Keeping the Good

Slowing the country is opening up again and I’ve learned many new things during my self-quarantine. I’ve learned a lot personally and professionally.

·      I learned that I really don’t need a lot of material things to keep me happy.

·      I learned that I’m more thankful for my good health than ever before.

·      I learned that I love technology and would be lost without it.

·      I learned that I can save a lot of money if I need to.

·      I learned that I read a lot more books when I wasn’t distracted by life.

But I also learned a lot of things involving teaching and learning.

·     
I learned how valuable video conferencing can be.

·      I learned that we can teach children online (I used to think this was mainly for adults).

·      I learned that there are lots of useful resources online that can be used for teaching.

·      I learned that the whole world struggled together to teach children and we can learn a lot from each other when this happens.

·      I learned that learning standards and curriculum is not as important as many thought it was.

·      I learned that students can be creative when it involves learning.

I hope that when we return to brick and mortar schools, that we don’t forget all the things we learned and that we keep the good things.

There are many things that teachers did to teach students online that they can continue to do in the regular classroom. Many strategies and techniques can be useful during face to face learning. Technology can still be a part of instruction and should continue to be in case we have another pandemic. Next time we will be more prepared for a situation like this.

At first online teaching/learning was inconvenient and after a while we became comfortable with it. Now it is the new normal until things change again. And I don’t think that change is all that bad. It keeps us on our toes and keeps our teaching fresh. The important thing is to remember that when things change, we need to keep the good that we learned.

What good things have you learned? Please share.

Photo by Volkan Olmez on Unsplash