The temporary schooling during COVID-19 series continues. This episode is a commentary by Thoughtful Teacher Podcast host Scott Lee considering how the COVID-19 pandemic will affect teaching during the 2020-2021 school year and beyond.
Link
Transcript of PBS Newshour interview mentioned in podcast
Transcript
Greetings friends and colleagues, this is Scott Lee with the Thoughtful Teacher Podcast. I hope you are safe and well. Today we are continuing our COVID-19 series, but I would like to discuss what is on my mind today. As we move into May, we will continue to bring you useful remote learning resources, but I would also like to start discussing what school will look for the next academic year and years to come. When I was a school administrator, the last month of school was actually a time when I could reflect on and plan for the upcoming school year. Testing was over, most of the IEP meetings had finished, and although a lot of the year end activities were still happening- the planning for these was done. During May or June classroom teachers might still have a long year-end punch-list. But in a normal year, school leaders sometimes have a few moments to reflect and plan. In that spirit I think it’s time to start thinking about next year, here’s why.
On a recent edition of The PBS Newshour, Judy Woodruff talked with New York Times journalist Donald McNiel who has covered epidemics and epidemiology for almost two decades. Friends, the issue remains: we must expect COVID-19 disruptions in schools for at the very least the upcoming and possibly next two academic years. We have a link to the interview transcript on our website if you would like to read it. But the problem we face is this; even if we are fortunate enough to have a reliable vaccine by the end of the 2020-2021 school year, there could be a significant manufacturing lag to be able to get everyone inoculated. And assuming a vaccine only requires one dose, 350 million doses will need to be manufactured for the United States alone; among the several billion that will be needed worldwide.
Yes, this is sobering, so let’s start developing our new mindset. We cannot forget: universal precautions like social distancing, frequent hand-washing, ongoing regular universal testing and frequent disinfecting of surfaces only mitigates the spread of the virus. Doing these things will not stop infections, these precautions are only designed to slow the virus from spreading to stay within our critical and acute health care capacity. As I record this in the spring of 2020, it appears that like with the flu virus, nature will help fight COVID-19 in the northern hemisphere over the next few months, but as fall turns to winter we should expect a return of outbreaks. Whenever the 2020-2021 school year starts for you, social distancing, adjusted school days, staggered start times, hybrid learning, events and sports without spectators and periods of school closures will be with us for a period we may count in months and years-not days and weeks. I am not trying to scare anyone, but how will we do school this fall? How will we design learning while keeping students six feet or two meters apart? How will we make sure handwashing takes place frequently and effectively with many classrooms distant from restrooms and when many schools do not even have hot water in restrooms? How will we handle a classroom where some students are in person, but others are in quarantine for two-week periods? What happens when a teacher or several teachers in the same school are in quarantine? How will non-classroom-based educators like counselors, social workers and school psychologists support academic and social emotional learning for our students in such configurations?
And the next thing to consider is once we do have a vaccine and have universal inoculation, we should expect that we will be in the midst of an economic recession; one that could well be beyond what most of us have witnessed. Friends and colleagues, I don’t even know all of the questions to ask. But I know we all need to start working on the answers.
I do know this. Educators will be called on to do astonishing things, not just as we are doing now but, in the years following this public health crisis. We must prepare ourselves not only to teach in times of uncertainty and fear, we must also study and be prepared to intentionally change our educational systems and change these systems for the better. Most of us have been disappointed in the answers and solutions that elected officials have provided for the education profession over the last couple of decades, particularly since the debacle of the so called No Child Left Behind act. If we leave the task of managing the coming changes solely to elected officials and lobbyists, we can only expect to find ourselves disappointed again. I know the coming months will be difficult for teachers in the US and around the world, but in addition to planning for a different kind of school in the midst of crisis management this fall, we also need to be thinking and planning for how to influence positive, educator voiced change in the upcoming school year and years beyond.
Once again friends and colleagues stay safe and stay well.
This has been episode number 11. 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
