Affirmation in a Post-Pandemic Return to School

As we prepare to return to what we hope will be a post-pandemic school year, everyone will benefit from affirmation.

We need reassurance that we’ll find the path, even though it will look different from pre-pandemic times. We have learned so much in the past 16 months. How can coaches help teachers hang onto the best of that? One way is to affirm what we have seen working, and to use affirmation in an ongoing way to affirm what we see working in our new context. 

Let’s not pretend that it won’t be new. During writing camps for elementary and secondary students this summer, I heard teachers describe their students’ insights and challenges, both of which seemed magnified. The summer camp was a first return to school for many of them, who had signed up for remote learning during the 2020-21 school year. Others had had face-to-face experiences that were disrupted by quarantines and by appropriately-relaxed expectations. How will we return to accountability? What should that even mean? How will we honor the individualized learning that so many students pursued? What technology will we hold on to? What scripts can we let go of?

I don’t know the answers to these questions, and you probably don’t either. But I think we should keep questions like these at the forefront as we return to school. Teachers will be figuring this out. And when we see someone who is navigating these uncharted waters in a successful way, we should acknowledge and affirm. We should share and hope that these positive impacts spread.

Language that affirms the classroom teacher’s knowledge and expertise causes deep thinking and reflection.*  When coaches attend to the positive, life-giving elements we see, we galvanize energy and ready teachers for ongoing success. The energy gained can be directed toward sustaining positives and revising aspects that are going less well.

As we prepare to return to school in a post-pandemic world, let’s prepare to explore the strengths, successes, and possibilities of teachers and students. It’s time to get out the rose-colored glasses.

National Council of Teachers of English (2020). Elevating Student Voice: The Role and Importance of Literacy Coaches for K–12 Teachers. https://ncte.org/statement/elevating-student-voice/.

This week, you might want to take a look at:
 
How coaching and teacher are alike:
 
https://itsaboutmakingspace.wordpress.com/2021/07/01/coaching-is-teaching/
 
 
Eight spaces for your coaching room (if you’re lucky enough to have one!):
 
http://buzzingwithmsb.blogspot.com/2021/07/what-goes-in-coaching-office-space-ep.html
 
A podcast about SEL:
 
https://www.teachingchannel.com/podcast?utm_source=newsletter20170218/
 
Thinking about language: School loss, not learning loss:
 
https://www.gettingsmart.com/2021/01/getting-clearer-schooling-loss-not-learning-loss/
 
This video with a perspective about post-pandemic schools:
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LC4YFenynI
 
 
That’s it for this week.  Happy Coaching!
 
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