news, education, education, covid-19
When the bell rang on the first day of school for 2020, teachers knew their classes would be a little different. Children had just witnessed vast areas of Australia be burned in the fierce bushfires that had dragged on for months, bringing smoke to the capital for days on end. Alfred Deakin High School English teacher Kerrie Trott said the fragility of students was evident. “There was a vibe that people had kind of been a little unsettled and weren’t necessarily as refreshed as they might have been at the start of a normal year,” she said. “People were more sensitive to the fact that everyone was going through something, whether it was directly affecting them or not … 2020 was a different kind of start to the year I think. Obviously we could never have predicted how the rest of it would unfold.” The bushfires, smoke and freak hailstorm were only the beginning of challenges teachers would face in this very eventful year. In late March, ACT teachers were forced to set aside their prepared lesson plans and rework their programs into a remote learning format. As the school year winds up, teachers are reflecting on how this tumultuous year has changed their practices for the better. Taylor Primary School Principal Belinda Fenn said it allowed the staff to look at everything they did with a new lens. “It’s made us reflect, look deeper into our practice and really ask questions like, ‘what was the learning in this?'” she said. Early research into the experiences of teachers in Australia and abroad suggests many other educators have been deeply considering their practice this year. The Teaching and Learning in COVID-19 Times project was launched by Associate Professor Louise Phillips at James Cook University in Singapore and has so far surveyed 675 educators from Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and the US. Dr Melissa Cain from the Australian Catholic University, who is part of the Australian research team, said the responses showed teachers cared very deeply about the students’ learning but also their wellbeing. Only two respondents said they would quit teaching altogether, while most responses indicated educators were more flexible and adaptable than they ever realised. “The good news is that teachers were really resilient,” Dr Cain said. “They cared very much about their students and wanting to keep up quality education. And so they they looked everywhere, to their colleagues, to social media, Twitter, TED talks, anywhere they can find information about how to do this well.” The survey also revealed teachers had an increased workload and many struggled to separate family and work life. “It just blended in and they felt they were not good teachers and not good parents at the same time because they couldn’t keep those separate,” Dr Cain said. Some teachers shared experiences of sitting in front of a computer for 12 hours a day and that some of their students had checked out of school work by 10am. Mrs Trott had to find diversions for her busy two-year-old daughter for the times when she had to deliver her lessons. “At the times where I needed to be with my students I tried to organise something else for my daughter or somewhere for her to be or … tried to get her down for a really quick nap. “It was definitely a juggling act. She did help mummy do quite a bit of work.” Mrs Fenn recognised the extra work that was involved with remote delivery and encouraged her staff to post no more than two tasks per day. “We really said two and that doesn’t sound like a lot when you think we spent six hours here, but when you deliver it remotely, the time that it takes in between to prepare and provide feedback to 25 children, you need all those other hours in the day to do that and I know that.” In the key transition years of kindergarten and year 7, students had only just started forming friendship and learning their new school routine. They were then thrust into the world of Zoom, Google Classroom and Seesaw. “They felt quite isolated which was quite heartbreaking as well,” Mrs Trott said. “A lot of them, because of the restrictions, they couldn’t go out and connect with their friends.” She said it was difficult to develop a relationship with students through a screen and she was relieved to get back to face-to-face lessons. Year 2 teacher at Taylor Primary School Kate Foster-Lomas set tasks for her students which encouraged them to get away from technology and explore their world. She was very impressed by students’ creativity when they were asked to create a collage of their special place off the back of the picture book Where the Forest Meets the Sea. While it was difficult to replicate whole-class floor work, she was able to break students into smaller groups to do writing and reading workshops. Rochelle Burton, chief executive of teacher professional development consultancy company Eduinfluencers, said the rapid switch to online learning had some benefits among the 50 NSW and ACT schools she was working with. “What I noticed in the transition back to face-to-face learning is that it really helped some of them adapt and change some of their teaching practice, to use more technology in the classroom but also just modify some of the ways in which they’re engaging with certain students,” she said. Mrs Burton said teachers were noticing some students sink or swim during the online learning period. This had brought new meaning to the theory of differentiated learning, she said – a concept that focuses on making content accessible for students of all abilities by adjusting teaching and learning activities to engage all students in the classroom (or online) simultaneously. Ms Fenn said the role of technology had always been part of school life but its role was highlighted this year. “It is a really useful tool. However, it’s a tool. It’s not the way we do everything,” she said. Mrs Fenn said the remote learning period strengthened her team because they had no choice but to collaborate. “It was now more than ever we have to do this and whilst we already had that culture here at Taylor, I feel like it’s strengthened our connection among us even more as professionals.” As a second-year teacher, Mrs Foster-Lomas was thrown in the deep end this year but always felt well-supported by her teaching team. “Wellbeing was a real focus with my classroom, not just within my teaching team, and we’ve really looked after each other, supporting each other with ideas and resources and lessons.” She also made a point of checking in on the wellbeing of her students and their parents throughout the year. Increasingly this year teachers have had to play the role of the counsellor. READ MORE: Mrs Burton found many teachers and principals were having to support students and parents with mental health challenges. “This was never the job of an educator or teacher… We’re asking them to deal with others’ mental health and well being, when in fact they are dealing with uncertainty and feeling that they are at risk as well so that’s definitely something that was really prevalent and to be honest still is now.” She believes educators need more support in this area to ensure the burden of mental health support doesn’t fall entirely on their shoulders. Mrs Fenn found that school was a good place for children to discuss the pandemic and its impact on them. “Children know this is a place where they come and they’re safe and they can talk freely and openly about those things. “We have great relationships with families too so that our messaging with families is that it’s actually good for children to talk about these things if they want to if they need to and we give them the space and time to do that.” The lessons learned from this year will change education going forward in some simple and profound ways. Parent teacher meetings via Zoom were a big hit and Dr Cain said survey results suggested many schools would stick with the online meetings next year. Meanwhile, at Taylor Primary School teachers have noticed that changing the morning routine from hosting a whole school assembly to having students enter from different gates and go straight to their classes has made the morning rush calmer and more productive. Perhaps the biggest change will not be visible at all. Dr Cain said the survey responses suggested that planning to teach in an online format improved in-person teaching techniques. “Teaching through an online interface has encouraged me to deeply examine my underlying theoretical understandings about teaching and learning,” one respondent said. Dr Cain said the year has tested people’s assumptions about how schools can and should work. “We shouldn’t get set in our way and we think this is how school should operate,” he said. “But when it gets shaken up, then you know if you’re open to change and you’ve got a growth mindset. Then you look at it and go, well it wasn’t half bad actually we’ll take that on.”
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When the bell rang on the first day of school for 2020, teachers knew their classes would be a little different.
Children had just witnessed vast areas of Australia be burned in the fierce bushfires that had dragged on for months, bringing smoke to the capital for days on end.
Alfred Deakin High School English teacher Kerrie Trott said the fragility of students was evident.
“There was a vibe that people had kind of been a little unsettled and weren’t necessarily as refreshed as they might have been at the start of a normal year,” she said.
“People were more sensitive to the fact that everyone was going through something, whether it was directly affecting them or not … 2020 was a different kind of start to the year I think. Obviously we could never have predicted how the rest of it would unfold.”
The bushfires, smoke and freak hailstorm were only the beginning of challenges teachers would face in this very eventful year.
In late March, ACT teachers were forced to set aside their prepared lesson plans and rework their programs into a remote learning format.
As the school year winds up, teachers are reflecting on how this tumultuous year has changed their practices for the better.
Taylor Primary School Principal Belinda Fenn said it allowed the staff to look at everything they did with a new lens.
“It’s made us reflect, look deeper into our practice and really ask questions like, ‘what was the learning in this?'” she said.
It’s made us reflect, look deeper into our practice and really ask questions like, ‘what was the learning in this?’
Taylor Primary School principal Belinda Fenn
Early research into the experiences of teachers in Australia and abroad suggests many other educators have been deeply considering their practice this year.
The Teaching and Learning in COVID-19 Times project was launched by Associate Professor Louise Phillips at James Cook University in Singapore and has so far surveyed 675 educators from Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and the US.
Dr Melissa Cain from the Australian Catholic University, who is part of the Australian research team, said the responses showed teachers cared very deeply about the students’ learning but also their wellbeing.
Only two respondents said they would quit teaching altogether, while most responses indicated educators were more flexible and adaptable than they ever realised.
“The good news is that teachers were really resilient,” Dr Cain said.
“They cared very much about their students and wanting to keep up quality education. And so they they looked everywhere, to their colleagues, to social media, Twitter, TED talks, anywhere they can find information about how to do this well.”
The survey also revealed teachers had an increased workload and many struggled to separate family and work life.
“It just blended in and they felt they were not good teachers and not good parents at the same time because they couldn’t keep those separate,” Dr Cain said.
Some teachers shared experiences of sitting in front of a computer for 12 hours a day and that some of their students had checked out of school work by 10am.
English teacher Kerry Trott says staff and students were more fragile at the start of 2020. Picture: Dion Georgopoulos
Mrs Trott had to find diversions for her busy two-year-old daughter for the times when she had to deliver her lessons.
“At the times where I needed to be with my students I tried to organise something else for my daughter or somewhere for her to be or … tried to get her down for a really quick nap.
“It was definitely a juggling act. She did help mummy do quite a bit of work.”
Mrs Fenn recognised the extra work that was involved with remote delivery and encouraged her staff to post no more than two tasks per day. “We really said two and that doesn’t sound like a lot when you think we spent six hours here, but when you deliver it remotely, the time that it takes in between to prepare and provide feedback to 25 children, you need all those other hours in the day to do that and I know that.”
In the key transition years of kindergarten and year 7, students had only just started forming friendship and learning their new school routine. They were then thrust into the world of Zoom, Google Classroom and Seesaw.
“They felt quite isolated which was quite heartbreaking as well,” Mrs Trott said. “A lot of them, because of the restrictions, they couldn’t go out and connect with their friends.”
She said it was difficult to develop a relationship with students through a screen and she was relieved to get back to face-to-face lessons.
Year 2 teacher at Taylor Primary School Kate Foster-Lomas set tasks for her students which encouraged them to get away from technology and explore their world.
She was very impressed by students’ creativity when they were asked to create a collage of their special place off the back of the picture book Where the Forest Meets the Sea.
While it was difficult to replicate whole-class floor work, she was able to break students into smaller groups to do writing and reading workshops.
Rochelle Burton, chief executive of teacher professional development consultancy company Eduinfluencers, said the rapid switch to online learning had some benefits among the 50 NSW and ACT schools she was working with.
“What I noticed in the transition back to face-to-face learning is that it really helped some of them adapt and change some of their teaching practice, to use more technology in the classroom but also just modify some of the ways in which they’re engaging with certain students,” she said.
Mrs Burton said teachers were noticing some students sink or swim during the online learning period.
This had brought new meaning to the theory of differentiated learning, she said – a concept that focuses on making content accessible for students of all abilities by adjusting teaching and learning activities to engage all students in the classroom (or online) simultaneously.
Ms Fenn said the role of technology had always been part of school life but its role was highlighted this year. “It is a really useful tool. However, it’s a tool. It’s not the way we do everything,” she said.
Mrs Fenn said the remote learning period strengthened her team because they had no choice but to collaborate. “It was now more than ever we have to do this and whilst we already had that culture here at Taylor, I feel like it’s strengthened our connection among us even more as professionals.”
As a second-year teacher, Mrs Foster-Lomas was thrown in the deep end this year but always felt well-supported by her teaching team. “Wellbeing was a real focus with my classroom, not just within my teaching team, and we’ve really looked after each other, supporting each other with ideas and resources and lessons.”
She also made a point of checking in on the wellbeing of her students and their parents throughout the year.
Increasingly this year teachers have had to play the role of the counsellor.
Mrs Burton found many teachers and principals were having to support students and parents with mental health challenges.
“This was never the job of an educator or teacher… We’re asking them to deal with others’ mental health and well being, when in fact they are dealing with uncertainty and feeling that they are at risk as well so that’s definitely something that was really prevalent and to be honest still is now.”
She believes educators need more support in this area to ensure the burden of mental health support doesn’t fall entirely on their shoulders.
Mrs Fenn found that school was a good place for children to discuss the pandemic and its impact on them.
“Children know this is a place where they come and they’re safe and they can talk freely and openly about those things.
“We have great relationships with families too so that our messaging with families is that it’s actually good for children to talk about these things if they want to if they need to and we give them the space and time to do that.”
The lessons learned from this year will change education going forward in some simple and profound ways. Parent teacher meetings via Zoom were a big hit and Dr Cain said survey results suggested many schools would stick with the online meetings next year.
Meanwhile, at Taylor Primary School teachers have noticed that changing the morning routine from hosting a whole school assembly to having students enter from different gates and go straight to their classes has made the morning rush calmer and more productive.
Perhaps the biggest change will not be visible at all. Dr Cain said the survey responses suggested that planning to teach in an online format improved in-person teaching techniques. “Teaching through an online interface has encouraged me to deeply examine my underlying theoretical understandings about teaching and learning,” one respondent said.
Dr Cain said the year has tested people’s assumptions about how schools can and should work.
“We shouldn’t get set in our way and we think this is how school should operate,” he said. “But when it gets shaken up, then you know if you’re open to change and you’ve got a growth mindset. Then you look at it and go, well it wasn’t half bad actually we’ll take that on.”
