It’s often said that constraint breeds creativity. That will very likely explain why, during this pandemic, we have seen some amazingly creative teaching exploits.
From integrating technology to reimagining grading, the last year has presented us with a never-ending array of challenges. But as any teacher worth their salt knows, every challenge is also an opportunity to learn.
So what exactly are you going to learn from the pandemic? Are there creative new approaches you’ve learned you’d like to bring forward to the new-normal? And has the experience changed how you think of your role?
The answers, of course, will be different for everyone. But I want to suggest three ways I can already see the pandemic changing teaching for the better through my role at Front of Class:
- Renewed creativity
Great teaching has always required creativity - finding novel ways to illustrate concepts and ideas so that they really connect with pupils. And lockdown teaching seems to have re-sparked that creativity in many of the amazing teachers I’ve talked to.
When you’re teaching in the same classroom day-after-day, it’s easy to forget just how many ways there are to learn. But with students stuck in front of a screen at home, there’s been a whole new world of possibilities to explore.
Teachers have had to be wildly resourceful, finding ways to make lockdown learning not just effective, but engaging and fun. From making videos – and embracing all of the creative possibilities inherent in that – to using the child’s home environment as a learning tool, the approaches have been varied and exciting.
As we enter the ‘new-normal’, I expect to see teachers bringing that creativity back into their real-life classrooms – and I’m confident that the results will be exceptional.
- Rethinking technology
Technology is always going to divide people, and some believe it is incompatible with truly great teaching. But during the pandemic, tech really has proven a lifeline for the education sector. And that means many are beginning to seriously reassess how technology might fit into the future of teaching.
As I discussed in an earlier post, the best argument for embracing technology is to ensure that we control how it changes our classrooms. Rather than allowing Google to become our students’ favourite teacher, there is an opportunity to embrace technologies that engage students more directly and on a human level.
This isn’t only a question of classroom tech, either: there are huge opportunities to streamline admin, make recruitment more direct and personal, and make educators’ lives easier.
- Changing the conversation on work/life balance
Finally, lockdown has made us all take a long hard look at our work/life balance. And for teachers – whose work schedule has always been brutal – that couldn’t be more welcome.
With the extra pressures of remote teaching, navigating understandably stressed parents and ensuring that students still hit their targets, many teachers have found the last year overwhelming. But I hope to see real change emerging from this.
While there will inevitably be much talk of ‘stress shacks’ and the long holidays teachers in theory get, we are already moving towards a more honest discussion of the realities of teachers’ lives and how they can be made more manageable.
This will not only be better for teachers - it’ll be better for students. If teachers are able to safeguard their own wellbeing and come to lessons feeling better, the quality of those lessons can only improve.
At Front of Class, our recruitment technology is all about making life easier for educators and schools, so that they can focus on what they do best – Request a demo today
