I often say that beyond classroom teachers, most people don’t think much (or probably care much) about instructional practices.  When families make choices about where to send kids to school, they are usually interested in what programs are offered, college-acceptance rates, or even more practical considerations like distance from home.  Of course parents want inviting, rigorous, and supportive classroom learning environments for their children, but they don’t necessarily pay much attention to the specific instructional practices being used by teachers.  I’ve never had a parent ask me “how are the think-pair-shares at your school?”

And then last month parents were forced into a more formal instructional provider role.  Of course, we have always seen parents as the first teachers of our students, but providing formal academic instruction is often done by a professional educator.  All of a sudden, everyone is starting to wonder – “how do I facilitate learning at home?” not to mention wondering how in the world a teacher manages to direct the learning of 30-40 kids in a classroom.

Basically, the black box of the classroom – literally what happens day to day in terms of instruction – has been broken open.  As an Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning, I have perhaps never been busier.  Every single aspect of the work that we do as teachers or administrators has had to be renegotiated.  How long should we expect students to do academic work on a daily basis?  How do we provide supports to address the social/emotional needs of our students?  How do we support children at different age and skill levels in the same household simultaneously?  How do we encourage and facilitate social interactions amongst peers?  All of a sudden, the entire community and even many of our professional staff need additional instructional capacity.

In some ways, this represents one of the most exciting moments in our professional lives as educators.  Of course what brought us to this point is absolutely tragic.  None of us wanted this pandemic, and the long term economic and social costs won’t be entirely understood for years to come.  But despite our current circumstances, we have to move forward.  All of a sudden, mainstream America is keenly interested in how teaching and learning works.  Yes, we must address the short term emergency situation we are facing.  That work has occupied a tremendous amount of time and focus during the past few weeks.  The more important question will be how do we learn from this situation and build more inclusive, engaging, and meaningful learning environments and experiences for our students in the future.

Jeannie Oakes, a prominent education researcher, introduced the concept of the “zone of mediation,” which is basically a term for the range of possible solutions that stakeholders with conflicting viewpoints are willing to consider.  In a sense, I believe that our current situation may move the zone of mediation for what parents, teachers, and even students will consider as realistic and desirable instructional environments and experiences for student learning.  While I don’t believe our current situation of virtual-only interaction will become the “new-normal” (nor would I want that for students), I do believe that this will open up opportunities to add some personalized learning modalities to the instructional toolkits of our professional educators. I also think it will raise awareness and interest in the instructional work that our teachers do every day to support the learning of our children.