For my last post, I'd like to highlight the overall greater appreciation for schools through the pandemic. Adjusting to the online format during the past school year was a challenge for some students and teachers. Regardless of their preferred style of learning or level of technological proficiency, students certainly were thrown for a loop when they were required to learn online. Many students already struggled in school pre-pandemic, and if learning online wasn't their cup of tea, these struggles with school were heightened. Similarly, teachers that were not as tech savvy as their coworkers faced challenges of their own. They had to quickly learn how to work video conferencing, online classroom platforms, and various instructional technologies in order to create the same experience for the students as if they were in person. Also, all teachers had to find different ways to get to know their students. Although this worked for the past year, it made teachers appreciate getting to know their students face-to-face in the classroom. In addition to these points, being part of a club or team will never be taken for granted again, as many sports and activities were modified or cancelled since the start of COVID-19. Students lost out on many benefits of being on a team or in a club in the past year, and going forward students, coaches, and directors will be even more grateful for time spent on extracurriculars. In the coming years, overall morale in school will be boosted, as everyone will be eager to get back to "normal".
On this topic, I'd also like to note that the pandemic brought forward the Biden administration. It is to my hope and belief that First Lady Dr. Jill Biden and Secretary of Education Dr. Miguel Cardona will bring change to schools across our nation. Dr. Biden's push for free two-year community college and Dr. Cardona's ideas for the redistribution of state education aid to low-income schools, increasing state involvement in failing schools, and changing teacher tenure policies will pave the way for the future of education, and I'm excited to see the work they will do for educators in the years to come. These ideas bring a newfound sense of hope that the education system will be changed for the better in the coming years, thus fostering even greater classroom and school communities.
Overall, it is to my belief that students, teachers, administration, parents, and guardians have a newfound appreciation for in-person learning as a result of remote learning through the pandemic. I believe that we as teachers learned a lot about the positives and negatives of remote learning, and with that I hope that all teachers take some of the positives away from this and utilize them going forward. To end off with a quote by George Bernard Shaw, "Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything."
Source: https://ctmirror.org/2021/01/19/miguel-cardonas-ideas-about-education-were-forged-in-meriden-ct-now-he-will-bring-them-to-washington-d-c/
Image Source: https://www.dreamstime.com/illustration/community-school.html
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