How to Get Started While Keeping the Learning Going
As a Mentor Teacher, I work with novice Teachers. Many of them have never been "in their classroom." They have taught from their homes for seven months, and in two weeks, they have to return to the physical classroom. Initially, teachers will be in their classrooms alone teaching remotely. Then some students will return, creating a hybrid classroom: some students continuing to work online and other students returning to the schoolhouse. At that point, these novice educators will be teaching both hybrid and remotely.
As teachers plan to enter the physical building, our mentoring conversations focus on how to get started. What should they do? How do they teach students at home and students physically in the building with them at the same time? How do they arrange their classrooms for hybrid teaching?
Where should they begin?
While I have never taught a hybrid class, I have started teaching a class a month after school started. During our coaching conversations, I lean on that experience as I support my mentees to "start at the beginning." My advice is to prepare as if this was the first day of the school year. The first thing I advised them to do is prepare their classroom for instruction.
What experience leads me to think this is the place to start?
I started teaching a second-grade class on October 1, 2001. After working in the private industry for a year, I needed to make an immediate change, so I dusted off my resume and applied for a teaching position. My new class had a well-loved, experienced teacher who was eligible to retire on October 1st. Before the summer break, the school principal assured her that she would not have a class. She would be a mentor teacher for one month until she retired.
The well-beloved soon to retire teacher did not get to mentor. Instead, she would spend the last month of her career teaching 2nd grade in the classroom where she had spent over 10 years. She held the class for a month, and then on September 28th, she put her purse on her arm and walked out of the classroom into her retirement. Unfortunately, that classroom had not been changed, altered, or updated for at least 10 years. Seriously, 10 years. The bulletin board paper was older than the students.
After the teacher left the room, I called for my teacher friends and told them to bring paper, scissors, staplers, clean supplies, and meet me in room 204. Because they were (and still are) great teacher friends, they obliged. For 3 hours, 5 teachers cleaned tables, desks, and cabinets. We changed bulletin board paper and made learning center signs. We rearranged students' desks and moved the teacher's desk to the other side of the room. We taped the floors to show where students would line up, and we lined the board (For those of you that don't know what that means, teachers used black markers and put lines on their boards. These lines helped keep your writing neat). Basically, we got the room ready for the first day of school.
While I don’t believe my mentees will have to call a SWAT team of teachers to get their rooms ready in a few hours, I do think they need to make their rooms instruction ready. They also need to make sure both the students can learn as much as possible while being remaining safe.
What's next? What should I do after I prepare my classroom?
Teach your students expectations of learning in your classroom. Remember, your students don't know how "your classroom" works in this new space. They don't know where to line up or where to put homework, or how to start their day in your classroom. So you have to model all of the things you would model at the beginning of the school year. Consider showing all of your students your expectations before some of them return to the building. You could do this while your students are still learning virtually. Expectations could be shared either during class or you could create a short video that parents could watch with their children.
Make a list of all of the things your students need to know about in-person learning, for example:
How to sharpen pencils?
How do you get supplies?
Where do students sit?
Procedures for distributing materials.
Procedures for going to the restroom.
How will students line up to enter and exit the classroom?
Where is the lunchroom, the playground, the main office, the nurse's office, etc.?
What happened Monday morning when the experienced teacher was gone, and I was in the classroom with the brand new bulletin board paper and freshly lined boards?
I introduced myself and reset the room (A room reset takes the class back to the beginning or back to when things worked well). I introduced myself and told my students I was happy to be working with them for the remainder of the school year. Then I taught my students expectations for learning in our classroom. I let them know we were ready for a new beginning. We were going to start over. This was our day one. After a week of practice, things were progressing well, and we fell into a routine.
How do we get parents to support our learning environment?
Parents are your partners. You will always benefit from parent support. Share updates and plans with parents frequently. Consider sending a Welcome Back Newsletter or correspondence to families, sharing your expectations, what adjustments will be with the hybrid model of teaching and learning, etc. Make sure parents know your expectations for students' learning both in-person and online.
Consider the best way to engage with parents. If you have a class website, make a Parents Corner. Have a way for parents to communicate with you. The best communication goes both ways: you communicating with families and families communicating with you. If you don't have a website, you can post updates in your Google classroom or create a class newsletter. With all of the great technology that exists, you could also create short videos or have a virtual Family Meeting (a time that parents could meet to receive information and ask questions). The important thing is you have a way to communicate.
How did I get parents to support my learning environment?
With my principals' permission, I scheduled a Back To School Night. I developed a Welcome Letter and invited parents to come to my classroom after school to meet me, see our classroom and ask questions. Twelve of my families came. My favorite comment from the night "Well, I don't know if she can teach, but this room looks much better (said loud enough for me to hear)." I used this meeting as an opportunity to begin building community. I answered all questions and stayed until parents felt comfortable with me being their child’s teacher and willing to see if I could teach.
I recommend my mentees have a Family Meeting (a virtual gathering) with their students' parents before returning to the building. Parents are allies, and when you work together, your students benefit.
Moving forward…
Students will be as excited as you are about learning. You are their role model. They will feed off of your enthusiasm or negativity. I advised my mentees to have a positive attitude and do their best. In the end, students appreciate your positive attitude and they understand when you do your best. They learn to extend grace by your example so extend grace to your students and yourself.
