever, one such online option, may be a smart school district partner, as the software is billed as a “single sign-on,” where data is dynamically managed, security is said to be strengthened, and applied applications are accessed with aplomb. Practical partner programs include Amplify, Big Ideas Learning, Brainpop, i-Ready, and Newsela, among others. Of course, there are still ample stand-alone apps to provide parents to enhance skills in literacy and math.
5. Kickstart the Curriculum Committee
In our unsettled current school climate, how could we best address the “Four Cs,” namely, critical thinking and problem solving, communication, collaboration, and creativity and innovation? A curriculum committee consisting of school and teacher leaders, parents, and possibly students could discuss how to address any disconnect between the written and taught curriculum, and consider current modes of communication. (Infusing online PD for staff members may also be a viable option.) Here are some key questions to consider:
1. What are the central concepts, and how will they be addressed?
2. What are the standards, and how can we ensure our students can meet or exceed them?
3. How will technology be used to support teaching and learning? Which platforms will we be using, and why?
4. Which resources will be provided to scaffold learning, and why?
5. How will instruction be differentiated? What additional supports will be provided for students meeting mastery and those falling behind?
6. How will mastery be measured? Which assessments will be infused into the curriculum for progress-monitoring purposes? How can assessment results be normed considering some may be offered in-person while others administered online?
7. How and when will administration and grade-level teams meet to discuss, reflect, and refine?
8. How can we ensure fairness in assessments and grading?
Stand and Deliver (or, May I Leave the Computer Now?)
Regardless of the September scenario, whether schools remain remote, re-open via a hybrid model, or fully re-open, teachers need to be empowered with the means—current curriculum, relevant resources, and tested technology--to provide effective instruction, and there are still myriad issues to address. If schools re-open via a hybrid learning model, establishing relationships online with scattered faculty and student schedules is going to bring challenges, especially for young students who lack opportunities to collaborate in brick-and-mortar buildings.
Moving forward, at least in the short-term, schools in the “new normal” will appear very different. For example, in New York City, Mayor Bill DiBlasio has stated the need for safety before schools can re-open: “…we have to make sure kids are safe, family members are safe, educators are safe, staff is safe, we have to make sure that we are confident of that.” There are also concerns regarding a novel COVID-19-linked inflammatory disease called multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C) in children, which has been reported to cause serious illness and death.
While a full educational experience may be difficult to provide via remote technology, digital citizenship and appropriate online etiquette still apply. In order to ensure a smooth transition and triumphant return to normal school life, school leaders and educators can keep current on upgrading remote teaching and learning. In the meantime, let’s keep kindness in mind at all times, continue to improve the educational community, and collaborate to improve life for everyone.
BIO
Scott Freiberger, a passionate literacy coach with school building/district leader certification, is honored to be the 2018 TESOL International Teacher of the Year. Twitter: @scottfreiberger
