If you can't pick the outcome, then you gotta chose how you process the situation that is standing in front of you.
(Skip the next paragraph if you're not a fan of edu-stories)
I'll try to be brief... I was born in Costa Rica (this'll be a short story, promise). I was made fun of and beat up because of the way I spoke or simply because I wasn't "from here". During my 6th grade year I was surrounded by 8th grade boys on bikes who were, previous to this moment, my friends. They were led by a guy who was never my friend. They all got off their bikes and had a long Algonquin discussion concerning who would get to beat me up for "being from ...uh....uh... uh Puerto Rico" (close enough, I thought when I heard them say this instead of Costa Rica). The biggest guy walked up to me and, all I could think of as a pretty normal and likeable 11/12 year old, was "I'm not going to be able to get away... and I don't like any of the other obvious options... what do I do? How badly will this hurt?".***
Welp... we're all in that moment right now. Covid aint going away. We are barreling through a new world together.
We can't get away. So our choice is the same as the one I had to make back in my South Central Irving, Texas days. How will I act in this moment where none of the options are ones I'd care to go through.
In our convenient 7-11/Target/Amazon.com world where we get what we want, when we want... we have to finally face something as a world that deeply affects us all. There is no quick solution to this. We can't put it on our credit cards and pay this decision off over the next few years.
In our previous life, a few long months ago, we lived in a system that was largely about maintenance.
We drove the same routes to work, talked to largely the same people, ate largely the same things, and compared ourselves to a similar past. It was a life of maintenance. We maintained the good stuff and worked hard to move forward for even better stuff. Even when we took chances, it was from a fairly stable foundation.
We were and are Sisyphus rolling our massive bolder up hill, knowing it would roll back down eventually. The next school year, we'd begin our eternal task again...but at least we were familiar with the bolder and the hill.
Covid, our new boulder or hill or maybe both, slowly (and not so slowly) destroyed our routine. We are left to cobble together a new normal. We are now in creation mode and, for educators, we know that creation is at the top of Bloom's Taxonomy. In other words, it's hard and there isn't a fill in the blank template.
When I work with teachers in their classrooms, I take lots of notes. Like, a lot... a lot.
I do this so I can be as detailed as possible when sharing my lens with the teacher. We can better triangulate the reality of the classroom and move forward and celebrate together when we compare contrast what I saw, what the teacher intended, and what the students (via interviews and surveys) experienced. A 3-D view of the classroom develops out of this so our celebrations can be real and meaningful ones (for all of us).
We NEED to celebrate as much as we can in our current climate.
However, I also keep track of challenges. Not to demean or focus on problems, but to connect to challenges that may be experienced campus-wide.
When a teacher, in their isolation, is trying to address a campus-wide issue while thinking it's a classroom issue... well those teacher tend to get super stressed, burnt out, and wonder why they can't "fix" the issue. It's that proverbial iceberg that is monstrous, but mostly hidden. For example, if administrators are not monitoring the hallways during passing periods and students come into the classroom late (and this is happening campus wide) then teacher efforts, in isolation, will only go so far and help so much. It will be an emotional and energy drain on that teacher to try to "fix" the campus issue.
Likewise, with COVID, we have, not a campus wide issues, but a global and historical issue that has found it's way into our classrooms. The old rules barely apply. We have to create new ones. Your students who used to get distracted by SnapChat pics are now distracted by mom and dad not having a job. Your students who are at home learning... they're doing it in isolation with little support network and little motivation.
know... keep at bay the distraction of a Global Pandemic. Within their four walls, they are forced, we are all forced, to confront this pandemic as we experience it... we almost have to treat it as a classroom issue.
But, you can't and you shouldn't. It's not your fault and you will not fix it using the old ways and the old system. Heck, you may not be able to "fix" it at all... but you can model for your students how to process it.
You are creating a new system which will be wrought with trial and errors...and errors...and errors.
All of the education books you read in the past and the educations classes you took, didn't take into account a pandemic and therefore all will, to a degree, fall short of the moment.
Advise?
Start with Maslow's before you move on to Bloom's.
What I mean by this is that if Maslow's needs aren't being met then students won't even care about the lowest level of Bloom's Taxonomy.
There is a nice alignment between Self Actualization (top of Maslow's) and all of Bloom's. After all, don't we self actualize via education?
And, to continue, if student's Esteem or Love/Belonging levels on Maslow's aren't met... will they ever get to the Knowledge or Comprehension levels?
So, in this Covid maelstrom or craziness... In this creation or (re)creation of the system of education... In this death of the old maintenance system of education... Start your day and start your classes off with Maslow before you get to Bloom's... and don't back down.
*** To circle back to the story from the top, for those of you who need answers and finality... John did punch me pretty hard in the face. Without thinking, I reached up and punched him back. His reaction? "You have five seconds to walk away." I knew I had won at that point... which is another reason why I love those lines "Hey, baby, there aint no easy way out. Hey, I will stand my ground. And I won't back down."
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