This is a story about looking at the wrong thing.
In a recent coaching cycle with a teacher, we set out to examine- and improve- student engagement in a high school math class. Hybrid and remote instruction had supplanted the usual back-and-forth energy of learning math together, with a grid of silent black boxes. The fatigue of trying to keep up the energy of class, when all that energy seemed to go one way, was a stark contrast to this teacher’s typically strong rapport with students.
Negative space is all the “other stuff” we pay attention to when we interact with students. It’s their body language, their tone of voice, where and when their eyes drift during practice and instruction. It’s the conversations they’re having with friends as they walk through the door. These cues are essential to help teachers connect with learners, and shape the small moment-to-moment moves that make a classroom hum. In my view from teaching at a distance, that negative space has never been more absent.
Clarity, something that is impactful and straightforward, can take a back seat when a pacing calendar, grades, and emails are vying for our mental energy. “Do students know what they are supposed to be learning? How will they know when they’ve learned it?” can easily take a back seat to, “Will I get caught up today?”
One problem is that- even when we do hone in on clarity- it sometimes doesn’t get beyond the confines of our own teacher brains.
The preponderance of audio delays, empty screens, and weak internet connections that plague my class meetings has got me willing to do just about anything to produce a specific body of evidence for my students: evidence that I notice them and that they are important. An email wishing one of my students happy birthday will not directly cause learning. But it is an investment in relationship that is well-worth the 30 seconds it takes to send them a quick note. Plus, thanks to some clever finagling of a birthday spreadsheet, Google Calendar will to the bulk of the work for me. How excited was I when I figured out how to do this?
