Parents Are Our Partners. They’re Breaking Down.

If anyone wants a snapshot of the impact remote learning is having on parents, I suggest he or she read the article “It Was Just Too Much; How Remote Learning is Breaking Parents” by Elizabeth A. Harris in The New York Times on April 27, 2020.

As the title indicates, a lot of parents are struggling.

Our parents are our vital partners in remote learning. If we lose them, we’ve lost the battle. I wrote in my blog of April 25, “Our Spring Hall Pass,” that parents would cut teachers and schools some slack in this first round of school closures because we were all learning how to function in remote learning. But we have to cut them some slack, too.

Here are some main points from the article. Let’s think of them as lessons for educators.

·      It appears there is a high level of frustration in a significant number of households. 

·      Parents who are highly educated might not easily transition into being their child’s classroom teacher. 

·      Parents who are working from home sometimes have difficulty finding balance between doing their own jobs and helping their children.

·      Parents with more children might have more stress and get less done.

·      The kids are stressed. 

·      A lot of students aren’t submitting work. 

·      Older students tend to me more independent, and some of them have transitioned fairly easily into remote learning. 

·      Some students might be successful in school as they are taught by their teachers, but they might be unsuccessful at home as they are taught by their parents. 

·      A story is told in the article of two parents who opted out of remote learning for their first grader. They sent a polite note to the teacher saying they were done - and the parents received overwhelming support (@ 95%) on Facebook from other parents. 

The article also points out that some parents are rolling along fine and their kids are, too.

But enough parents are in distress that this has to be major part of the remote learning conversation. Reaching out to help parents doesn’t have to add more work to overextended teachers. It’s a matter of working smarter, not harder. If we can keep the parents in the ballgame, we’ll get more done. Here are some suggestions.

We have to know which parents are struggling. We can often determine this by seeing which students aren’t submitting much work and by what we hear from the parents. A key question needs to be added to conversations with parents: “How are you doing?”

These parents care and are stressing themselves out. Remember, they might be more stressed out than the kids.

To make it easier on the parents, there could be differentiated assignments. If students or parents are overwhelmed, then cut back on the work. It’s better to get some work done than none at all. Differentiation doesn’t have to mean having a unique lesson for every student. It could be just having two sets of lessons, one basic set for the kids who are struggling and the regular set for those who are being successful.  Is this “dumbing down” the lesson for students who could do more in class? Yes. But we’re in a crisis.(If we keep having school closures, it will be time to add an advanced set for those students who want to be pushed).

We have to be kind and supportive of the parents who are working diligently to help their kids but are getting poor results. After all, don’t we have the same problem with some students in our classrooms?

Only so much can be done by teachers and parents in a remote learning environment. Let’s take care of the kids and parents and let them know we care.

Remote learning is exacerbating the ability gap. The students who usually need us the most might be in homes where not much schoolwork is being done, even if the parent is trying to get their children to do it.

Finally, if parents get too frustrated, they’ll do what the parents in the article did; they’ll opt out. They’ll just say, “We’re not doing this any more. It’s too painful.” We have to reach out to them now and try to hold onto them. If school re-opens in the fall, we’ll be making a plan for the next COVID closure. A huge part of the plan has to be the lessons learned this time about helping our partners survive.

Here’s a link to article in The New York Times.

Our Spring Hall Pass

Educators have gotten a hall pass this time, a school version of a get out of jail free card. Parents and students know teachers and administrators have been in survival mode in this first round of school closures, and they’re cutting us some slack. In our COVID Spring, we’re all in the same lifeboat trying to figure out what works and doesn’t work. Students are studying at their dining room tables and parents are trying to keep up with what is expected of their kids - and what teachers expect of them. 

And this could just be the beginning. Just wait until we get to the COVID Winter of 2020-2021.

The scientists are telling us we could spend the next 18 months opening and closing society. Principals should probably go out and buy one of those little signs like we see hanging in the windows of shops and restaurants, the signs that say, “Come on in! We’re open!” on one side, and “Sorry! We’re closed!” on the other side. They can hang it inside the front door of their schools and be ready to flip it from week to week, or month to month, as we sally back into school next fall. We’re open, we’re closed, we’re open, we’re closed. 

In this first round of COVID closures, teachers and administrators have worked amazingly hard to transition into the remote learning space. (And to get food distributed to students. Bravo!) But after talking with a lot of educators and reading about what’s happening around America, I’ve noticed two areas where schools need to be better if schools close again: logistics and lesson design.  

1.     In the first days of this closure, teachers and administrators scrambled to take care of the logistics. Systems had to be quickly planned and implemented for distributing Chromebooks, assignments, and lunches. A lot of hard lessons were learned about the need to improve communication and who was taking care of what. It was new territory, and the only way people could communicate was online and through a smart phone. Considering the circumstances, American schools transitioned as well as most American businesses - meaning they got it done but it has to be a lot smoother next time. 

2.     The academic results, for the most part, have not been great. Most schools have taken a “We’ll just survive this period” approach. Most teachers and administrators have been justifiably careful not to overwhelm students and parents with the demands of the instruction, which means most of the rigor has been below average; however, some parents have complained that some of the teachers have been asking too much of them, which means there’s been a lot of frustration and incomplete assignments. Again, we got the job done in that we got assignments into the hands of students, but the lessons need to be more effective in the next closure. 

So, every teacher and administrator should have two goals that are pinned to the top of their to-do list. The first goal is for every district office administrator, every building administrator, and all teacher leaders to work together to plan the next closure. They need to start the conversation now, and kick it into overdrive when (and if…) school resumes in the fall. The attitude has to be, “What would happen if they told us to close tomorrow? Would we be ready? And would we be better than last time?” 

The second goal is to ensure the quality of the lessons will be better than they are this time. We’ve had a three-month closure this year. What if we have another three-month closure next year? Are we, as professional educators, really going to be content to provide lessons with average (or below average) rigor for a combined six months of the year? We need to determine the proper length of assignments, what students and parents can handle, the role of technology in the learning, and just as importantly, how some teachers were able to push their students to think critically while others used read-this-passage-and-fill-in the blank packets. Let’s think of Goldilocks and the Three Bears and have a Goldilocks Remote Learning Principle: the assignments can’t be too easy, and they can’t be too hard - they have to be just right. 

 The good news is American educators work hard and can be incredibly innovative. More than ever, they need to have a long-term vision. This first closure was a shock. The second closure won’t be.

Teaching as if It’s Tomorrow

Kimberly Thompson is a Spanish teacher at Magnolia West High School in Magnolia, Texas. I’ve been lucky enough to visit her classroom on numerous occasions, and she’s one of those super sharp, on-the-cutting-edge teachers I go to when I want advice on teaching or when I want to hear about the latest app that’s sweeping through her classroom. 

I reached out to her to ask what’s working as she teaches Spanish in remote learning. Here’s what she told me.

“Consistency, systems, communication, phone calls, follow-thru, relevance feedback, feedback, feedback. Teaching parents how to use tech. Student choice is still doable. This helps. Supporting one another is an absolute must-have as a staff.”

See what I mean? Isn’t this the sort of teacher we want teaching our students and helping our staff members? In her brief answer, Ms. Thompson quickly rattled off 10 themes of successful remote learning. 

1.     Consistency: All kids need it, especially Gen Z. Let them know the routines and what you expect. 

2.     Systems: Great teachers don’t do it half-way. They keep the end in mind and the steps they need to get there. 

3.     Communication: When that kid is learning ten miles away, the teacher has to stay in touch. 

4.     Phone calls: All young people, including high school students, feel good when they hear their teacher on the phone asking them, “How ya doin’?” 

5.     Follow-thru: The great teachers aren’t taking many Hulu breaks; they keep on teaching. 

6.     Relevance: Make it relevant. In class, teachers are competing with student phones. In remote learning, they’re competing with student phones, Play Stations, YouTube, and all the other diversions of Gen Z. 

7.     Feedback, feedback, feedback: This tactic is so important Ms. Thompson wrote it not once, not twice, but three times. Feedbackfeedbackfeedback…

8.     Teaching parents: One of the big “aha” moments of our COVID Spring, the need to bring our parents up to speed on what’s happening in the remote learning space. 

9.     Student choice: Different abilities, different interests. Choice is the secret weapon of remote learning. 

10.  Supporting fellow staff members: No teacher is a remote learning island. In tough times, teachers lean on each other, even if it’s digitally. 

But Ms. Thompson wasn’t through. She added a second answer for me to ponder. 

“One more thing. What made this bearable was that my kids are already used to my techy ways. They know how to access their class on LMS. They know how to sign into programs. They know how to access websites I am using now because we did before. I am grateful for the wok I had already put in. We are already in the tomorrow we need our kids ready for.”

How about that last line? “We are already in the tomorrow we need our kids ready for.” Wow.

In my blog, The New Digital Divide (April 18, 2020), I wrote about the gap between teachers who know how to use technology and those who don’t. Two students from the same school could both be sitting at home with Chromebooks and the internet, but only one of them might be using digital tools in the remote learning lessons. In other words, one Gen Z kid might be surfing, recording, and creating while the other one is filling in blanks. One kid might be exposed to the best practices of 2020, while the other one is being exposed to the best practices of 1995.

As Ms. Thompson points out, she inadvertently started preparing for this school closure on the first day of school last August. When teachers everywhere come back to school, the 1995 teachers have some catching up to do. Luckily for them, all-stars like Ms. Thompson will be there “supporting fellow staff members.” 

I would call her to congratulate her, but I doubt I’d be able to get through. She’s probably on the phone with one of her students. 

The New Digital Divide

I recently conducted a random survey of a few educators across America, and I asked them what was working and not working in remote learning (See the blog of April 10, Remote Learning, Remote Voices.) Of course, technology usage was a common theme. But something else emerged: a new digital divide.  

It used to be the only digital divide was between those students who had access to the internet and those who didn’t. But in remote learning we’re seeing students who have access to the internet but have two types of teachers: teachers who know how to use digital tools - and teachers who don’t know how to use digital tools. While the first group of teachers are working Padlets, GoNoodle, Nearpod, Dotstorming, and Mentimeter into their lessons, the second group is still figuring out how to use basic platforms. And their students are paying the price. 

I’ve come across these comments in my survey and in my trainings:

·      “I wish I’d done more to learn about what Google can do…”

·      “If I could do it again, I’d make sure the students already knew how to log in and use it to…” 

·      “I’m having to adjust to this technology the same time I’m adjusting to remote learning…” 

Why weren’t these teachers using technology? It’s partly out of fear. I’ve been lucky enough to train over a thousand educators in the past few years about the power of digital tools, and here are some excuses I hear from teachers who have access to the school internet and plenty of Chromebooks but haven’t had their students use much technology in their classes. 

·      “That’s for young teachers. I’m too old for this stuff.” 

·      “I need more inservice on how to do it. I need someone to show me.” 

·      “These kids need me more than their computers.” 

·      “What if I lose control?” 

Here are my quick responses to the excuses. It’s about mindset, not age. I’m a Baby Boomer, and if I can use digital tools then so can my fellow Baby Boomers (and the Gen X’ers). If we wait for inservices and training, we’ll never get there. Things are changing too quickly. I’m no expert in digital tools, but I figure out how to use them. And sometimes I fail. That’s okay. If we wait until we’re experts, we’ll never get there; we’ll never use the tools. Jumping into digital tools is like jumping into a pool. You just have to jump in and start swimming around. It’s true students need teachers. Remote learning has shown this again and again. But this is Gen Z. They also need to plug in and fly. We have to guide them, not hold them back. And there are times we might not be sure where their creative answers are going to take them. The age of control is over; we are in the age of guided experimentation. 

Here's a salute to the principals and teachers who are swimming, diving, and dog paddling all over the digital pool. In the “new normal,” there can be no more excuses for the others. Every teacher who has students old enough to log in needs to know how to use a variety of digital tools and when to use them. And the same goes for administrators. They need to be modeling, more than ever, how to use digital tools in staff meetings, PLC meetings, and inservices. It will make everyone more effective and get them ready in case there are more school closings.

This is one digital divide we can bridge. 

Cope, Adjust, Transform Podcast

I was honored to be interviewed recently, along with my friend and co-author, Dwight Carter, by Dr. David Silverberg of Ashland University in Ashland, Ohio, for one of its podcasts about transforming through a pandemic.

We’ve been invited to speak at one of Ashland’s leadership institutes next winter.

https://www.talkshoe.com/episode/9511983

Kids Need Us, and We All Need Technology

When the students and teachers return to school after the pandemic and we reach another level of the “new normal,” we’ll reflect about the teaching and learning that took place during the school closures. This is a watershed event in American education. We’ve been rapidly advancing through a digital education landscape for the past decade as laptops became affordable and more and more digital tools were added to our toolkit. Before COVID-19, it’s like we had reached the edge of a Canyon of Change and were looking over it and wondering how far technology could take teaching and learning. 

Then the school closures pushed us over the edge and into the canyon. Digital learning became the norm. The question has not been, “How do we get devices into the hands of the majority of students?” Instead we’ve frantically asked, “How we do get more devices into the hands of the few students who don’t have them?” A decade ago, this heavy technology usage would have been the exception; today we’re trying to bridge the digital divide to ensure everyone can use it. 

What long term impact will this tumultuous period have on our schools? While the dust is a long way from settling over our school rooftops, we can already see several outcomes emerging.

1.     Parents and the rest of society will have a renewed respect for the jobs teachers and principals do on a daily basis. Mr. Rolando Diaz, a great principal in Texas, summed it up well when he told me we had gone back to the days of the Little Red Schoolhouse as parents tried to help their kids do their schoolwork around their kitchen tables. Stories are in the press of stressed out parents grappling with Gen Z attention spans, personalities, and academic content they don’t understand. The students and teachers will be happy to see the school doors open again - but the parents might be happiest of all. 

2.     An even greater debate will take place about the role of technology in education: technology in this period has been both a weakness and a strength. Everyone has said that kids of any generation need human interaction, that they can’t be tethered to a device all day. This has been borne out with stories of students who are missing their teachers and their friends in this school closure. On the other hand, we can’t dismiss how technology has provided bright spots in this dark period. I’m hearing stories of the power of virtual field trips, online activities of teachers who are doing it right, and how learning platforms have effectively extended the classroom into student homes. Just imagine how this period might look if we didn’t have the technology we have today.

 So, we know the students still need us, and their experiences at home with education technology might vary based upon their age, their personality, and the expertise of the teacher. In areas where students have access to the internet, a gap has been exposed between the teachers who can use technology effectively and those who can’t —- which means there is often a gap in student learning between those who have teachers who can use technology effectively, and those who can’t. Student technology usage is an important part of classroom teaching, but technology usage is imperative if we’re to make the most of school closures.

When school leaders plan their professional development next August, a huge part of the agenda should be dedicated to immersing all teachers into the digital tools and strategies that worked during the school closures. We’re in a race against pandemic time; we need more teachers doing it right in case our schools shut down again next year. 

A Leadership Model for Pandemics and Other Surprises

A few years ago Dwight Carter and I noticed that disruptions were coming at us in ever faster rates. Things like new technology, new types of students in Gen Z, new social media issues, new teaching and learning challenges in a globalized economy, and widening generation gaps in our teaching staffs were all washing over us like waves of change. 

And we realized our careers would be one adjustment after the next one. We also realized we had to transform our own mindsets and our school cultures to get them ready for constant pivoting into new spaces and new practices. So, we developed the CAT leadership model so we could: 

·      Cope with the current disruption or crisis

·      Adjust our actions, practices, and guidelines

·      Transform our mindsets so we can continue to grow and to thrive through the next disruptions

This model fits where we are today with the COVID 19 pandemic and school closures. 

·      In the first few weeks, educators scrambled to get assignments and food to their students. They assisted teachers and worked out problems in the new system. Everyone was coping. 

·      We have now entered the adjustment phase of this crisis. The dust has settled from the coping phase, and educators are asking, “What worked? What didn’t work? What do we need to do now?” 

·      It’s imperative that we get to the third stage, that’s when educators step back and take a big picture look at what’s happened, their response, and what they need to do in the long term to get ready for the next crisis. They need to transform their mindsets and cultures so they can be stronger and adapt more quickly in the future. 

No one can say for sure what the overall impact of this period will have on schools, but we know it’s been unprecedented - and unprecedented events often lead to other surprising, unprecedented events. In some ways, our schools will be stronger: parents and communities across America have a deeper understanding and respect for what K-12 teachers do on a daily basis. But our schools will be challenged in new ways: we can expect a growing push for more technology usage by teachers and students. We can expect parts of our teaching and learning to change. 

We’ll be coping, adjusting, and transforming again. And again. And again…

Be a Virtual Morale Booster

Here’s something wonderful and maddening about school leadership: just when you think you’ve seen everything something new comes along. Hello, COVID-19.

School doors have slammed shut like rows of falling dominos, and few, if any, will be opening before August. We coped with the first week of closures. We grappled with systems for delivering assignments and food to our students. Then after some of the dust had settled, we saw what worked and didn’t work and began to adjust our systems. Now, we are in for the long haul, a period of silent hallways and a deep transformation of practices and mindsets. It’s one thing to teach kids for a week or two when the kids are at home, but how are supposed to do it for months? And keep the staff members focused and in good spirits?  

Here are five quick tips for school leaders in a school closure to keep morale high and to keep staffs united. 

1.     Maintain relationships. We say it’s important for teachers to maintain relationships with students in remote learning; it’s also important to school leaders to maintain relationships with staff members. Let them see your face in a video conference and hear your voice, even if it’s a quick message left in their voice mail. 

2.     Think of yourself as a leader and party host. Yes, you have to lead and oversee the staff, but don’t forget the power of raising everyone’s spirits  in a pandemic through group video conferencing. Let your people see each other. Some teams are doing this already when they plan, but they might be cut off from other staff members. Expand the circle. Depending upon the size of the staff, do weekly group conferencing or grade level/department conferencing. Don’t forget about the support staff; it takes a team to run a school and it takes a leader to be inclusive. And don’t just talk about instruction. Let people share positive, fun examples of things they are doing at home. 

3.     Sustain their hope. Remind them we’ll all get through this period and the students will return to school one day in the not so distant future. Help them visualize the re-opening of their school. Start talking about the celebration you’ll have when teachers are together again and the students are back in class. It will be amazing. Let them see it in their minds. Let it sustain them. (Tip: If the students don’t return until next year, it might be a wise psychological move to have part of the first day back to be spent with this year’s teachers so everyone can check in and have some closure. Perhaps a school carnival or party to kick things off?)

4.     Celebrate success stories. Create new remote learning awards or virtual badges for staff members. Have a weekly virtual staff meeting and “hand out” a Remote Teaching Excellence Award for a team that developed a great lesson or a Remote School Spirit Award for someone who goes above and beyond what is expected to help students and fellow staff members. Another great award could be the Remote Courage Award for someone who goes way outside his or her comfort zone to try something new. Be creative. Have fun with it. 

5.     Listen to your staff. This is perhaps the most important tip. Listen to what your staff members are saying. Gauge their spirit and their emotions. We are surrounded by creative, perceptive people. Adjust remote learning practices and create new ones with the help of staff members. We’re all in this together. 

We are experiencing a difficult time in history. Let your staff members look back at this period and remember it as a time when they pulled together. Your leadership can make it happen. 

Remote Learning, Remote Voices

I led a webinar the other day about remote learning, and as I was prepping for it I reached out to some great teachers and principals I know around the country and asked, “What’s working?” I heard from elementary, middle school, and high school heroes in all parts of America, from New York City (Hang in there, NYC. We’re with you, and there’s not a stronger group of people anywhere…) to Ohio to Texas to sunny Southern California. 

And some common themes emerged. 

1.     Relationships first. This is being screamed from the school rooftops, or where ever teachers and principals are working these days. Take care of the kids. Reach out. Let them hear your voice and see your face. The students are used to structure and to having a teacher within shouting distance. Now they’re in various environments, and they’re feeling stressed like everybody else. We’ve always said the kids are more important than the learning - now it’s time for educators to Zoom in, Google Meet them, and Google Hangout for a while. 

2.     Relax. Deep breaths, people. As Nikki Gordon, a great math teacher from SoCal told me, “The motto is ‘Keep It Simple.’ Neither the teachers nor students signed up for this situation…” How true. Don’t overload the students. Don’t overload the parents. Don’t overload yourself. There’s only so much you, and they, can do. 

3.     “Less is more.” These insightful words of Priscilla Gonzalez, a teaching ninja from Texas, summed up what a lot of people are telling me. When we combine all the subjects of a school day, factor in what the students can accomplish without us, and try to keep them from going back to their Xbox, we’re left with a few hours of remote learning each day. Any teacher who treats remote learning like a regular school day will be miserable. The trick is to zero in on activities that will engage students, get them to think, and can be done in a reasonable amount of time. Hint: Gen Z kids LOVE to evaluate and create. 

4.     Let the students plug in…but get them to unplug. We’ve given them Chromebooks, Google classroom, Flipgrid codes, and Zoom times. But balance is good. Get the students to read a book (not an online version, but a hard copy book with a cover, a spine, and pages) do an assignment or two on paper, and actually talk to somebody. 

5.     Make it equitable. Of course, some students can’t do their work online because they don’t have access to the internet, an older sibling is tying up the bandwidth, or the Chromebook that worked so well in school suddenly doesn’t work as well after that Coke got spilled onto its keypad. Know which students can’t get online, and make sure they have paper assignments that engage them and get them to think

6.     Now we actually want them jumping around. In class we spend a lot of time trying to get students to settle down and focus on their assignments. But we have a new goal with remote learning: trying to get students to exercise for at least 30 minutes each day. Research shows physical activity helps kids learn. And this isn’t just the job of the remote PE teacher. We’re all in this crowded remote learning lifeboat together, so when we’re sending out assignments, we need to remind students to stretch, walk the dog, do a Gonoodle, or do some push ups between Nearpod lessons (or build the pushups into the Nearpod lessons…)

A final refrain I heard from quite a few teachers is, “I’m glad I was already having my students use a lot of technology, because they already know how to log in and start doing the work…” That’s a critical point, because we are now in the “new normal.” Remote learning might be here for the rest of this school year, and the virus experts are warning of a resurgence next winter, which means we might be going through this all over again. When the world returns to normal and we welcome our students back to school, whether it’s this spring or next fall, we need to be preparing for that future day when we might be closing our schools again and searching our computers for our remote learning lesson plans. If there’s a next time, at least we’ll have a better idea of what works. For now, the best things we can do as we teach are to stay healthy and take care of the kids.

And relax. 

Three Key Words for 21st Century Educators: Cope, Adjust, and Transform

The cable network CNBC released a list in 2015 of the 50 companies that are reshaping life in America; they are disrupting our views and operations in society (CNBC.com). Educators will recognize at least four of them: Uber, Airbnb, Dropbox, and Survey Monkey. When educators go to conferences, they might use Uber to get to their hotels instead of taxis—if they are going to a hotel and haven’t rented a house or apartment for the conference through Airbnb. At the conference, they might take notes and upload them into their Dropbox accounts so they won’t ever be lost, and on the way out the door they could be given a link to Survey Monkey so the facilitators can get feedback on the conference. All of these companies have created new ways of doing things and are putting intense pressure on the long established companies in their fields.

Schools, like traditional firms, are being buffeted by disruptions. Educators need to understand:

•      A disruption is any invention or societal shift that gradually changes how schools operate

•      A disruptive event is an incident based upon a disruption that suddenly changes how schools operate

 The key to successfully dealing with change in the 21st Century, especially the sudden disruptive events that often are sprung upon schools without warning, is to implement adaptive mindsets in staffs and to use a problem solving framework built around three key words: cope, adjust, and transform (CAT).

In the CAT framework school leaders:

1.    Recognize the disruptive event and cope with it immediately. When a crisis occurs, the goal is to peacefully resolve it as quickly as possible, usually within hours or days of its inception.

2.    Adjust school policies and operating procedures in the days and weeks after the incident to prevent its reoccurrence or to handle it and other disruptions more efficiently.

3.    Continue to transform their philosophies and school cultures through study and reflection in the months after the incident so that their thought processes and adaptive strategies will be deepened in the future.

When school leaders in the 20th century managed disruptive issues, they could usually just cope with them and move on without reflecting on the issues because they tended to be narrower in scope — and they weren’t transmitted to the world for public consumption via social media. The complexities of today’s disruptions and their potential for recurring, deep harm to school cultures  require school leaders to constantly adjust their operating procedure and to constantly work with their staffs to transform their mindsets. The times are changing rapidly, and the problems are becoming bigger. The days of reaction are over; today’s administrators must be more proactive than any other group in American school history.