How Will Education Be Different After COVID?- Thoughts, opinions, etc.

I'd like to start a thread where we can brainstorm how we think education might change after COVID. I have been thinking A LOT about how I really think teachers will be appreciated even more because of this situation. I wonder if this could lead to better relationships with, as well as more cooperation from parents. Perhaps there will be more funding towards education (obviously I am thinking in the far future here) as our role and importance become even more evident through this pandemic. What are your thoughts on how things might change in education after COVID.

 

I think schools as we know them will continue. But seeing how things had to be done and how they worked out (better and worse in different districts) I think every district will start exploring online learning on a higher level. those who haven't used it will probably add it on as a supplement, others who are more experienced with it might make it more part of the curriculum. A lot or all of the school districts will probably put online learning as a back up plan for emergencies like this.
But I don't think schools will completely revamp their systems. In class learning and attendance is very important and crucial for a lot of students. For English learners the whole point is to be exposed to as much English speakers as possible, in addition to that one hour of ELD class. Sitting at home with their Spanish only speaking family and being online for a few hours a day wouldn't work. Also parents couldn't provide help with homework due to language barrier.
A lot of special ed. students need the one on interaction, or small group, or a list of things they need, and these couldn't be achieved from a distance.

I can see though getting funds for online learning and providing each student with a tablet or Chromebook. I can definitely see parents appreciating teachers ad realizing how their child really at school.

I'm not worried about school districts downsizing and teachers or staff losing their jobs. I see a lot of PDs in the future for training staff with technology, and different ways of teaching.

 

Say goodbye to snow days.

 

Oh, you betcha parents will get a taste of what we go through. I have already talked to 3 whose kids are seriously driving them crazy and they can't get them to work. Also, you can hear kids in the background running around and screaming joyfully at places.
1 kid ( maybe you have to know him to appreciate it- mom adores/ dotes on him) was told by his mom to do work online daily. ( Then obviously she left the room and did something else.) The kid told her he was doing it.
She kind of bragged to me that he had been working hard. Such a good kid!
She did not know I had easy access to what he had done, how much time he had spent on it, and what his grades were.
I am talking, he'd just pop online for school work for about 1-2 minute daily this week. Then he'd probably switch to a game the minute she was not watching.
I told her how long he had worked each day, and she was shocked! She is going to have to watch that good kid to make sure he does anything. I hope parents gain some appreciation for teachers through this time, for sure!

 

I feel similar to you. I think the importance of teachers is going to become very obvious through this. This might also mean people start voting yes to propositions that would give more money to schools because they will begin to realize how much we are needed. I don't think school will begin to be more distance based (though, as you say, maybe some teachers/schools might do more with technology and add some digital layers). If anything, I think this is highlighting how important a physical teacher, with in-person contact, actually is.

 

I agree. I think parents will grow an appreciation, as well as society as a whole. We need our population educated, and quality education. I really see how this could end up benefiting education and teachers in the end (after the dust settles).

 

I think you are right with the appreciation! If nothing else, a few parents are seeing how difficult it is to get their kids to work. It is interesting how teachers/kids often have a caring relationship, but teachers are able to get many to work when many parents can't. I hope that means raises for teachers!

 

Me too! I'm really hoping that in the end, this will mean more money towards education.

 

I don't think we can look at the profession as a whole. Things vary so much from one school to another even within a district.

I also think that it will depend on the circumstance the parent is in. You can't watch and help a child learn if you are working a full time job at the same time and have to give full attention to that.

Then there will be those parents who are just happy to get the kids back to school.

We have to look at this months in before we can even have an inkling what parents may think. We have kids not in any kind of routine. Families have been shoved into turmoil. It takes time for everyone to adapt.

But I do think the societal reaction may be different depending on where you are and the situation you are in.

 

DH's school has being doing online school on snow days for several years. My district does not, but we are hoping to qualify for the upcoming year. We previously did not meet the requirements to offer online options, but we should now.

 

That is very true. I am unaware of any parents who are working here other than nurses and teachers, but I know it is way different in different areas. Some people are struggling to work from home with kids.
Nurses have it bad because they do not want to expose their families. Plus, many do not have the protective devices they need. I feel so bad for them.
Then grocery store workers are being exposed to so many people all over.
I can only imagine teaching online w/ kids running around the house! I think you'd have to have a mandatory nap time for your kids to teach online or kids who knew what play/ work quietly meant and were old enough to do it.
I think the population does make a big difference in how this will be seen! Here, parents are really already missing school.

 

Bwahahahaha!

I love your optimism! I cannot really share it though...

 

I am going to make some blunt statements. I do not mean to be rude. More, I mean to get to the point quickly. Brevity in initial statements also allows clear and concise rebuttal. I will not be offended by disagreement, especially when alternative views are presented with counter arguments. “You are an idiot” is a less useful response than “you are an idiot because…”.

Most of this applies to older students. I personally object to technology for younger kids.

Statement 1 – There is no silver bullet for everyone. Education should be more individualized. This applies to special education whether because of physical or mental disability, because of behavioral problems, family problems. But it also applies just because a student “gets” some things better than others.

Statement 2 - Don't do live lectures. Live lectures are among the least effective means of education. They are enormously expensive when you consider the number of teachers each spending unending hours preparing live lectures covering the same material. But, as ineffective as they are, we insist on them.

Even though lectures are not very good instruments for education delivery, there is a place for them. Verbal instruction has a place. But lectures can be made better and less expensively by recording them, gathering input from the students using them, and using that input to improve them over time. In fact, recorded lectures can be made in a way that they are more interactive than live lectures. Live lectures can be steam rollers that leave students behind when an important point is missed, rendering the rest of the lecture unintelligible. Yes, if the class is small enough, and students are comfortable enough to stop the lecture with a question or fifteen, this can be minimized. I could never stand a class just listening to me. But the value of a lecture can be maximized by allowing the student the control to rewind and listen again as many times as desired. If applicable, questions and problems can be included. Monitoring of lesson use, such as rewinds at certain points, in addition to explicit student input, can be used to strengthen areas of recordings found to cause confusion.

Yes, I am advocating integration of Kahn Academy style lessons in brick and mortar schools.

Statement 3 – Don’t do homework. Don’t “flip the class”. All work, online and otherwise should be done at school. You cannot depend on students having the same equipment and internet access at home that can be provided at school. And we have seen that “distance learning” isn’t working out that well. Access to teachers is still important even as online learning is incorporated into the school. There still needs to be face to face teaching, but in smaller groups. This may well lengthen the school day, but, arguably, not the amount of teacher facing instruction.

Statement 4 – Be humane. Keeping consistent with the individualized education and increased ability to monitor progress in on-line learning, ease up on the high-stakes testing. All through school (yes, many, many years ago) “real world” employment was presented to me as very unforgiving. It may be for some, but for me that was not the case. Real world employment accepts the possibility of failure. Look at those of us that have gone through the testing it takes to get credentialed. What happens when you fail a CSET? You go back and try again. I’ve seen posts where someone is going for try 10+ on some certification test or other. How can we apply forgiveness and understanding in our endeavors and then educate as if learning is as unrelenting as a lava flow? Move at this set pace or die. Miss something and be left to flounder until it comes time to repeat everything the next year. Failure is an option. It should be a requirement. There are professions were failure is very impactful. Medicine comes to mind. But I’d rather have a doctor that has failed in every way possible in simulation than one that has never had to deal with a mistake.

Really, education needs some serious re-engineering. This crisis allows us to see that there are other paths to be explored.

 

We are required to do them. GRR! At least they are for smaller groups for a short time. Also, being able to stop the video and go back IS super important.
I have found a few you tube teachers who are far more entertaining than me over the years... I wish we could JUST post them on our platforms.
You are right about this is a time where we do have to be kinder and more forgiving. The lack of some home structures makes this really harder than I thought it was going to be.
You are right about it lengthening the time of the school day.
Last week had me pulling my hair out. I finally realized I had to stop and take today off and relax. It is easier done when you can leave work and go home.

 

While more funding/appreciation is a nice thought, I don't see that happening at all. Just in the past two days I've read about three different states who are already saying raises/additional funding that were already negotiated and agreed on for next year may not be happening now. Although we haven't gotten official word of that yet I expect the same thing to happen here- a major disappointment because I was supposed to get the biggest raise I've ever gotten for next year. It's pretty sad that we're not very far into this and the first thought is to cut money from education.

There may be some individual parents who are more supportive, but I don't see that being very widespread, especially if this continues on for a long time. The people at the "bottom" often turn on each other rather than blaming those at the top. Especially if this goes on a long time, I see people who are out of work being resentful that teachers are still being paid, especially if they feel they are doing a lot of "education work" themselves at home. I think reformers will capitalize on that idea- why should teachers get paid so much when you're doing all the work at home? I also see reformers pushing for more online platforms and less trained teachers- not necessarily a work from home model, because that doesn't work for childcare. But a model where students go to school and spend much of their day on computers while being monitored by low paid paras. If teachers continue to fight for additional funding as many across the country were doing before this- people will say, "How selfish are they to ask for more in a time when the entire nation is struggling?"

For all of our sakes I hope I'm wrong and your're right. I just don't see it happening. It reminds me a bit of how New Orleans used the Katrina disaster to turn all of their public schools into charters.

 

In my post I said in the "far future". I don't think any budget increases would be immediate, nor any time soon. If anything, I would expect budget cuts. What I had said is, when this is all over (including when the economy has recovered....so, far, distant future), I think our role and importance will be highlighted, and that could be reflected in things like propositions that benefit education, actually being voted for.

 

So true. And if teachers demonize parents, it will only take a few vocal ones to spoil the barrel, when parents feel they are doing the bulk of the work, it won't go well for teachers.

 

Well, by that time I would expect any nice feelings of appreciation people have now while struggling to home school their kids will be long forgotten. And I think that even now when the crisis has barely started, the fact that states see one of the very first things they should cut from is education would say that we're not really being seen as important even right now while it's all happening. In my state education is still greatly suffering from some measures that were taken after the 2008 recession...12 years ago. Even though in recent years the state economy has been booming.

 

Our society has such a short memory that by the time the dust settles in the far future, parents wont' be remembering years before.

Now, if teachers go back with a different attitude while the budget cuts are happening, there may be a chance. I highly doubt that will happen. Teachers will fight to keep their salaries or more while the rest of the nation watches their salaries be cut by increased taxes to pay for the stimulus. That will be in the short term and parents will still be remembering how teachers kept their full salaries and expected the parents to teach the children based off of lesson plans that are put on a computer.

 

I wonder if we can have a difference of opinion without laughing at the other person's opinion?

 

I agree that the individual's memory can be short term. The collective society, however, can be much more long term (we see that in lessons we learn from history).

I guess it goes back to the earlier post about it depending on the location and area. Where I am at, we are actually teaching students online (through Zoom). It's not perfect, nor ideal, but we teachers (where I am at), are doing the heavy teaching. We are not leaving packets as that does not seem effective (though I get why some schools might have made that choice, especially if they are in an area where devices and internet access might be limited).

 

I think as teachers, we do need to be careful not to demonize parents. I have been judgmental of parents during this time especially. I need to be more aware of the impact.
Most parents I deal with, do not do the bulk of the work, but they perceive getting called more than usual and having to make sure their kid does what has been provided and explained as a major feat.
A lot of them have not taught their kids to obey them either which is really showing now.
As a parent, you should be able to log your kid in, leave the room , and expect them to do what you/ or the teacher told them.
Some parents will perceive this as having to teach their own kids even though it is not the case here. They do have to monitor their kid's behavior now. Here it is more of an issue that teachers are not watching their kids all day and making them do the assignments. I do not believe it will lead to raises, I feel like I am paid fairly where I am. ( We have had to strike though before.)
I do believe this will open the eyes of many parents though to what teachers face daily. Most will be so thankful when someone else is watching their kids once more. I think they will have more appreciation of teachers and schools after this.

 

That is the best case scenario. There are a lot of things in life that you should be able to do, but you can't.

I can list a whole list of things adults should be able to do but they don't unless monitored by a supervisor who is there or able to fire them if they don't perform. Many of them sat quietly in school and caused no problems, but left to their own devices they would not do the right thing either. That is human nature.

 

I think society as a whole, needs to start reevaluating their parenting ( or lack of) methods. Like Dr. Phil would ask, "...And how has that been working for you?"
If it isn't working, people need to learn and change.

 

I think some of it is parenting issues. I also think that our society has an issue which makes parenting harder on the parent who wants to parent well. We have a society that tends to disrespect authority when it comes to them but expects others to respect authority when they are the authority. (not accusing anyone here) There are so many people where things apply to others but not them when they are on the other side of the same type of issue. So, parents who want their kids to obey authority have it much harder when they are surrounded by so much that acts different than the parents expect from them.

I would say, for a lot of kids, they would say to Dr. Phil it is working great for them. They do what they want and still pass from grade to grade.

 

Yes, the kids may see it as working great for them, but the sad part is it is hurting them in the long run. I think a lot of parents, if they were being honest, would say it is not working for them.
It definitely is harder to be a parent today than it was even when I was raising kids. Most kids here have phones and more temptations. But many parents have just given up or do not understand that they need to guide their kids, set an example, and be the adult.

 

I am interpreting your comment as:
If what the parent is trying isn't working perfectly, they must have given up and not being "the adult". I think there are many more who are trying but have a much harder task.

 

Not what I meant...lol No kid is going to be perfect. They all need to learn. Like all of us, they all make mistakes. By being the adult, I mean being responsible. Trying to be your child's best friend and giving them and letting them do whatever they want is not working.
The saddest part of it to me, is some parents have formed this pattern with their kids for so long. They are rescuing them from any natural life consequences.
When the parent gets tired of giving their 21 year old $$ for gas to cruise around and party all night, the kid is going to feel like the rug was pulled out from under them and the kid will truly be confused and messed up.
If parents would start with limits and boundaries at a younger age, before they get to school, it would help a lot. Don't get me wrong, some do. But, they are in the minority here.

 

I've got to say that I've had good teachers and bad, good supervisors and bad. And elected officials? Well, let's not to there. I gather it's against the rules. I've always learned something from each. One particularly abusive teacher taught me a very valuable lesson at an early age. And that, unfortunately, was that authority is not always worthy of respect. As a parent, or as any adult dealing with children, we need to teach how to discriminate which authorities are worthy of respect and how to deal with those authorities that should not be respected. If only we had fewer examples of contemptible authority.

 

I apologize if I offended you; it was not my intent and I would indeed be thrilled to see this result in greater funding or respect for the teaching profession. I just think it's highly unlikely.

 

I still believe that authority deserves respect until they show you a reason they don't deserve respect. Our society now feels that it will respect someone once they earn it.

I agree discerning those who deserve respect and those who do not is important. It is also important to know when you have enough power to push back and when you don't, and if what is happening is worth pushing back. I believe that our society has a much lower threshold as to what is disrespectful as it did before. Often society equates "I don't like what I hear or what I am asked" as disrespect.

 

I'd have to say, where I am, most are trying their best and trying to institute limits and accountability. However, as I described my school system, the toughest nuts to crack tend to have "authority" working against the parents when it comes to a parent telling a kid they have to work harder.

I believe you have a different population of people with different ways of interacting with their children. I have a lot of parents that try really hard, but my local society works against them in so many ways and most times it is because the authorities in the various power structures are "cutting slack" to the small minority who don't do what is needed.

 

Oh, yeah! I talked to a parent on the phone and asked if the student was working on the packet I sent. She said he did a few pages then ran away. She said she didn't know how to get him to sit and work. "But Mrs. X, he NEVER does that in school".

 

Blasphemy!

 

Apology accepted. Thank you.

I think if we look at trends and patterns, what you are saying is most likely true.

 

The problem is some do not know how to be a parent.

 

My hope is, that when we reach the other side of this, we all have a greater appreciation of the things that are most important, both in education and in our personal lives. One of the best things that is happening for me, personally, is the renewed focus on keeping connected and checking in with each other. Our province is setting the stage to more to "remote learning" starting next week. As teachers, our top priority this week is to personally connect with all of our families, not simply to let them know the learning plan going forward, but to check in on how they are doing and making sure that they are aware of the supports that are available if they are struggling. I am so appreciative of the fact that we are acknowledging that academics is not top priority right now.

 

I personally really hope that our online environments can be preserved at least in some degree for the students that are benefiting. We have so many students benefiting from the online environment we have set up that don’t seem to benefit as much from a traditional classroom setting.

 

This is true.

And it has always been true.

And we could also say it's true that "some teachers don't know how to teach" (though, I think percentage-wise it's probably fewer -- teachers choose their profession in a way that's largely different from how parents choose to become parents, and teachers are actually trained while parents ... well, their "training" is by example.

 

It's unfortunate that we need a license to teach but they don't need a license to breed!!