Status Quo or Time for Transformation
Every Monday I share a different ed tech quote on our Thompson Classroom social media pages for our staff to consider.
Education is under fire across North America as we grapple with developing programming admits another wave in the Covid-19 pandemic; this time fueled through the omicron variant. Educators, parents, students, and community stakeholders are trying to find answers to questions such as:
- what upgrades can be completed to school ventilation systems?
- what type of masks are available to staff and students?
- will school cases be documented and communicated?
- how will we address widespread absenteeism of students and staff?
- how do we ensure programming consistency?
It feels as though there are multiple unanswered questions and that many of the proposed solutions are delayed due to insufficient supply availability and bureaucratic red-tape. Caught in the eye of the storm are teachers who are doing everything they can to “hold it all together” and continue to produce the classroom environments they were used to pre-Covid, while envisioning how this may just be the catalyst to change the face of education as we know it.
In the absence of satisfactory results from government, several “grass roots” movements have popped up to advocate for action including:
- MB K-12 Student Exposure Crowdsourced Dashboard
- MB K-12 & Childcare Exposure Tracking on Twitter (2021 onwards)
- COVID School Cases MB 2020/21 on Twitter (2020-2021)
- MB Students for Covid Safety on Instagram
These platforms have provided transparency and security for community members, teachers, and students who desire further information.
I feel confident that the vast majority of teachers wish they had their students with them face-to-face consistently. However, this doesn’t mean that all of these teachers feel comfortable teaching through a global pandemic. It is no secret the burnout is a very real concern for educators (both before the pandemic and now).
So that leaves me to question…..
Is all of our efforts to, “get back to normal”, what we should be aiming for right now? Is this the time to, “reproduce the world” in an effort to achieve 2019-experiences or is now the time to change?