Tag: virtual learning

Teaching in Three Dimensions

matthewpiercyClassroom Environment
Self-compassion and seeing clearly of necessity as teachers navigate 3-dimensions.
Photo by: Photo by Nonsap Visuals on Unsplash

The start of a new school year resulted in my taking a bit of a hiatus in blogging.  No doubt, being in three places at the same time has provided some challenge.  Three places?  Live with five classes of twenty-something pre-teens wiggling before me in the classroom.  Getting to know students and  putting faces with names is the first order of “business.”  This year I have a student named Whale and another I warily call Honey.  “Good morning Honey!” just does no’t feel right for some reason.  I remain thankful Honey is not in Sweet’s class, or Sweet Honey might just sit alongside each other.  A colleague has Putter’s little brother, Birdie this year.  Thai nicknames often add  a bit of joy to the classroom and it is quite possible to have a whole fruit salad, with students named Apple, Pear, and Peach!  

 

3-D Teaching

Face to face, or dubbed f2f, often focuses the first days upon building routines and  just putting students at ease, so the classroom is a place each child feels comfortable. A second dimension being explored, is “the virtual.”  Back to Zoom and synchronous virtual learning. While the third space is reserved for the asynchronous and for students  currently out of the time zone.  These learners receive a link to the recorded class and sometimes  the addition of more succinct tutorial videos which teachers create.  So, a start to a school year unlike any other.  Three-dimensional!

Though only two or three class periods in, humorous stories already are being amassed.  Of such things as an unaware synchronous student,  broadcasting inappropriate comments  over the classroom speakers for all to hear.  Or, of the student projected on the screen in front of the whole class.  Only, everyone’s attention is on the mother who is behind her and acrobatically dodges out of sight. Dropped Zoom calls, forgotten recorded sessions, audio input/output incorrectly set.  Whatever the case, even with the fumbles and follies, the first two weeks back to school were a definite success.  One that required teachers both compassion for students and themselves.  

Here in Thailand we consider ourselves lucky to have a chance to be face to face.  This a possibility because of the stellar response of the  nation.  In fact, the end of  July saw Thailand ranked number one in the world out of 184 countries for its ongoing COVID-19 recovery effort.  This,  according to the Global COVID-19 Index (GCI).  Nearly a month later, Thailand remains on top.  As of August 16, the total numbrer of confirmed cases stood at 3,377, where 95 percent recovered and just 58 total deaths recorded.  Further, Thailand had no new domestic cases of COVID for 83 days.

 

New Normal Comes With Some Hard to Reach Directives

Throughout the pandemic, news of COVID stipulations seemingly shifted from morning to night.  However, society was steadfast in being compliant regardless if there appeared to be contradictions. Certain regulations appear to be for perception as the logic is difficult to understand.  For example, in schools students can pass a basketball but not borrow a pencil.  The importance of exercise a priority, while the pencil is deemed a risk that can be mitigated. Keeping account of the dos and don’ts or cans and can’ts can be difficult.  However, more challenging is to break socialization habits learned in kindergarten, where sharing was  “what big boys and girls do.”  First grade began with the importance of washing hands but also that there would no longer be the sharing of anything, toys included.  Then there was the valiant and never-ending  attempt to control for social, or what we call physical, distancing?  Social distancing, a bit of an oxymoron, as we want students to be social, but so long as there remains  1-2 meters of distance between them.  Middle school students huddle around an infographic the teacher probably should not have even printed and handed out.  Yet, the motivation being one of learning, sharing  ideas, and being together.  Laboratory work in the high school can be interesting if physical distance is to be maintained.  Need I even “touch,” no pun intended, what physical distancing might mean to a classroom of 3-year olds who is not yet even proficient in the language of instruction?  

Thai national  schools began the first weeks of July, whereas  the independent international school where I work just wrapped up week two.  However, mid-game (if ever there was a mid-Corona game) yet another measure of compliance was just handed down.  Impossibility absolutely inherent in the “design.”  The Ministry of Education requires all schools to ensure students maintain a daily record of their whereabouts outside of school hours.  The purpose is  to  facilitate any needed contact tracing should a case of COVID be reported (confirmed) in the community.  This means all students need to record where they go daily.  Being a middle school teacher, it often is challenging enough to have a chiild write down their homework when it is written on the board and given as a directive.  

In May Thailand’s government launched a contact tracing app, declaring it vital in reducing a flare up of virus cases. Public buildings required app and temperature check-ins  via prior to entry.  The shopping mall was the first place I encountered this, then the domestic airport.  Unable to mandate the use of the app, because not everyone has a phone, the alternative mirrored how it used to be to make a walk-in restaurant reservation.  A piece of paper on a clipboard and just your name and phone number penciled in. Initially I could not help but question the legitimacy or accuracy of this alternative.  However, Thai culture’s high degree of respect and deference shown to authority likely results in near perfect record keeping. A system like this in the United States would  play host to an array of absurd names and numbers.

 

The Road Ahead

No matter the next edict, law, or measure, Thailand will hurdle, rather than grapple with any ostensible or grey space. There remains a tensile strength in Thailand’s hierarchical structure, one that begets compliance.  Businesses remain shuttered and the entire tourist industry gasps for a breath of fresh air.  Though there is no promise, hope remains and there is conversation about a plan to re-open international borders.  Meanwhile, schools may be in session, but the situation is fragile. Learning could go back to 100 percent virtual at the drop of a hat!  If COVID has taught us anything, it is the importance of flexibility.  This, along with the reckoning of how Thailand’s entire society remains under the auspices of the Kingdom. Yet, herein possibly lies the very reason why the country tops the list of safest places to be right now!

 

3-2-1 (Take-Aways, Questions, and a Reflection) on Virtual Learning

matthewpiercyClassroom Environment

3 Virtual Learning Take-Aways:

  1. It takes time to develop a classroom culture.  Moving into the 9th week, the learning curve has been a little steep but I have come to realize that one of the roles I do not need to fulfill is that of “cheerleader.”  It’s counterproductive and actually a lie to act as if everything is “normal.”  Beginning Zoom sessions with a rah, rah, rah…”Good morning everyone!” has taken a backseat to a more invitational approach.  “I’m unmuting your microphones so you can all say ‘hello’ to each other.”
  2. Be okay with breakout rooms sometimes resembling a space for students to watch paint dry on a wall.  Sometimes they will be flat, especially if time isn’t taken to carefully craft the right “mix” of students in a breakout room.
  3. Come to peace with an unfamiliar quiet.  Maybe even appreciate how this hiatus provides students with an opportunity to improve listening skills.

2 Big Questions

  1. How do ethnic and home cultures of a student impact what they “bring to the table” in a virtual setting?
  2. What creative strategies might I be able to employ in effort to better “read the air.”

1 Reflection

  1. I’m absorbed in Erin Meyer’s, “The Culture Map.” What really grabbed my attention early in the book is the difference between low and high context cultures.

“Low-Context:  Good communication is precise, simple, and clear.  Messages are expressed and understood at face value.  Repetition is appreciated if it helps clarify the communication.

High-Context:  Good communication is sophisticated, nuanced, and layered.  Messages are both spoken and read between the lines.  Messages are often implied but not plainly expressed.”

Meyer’s continues by sharing how different countries fit on this sort of low/high context continuum.  An island nation, such as Japan, more likely to be insular and steeped in thousands of years of shared culture. Furthermore, its homogeneity also adding to a greater degree of nuance and layering of language.  How very different than the United States, the country I call home.

This has me reflecting on the nature of communication in our classrooms, especially if this is a skill we assess. Additionally, in our current Zoom classrooms, there are countless factors to consider that may be effecting, shaping, bending, and possibly blasting the classroom cultures we attempt to create.  Who would have thought about the role of distracting avatars and virtual backgrounds, or the need to mute student microphones because of the clanging of dish washing as life goes on in the houses of our students?

 

 

 

Riding the Momentum

matthewpiercyPlanning and Preparation

In a recent blog post by James Birchenough titled, Leading through the fog, we are reminded of the essential roles of kindness and empathy.  Being a leader of any organization during the trying months of COVID-19 presents challenges that no GPS could guide us through.  A seemingly shifting terrain with ever-changing weather patterns.

“Whichever camp we sit in, we need to be kind to each other, try to empathise and understand each other’s perspectives, and give each other a little extra grace: we’re all doing the best we can.”  (Birchenough)

So, in the forefront of my thoughts is this, yet occupying seemingly larger recesses of my mind, is the question many are considering; begging for time to answer.  “What will school look like post pandemic?”  I consider myself humble, yet there is ONE thing I do definitely know.  With all the speculation and ambivalence that everything will go back to normal, or a “new normal,” I flat out disagree.  There is no going back!  If nothing else, students, teachers, and families have all eaten from the “apple” that fell from the tree.  Call it the Tree of Knowledge or better yet, the Corona Tree.  In this case knowledge gained from direct experience.

 

Why an Apple?

Bing Crosby sang about apples in his 1939 hit, “An Apple for a Teacher.”  And before this, popular lore dates back to the 1700s where in Sweden and Denmark, baskets of apples were given to teachers as a sort of payment for a child’s education.  Then there are stories connecting apple giving to teachers as a result of a popular phrase, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.”  Gifting a teacher with a healthy snack was a token of appreciation and a possible way to get on the teacher’s good side.  Is it ironic if we further consider that this same fruit is the name of one of the world’ largest computer companies?  Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple Inc. is quoted as saying the origins of the company’s name were, “Partly because I like apples a lot and partially because Apple is ahead of Atari in the phone book and I used to work at Atari.”

 

Post WWI and WWII

No one would be so naive as to claim that life post either of the World Wars, just went back to normal.  Facts and stories about this have compiled volumes. Lives the world over, cultures forever changed.  The effects being almost written in the human DNA.  For simplicity sake, take the role of technology pre and post WWI as but one example of change.  “France only had 140 aircraft when war began, but by the end of it, it had used around 4,500” (https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/45966335).  But what about the role of women, medical innovations, and political borders?

The effects of the wars were gruesome and violent yet, inherent in survival was change.  A moving forward and not expecting life to be how it was.  Positively, there was a surge in arts and a sort of counter-revolution. The arts a means for memorializing the dead. Sculpture, painting, song, and memoire but a few examples.  It is possible today’s war with Corona is stimulating a similar shift.  Sidewalk art, along with rainbows and teddy bears in windows are glimpses of both solidarity and artistry.   Yet, what I imagine is more pervasive in its invisibility but also ubiquity.  The whole world over, the pandemic has forced our hand to adapt.  And humans are masters of adapting.

Whether we like virtual learning or not, and regardless of our deeming it a success or not, both may as well be mute points.  For the reality is, the wheels on the bus continue to go round and round.  The pandemic has forced our hand.  Virtual learning it is!  Many critics point to the ever-widening achievement gap and expanding inequities.  I would agree.  Yet, looking at where we are and where we want to be, seems to be the gravest consideration.  To do this, it would behoove us to answer the question, “What is the purpose of school?”

 

Why School?

The deep-seated roots of and role of tradition, combined with “this is the way it’s always been” practices of the institution, are collapsing.  At least during the reign of Corona.   Steeped in nearly 400 years of structure, compliance has overshadowed our school houses.  Virtual learning has not provided for this control.  There no longer is a “front” of the classroom, though a teacher may still be able to “mute” a student.  The lecture approach neither captivating nor effective.  For many, virtual learning is an experience of less than 8 weeks.  We cannot forget how in the scope of education as we know it, this is but a blip in time.  Yet, one that continues to leave an indelible mark.

 

I just hope we open our arms and hearts wide to the possibility of what school can be.  For me, this means continuing to expand in kindness, empathy, and creativity.