There is no looking back.  The pandemic has widened the gap in education and we must be aggressive in our thinking of how we reinvent teaching and learning moving forward.  In the renewal of education, human interaction and wellbeing must be a top priority. It has been confirmed that positive relationships and attachment are essential to learning.  Learning is social, emotional, and academic. Children learn best when they feel safe, affirmed, and deeply engaged within a supportive community of learners.  This was lost when classrooms across the nation moved from classroom to isolation.  Learning in isolation was not successful and we saw a need for belonging and collaborative learning opportunities.  

To re-attach students to school and to accelerate learning throughout the coming year and for years to come, the most effective classrooms will need to reimage how they deliver instruction as well as make time for social-emotional learning.  Educators need to have a mindset of learning recovery with the learner in mind when planning instruction.  This means what we did in the past will not work.  

A supportive school return in the fall will need to include a focus on relationships with social-emotional support.  In addition, we will need to have a curriculum that responds to our current needs. One size fits all won’t work.  To help students thrive the curriculum needs to focus on developing student’s capabilities. When designing lessons the teacher should design her standard-based instruction on the needs of the students and their capabilities.  The curriculum should be more focused on preparing individuals for the challenges of the future; empower students with knowledge and skills in various fields of study in a flexible educational program tailored to each student. A universal approach to teaching and learning will help the educator tailor instruction to meet the needs of every individual.

So ask yourself?  How will you organize your classroom for the first two weeks of instruction post covid?  How will you refamiliarize students with school?  What have we learned from distance learning that we will want to incorporate into in-person learning?  

We will all heal from this crisis and I hope in its aftermath we reimagine human interaction and wellbeing and build it into the core principles of our education system.