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Reclaiming the space for personal growth and development through mentoring, coaching and professional learning
In ‘A Tale of Two Cities’, Charles Dickens begins his novel with ‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times’.
For many in education, the Covid-19 pandemic was the worst of times. School leaders had to run schools from their kitchen tables. Teachers had to teach from the living rooms, and students had to learn from their bedrooms. Nobody had been prepared or trained for what happened as we worked between cities. Meetings via zoom, online lessons, PowerPoint presentations, packets to help students learn became the norm, and the workload of educators rose to beyond pre-pandemic proportions.
We seem to be now entering a post-pandemic world, but the world of education has been affected by our experiences, and the behaviour of adults and children in schools appears to have changed. At this months’ CollectivED fellows meeting, we discussed how we can ‘reclaim the space for personal growth and development through mentoring, coaching and professional learning’.
Based on our conversation, here are seven suggestions:
- Help educators find hope – help them to imagine the future they want so they can find hope in this vision and work towards it.
- Build bridges and connections – the pandemic was a time of isolation. We need to support educators in reconnecting with each other, build bridges for them, and re-create communities.
- Help educators use well-being as a goal to continue to work towards that will strengthen their practice.
- Show we care about educators as individuals.
- Give a listening, non-judgemental ear to educators worries and concerns, and through questioning help them find a route towards possible solutions.
- Focus on strengths – show teachers/leaders their strengths so they build on what they are naturally good at and may have forgotten.
- Remind educators of what they did before the pandemic – help them to remember, and have confidence in, the brilliantly engaging activities that they did before Covid-19. For instance, activities that involve physical objects or cooperation or movement or challenge.
Post-pandemic is a different tale, and as coaches and mentors we can help educators make it a better time as they move towards providing great teaching and learning experiences once again.
Antony Winch is a CollectivED Fellow, and teacher leader working as an Instructional Coach in the Frankfurt International School. This blogpost is based on conversation at the CollectivED fellows meeting in December 2022.
