Aaron Tombrella’s article on ‘Revising Your Teaching Philosophy for This Crisis’ is going to bring new insights for sure.
Like many teachers around the nation, I recently went from face-to-face teaching to online teaching with little time to prep. I first tried to emulate my normal daily procedures virtually—I thought the consistency and familiarity would be beneficial. I was wrong: Although I was doing what I thought was my best for students, there was an overall lack of engagement, even with these familiar procedures in place.
I was discouraged. I knew where I needed to go, but I couldn’t see how to get there. When we received confirmation that we would not return to school for the rest of the school year, I took a weekend to reflect. If I was lost during this time, my students surely were too.
I was trying to engage my students in a manner similar to what I had used under typical circumstances. But the reality was that these were not typical circumstances. This was a crisis, and attempts to stay on the same path were futile. To help me chart my path forward, I needed to revisit my teaching philosophy and apply that philosophy to the new situation.