Rise to the Art of Teaching - Covid-19

I originally wrote this piece in the middle of March. I wrote it to get it out of my head. I never planned on sharing it and this week I reread the words, they still stand. What I do want to add is, that as a collective, teachers are amazing. I have seen us rise. We were able to take what we do in our classes and translate it to support emergency measures of learning and teaching at home.  It was a momentous effort. I am proud to say that I am an educator. I stand side by side with my colleagues as we come to the last month of teaching in this new abnormal and all look forward to the opportunity to exhale and regroup over the summer. We all deserve it....

March 20th, 2020
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The realization should slap us all in the face at times like these. Never has there been an opportunity like this that we can lift our profession in the eyes of the public. What do I mean? I mean we can choose to fall in line with the government’s external venomous dialogue of teachers and public education or we can rise. 

Yet, as I have experienced the communal “us” failing to take advantage of our time to shine with my own child’s education during this school closure, I grimace at the failed attempts at supporting our student’s learning. This is a call to all educators to flex our creative muscle and demonstrate our value in educating our society.

Educators should be rising to demonstrate the art of teaching and not lining up like drones to the photocopier.  Any idiot with internet access and a printer can print off packages of workbooks and pretty Teacher Pay Teacher packages.  It takes an educator, nay, an instructional leader to recognize the needs of each student (and their families in duress), connecting and designing tasks and assessments that fit the desired learning outcomes. And isn’t that what we are, leaders, even if we are new to the profession? Or, at least isn’t it our colleagues and our school leaders responsibility to guide those that need to see the juxtaposition of family circumstance and educational guidelines.  Now more than ever in our history we are able to connect, innovate, and influence those around us. Yet we continue to stare at the gliding light of our toner depleted existence and expect to be respected.

This is our challenge. It is our time to shine and demonstrate to our communities that there is an art to what comes before the worksheet.  That we do not expect students and parents to “Jump” into numeracy and literacy without exploration, discussion, play, and guidance. We are more than just pacing figures in front of rows of students with their heads down in silence while they complete questions 101 to 105. We are the facilitators of independent thinking, the safe place to question and be questioned, we create the space for great works to be completed and ideas to shine. So rise above the pretty little package, the drills, the mad minutes and arduous spelling and punctuation critiques. Any idiot with a photocopier and a red pen can do that! Be the artist, the leader, the educator, the creator of space for genius.  I know we have it in us…