One of the things that I have missed the most during our shift to virtual learning has been getting into classrooms on a daily basis.  Of course I’ve had lots of opportunities to jump into virtual classroom sessions, but it’s not quite the same.  One of the things that I love most about working in education is that the human interaction with students is always energizing.  Even when you have a slow morning, as soon as the kids come in it boosts the energy level immediately.  On my first day with students in hybrid mode, I had a chance to visit each classroom on campus.  In some ways I felt like I learned more about our students and the school in those few hours than I had in an entire semester of online learning.  

Admittedly, I am still a big fan of how we’ve added virtual spaces and interactions into our regular work routines.  We have much higher participation in parent meetings and other special meetings when they are offered virtually.  Even on a personal level, it is nice to be able to eat dinner with my family at home before jumping on an evening call with senior parents or a hybrid learning Q&A session with our school community.  I am confident that virtual evening meetings will continue to be an important feature of our parent and community engagement.  I also think there is an important place for hybrid learning on a regular basis.  Perhaps not exactly the hybrid learning that we have had to put into place to meet health regulations and protocols, but rather the idea of students continuing to learn in the virtual space while they also attend in-person instruction.  It’s still too early to tell how the structures of schools will change in the long term due to the pandemic, but I’m always eager to take the best of distance learning and integrate it into our school schedule and design.  

Yet, for all of the positives of distance learning, I have been reminded over the past couple weeks of why I love the classroom so much.  Strong classroom teachers know that meaningful, personalized learning starts with a foundation of strong personal relationships.  Yes, those relationships can be developed through an internet connection, but it simply cannot compare to the in-person experience.  As humans, we crave the in-person experience.   

It’s amazing how being in a classroom for just a few minutes can provide you with so much insight and information about how our staff engage students.  Many of our teachers have a visibilly warm and affectionate energy with students, while some others interact in more structured ways.  While high expectations and respectful regard for students are universal requirements, I believe that instruction of the highest quality often draws on a variety of strategies. I am a firm believer that part of the socialization and growth benefit of schools is that our young people are exposed to teachers with a variety of management and instructional styles and practices.  It is much easier for me to see those expectations and strategies in practice across the school when I can visit classrooms.  Perhaps it’s also a result of my years observing in-person classroom instruction.  Frankly, I’m not as good at seeing the underlying structures and expectation levels in a fully virtual classroom.  Getting a read of the class is especially tough, when students screen aren’t on, as any teacher can attest.  Of course being on screen all day long can be exhausting, and I’ve read plenty of student self-care checklists begging teachers not to be overly strict about cameras, but checking for understanding and surveying the room for understanding can be particularly hard when you can’t see the students.  There are good strategies for quickly checking for understanding in a virtual environment, but they are not usually as intuitive as when you are in a classroom.  

In any case, educators and administrators around the world are making the adjustments as best they can in terms of providing meaningful observations and feedback of distance learning.  I’m very eager to continue learning and improving my own skill set in this regard as an administrator.  But I am also grateful that I have the chance again to be in classrooms and see the magic of learning happening right there in the room.