RE@LReport this week is excerpted from Axios News, May 9, 2020:

“The Coronavirus Pandemic Is Transforming HowTeachers Teach,” by authors: Kim Hart & Alison Snyder. Click on the Axios graphic to the right for their entire column.

This timely RE@LReport tells how the pandemic is changing the way teachers teach and the way students learn. Changes in K12, while deemed difficult, may in the long run present a positive, profound effect on teaching and learning at all levels.

Those cloudy days of learning may lead us to some new and powerful “silver linings,” filled with new opportunities. We may find powerful new tools for teaching and for learning….and, equally helpful: Better ways to use those new tools.

Here’s one! Those silver linings may find more students in greater charge of their own learning, and learning more because of it.

Current coronavirus pandemic-forced school closures — from kindergarten to college — are already transforming how teachers teach and students learn, like it or not.

The article below presents potent excerpts to help us think “out of the box.” That box contains an estimated 2,171,428 classrooms in America. Yes, that’s a lot of classroom “boxes,” but it’s also an equal number of silver lining opportunities.

Our higher-ed institutions are honing new ways to learn. Click here for a pertinent report from The NYTimes on the forthcoming changes from Cal State Universities.

Read on for key excerpts from this recent AXIOS report by columnists Hart and Snyder:

The big picture: Our long-held views of schools and the roles of teachers, students and parents will never be the same. That could be a good thing if we seize this opportunity to make changes that actually result in better outcomes for students and better resources for teachers. 

Most parents in a new survey by the National Parents Union said schools should use this time as an opportunity to make changes to education. 61% said schools should focus on rethinking how to educate students and should come up with new teaching methods as a result of the COVID-19 crisis. Only 32% of parents want schools to revert to the way things were before the pandemic began….

Here are some of the ways experts say education will change:

1. Redefining assessment: Standardized tests have broadly been canceled this year due to school closures. While there will be a need to assess where students are academically when classes resume next year, there will likely be more of a focus on mastery-based assessments already offered by many online learning platforms, like Khan Academy. “If we can focus mastery much more on actual learning than what kids score on some tests, it allows us to start trusting our teachers more in a way we want to and need to,” says Todd Rose of the Harvard Graduate School of Education and co-founder of Populace, a think-tank….

2. New power in the hands of students and parents: Many are considering delaying or forgoing college given the risk of a second wave of this pandemic and the uncertainty of the job market on the other side of a degree….“Parents and students have more power now than they’ve ever had. Let’s have the conversation about what we want out of higher education,” Rose says….

3. More emphasis on personalized learning: Students will eventually return to classrooms and campuses, but virtual education will stay part of the mix. Blended learning options where students are split up for classroom learning for a few days a week and online for the remainder will likely become the norm, says Andy Rotherham, co-founder of nonprofit Bellwether Education….

4. Renewed focus on inequities: Larger reliance on remote learning has magnified existing socioeconomic disparities when it comes to access to broadband and devices, plus the availability of a parent to steer at-home learning. More than 21 million Americans do not have high-speed internet, and many children do not have access to devices at home. Not all parents have the tech skills or the time to adequately help their children find and navigate the ed-tech platforms.

School districts are working now to plan strategies for the fall — not only what drastic changes will need to be made in the classroom setting to maintain social distancing, but how to prepare more robust online programs, especially given the possibility of being in this position again….

The bottom line: One of the most impactful changes brought on by the pandemic is a greater appreciation for teachers’ skill, patience and creativity. There will also be a greater emphasis on giving them the tools and training they need to adjust to the new reality of their jobs. “Ultimately you can have all the tech in the world, but really great learning is a human endeavor,” Rose adds. “It’s about the teacher and student relationship.”  

Click here and scroll to the bottom for more “Go Deeper” resources from Axios. 

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RE@L adds: Thanks to AXIOS for their fine article on pandemic transformation!

Teachers who think they can be replaced by technology should be!….Silver Lining: With the wise use of technology they are more essential than ever!

All of us are smarter than any of us and wiser we must become.

It’s an opportunity to re-do K12 teaching and learning: Students must learn how to learn as a team. 

 That’s the “silver lining” of these dark clouds we now face. These clouds will pass. We need to be ready!

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TEACHERS, STUDENTS, PARENTS! 

                        What do YOU think about teaching or learning from home?

Teachers, students and families are all a part of the puzzle called “home learning.”

As teachers or students on the front lines, how are you adapting to remote learning?

We want to hear your feedback, your ideas, your tips.

Your comments will help others navigate this new learning environment!

Thanks – RE@L looks forward to hearing from YOU!

Share your questions or ideas with us!

Click HERE!