Okay, not really. Teaching online is exhausting and feels far less effective than teaching in person; it is very hard to build a community via Zoom, and that also makes it hard to build a culture of work. I can’t wait to be back in a real, in-person classroom with actual, corporeal students and access to all the materials I need. (I’m fairly sure my students are currently corporeal, but it sometimes doesn’t feel like it.)
But, as I tell my students all the time, where there is a problem, there is an opportunity, and remote teaching is no different. Teaching remotely has pushed me out of my comfort zone and forced me to be creative in my teaching practice, and that will make me a better teacher when we go back to in-person teaching.
I’ve had to learn to truly trust the children. I can’t observe them or have immediate input into their work most of the time, so I have to trust them to make good choices, and rely on check-ins and conversations about work the rest of the time to guide them to better choices, as needed. (Well, and their parents, which I’ll get to in a moment). That has a downside: we can only really leave the children to choose their work independently when they’ve already developed a habit of work, and it’s tough to provide that support for children who need help to work and to choose. I’ve had to learn to trust that these children will learn to work, and guide them gently towards productive work in the brief moments I have with them. On the other hand, my children have done so many amazing things because I’ve left them alone to get on with their work. When we are back in person, I will be far better and getting out of the way of the children who are choosing and working, and be able to support the ones who aren’t. It will be glorious!
I’ve learned to give and receive grace. One of the challenges of remote teaching is that all my teaching is visible to parents, warts and all. That’s scary. Parents are so actively involved in their children’s learning, and I field far more questions about how I’m doing things and requests to adapt or improve my systems. I’ve had to learn to handle that with grace, humor, and honesty. But I’ve also discovered just how much parents want guidance and feel out of their comfort zone trying to support their children at home, and I’ve had to learn to address their insecurities with grace and kindness, too.
I’ve had to rethink my approach to technology. I’ve always been rather skeptical of having much technology in the classroom, and I’m certainly not unusual among Montessori guides. If anything, I’m probably more comfortable bringing computers and other technology into the classroom than most, and I still prefer to avoid them. But now, we have to embrace the wonders of modern technology, if we plan to offer any school at all. This has forced me (and the entire Montessori community) to truly think about the possibilities of computers, and make purposeful choices based in children’s developmental needs. For example, in the past I generally didn’t let children type their work, because I want them to develop beautiful handwriting. I still want them to practice their penmanship, but I’ve also discovered that shared google docs are one of the most effective ways for children to collaborate. I normally don’t let children do online research, because I want them to plan going outs instead. But when even the library is closed, going outs are frequently impossible, and I have a whole new appreciation for well-curated online materials.
I’ve learned so much from non-Montessori teaching experts and I’ve used so many of their ideas. With more whole-class time and limited access to materials, I’ve had to find alternative ways to present key lessons, and that has largely meant looking for guidance outside the Montessori community. While Montessorians (and many others) rightfully criticize dull and authoritarian traditional teaching methods, to some extent, this is a straw man. The world of education is huge, with many voices, and some of them are brilliant. Personally, I have to own up to having harbored a degree of skepticism about anything that comes from outside the Montessori world, partly out of a believe that “they” have nothing to offer, and partly out of fear that I might have to questions my faith in Montessori methods.
While I’m exaggerating (I’ve never cut myself off completely from the non-Montessori world), that skepticism has gone completely out the window in the last six months. Educators from outside Montessori have already done brilliant work on teaching math with few or no materials, using everyday objects as manipulatives, facilitating productive learning conversations, using technology in the classroom, teaching mathematical problem solving, and so on. Have these become the norm in the traditional teaching world? Sadly, no. But that’s no reason not to choose the best ideas for our own classrooms. So many ideas from outside the Montessori world are incredibly compatible with Montessori, or can easily be adapted to enhance what we already do.I’ve dug deep into materials and approaches that are feasible via Zoom. Since my children and I have limited access to materials, I’ve had to really see what the materials we have can do. For example, we’ve gone wild with Multiples of Numbers Paper (also known as hundred squares), and we’ve discovered many different patterns, we’ve tried changing the width of the paper (i.e. making it only six squares wide), and we’ve tested out hypotheses about which multiples will give us particular patterns, and when.
I’ve learned the value of curating follow up work. In the classroom, children usually invent their own follow up work to lessons, and I rarely spend huge amounts of time planning follow up work. But in the the remote environment, it has become clear that children struggle to invent follow up work when they are alone, and I’ve had to learn to prepare sets of interesting problems, slide shows of resources, and so on, in advance to give them valuable work choices. The more I do this and watch the work that grows out of it, the more I appreciate its value for the classroom, too. The children frequently do invent wonderful follow up work, but much of their work could be higher quality if they had, for example, selections of rich math problems to choose from.
I’ve had to learn to trust myself and articulate my reasoning. Everything I do is far more public in this remote environment, and moreover, it’s all new, so parents and colleagues are watching closely. That means I’ve had to learn to not just think through how I’m going to run my class, but be prepared to explain and justify it to others. I can’t say I enjoy that, but it has made me a better teacher.
I’ve had to be far more committed to accepting the children as they are. Children are so forgiving and quick to offer grace to trustworthy grownups, and yet, so often we repay them by demanding the unreasonable. I always try to follow my children’s emotional needs in the classroom. For example, I would never insist that a child who is very upset just drop everything to come to a lesson, but the need to respect emotional limits is so much more pronounced now. Children find Zoom exhausting, they find online group meetings overwhelming, and they find it much harder to switch into “school mode” when they are going to school in their bedrooms or dining rooms. They come with stuffed animals, they come with their breakfasts, and they come with their little siblings. (I can hardly blame them for this: I start meetings with my own baby in my arms at least once a week.) Moreover, children who are struggling too much can simply drop off a call, and there’s nothing I can do about that in the moment. I’ve had to learn to adapt and improvise in the face of these challenges.
With limited access to my familiar materials, limited ability to observe my children working, and no ability for the children to collaborate in-person, I’ve had to dig deep into my knowledge of Montessori theory and learning sciences to reinvent just about every aspect of my “classroom” and teaching. It’s hard work, but it’s also empowering! As a Montessori community (at least the AMI community that I’m most familiar with), we have a tendency to get stuck in “this is the way it’s done”. We can’t do that anymore, and I for one, think that’s a good thing. This year is opening me up to creative possibilities for improving my teaching, and when we go back to school, I believe we will all bring that experience with us to serve the children even better!