WEBVTT
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21 C L
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radio.
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Hello everybody.
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My name is Michael bowl and welcome to the education Vanguard.
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Great to have you here.
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Still continuing our focus a lot on virtual learning and today I've got the head of an Academy in Hong Kong.
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Stephen Deere is the head of Hong Kong Academy and a seven week veteran of virtual schooling.
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Our discussion today left me with a much clearer pathway forward
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for my own new journey into virtual learning and will hopefully give some ideas to all regardless of where you are on the virtual learning journey.
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Enjoy the conversation.
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Steve there.
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Thanks so much for joining me on the program today.
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Thank you.
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Good to be here.
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All right, so as the head of an international school in Hong Kong, you guys have been closed for about seven weeks now and I'd write, could you take me back to that moment?
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You realize this school would be closed for some period of time.
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What were your first thoughts?
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Um, more.
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My first thought was why did they announce this on the first day of my holiday?
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Um, we had just commenced the Chinese new year break and for many of us we'd already started to take our flights out of Hong Kong into different parts of the world.
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And in essence we landed to find out that the, uh, Chinese new year break would be extended for, um, at that time for two weeks.
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So we had a mindset that we were repairing for online classes for about two weeks.
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So I mean, is it a scramble?
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I mean, the assumption that I guess I'm thinking is that you guys can't come back in those two weeks.
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So are people out and all over the place making it even more difficult?
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Well, that did make it difficult.
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There was some, obviously there were some advantages because um, there was, there was no classes that week.
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It actually gave the leadership team an opportunity to sit down and prepare for what was coming.
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So although we were spread far and wide, there was some people still on the campus, others over the different time zones.
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And that gave us a chance to, um, start practicing our online meetings, um, and begin to start modeling some of these sorts of ideas.
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But it did give us a chance to think about, um, what did we want to do going forward for those two weeks.
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Um, and in the meantime, uh, we sent a letter out to the community confirming that the campus would be close for two weeks.
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And that gave us a little bit of time to say in three or four days time you'll receive a more comprehensive communication from the school outlining how all this is actually going to work from that first Monday back.
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So what did that look like the first Monday back and you know, we'll have to ask what's it look like now seven weeks later?
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And what were the initial phases looking like from a parent and a student point of view?
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For us, the first thing was, is that we wanted to make sure that we could get some time so that we could really think about what were realistic in terms of our expectations and all this.
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Although that, that stage of the campus was close to the students, we were still able to bring faculty and staff onto the campus.
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So those first two days that we came back, we really set up, um, some activities for the kids to do.
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It was all of a better word.
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It was more busy work is extension of things that they'd already been doing in the classrooms.
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So it was additional reading finish off assignments.
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We set some activities whilst we could really strategize how could we could sort of facilitate the continuity of the program.
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So the first Monday back was really getting people initiated with online programs.
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And then the second day teachers began to start interacting with students to begin to set things out and we ran it slightly differently for primary and secondary for the primary school.
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Uh, we have, uh, in these last few weeks, we've posted all the learning and advanced for the students, um, generally a weeks at week ahead and the parents and the students have been able to review that information.
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And then day to day the teachers have been touching base with the students.
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Um, generally with the parents involved in this as well.
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Um, two to three times a day in the secondary school, we tried to make sure that we could run classes as if they were on campus, in essence just running those online.
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But we offered two different services.
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One of those was really to run synchronously where the kids can follow the, um, the learning in real time and recognizing that some kids were in different time zones, others could actually work asynchronously so they could switch on at whatever time, and then they could follow the recordings, um, and the work assignments that had been set by the teachers.
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So this sounds structured almost like you did it in advance.
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It, did you come up with this idea in the beginning of this sort of structure and ended up and does stuck with it?
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Or did you have one and they ended up modifying it?
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I think one thing to preface is that we have, um, been fairly familiar with using technology at the school.
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We run a one-to-one laptop program with the kids.
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Um, obviously it's embedded within a lot of the learning that goes on.
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Uh, we even actually have some kids taking online courses, um, in the grades 11 and 12.
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So there is a sense of familiarity.
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I would also say as well with the, um, the political situation in Hong Kong and the subsequent closures that we had earlier in the year, it gave us a little bit of an opportunity for a week period to be able to start planning some of these ideas, although we hadn't really planned it to this level for this extended amount of time.
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So there was a sense of familiarity.
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We had already started working the teachers and the students, uh, knew how to access many of the programs.
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And what that allowed us to do was to know what structures we already had in place, what were the teachers comfortable with, what do we think the students could manage depending on their age levels.
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And that really allowed us to set realistic expectations.
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Um, and that's been very helpful in this process.
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Um, so that, uh, we can manage the expectations within the school and of the parents and the students at home.
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So you have a process that's working for you.
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What do you, how do you know, what sort of mechanisms do you look for feedback?
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I'm guessing probably parent interaction that lets you know that you guys have a process that's going to work the best that it can.
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Yes, different ranges of feedback.
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One of the things that we've found in this process is that unlike teachers working in a classroom where they have a great sense of familiarity about how to do things, they run, you know, automatically sometimes.
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Um, there's sometimes a, you can sometimes overt or miss out a step on feedback.
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Whereas now because, um, a lot of this is new, there's been a great deal of openness to check that kids understand things to make sure that the learning is accessible and in essence it seems to have elevated the sense of vulnerability.
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That willingness to say, I don't have all of the answers.
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I want to check that I'm doing this the right way.
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And if we look at the positive out of this and something that we hope is sustainable, the way in which this is really elevated our partnerships, we've been asking questions, is this working?
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How is this working, what would you like to learn next?
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And we've been getting very, um, sort of re regular and quick feedback, which we've been able to make adjustments along the way.
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So that's really been helpful in this process.
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And also thinking about fee cap feedback to kids, assignments and work.
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Um, there's three areas that we've really looked at.
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There's been a greater sense of self assessment, teaching kids how to self assess their work, um, thinking about questions that they might ask, particularly when they're in their single environment.
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We've done a lot more on peer assessments as well, so we're, we're actually bringing kids up on screens, um, and trying to help them to take turns in listening and presenting ideas and really encouraging them to comment on each other's work in an open forum.
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And then obviously thinking about the way in which teachers can give meaningful feedback, um, in an all learn online environment.
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I'm curious, you know, we probably had an expectation of how this was all going to go, but now seven weeks later, what surprised you the most about all of this?
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That you just didn't expect?
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What happened that it could be a challenge or a victory and whatever.
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Well, if we look at the sort of the process in the very beginning stages, the, a lot of the focus was on about structures.
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Did you have the programs?
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How are we going to do this?
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And it was really how do you facilitate learning?
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As time has gone on, there's been a much greater shift emphasis on wellbeing for teachers, for students and also for parents who have found themselves, I think a lot more involved in the learning process.
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So that some of those things have been a little surprising.
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Um, and what we've actually found is, is that as a community, the sense of resilience that have come from people, particularly as the, um, I suppose the end point keeps changing over the time and the uncertainty, just how well people come together as a community and how creative that they are to keep wellbeing going, keep the learning going, how they're trying to work with each other.
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And there's the self efficacy that has come out of this has been really impressive.
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I wonder too if there's a change in attitude.
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So if I am not from Hong Kong, I might've thought to myself early on, you know, I'm going to go back to my home country and just enroll my kids there.
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Now I'm like, Oh, I don't have that choice.
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I think I'd rather hang out at Hong Kong Academy where they know what's going on and they're already far into it.
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Have you seen a change in tone because of that, these new realities?
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Uh, we have actually seen some of that, particularly in the last couple of weeks.
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Um, one of the things that we were really, um, emphasizing was the sense of flexibility as much as we can because when there's high emotions, uh, and you're trying to support a community and things are being done differently as, as much as, as flexible as we can be, we felt was going to be as helpful as well as keeping it manageable.
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And some parents did choose to take their children back to, um, some public schools out in the States and enroll their children there.
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And we worked with families to basically say, if that's the choice that you wanted to make, you can choose to follow the online learning.
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What we will ask is when you come back, we'll just ask for a brief report and update on the child's progress in that sort of context and then we will work to reintegrate them back into things.
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What we're finding now, particularly as this has become a global Kapan DEMEC is that those families are coming straight back here now.
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That was my next question.
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How can imagine, yes.
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Uh, you know, and, and I suppose, um, we have been, I'm going to blow our own trumpet and we'll be here.
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I think we've done a pretty good job of actually supporting families and students online under the circumstances and that's put us well placed to continuity schools that are just starting on this journey now where we were, we were seven weeks ago and where we are now different places, but we're dealing with different things at the same time.
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You know, we, we can, um, we were able to think about now what are the way, what sort of things have been challenging for the kids?
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What's working well for you?
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And being able to adapt for those.
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And you can only really get that as a consequence of being involved in this.
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So I want to ask you a question about work workload or just work in itself versus community.
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So I w I would imagine, at least in my frame of mind at the beginning, it's like, Oh, how am I going to deliver the curriculum, make sure they do the work.
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And then I think as you go along it might be like, well, how do I create a sense of community so we feel like we're in this together.
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Did you go through that sort of shift as well?
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That continuum?
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Very much so.
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And I think that sense of working together as being very much a common theme.
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We communicate regularly with the community.
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So there's circulars that come out from, from, from me, also from the principals and we're generally even daily from the teachers.
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But there it's just people keeping people connected.
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And we've also tried some very, very creative things.
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Um, uh, one of the things that we recognize is that whilst we could get the traditional academics covered through the online programs, it was much more difficult to do things like sports programs or some of the more practical things or even parents, teacher student conferences.
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So we ran a virtual sports day for example, which went down very, very well.
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It's removing something that's brought the community together.
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Um, and you know, we've published quite a lot on this, but it was just really the creativity thinking we need to ensure that we recognize balance of curriculum is something that we would offer to the kids in school.
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And we need to think about ways of doing this.
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And in essence, you don't have to have all of the answers.
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People come up with great ideas.
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So we set up a studio in the school.
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Uh, we had, uh, it was more like an ESPN or a sports center where a few of the teachers would begin to, um, demonstrate events for the kids.
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Kids were going to go and do these things at home.
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They would send him videos or scores and then the teachers would talk about, you know, what they'd observed on the videos, ways in which you could actually improve things.
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And it was a really good, um, fun for the kids and for the community.
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Last week we ran, um, we have a coffee house that we run twice a year.
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It's where kids can deliver poetry, they can, um, sing songs, they can work in bands.
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And once again, we got kids to make these things at home.
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We put them together and then it was a projected out to the community online.
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And we know that this is working because we get constant feedback from the families being thankful, feeling connected to the school.
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Even under these circumstances, we run online parent teacher, student conferences for the first time, we weren't quite sure about how that would work.
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And in fact the feedback from the parents was very good.
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They would say, we've got all of the information, we've connected with the teachers and in some sense there's been advantages because there's no wait time or you don't have to travel to and from the school.
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And I can sit with my child and speak with the teacher.
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And what is making us realize is that there are other ways to do things and they can be really successful on these online platforms.
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And I do believe that when we move beyond this that there is a great opportunity to actually enhance learning in the classrooms because of the experience that we've had.
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Yeah.
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I know you want to talk about lessons in the longterm
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after you return to school and you brought that up right now.
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Do you have some of those lessons now that you think, let's say we start back in the fall and you're back are all face to face.
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You thought these are the three things I want to make sure that we now take to heart.
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Do you have some of those?
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Yeah.
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One of those, um, I would say we've already touched upon is that sense of being open to feedback.
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What would this tortoise in this piece is the elevating the voice of the community and giving them an opportunity and setting the expectation that please tell us how this is working, publishing what they've said.
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And then being able to say these are the adjustments we've made is a great way to continue to build community.
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And that's one thing that I very much hope will continue, um, as we, um, get back into the classrooms.
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The second thing I think is, is, has been a real revelation for us is that sense of um, inclusivity in a classroom setting.
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Classroom settings are often very much favorable to the motor verbal students, you know, they have lots to say.
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They're the ones that can often sort of like lead the dynamics within a classroom setting.
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What we found as an online platform is that when teachers are asking questions, there's been a greater sense of pausing and giving kids processing time and then not just people speaking, but people writing things online.
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And some of the teachers have actually commented that this is actually engaged a larger group of kids in the process.
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And wouldn't it be nice when we come back that we actually continue to have those discussions and those conversations and that we offer an online platform where kids can choose which they feel most comfortable with.
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Some children prefer the anonymity of being an a behind a screen.
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You want to participate and this gives them permission and it gives them a frame in which they can actually do that.
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And the third thing that I would say is, um, what this is really teaching us a lot about is kids independence and giving kids choices.
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One of the things that kids have come back as if said in terms of some of the positives and what's working well for them is the choice they have about when they want to learn how they want to learn.
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And um, in some sense it's helped them utilize their time better.
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Sometimes we get very anchored in you need to learn this, you need to do it by this time.
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And giving kids choice, giving them an opportunity to plan their day in the way they want to hopefully will be something that carries forward.
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What we do know is that, um, people are desperate to go back to sort of normalcy, um, going back into the classrooms, what they're familiar with.
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And this won't, if we just assume, Oh, well we learned two of these lessons and now let's just go back to the classrooms.
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We're going to have to think really carefully about how we continue to elevate these learnings and the ways in which we frame it in the classrooms.
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Otherwise, these will get lost very, very quickly.
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Yeah, there's a good point.
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I wonder too, as far as the teacher's workload, I'm a middle school teacher and middle school students are kind of designed for this.
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You know, they're, they're ready to go on their laptop.
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Uh, but what if, but what about like an elementary school teacher, middle school, and high school teacher?
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Which group do you think has it the hardest?
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Or am I asking you the question?
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Like which child do you love the most?
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Um, well, I'm an early childhood teacher by trade, so, um, I, I think it's different for different students.
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One of the things that we found with the very early childhood education, this has been more challenging for us.
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It's involved a lot more parents participation and as you've ever, you worked with three or four year olds, you know, it's a very physically demanding piece and I think it remains so on, um, on online.
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What the teachers have really tried to do is just keep the connectivity, talking to the kids, reading to the kids, um, even sort of like doing lots of presentations and keeping it fun and upbeat so that the kids have that sense of connection with the older kids.
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There has been a sort of a greater sense of independence.
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But I would say universally this is tough for teachers.
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This is learning to be a teacher.
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Again, teachers have, some of them have described it of like being on teaching practicums again, how long we work late into the night to plan everything.
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Just so, and this is all new territory.
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So not only they trying to actually provide access to learning, they themselves are learning the best tools, the best technology in which to do this.
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And a lot of experimentation and I would probably say teachers are pretty exhausted right now, but the offer and the way which they are going about this for my perspective is commendable.
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So they're exhausted.
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Even in week seven.
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Yes.
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This, this, this is not going to let up because everything continues to be so new.
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Nothing is static in this process and we're dealing with different things all the time.
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Stevie, I'd like to finish up here with uh, you know, you had a focus in the beginning, which was probably just creating something to get things going.
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[inaudible] seven weeks in.
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Let's could you let us know like what are you thinking about now?
00:20:06.471 --> 00:20:07.819
What are you focusing on now?
00:20:09.769 --> 00:20:29.660
Um, a lot of work is going on to wellbeing and trying to ensure that there is a breadth of curriculum and you know, some of the things that the kids have articulated in terms of what's challenging for them is they are missing things like their social life, their sports, their after school activities.
00:20:29.990 --> 00:20:35.900
So that is ways in which we can try and supplement that in the best form that we can.
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Even if it's reminding kids to take a break, go out there and do things.
00:20:41.269 --> 00:20:45.559
Um, you know, some kids have said this is less enjoyable than school.
00:20:45.769 --> 00:20:59.049
And so we really to keep this humorous and upbeat, um, and you know, many of the things that we're being asked to do now really run cult, uh, counter to what we are as social human beings.
00:20:59.349 --> 00:21:02.769
Don't touch your face, don't touch your nose, don't shake hands.
00:21:03.039 --> 00:21:11.920
And it's just trying to find fun ways of, of, of reminding ourselves of that being social and being connected is really, really important.
00:21:12.339 --> 00:21:18.880
And finally I would say is, is that, you know, we can never take for granted that this isn't challenging for everyone.
00:21:19.119 --> 00:21:36.670
And you know, when people feel overwhelmed, whether it's parents, teachers, or students, reminding them to ask for help and making sure that we provide the structures, whether it's videos to show how people, how to do things, making sure you can connect with a person and making it okay to say, this is really tough.
00:21:37.000 --> 00:21:41.079
And accepting of that and feeling comfortable to share that with people.
00:21:41.080 --> 00:21:56.710
So we run some parent groups where we've tried to get people to come together online so they can talk about the experience themselves, how they can support each other and, and that is helping and I think we're going to see more of this as we go forward for the next three or four weeks.
00:21:57.519 --> 00:21:57.519
Okay.
00:21:57.589 --> 00:21:59.720
Steve, thank you so much for all your information.
00:21:59.721 --> 00:22:05.059
I know there's going to be a ton of people out there enjoying and listening to what you have to say has given a great roadmap.
00:22:05.240 --> 00:22:11.240
I mean I could just speaking for myself, for many of us that are just entering this phase and are ideas for those of us who've been on the path already,
00:22:12.690 --> 00:22:13.529
thank you very much.
00:22:13.530 --> 00:22:14.609
And I'd say good luck.
00:22:14.759 --> 00:22:25.619
And the last thing I would say is yes, amazing how resourceful people are in these situations and you find yourself doing things you couldn't have imagined in a very short space of time.
00:22:26.359 --> 00:22:28.099
And that's the kind of thing we certainly want to hear.
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So that's good news.
00:22:30.559 --> 00:22:33.710
This interview was brought to you by 21st century learning international.
00:22:33.950 --> 00:22:37.849
Find us on the web@twentyoneclradio.com.
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21 C L
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radio.
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Hello everybody.
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My name is Michael bowl and welcome to the education Vanguard.
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Great to have you here.
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Still continuing our focus a lot on virtual learning and today I've got the head of an Academy in Hong Kong.
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Stephen Deere is the head of Hong Kong Academy and a seven week veteran of virtual schooling.
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Our discussion today left me with a much clearer pathway forward
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for my own new journey into virtual learning and will hopefully give some ideas to all regardless of where you are on the virtual learning journey.
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Enjoy the conversation.
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Steve there.
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Thanks so much for joining me on the program today.
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Thank you.
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Good to be here.
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All right, so as the head of an international school in Hong Kong, you guys have been closed for about seven weeks now and I'd write, could you take me back to that moment?
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You realize this school would be closed for some period of time.
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What were your first thoughts?
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Um, more.
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My first thought was why did they announce this on the first day of my holiday?
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Um, we had just commenced the Chinese new year break and for many of us we'd already started to take our flights out of Hong Kong into different parts of the world.
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And in essence we landed to find out that the, uh, Chinese new year break would be extended for, um, at that time for two weeks.
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So we had a mindset that we were repairing for online classes for about two weeks.
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So I mean, is it a scramble?
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I mean, the assumption that I guess I'm thinking is that you guys can't come back in those two weeks.
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So are people out and all over the place making it even more difficult?
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Well, that did make it difficult.
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There was some, obviously there were some advantages because um, there was, there was no classes that week.
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It actually gave the leadership team an opportunity to sit down and prepare for what was coming.
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So although we were spread far and wide, there was some people still on the campus, others over the different time zones.
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And that gave us a chance to, um, start practicing our online meetings, um, and begin to start modeling some of these sorts of ideas.
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But it did give us a chance to think about, um, what did we want to do going forward for those two weeks.
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Um, and in the meantime, uh, we sent a letter out to the community confirming that the campus would be close for two weeks.
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And that gave us a little bit of time to say in three or four days time you'll receive a more comprehensive communication from the school outlining how all this is actually going to work from that first Monday back.
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So what did that look like the first Monday back and you know, we'll have to ask what's it look like now seven weeks later?
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And what were the initial phases looking like from a parent and a student point of view?
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For us, the first thing was, is that we wanted to make sure that we could get some time so that we could really think about what were realistic in terms of our expectations and all this.
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Although that, that stage of the campus was close to the students, we were still able to bring faculty and staff onto the campus.
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So those first two days that we came back, we really set up, um, some activities for the kids to do.
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It was all of a better word.
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It was more busy work is extension of things that they'd already been doing in the classrooms.
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So it was additional reading finish off assignments.
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We set some activities whilst we could really strategize how could we could sort of facilitate the continuity of the program.
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So the first Monday back was really getting people initiated with online programs.
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And then the second day teachers began to start interacting with students to begin to set things out and we ran it slightly differently for primary and secondary for the primary school.
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Uh, we have, uh, in these last few weeks, we've posted all the learning and advanced for the students, um, generally a weeks at week ahead and the parents and the students have been able to review that information.
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And then day to day the teachers have been touching base with the students.
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Um, generally with the parents involved in this as well.
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Um, two to three times a day in the secondary school, we tried to make sure that we could run classes as if they were on campus, in essence just running those online.
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But we offered two different services.
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One of those was really to run synchronously where the kids can follow the, um, the learning in real time and recognizing that some kids were in different time zones, others could actually work asynchronously so they could switch on at whatever time, and then they could follow the recordings, um, and the work assignments that had been set by the teachers.
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So this sounds structured almost like you did it in advance.
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It, did you come up with this idea in the beginning of this sort of structure and ended up and does stuck with it?
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Or did you have one and they ended up modifying it?
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I think one thing to preface is that we have, um, been fairly familiar with using technology at the school.
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We run a one-to-one laptop program with the kids.
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Um, obviously it's embedded within a lot of the learning that goes on.
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Uh, we even actually have some kids taking online courses, um, in the grades 11 and 12.
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So there is a sense of familiarity.
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I would also say as well with the, um, the political situation in Hong Kong and the subsequent closures that we had earlier in the year, it gave us a little bit of an opportunity for a week period to be able to start planning some of these ideas, although we hadn't really planned it to this level for this extended amount of time.
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So there was a sense of familiarity.
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We had already started working the teachers and the students, uh, knew how to access many of the programs.
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And what that allowed us to do was to know what structures we already had in place, what were the teachers comfortable with, what do we think the students could manage depending on their age levels.
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And that really allowed us to set realistic expectations.
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Um, and that's been very helpful in this process.
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Um, so that, uh, we can manage the expectations within the school and of the parents and the students at home.
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So you have a process that's working for you.
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What do you, how do you know, what sort of mechanisms do you look for feedback?
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I'm guessing probably parent interaction that lets you know that you guys have a process that's going to work the best that it can.
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Yes, different ranges of feedback.
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One of the things that we've found in this process is that unlike teachers working in a classroom where they have a great sense of familiarity about how to do things, they run, you know, automatically sometimes.
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Um, there's sometimes a, you can sometimes overt or miss out a step on feedback.
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Whereas now because, um, a lot of this is new, there's been a great deal of openness to check that kids understand things to make sure that the learning is accessible and in essence it seems to have elevated the sense of vulnerability.
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That willingness to say, I don't have all of the answers.
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I want to check that I'm doing this the right way.
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And if we look at the positive out of this and something that we hope is sustainable, the way in which this is really elevated our partnerships, we've been asking questions, is this working?
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How is this working, what would you like to learn next?
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And we've been getting very, um, sort of re regular and quick feedback, which we've been able to make adjustments along the way.
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So that's really been helpful in this process.
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And also thinking about fee cap feedback to kids, assignments and work.
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Um, there's three areas that we've really looked at.
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There's been a greater sense of self assessment, teaching kids how to self assess their work, um, thinking about questions that they might ask, particularly when they're in their single environment.
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We've done a lot more on peer assessments as well, so we're, we're actually bringing kids up on screens, um, and trying to help them to take turns in listening and presenting ideas and really encouraging them to comment on each other's work in an open forum.
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And then obviously thinking about the way in which teachers can give meaningful feedback, um, in an all learn online environment.
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I'm curious, you know, we probably had an expectation of how this was all going to go, but now seven weeks later, what surprised you the most about all of this?
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That you just didn't expect?
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What happened that it could be a challenge or a victory and whatever.
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Well, if we look at the sort of the process in the very beginning stages, the, a lot of the focus was on about structures.
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Did you have the programs?
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How are we going to do this?
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And it was really how do you facilitate learning?
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As time has gone on, there's been a much greater shift emphasis on wellbeing for teachers, for students and also for parents who have found themselves, I think a lot more involved in the learning process.
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So that some of those things have been a little surprising.
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Um, and what we've actually found is, is that as a community, the sense of resilience that have come from people, particularly as the, um, I suppose the end point keeps changing over the time and the uncertainty, just how well people come together as a community and how creative that they are to keep wellbeing going, keep the learning going, how they're trying to work with each other.
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And there's the self efficacy that has come out of this has been really impressive.
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I wonder too if there's a change in attitude.
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So if I am not from Hong Kong, I might've thought to myself early on, you know, I'm going to go back to my home country and just enroll my kids there.
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Now I'm like, Oh, I don't have that choice.
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I think I'd rather hang out at Hong Kong Academy where they know what's going on and they're already far into it.
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Have you seen a change in tone because of that, these new realities?
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Uh, we have actually seen some of that, particularly in the last couple of weeks.
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Um, one of the things that we were really, um, emphasizing was the sense of flexibility as much as we can because when there's high emotions, uh, and you're trying to support a community and things are being done differently as, as much as, as flexible as we can be, we felt was going to be as helpful as well as keeping it manageable.
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And some parents did choose to take their children back to, um, some public schools out in the States and enroll their children there.
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And we worked with families to basically say, if that's the choice that you wanted to make, you can choose to follow the online learning.
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What we will ask is when you come back, we'll just ask for a brief report and update on the child's progress in that sort of context and then we will work to reintegrate them back into things.
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What we're finding now, particularly as this has become a global Kapan DEMEC is that those families are coming straight back here now.
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That was my next question.
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How can imagine, yes.
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Uh, you know, and, and I suppose, um, we have been, I'm going to blow our own trumpet and we'll be here.
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I think we've done a pretty good job of actually supporting families and students online under the circumstances and that's put us well placed to continuity schools that are just starting on this journey now where we were, we were seven weeks ago and where we are now different places, but we're dealing with different things at the same time.
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You know, we, we can, um, we were able to think about now what are the way, what sort of things have been challenging for the kids?
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What's working well for you?
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And being able to adapt for those.
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And you can only really get that as a consequence of being involved in this.
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So I want to ask you a question about work workload or just work in itself versus community.
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So I w I would imagine, at least in my frame of mind at the beginning, it's like, Oh, how am I going to deliver the curriculum, make sure they do the work.
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And then I think as you go along it might be like, well, how do I create a sense of community so we feel like we're in this together.
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Did you go through that sort of shift as well?
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That continuum?
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Very much so.
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And I think that sense of working together as being very much a common theme.
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We communicate regularly with the community.
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So there's circulars that come out from, from, from me, also from the principals and we're generally even daily from the teachers.
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But there it's just people keeping people connected.
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And we've also tried some very, very creative things.
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Um, uh, one of the things that we recognize is that whilst we could get the traditional academics covered through the online programs, it was much more difficult to do things like sports programs or some of the more practical things or even parents, teacher student conferences.
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So we ran a virtual sports day for example, which went down very, very well.
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It's removing something that's brought the community together.
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Um, and you know, we've published quite a lot on this, but it was just really the creativity thinking we need to ensure that we recognize balance of curriculum is something that we would offer to the kids in school.
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And we need to think about ways of doing this.
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And in essence, you don't have to have all of the answers.
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People come up with great ideas.
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So we set up a studio in the school.
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Uh, we had, uh, it was more like an ESPN or a sports center where a few of the teachers would begin to, um, demonstrate events for the kids.
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Kids were going to go and do these things at home.
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They would send him videos or scores and then the teachers would talk about, you know, what they'd observed on the videos, ways in which you could actually improve things.
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And it was a really good, um, fun for the kids and for the community.
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Last week we ran, um, we have a coffee house that we run twice a year.
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It's where kids can deliver poetry, they can, um, sing songs, they can work in bands.
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And once again, we got kids to make these things at home.
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We put them together and then it was a projected out to the community online.
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And we know that this is working because we get constant feedback from the families being thankful, feeling connected to the school.
00:14:06.710 --> 00:14:15.200
Even under these circumstances, we run online parent teacher, student conferences for the first time, we weren't quite sure about how that would work.
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And in fact the feedback from the parents was very good.
00:14:18.169 --> 00:14:27.409
They would say, we've got all of the information, we've connected with the teachers and in some sense there's been advantages because there's no wait time or you don't have to travel to and from the school.
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And I can sit with my child and speak with the teacher.
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And what is making us realize is that there are other ways to do things and they can be really successful on these online platforms.
00:14:38.450 --> 00:14:48.259
And I do believe that when we move beyond this that there is a great opportunity to actually enhance learning in the classrooms because of the experience that we've had.
00:14:48.980 --> 00:14:49.159
Yeah.
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I know you want to talk about lessons in the longterm
00:14:52.220 --> 00:14:54.799
after you return to school and you brought that up right now.
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Do you have some of those lessons now that you think, let's say we start back in the fall and you're back are all face to face.
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You thought these are the three things I want to make sure that we now take to heart.
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Do you have some of those?
00:15:05.259 --> 00:15:05.860
Yeah.
00:15:05.980 --> 00:15:13.240
One of those, um, I would say we've already touched upon is that sense of being open to feedback.
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What would this tortoise in this piece is the elevating the voice of the community and giving them an opportunity and setting the expectation that please tell us how this is working, publishing what they've said.
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And then being able to say these are the adjustments we've made is a great way to continue to build community.
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And that's one thing that I very much hope will continue, um, as we, um, get back into the classrooms.
00:15:40.690 --> 00:15:50.320
The second thing I think is, is, has been a real revelation for us is that sense of um, inclusivity in a classroom setting.
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Classroom settings are often very much favorable to the motor verbal students, you know, they have lots to say.
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They're the ones that can often sort of like lead the dynamics within a classroom setting.
00:16:01.779 --> 00:16:14.440
What we found as an online platform is that when teachers are asking questions, there's been a greater sense of pausing and giving kids processing time and then not just people speaking, but people writing things online.
00:16:14.679 --> 00:16:22.690
And some of the teachers have actually commented that this is actually engaged a larger group of kids in the process.
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And wouldn't it be nice when we come back that we actually continue to have those discussions and those conversations and that we offer an online platform where kids can choose which they feel most comfortable with.
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Some children prefer the anonymity of being an a behind a screen.
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You want to participate and this gives them permission and it gives them a frame in which they can actually do that.
00:16:47.259 --> 00:16:56.590
And the third thing that I would say is, um, what this is really teaching us a lot about is kids independence and giving kids choices.
00:16:56.860 --> 00:17:06.910
One of the things that kids have come back as if said in terms of some of the positives and what's working well for them is the choice they have about when they want to learn how they want to learn.
00:17:07.240 --> 00:17:12.009
And um, in some sense it's helped them utilize their time better.
00:17:12.010 --> 00:17:16.269
Sometimes we get very anchored in you need to learn this, you need to do it by this time.
00:17:16.569 --> 00:17:24.640
And giving kids choice, giving them an opportunity to plan their day in the way they want to hopefully will be something that carries forward.
00:17:24.880 --> 00:17:34.690
What we do know is that, um, people are desperate to go back to sort of normalcy, um, going back into the classrooms, what they're familiar with.
00:17:35.019 --> 00:17:40.900
And this won't, if we just assume, Oh, well we learned two of these lessons and now let's just go back to the classrooms.
00:17:41.140 --> 00:17:48.099
We're going to have to think really carefully about how we continue to elevate these learnings and the ways in which we frame it in the classrooms.
00:17:48.279 --> 00:17:50.619
Otherwise, these will get lost very, very quickly.
00:17:51.559 --> 00:17:52.549
Yeah, there's a good point.
00:17:52.579 --> 00:17:59.390
I wonder too, as far as the teacher's workload, I'm a middle school teacher and middle school students are kind of designed for this.
00:17:59.509 --> 00:18:01.400
You know, they're, they're ready to go on their laptop.
00:18:02.150 --> 00:18:06.109
Uh, but what if, but what about like an elementary school teacher, middle school, and high school teacher?
00:18:06.410 --> 00:18:08.059
Which group do you think has it the hardest?
00:18:08.060 --> 00:18:09.259
Or am I asking you the question?
00:18:09.260 --> 00:18:10.819
Like which child do you love the most?
00:18:13.930 --> 00:18:22.630
Um, well, I'm an early childhood teacher by trade, so, um, I, I think it's different for different students.
00:18:22.839 --> 00:18:29.380
One of the things that we found with the very early childhood education, this has been more challenging for us.
00:18:29.440 --> 00:18:43.480
It's involved a lot more parents participation and as you've ever, you worked with three or four year olds, you know, it's a very physically demanding piece and I think it remains so on, um, on online.
00:18:43.690 --> 00:18:59.049
What the teachers have really tried to do is just keep the connectivity, talking to the kids, reading to the kids, um, even sort of like doing lots of presentations and keeping it fun and upbeat so that the kids have that sense of connection with the older kids.
00:18:59.289 --> 00:19:02.529
There has been a sort of a greater sense of independence.
00:19:02.769 --> 00:19:06.309
But I would say universally this is tough for teachers.
00:19:06.609 --> 00:19:10.089
This is learning to be a teacher.
00:19:10.090 --> 00:19:18.279
Again, teachers have, some of them have described it of like being on teaching practicums again, how long we work late into the night to plan everything.
00:19:18.280 --> 00:19:21.190
Just so, and this is all new territory.
00:19:21.191 --> 00:19:29.109
So not only they trying to actually provide access to learning, they themselves are learning the best tools, the best technology in which to do this.
00:19:29.111 --> 00:19:40.210
And a lot of experimentation and I would probably say teachers are pretty exhausted right now, but the offer and the way which they are going about this for my perspective is commendable.
00:19:41.130 --> 00:19:41.940
So they're exhausted.
00:19:41.941 --> 00:19:43.049
Even in week seven.
00:19:43.170 --> 00:19:44.099
Yes.
00:19:44.430 --> 00:19:49.650
This, this, this is not going to let up because everything continues to be so new.
00:19:49.651 --> 00:19:53.970
Nothing is static in this process and we're dealing with different things all the time.
00:19:56.210 --> 00:20:02.569
Stevie, I'd like to finish up here with uh, you know, you had a focus in the beginning, which was probably just creating something to get things going.
00:20:03.079 --> 00:20:04.279
[inaudible] seven weeks in.
00:20:04.400 --> 00:20:06.470
Let's could you let us know like what are you thinking about now?
00:20:06.471 --> 00:20:07.819
What are you focusing on now?
00:20:09.769 --> 00:20:29.660
Um, a lot of work is going on to wellbeing and trying to ensure that there is a breadth of curriculum and you know, some of the things that the kids have articulated in terms of what's challenging for them is they are missing things like their social life, their sports, their after school activities.
00:20:29.990 --> 00:20:35.900
So that is ways in which we can try and supplement that in the best form that we can.
00:20:36.019 --> 00:20:40.250
Even if it's reminding kids to take a break, go out there and do things.
00:20:41.269 --> 00:20:45.559
Um, you know, some kids have said this is less enjoyable than school.
00:20:45.769 --> 00:20:59.049
And so we really to keep this humorous and upbeat, um, and you know, many of the things that we're being asked to do now really run cult, uh, counter to what we are as social human beings.
00:20:59.349 --> 00:21:02.769
Don't touch your face, don't touch your nose, don't shake hands.
00:21:03.039 --> 00:21:11.920
And it's just trying to find fun ways of, of, of reminding ourselves of that being social and being connected is really, really important.
00:21:12.339 --> 00:21:18.880
And finally I would say is, is that, you know, we can never take for granted that this isn't challenging for everyone.
00:21:19.119 --> 00:21:36.670
And you know, when people feel overwhelmed, whether it's parents, teachers, or students, reminding them to ask for help and making sure that we provide the structures, whether it's videos to show how people, how to do things, making sure you can connect with a person and making it okay to say, this is really tough.
00:21:37.000 --> 00:21:41.079
And accepting of that and feeling comfortable to share that with people.
00:21:41.080 --> 00:21:56.710
So we run some parent groups where we've tried to get people to come together online so they can talk about the experience themselves, how they can support each other and, and that is helping and I think we're going to see more of this as we go forward for the next three or four weeks.
00:21:57.519 --> 00:21:57.519
Okay.
00:21:57.589 --> 00:21:59.720
Steve, thank you so much for all your information.
00:21:59.721 --> 00:22:05.059
I know there's going to be a ton of people out there enjoying and listening to what you have to say has given a great roadmap.
00:22:05.240 --> 00:22:11.240
I mean I could just speaking for myself, for many of us that are just entering this phase and are ideas for those of us who've been on the path already,
00:22:12.690 --> 00:22:13.529
thank you very much.
00:22:13.530 --> 00:22:14.609
And I'd say good luck.
00:22:14.759 --> 00:22:25.619
And the last thing I would say is yes, amazing how resourceful people are in these situations and you find yourself doing things you couldn't have imagined in a very short space of time.
00:22:26.359 --> 00:22:28.099
And that's the kind of thing we certainly want to hear.
00:22:28.130 --> 00:22:29.599
So that's good news.
00:22:30.559 --> 00:22:33.710
This interview was brought to you by 21st century learning international.
00:22:33.950 --> 00:22:37.849
Find us on the web@twentyoneclradio.com.
