Edutopia’s Heather Wolpert-Gawron has published an article on new norms in education due to the pandemic.
Heather says, “Remember when you had growth spurts as a teenager and your joints hurt because you grew, like, four inches overnight? For schools, 2020 has been a bit like that. It hurts to grow sometimes, but it’s necessary. And, whether we’re ready or not, education is evolving.
Reflecting helps us process our growth. So as we wrap up this difficult year and look toward the next one, I thought I’d reflect on what may prove sticky and what I hope will retain a permanent place in education.
Now, I’m not talking about technological growth. Heaven knows, we’ve all done a lot of that! From Zoom to Google Classroom, Flipgrid to Nearpod, we’ve all been building our edtech tool kit throughout this time.
Pedagogical growth is the kind of growth we need to recharge and reimagine education. I’m also talking about something I’m calling “educational character” growth. It’s the flipping of priorities in order to address achievement, or the reprioritizing of community and compassion over content as a means to positively impact curriculum and student achievement”.