How to be a Powerful Teacher in the COVID Era

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Abstract

ter world, there is no motivation to learn, research, ideate, and solve problems. Hope is what educators have to find and deliver while parallelly helping young people create their version of what they want the world to be. This individual dream that the student develops will establish the purpose required for meaningful education and strong outcomes.</p><p id="f71a">Balancing expectations, creating hope, and leading students are not easy, and it is also not enough. Additionally, teachers need to proffer wisdom, be professional themselves, have a strong sense of timing, be able to tutor one on one and in large groups, build ambition, customize learning, encourage lateral questions and role model for their students!! Teachers with these skills will turbocharge student motivation and enhance performance!</p><h2 id="c121">Situational Empathy and Compassion</h2><p id="bede">In this dynamic context, tomorrow’s teacher has to have empathy and compassion and the ability to select and use one based on the situation. Empathy is the number one buzz word as far as people skills go today. Empathy training across all industries has grown in importance, and it is a proven skill for success. It is imperative for teachers as well. Especially now, an extra dose of empathy will be beneficial. But I worry that it is not sustainable. Let us take a look at why. Empathy is our feeling of awareness towards other people’s emotions and an attempt to understand how they feel. One feels empathy inside one’s body and brain, and, in the long run, too much could debilitate you. This is especially true in the case of teachers. Imagine being able to feel and understand the situation of more than a hundred students who are all struggling to cope with online learning or with a pandemic filled world. This burden could be too much for the teacher and often cause inaction of any sort.</p><p id="4a3e">On the other hand, compassion could create an emotional distance between the teacher and the learner and allows for a more rational point of view. A compassionate teacher can become a spectator of his thoughts and emotions and act on them to help the student in concern.</p><p id="15ba">Teachers have to learn the skill of identifying which situations need empathy and which sympathy. They have to keep conversations open. Listen more than they ever have before, but be able to choose based on the desired results or the situation’s needs.</p><h2 id="50ba">Continuous Learning Mindset</

Options

h2><p id="56d4">The only constant thing is change. This is true now more than ever before and everything around us is in flux. To stay up to date with changes in the world, one must upgrade one’s knowledge and adapt on an ongoing basis. As the world changes, the skills required to live in it, change. As problems in society change, learning needs change, as learning platforms develop, pedagogy changes.</p><p id="f9b9">Learning and development for a teacher have to happen in technical and adaptive spheres. Available online courses can help address technical knowledge requirements and is more straightforward. Adaptive skills, on the other hand, needs a critical mindset change. Today’s teacher has to learn continuously and parallelly shift, contextualize, implement, take feedback, reflect, reconceptualize, iterate, constructively align, and teach.</p><p id="cd76">A good teacher will always ask, What is the purpose of this class? What do my students need? And in answering that will create new situations, not mediocre versions of old ones. Today’s teachers will have to learn to make small and personal connections but not stop at that. If the stakes are not significant, and the students don’t feel like they are doing something valuable, they will not engage.</p><p id="cc7b">Thus the rise of the compassionate leader learner teacher is the way ahead. Somewhere between being a determined leader and an agile empathy giver lies the teacher of tomorrow. The person who will figure out what the future will bring. Not by himself but together with his colleagues and his students. In this process, he will keep his learners inspired, positive, purposeful, and engaged.</p><p id="cfa1">I have heard it said that the future of education is in the ‘content,’ not the ‘container.’ It is way more than just content. The future of education is in the teacher. The compassionate learner leader teacher brings meaning and purpose to the learner’s life through content, yes, but more through context, connections, and communities.</p><figure id="a22d"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:800/1*J73G0RtGIaSoMylUB8icDA.jpeg"><figcaption>Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@benwhitephotography?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText">Ben White</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/s/photos/life?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText">Unsplash</a></figcaption></figure></article></body>

The magic of leading, learning, and loving.

Teaching was already evolving from being a teacher-led, top-down process to one that is more conscious of the learner. But the pandemic has changed everything. The luxury of the journey has disappeared. There requires to be a dramatic change in what we see as the destination of good teaching and learning.

For teachers, this is an opportunity to make a difference in a world that will never be the same again. All teaching moved online this spring and will continue in fall, but the role of a great teacher will change dramatically, and everyone will not make the cut. Not just because of the online modality, but because of the new world that our students inhabit.

The death of the PreCOVID teacher is inevitable. I am not just talking about the traditional teacher who focused on delivering what he knew best despite the context, the teacher who imparted information in a dull and boring way. I am not just talking about the teacher who did not consider the learner when planning their classes. I am talking about ALL teachers. The learner has changed, the context has changed, and the platform has changed. The teacher has to change to be successful.

The three critical muscles that teachers need to develop are a. People Leadership b. Situational Empathy and Compassion c. Continuous Learning Mindset

People Leadership

Great teachers need to be great leaders. Today knowledge and information are available to all. And the world around our students looks bleak and hopeless. Educators have a unique role. Education is about the future. When hope in the future is lost, it is our job to find and create belief in a better future. Teachers will now be required to inspire students, help them find a vision for their lives. They will be required to give them hope and the larger picture. Without the promise of a better world, there is no motivation to learn, research, ideate, and solve problems. Hope is what educators have to find and deliver while parallelly helping young people create their version of what they want the world to be. This individual dream that the student develops will establish the purpose required for meaningful education and strong outcomes.

Balancing expectations, creating hope, and leading students are not easy, and it is also not enough. Additionally, teachers need to proffer wisdom, be professional themselves, have a strong sense of timing, be able to tutor one on one and in large groups, build ambition, customize learning, encourage lateral questions and role model for their students!! Teachers with these skills will turbocharge student motivation and enhance performance!

Situational Empathy and Compassion

In this dynamic context, tomorrow’s teacher has to have empathy and compassion and the ability to select and use one based on the situation. Empathy is the number one buzz word as far as people skills go today. Empathy training across all industries has grown in importance, and it is a proven skill for success. It is imperative for teachers as well. Especially now, an extra dose of empathy will be beneficial. But I worry that it is not sustainable. Let us take a look at why. Empathy is our feeling of awareness towards other people’s emotions and an attempt to understand how they feel. One feels empathy inside one’s body and brain, and, in the long run, too much could debilitate you. This is especially true in the case of teachers. Imagine being able to feel and understand the situation of more than a hundred students who are all struggling to cope with online learning or with a pandemic filled world. This burden could be too much for the teacher and often cause inaction of any sort.

On the other hand, compassion could create an emotional distance between the teacher and the learner and allows for a more rational point of view. A compassionate teacher can become a spectator of his thoughts and emotions and act on them to help the student in concern.

Teachers have to learn the skill of identifying which situations need empathy and which sympathy. They have to keep conversations open. Listen more than they ever have before, but be able to choose based on the desired results or the situation’s needs.

Continuous Learning Mindset

The only constant thing is change. This is true now more than ever before and everything around us is in flux. To stay up to date with changes in the world, one must upgrade one’s knowledge and adapt on an ongoing basis. As the world changes, the skills required to live in it, change. As problems in society change, learning needs change, as learning platforms develop, pedagogy changes.

Learning and development for a teacher have to happen in technical and adaptive spheres. Available online courses can help address technical knowledge requirements and is more straightforward. Adaptive skills, on the other hand, needs a critical mindset change. Today’s teacher has to learn continuously and parallelly shift, contextualize, implement, take feedback, reflect, reconceptualize, iterate, constructively align, and teach.

A good teacher will always ask, What is the purpose of this class? What do my students need? And in answering that will create new situations, not mediocre versions of old ones. Today’s teachers will have to learn to make small and personal connections but not stop at that. If the stakes are not significant, and the students don’t feel like they are doing something valuable, they will not engage.

Thus the rise of the compassionate leader learner teacher is the way ahead. Somewhere between being a determined leader and an agile empathy giver lies the teacher of tomorrow. The person who will figure out what the future will bring. Not by himself but together with his colleagues and his students. In this process, he will keep his learners inspired, positive, purposeful, and engaged.

I have heard it said that the future of education is in the ‘content,’ not the ‘container.’ It is way more than just content. The future of education is in the teacher. The compassionate learner leader teacher brings meaning and purpose to the learner’s life through content, yes, but more through context, connections, and communities.