Thoughts on our return to school - Ian Stonnell

Out of the ashes the phoenix rises.

On Monday we meet our students in the classroom for the first time since December. That's quite a long time ago. Now, it will be easy for us to focus on the negatives when they return. We could conduct an audit of who completed their remote learning and who did not, we could give daunting lectures about the lost learning that has taken place and how we need to catch up as quickly as possible. We could dwell on the doom and gloom and have a wonderfully gloomy time doing it. 

This is not what we should do. 

Instead, we need to resist this understandable desire and remember that the times we are living through are extraordinary. No one can be blamed for the disruption that has taken place, particularly the students, and although some of them may have been lazy, the fact that they were given the opporuntiy to be so, by a global pandemic, is not really their fault - just think how you would have responded to a lockdown when you were thirteen! I know I would have struggled, and that would have been in a world with only 5 TV channels and dial up internet. We also cannot discount the reality that many of our students have had a terrible time during this lockdown and have genuine reasons for struggling to engage.

We must show understanding and forgiveness. 

On March 8th we are starting anew together, what has happened has happened and although it has been tough, we will recover and like a phoenix from the ashes, we will come back stronger.

Use the right language

To start anew we have we have to use the right language. At the moment there is a lot of concerning phrases being bandied about by politicians and 'tsars' with regards to education and, as was so neatly summed up by our inspirational headteacher Donna Neely-Hayes, a lot of this waffle needs to be ignored and filtered out - “our students are not damaged”. 

Instead we should see that our students have been through an experience that will define their childhood and scorch an indelible mark on their identity, where they can rightly be proud of their resilience, discipline and independence. I would argue that these students are not damaged, they have been tempered and made stronger whether they realise this yet or not. Let's reinforce that message by making sure we use the right language on their return and not perpetuate a story of loss that can only serve to damage their well-being, rather lets tell a story of growth.

Below is a table of some of the not so useful language that has been floating around with an equivalent positive language replacement which you can use in your classrooms, note how it encourages growth - credit to @MrAWGordon

Move forward with great teaching

Finally some thoughts on teaching, this is a teaching and learning blog after all. My key message - let's not panic, we have done this before. When we returned in September after the first lockdown, we managed just fine. In fact I seem to remember all of us getting so much better at using technology for learning - it was inspirational. I also know that each department has already spent a lot of time planning for the return particularly with a focus on the curriculum, so we are ready. 

However, as a guide, for those first few lessons on our return the following basics can be adhered to:

1. Retreive: Start of with a stimulus of what may have been covered over lockdown then assess with some low stakes retrieval and questioing to identify gaps in knowledge on small, key parts of the curriculum.
2. Re-teach: Once gaps are identified, using direct instruction re-teach topics with an emphasis on the gaps - providing models and scaffolding where necessary.

Regardless of this, for now you should have faith in your ability to be what you already are - amazing teachers. No doubt in the near future we will be doing lots more to improve and get even better at supporting our students, that's just what we do. However, that is for the future, on Monday let's just get back to it.

Ian Stonnell @DenbighCPD