I pride myself on being reasonably pragmatic and my approach to any change has always been to jump right into the thick of things and to work from there, backed of course by a significant amount of professional development and research. Lockdown caught me on the left foot. It is timely now, that I should, as has the whole nation, reflect on life during this ‘unprecedented’ time.
Some positives:
- Routine – I found that having a routine provided a strange sort of affirmation that I was on the right track. So I got up early and was ready at my station for video lessons .
- Student work –I did far more checkpointing of student work than I had ever done before. I just couldn’t seem to help myself.
- The value of the relationship between teacher, student and parent was accentuated as in some of the meet or zoom lessons parents were also present. This enabled parents to get on board with what their children were doing.
Some Negatives:
- I found that I was spending far more time at my computer than ever before- so it was exhausting.
- Tracking down students who didn’t come online or didn’t respond to feedback and messages was stressful. How do you motivate a student who has chosen not to do any work and you cannot get hold of them?
- I missed seeing my colleagues and my students enormously – I initially thought that I would enjoy the isolation. Not so – one week was fine!
This time of isolation has brought to the fore the aspects of online learning that worked well and those that didn’t. There is obviously much work to be done.
The physical closure of schools has shone a spotlight on some of the persistent and systemic challenges facing our education system, providing an invaluable opportunity to refocus our attention and efforts on them. – Dr Hood, Education Hub
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Althea White 
How are you finding round 2?
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