How Will Teacher and Principal Training Look in a COVID-19 World?

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Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared in The Edvocate.

Two ladies discussing work, on the left is a white woman and on the right is a Black woman.
“How we will train our principals and teachers in a virtual world?,” asks Neag School doctoral student Patricia Virella.(Photo courtesy of The Edvocate)

I remember driving home from my first week of teaching, crying. Building a classroom community, working with an incompatible co-teacher, and learning a new curriculum weighed down on me. There was also the realization that I was now a teacher. I called my mentor and reflected on my week through gulps and sobs. As she listened, she reminded me of classroom management practices I had seen as a student-teacher.

Bringing me back to my clinical placement allowed me to focus on the best practices I could implement. Those best practices would also shine through when I became a principal. Not only did I learn how to strategize to meet my annual progress goal, but I learned how to negotiate all of the needs of the various stakeholders. I reflect on these two points in my career wondering how we will train our principals and teachers in a virtual world? What will clinical placements look like?

We need to get ahead of this crisis to survive and thrive together. It is time to provide alternate options in education preparation so we can continue to prepare high-quality leaders and teachers within this ‘new normal.’

The traditional model in teacher education expects aspiring leaders and pre-service teachers to engage in internships. These internships, called clinical placements, provide aspiring leaders to learn side by side, in schools with mentor principals and pre-service teachers with the opportunity to student-teach. For example, aspiring principals develop leadership skills such as resolving issues with an upset parent or giving feedback after a classroom observation to a teacher through mentorship.

Pre-service teachers learn to engage with children and deliver instructional strategies monitored by highly effective teachers. Several studies have demonstrated the benefits of clinical placements for educators and leaders, serving as an important part of a leader and educator’s learning trajectory that doesn’t translate through Zoom calls. Further, culturally relevant scholars describe being in schools that are different from the identities and experiences of pre-service leaders and teachers, give them insight and decrease issues of equity. When pre-service educators do not have clinical placements, they lose the ability to learn about the human connection that binds educator and leader to student and teacher. Most importantly, they lose the indisputable joy of being in a school.

We need to prepare for the possibility that clinical placements will look different in the fall and beyond. Clinical placements bring many benefits, but they also bring the reality of teaching and leading to educators who may have only experienced schools through texts and videos. Even in a “new normal,” this is not normal, and the importance of clinical placements shouldn’t be diminished. Education programs should begin the conversation with their partner schools about the hours of service and rules of engagement if schools remain virtual.

We must also move fast to redesign elements of education programs that will train its aspiring leaders and pre-service teachers for the new educational landscape. Many teachers are acclimating to the hard turn of a completely virtual learning experience. Virtual learning requires a host of pedagogical skills which typically is not the focus of education programs. Leaders have to learn how to assess academic growth while teachers have to learn how to bridge the gap and encourage learning.

This generation of pre-service teachers and aspiring leaders need to learn these methods as well. Preparation programs should evaluate how they will accomplish this task by gathering together to develop an example of supplemental material that could look like addendums to syllabi. No longer will teaching online be a mere addition to the typical curriculum. It will become a concrete practice in need of mastery.

Why should education programs prepare for the change if no decisions about clinical placements have been made? Because education programs are also facing a shrinking population of students. The survival of education programs around the country will also depend upon their ability to adapt from the financial impact of COVID-19. Several colleges have already laid off adjunct faculty.

Many clinical supervisors are adjunct faculty members. As a result, teacher education programs will have to do more with less. To do so, teacher educators must put together a thoughtful plan which details what clinical supervision will look like and how it will take place. Will supervisors join Zoom sessions remotely? What about the power of vital feedback? There may be some organizations that education programs can draw upon and learn from, but the conversation has to begin now.

We need to get ahead of this crisis to survive and thrive together. It is time to provide alternate options in education preparation so we can continue to prepare high-quality leaders and teachers within this “new normal.”

Patricia M. Virella is graduate faculty at Sarah Lawrence College’s Art of Teaching Program. She is also an educational leadership doctoral student at the Neag School of Education.

Getting Back to School After Disruptions

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Editor’s Note: This original version of this brief was published by the National Technical Assistance Center on Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS). Access the original brief in PDF format. In addition, this brief was researched and written before the novel coronavirus pandemic spread in the United States.

Emily Baseler reads to pre-school children.
“Because students spend most of their time in classroom settings, it’s critical that teachers establish a supportive environment and emphasize positive and proactive classroom behavior support approaches,” says Brandi Simonsen, co-author of the brief. (Photo courtesy of Emily Baseler)

Resources for Making Your School Year Safer, More Predictable, and More Positive

It goes without saying that students need to feel safe and have supportive relationships for their social, emotional, and academic learning to be optimized. Students experiencing trauma, such as from public health crises, weather disasters, or other upsetting events, may have been exposed to unpredictable schedules, inconsistent supervision, or food insecurity and desperately need school to be their safest, most predictable, and most positive setting, especially if they have been displaced or are without utilities or basic comforts.

“Whether schools resume in-person, on-line, or somewhere in between, educators will play a critical role in creating positive, predictable, and safe experiences for students,” says Brandi Simonsen, co-author of the brief, a professor of special education at the Neag School and co-director of the National Technical Assistance Center on PBIS. “We have been inspired by the amazing work of educators in feeding, supporting, and teaching students this spring, and we will be here to support them through the next phase of this public health crisis.”

Multi-tiered Systems of Supports (MTSS), such as PBIS, are ideal frameworks for implementing strategies to support students coming back to school and to prevent and address further challenges. A tiered approach focuses on attending to the whole school environment to help the vast majority of students be successful and providing a continuum of support for those who need more.

With this in mind, we recommend the following six strategies for school teams to ensure a safe, predictable, and positive school year. These strategies are beneficial for all students if the school has been closed, as well as for individual students returning from an extended time away from school.

Re-teach, remind, and acknowledge positive school-wide expectations  

Yes, you may have taught your positive school-wide expectations at the start of the year, but students coming back to school after an unplanned absence have been in different environments, with different expectations for their behavior. Hence, a strong focus on re-teaching and modeling expected school behaviors will help to re-establish and maintain a school culture where students can expect to see prosocial behavior from their peers and the adults in the building. It is often useful for us to keep in mind that students may have been practicing different behaviors while away from school and will benefit from re-teaching and opportunities for practice rather than exclusion.

A strong focus on re-teaching and modeling expected school behaviors will help to re-establish and maintain a school culture where students can expect to see prosocial behavior from their peers and the adults in the building.

Re-teach classroom routines

Because students spend most of their time in classroom settings, it’s critical that teachers establish a supportive environment and emphasize positive and proactive classroom behavior support approaches. Directly teaching classroom routines in the context of positive schoolwide expectations, engaging students with effective instruction, and providing specific feedback to encourage desired behaviors will go a long way to establishing a positive classroom climate. After traumatic or unplanned events, making routines as predictable as possible will help students regain a sense of safety that they may have been missing.

Focus on the positive, and avoid punitive approaches

Some teachers, in efforts to add structure and predictability to the classroom, will use class-wide clip charts or colored behavior cards as a behavior management tool. In our experience, these public punishment systems can do more harm than good, particularly for students with disabilities or those experiencing trauma. Instead, focus on teaching, practicing, and acknowledging expected behaviors, with the understanding that some students may need more teaching, practice, and acknowledgment to use them.

Get to know your students – again

Simple strategies—like greeting students at the door by name, learning about students’ interests outside of school, and using their strengths and preferences in instruction—can put students at ease and build student engagement. Make every attempt to recognize and value individual strengths or skills in each of your students. During the absence from school, students may have experienced extreme loss, so it’s important to re-connect and understand their recent experiences.

Look for signs that students might need more help. The strategies described here can be effective in supporting the vast majority of students, even those experiencing trauma, to be successful, but others will need more support. Be aware of signs of trauma and use universal screeners to identify students who may need more support—short or long term—to have a positive school experience.

Re-engage families as partners in their child’s education

Building common messages across home and school-related to safety, responsibility, and respect for all is helpful to students. Schools become a unifying and supportive part of the community when they reach out to families and find new ways to partner meaningfully with them in the education of their son or daughter. It is crucial to review strategies for communicating with parents to ensure they are timely, supportive, and accessible (e.g., in-home languages). Host informal events for families at school to increase connections, and consider inviting community leaders to attend the events as well.

Access the original brief in PDF format. Brandi Simonsen is a professor of special education at the Neag School and co-director of the National Technical Assistance Center on PBIS. Heather George at the University of South Florida, Tim Lewis at the University of Missouri, and Kent McIntosh of the University of Oregon are also co-directors of the Center on PBIS. Rob Horner, an emeritus professor at the University of Oregon, helped developed and implemented school-wide positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS) and Jessica Swain-Bradway is the executive director of the Northwest PBIS Network.