In an unprecedented transformation, almost 2/3 of all school children are home instead of in school, many for more than a month. In most cases, teachers will continue teaching, using online tools.
Expect a disaster.
Many students are going to miss the live sessions. Many students aren’t going to do the exercises. Many students aren’t going to understand whatever it is they are supposed to learn. Many students are going to attempt the assignment but quickly move on to other activities after finding out that it will take work and perseverance. Many parents aren’t going to coach their kids when the kids do not understand, or establish norms to complete assignments. Some parents will do the work for their kids. Some kids and parents will be unreachable.
We all just need to find the right person or group to blame and then we can be smug that it wasn’t our fault but we did our best.
Let’s change our perspective. Let’s use the growth mindset so that we get better at this.
Can we look at each interaction as an experiment or probe that will give us valuable feedback for improvement?
Here is one method; answer these question for yourself.
Before each action:
- What do we want to happen?
- What are we doing to make that happen?
- What could get in the way, and what can we do to over come that?
- How will we know how close we came to our desired outcome?
After each action:
- How close did we come to the desired result?
- What went right?
- What did I learn?
- How can I improve for next time?
- How can I share this with others and what can I learn from others doing similar things?
If we give ourselves the time to continually improve, we can (eventually) do this.
(photo: sunrise through geysers in Chile)