Commentary: More on Planning for Next School Year
Thinking about Classroom Procedures for Next Year
There is no definitive answer on how to adjust classroom procedures for in-person schooling if it happens this fall, but we do know that things will be different. In episode 12, host Scott Lee discusses considerations that will be necessary as educators prepare for the 2020-2021 school year.
Transcript
Greetings friends and colleagues, this is the Thoughtful Teacher Podcast I am Scott Lee. I hope you are safe and well. As I am sure you are aware school districts are grappling with plans to open for the upcoming academic year as the COVID-19 pandemic continues. Recently I saw the comments of a district superintendent near where I live who mentioned that he really wished that he could start school as normal without any changes, but of course his school district will not be able to that. I understand that no one really wants to deal with the changes that are going to be necessary. It is sad to say that often the political will to make changes is lacking in schools except when a crisis occurs. That being said, I see potential for needed positive structural changes within schools as we plan for the upcoming school year.
There are a lot of ideas floating about regarding how schools will operate during the 2020-2021 school year and efforts are likely to be hampered by the physical design of many schools. Here is the problem: school districts are actually having to consider safety first and foremost when they begin to figure out how to allow students back into buildings. I have taught in a more than a dozen different school buildings and visited many, many more. Almost all of them have several things in common. Long hallways, rectangular rooms that are big enough to hold the maximum number of students that a particular state allows. Cafeterias designed to feed hundreds or even thousands. Large, centrally located restrooms. All of these and many other design elements interfere with safety. When I have worked with schools to improve safety by developing bullying prevention or tiered support systems, one of the biggest problems with these design elements is they interfere with student supervision and are intentionally designed to promote a high density of students. However, it is exactly these high-density areas that are forcing school boards and district level administrators to actually think about student safety and health as their primary priority.
So, what is an educator to do? The first thing to do is literally plan every single activity that has to happen. This is best practice for kindergarten and lower elementary teachers. But even they will have plan for a more extreme experience than they are used to. Normally the way teachers develop classroom procedures is to conduct a task analysis on every activity and then create a procedure at the classroom level. But there will be several challenges. Administrators will need to create systems level procedures for every activity. There will be dozens of these to figure out for each school building. How will we do pick-up and drop off while maintaining social distancing? What will we do instead of having students congregate in a common area after students arrive in the morning? What are our procedures for meals? These are just a few of the multitude of considerations leadership teams will have to tackle even before developing procedures for universal virus testing and daily screening that will be required to keep everyone safe.
Then there are the other parts of the puzzle. Teamwork, flexibility and safety-first thinking will have to be a part of everyone’s daily mindset, even if that means re-adjusting the priority of some academic tasks. Also, individual teachers likely cannot implement classroom procedures independent of other teachers, when restrooms and common areas need to be cleaned several times a day on an exact schedule. Every classroom procedure likely will need a second and possibly even a third tier of options, each of which keeps students 2 meters or six feet apart.
I know we are in scary territory. Every decision we make for the upcoming school year is at best, a devil’s bargain, from the big ones such as how to open in-person schools to every tiny daily decision every school-based educator makes. That being said there are some reasons to be optimistic. If we really begin to make more of our really important decisions based on what keeps students safe, we may finally be able to shift the paradigm permanently towards making more and more of the really important decisions by answering the question, “what will be the healthiest and safest choice for students?” If that is an outcome several years down the road, then I really am truly optimistic about the future of K-12 education.
Once again friends and colleagues stay safe and stay well.
This has been episode number 12. The Thoughtful Teacher Podcast is hosted and produced by R. Scott Lee who retains copyright and is solely responsible for content. Transcript and notes are available at our website thoughtfulteacherpodcast dot com. Underwriting and sponsorship opportunities or other inquiries may also be made on our website thoughtfulteacherpodcast dot com. Please follow The Thoughtful Teacher Podcast on Twitter @drrscottlee
