The digitization of education has developed a firm footing especially during the COVID- 19 pandemic.
Approximately a year ago, educators across the country were asked to uproot everything they knew about teaching and learning to transition to a new form of teaching amid a global pandemic. Though the dust has not yet settled, educators are becoming increasingly more equipped to handle teaching in this new environment.
Coaching Teachers on Remote or Hybrid Learning
While some districts may be fortunate to return to face-to-face learning come fall, even those environments will likely be vastly different from what has been the norm for decades.
Some districts are offering a blended model of learning, and still, others are opting for complete remote instruction.
- Blended coaching expands the domain for coaching across face-to-face and digital interactions. For example, in a face-to-face session a coach might help a teacher co-plan a lesson.
- Expanding coaching into the digital realm solves key resource challenges in implementing a sustainable coaching model.
- Digital coaching connects teachers with specialists beyond the school community, which can be more affordable and sustainable than hiring onsite consultants. Perhaps most importantly, digital coaching helps teachers drive the personalized learning and agency they are aspiring to create for students.
- At speedlabs.in we are constantly working towards making the learning experience better for the students and making the whole process smooth for the educators. Through digital tools, teachers can experience anytime-anywhere learning, choose from different professional learning pathways, and engage as learners with coaches who are not in the same room as they are.
Lessons Learnt by Hybrid Learning which are Relevant for Teachers
- Blending mode of learning refers to the use of both offline and online resources. Whether you are coaching face-to-face, in a blended model, or completely online, there is one thing that will never change. These are the relationships between the students and the teachers. The change that has been experienced by the digitization of education has equally impacted the teachers and the students. It’s better to adapt to this change through the blended learning and hybrid model.
- Prioritizing and working on one thing at a time can be incredibly challenging, especially in the midst of distance and hybrid learning. However, selecting just one key focus area at a time will ensure that meetings feel less overwhelming and more focused. Engaging in deeper discussion and giving more planning time to address one challenge at a time allows us to see progress faster, leading to an increase in teacher performance and satisfaction. At speedlabs.in we have specialized lessons for each topic and chapter. This is to make sure that the distribution of topics in the classes is equal and proper.
- Teachers will need to try different methods to engage students, present content, and measure mastery. When experimenting, the possibility of failure can sometimes restrict what we are willing to try. It’s important that we emphasize for teachers that not everything will work for students but even failures give us good data. With speedlabs.in you don’t need to worry about it. We take care that each lesson and assessment is engaging and the students place high interest in them.
- Mindfulness strategies are not a cure-all for the stress produced by the public health emergencies of coronavirus and systemic racism and they cannot and should not replace seeking professional help. What mindfulness strategies can do is create time and space for calmness during hectic times and can re-center us when we are feeling overwhelmed, disconnected, anxious, or any of the other feelings accompanying this pandemic. Sharing these strategies with teachers and even using these strategies with teams can help us refocus ourselves and clarify what is truly important in the midst of uncertain times. This is especially very significant during COVID-19.
- Because of how new distance and hybrid learning are to both schools and families, teachers are having to spend much more time completing tasks in every area of their work. The teachers usually have the following concerns which are taking a greater amount of time than usual- responding to student/parent questions, planning engaging lessons and activities, providing technical support, assessing student growth, and giving meaningful feedback on student work. While we may not be able to decrease the number of questions students and families have or the number of assignments teachers have to assess, we can coach teachers through building a system in any of these areas that would save them time. If teachers are feeling overwhelmed across the board, they may first want to create a personal routine for their own time-management. Consider working with teachers to create effective checklists.
These principles are good coaching practices at any time, so it’s important that we commit to them now while our teachers are facing ever-changing job expectations, are responsible for learning multiple new skills, and are expending substantial effort to engage students in an equitable way.
hybrid learning hybrid learning hybrid learning hybrid learning hybrid learning hybrid learning
Also published on Medium.