Why Education Has Changed For The Better During The Pandemic

The global pandemic has changed the face of daily human activities and interactions in the most unprecedented ways: every aspect of our lives has been impacted by it.

As a 21st century educator, I know other educators will relate when I say that we can speak of education before and after the Covid19 pandemic, the year 2020 being a huge catalyst for change.

It’s a change for the better, and it should last.

I have never seen educators willing to learn so much as in 2020. It was a stepping stone in adapting education to the 21st century needs for young people, so that they are successful in their future careers.

At Heritage International School in Moldova, we were lucky to be guided in our approaches to teaching and learning at all times. Having regular teaching & learning briefings on a Wednesday morning helps keep track of trends in education and share best practices. That is a way of getting the message across to all colleagues and making sure everyone is informed.

When the lockdown was announced, we only had one training session - one for primary teachers and one for secondary ones –  in order to make all points clear and ensure that everyone did the same thing to connect students to virtual classes. The following day, we all met our students remotely to get messages across regarding learning through remote education. The days that followed, we had a full timetable as in school. We met online, but we followed the same routines exactly as normal; even our lockdown motto was “Only the campus is closed, but the school is open.” Our students and their parents know why. We continued doing that for 3 months, closing with the valedictory event, also online, of course.

As we navigated further through the pandemic, one thing was clear to everybody – education will never be the same again. It’s only logical, as people have gained new skills (both teachers and students) and they can’t pretend they don’t have them now. Then why not turn a challenge into an opportunity and make the best of it?

The use of Google Workspace for Education at my school, together with a correct and transparent leadership, as well as support at all times, have made the Heritage story a successful one, being praised and shared not only on a national level, at online conferences and reunions, but also on a global level, with us sharing best practices with the whole world.

Here are some steps taken by Heritage school:

1. We adapted the crisis management plan to the specific needs of our context and country;
2. We created a Distance Learning Plan and shared it with our school community, so that parents were informed about the guidelines for distance learning and about our expectations. This plan gets updated according to the situation announced in the country;
3. Regular updates from the school principal for the entire community are shared on the school website;
4. Keeping the same routines for educators and students: staff meetings, briefings, student council meetings, weekly newsletters, school events; all of them taking place online in the lockdown, of course;

How did all of these initiatives go particularly well when everyone was struggling in the 2020 lockdown? Because we didn’t do it individually, but well coordinated as a team. For this, we opted to use only Google Workspace for Education with all its associated tools.

I have been criticised by some for promoting Google, which I surely haven’t. As a team, we decided not to confuse our students with too many web tools and to select just one that would meet all our needs. As the entire Heritage community had been using Google emails from its very opening, it was a logical decision to continue with the one platform we were all on. I heard stories from other schools in the country where each teacher made use of a different videoconferencing platform. Poor students - they had to remember what each subject teacher was meeting them on: Zoom, Teams, Meet, Webex, etc!

In this respect, several actions were needed for a start:

• The teachers that hadn’t used Google Classroom before had to create their virtual classrooms for each class, generate a Meet link and add their students to each classroom;
• Next, it was a simple tour of all it had on offer, to learn what to post where in order to make the best of the platform;
• Each educator was to submit their class codes for each virtual class to the academic director, so that they could access it if needed. This is a great measure for transparency and accountability for both sides: the educator and the leadership team of the school;
• Lastly, it’s up to the teacher’s creativity to choose the web tools they use to design their lessons with and the additional resources they want to use – there is no additional guideline other than to do a great lesson;

Needless to say, this approach to learning was kept when we moved to hybrid learning in the autumn of 2020. The need for offering distance learning to our families was enormous, and this has been the solution ever since. Heritage International School has been offering distance learning for two years. We tightened the rules for students so that fewer families require and are offered this solution, due to the fact that it is extremely difficult for the teachers to have two audiences at the same time – one in the classroom and another one remotely.

I can’t praise my community enough for doing this and for being part of our hybrid journey. Those that have taught on the hybrid for at least one day will surely understand what I mean.

But you know what? I am very proud of how we all improved and learned for the benefit of our students. After the pandemic is over, we will be still using the tools that have become common practice. Who wouldn’t be happy to have their teaching preparation made easier with the help of technology? I certainly am!

Motto: “If you teach today’s students the way you taught yesterday’s, you rob them of tomorrow.” (John Dewey)