How Can We Improve Teaching After The Pandemic?

By Author: Elise Simpson
Total Articles: 67
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There’s no doubt, the current pandemic has reshaped education in many ways. Many teachers will return to the classroom with a different mindset, having learnt some important lessons from the experience that saw us teaching from our home offices and filming daily recordings of ourselves. No amount of professional development courses, university lectures or years of experience under our belts could’ve prepared us for the challenges of remote learning, social distancing measures and adapting to the new norm. Teachers across the world have gone well and truly beyond their call of duty by responding to their individual students needs with compassion and strength. After the pandemic, how can we improve our teaching to benefit the changing needs of our students?

1. Relationships are Key:

At the centre of any education system, whether in person or online, is the human relationship between a teacher and the students. Keeping our children engaged during online learning was a common concern for many educators, however, a positive and trusting relationship between the teacher and student leads to a greater engagement ...
... in learning and better behaviour no matter the setting. Strong relationships promote learning by dramatically motivating students to strive to be the best they can thus achieving higher academically and enhancing their wellbeing.

2. Collaboration between Teachers:

Digital platforms make it easy for teachers to share almost everything including teacher-made resources, course content and free digital resources. But collaboration is also crucial for teachers to offer social-emotional support allowing us to share our successes, challenges and at times- total fails. Remote teaching and learning are still a very new concept to many and returning to the classroom will be another period of transition that will be made easier when we have people, we know we can turn to.

Teachers should also collaborate to ensure that the learning activities and materials meet the needs of all our learners. There may be some strategies the teacher next door may be using that can benefit your own kids or vice-versa. Same applies to online learning, there may be some takeaways that your colleagues have learnt that can make digital resources more effective and engaging to their students. Collaboration holds the key to unlocking professional relationships which in turn, has a profound impact on all students learning.

3. Easily Accessible Digital AND Physical Teaching Resources:

Many educators utilise a variety of apps, media tools, websites for teachers and online content. Of course, using all of these tools in combination can get overwhelming so in order to avoid frustration and confusion, teachers should build a library of quality resources, activities and lessons they can effectively and easily use.

A high-quality teacher resource can make the difference between a child understanding a specific concept and grasping skills compared to being unfocused on confused. The Resources for Teaching website has a wonderful variety of worksheets, lesson content, task cards and printables that support teachers and their students. Be sure to visit their online store for plenty of free resources and instant downloads that can be presented electronically or physically printed out and used in the classroom.