Creating a new normal in teaching and learning
‘This is the new normal,’ the TV announcers proclaim, their breathy tones of concerned importance emphasising the gravity of the situation.
‘We are living in unprecedented times,’ the headlines in the newspapers shout in size 275 font.
However, we are not living in a new normal. We are living in a period of time in which we are required to abide by a set of government directives for the good of the community. Our grandparents and great-grandparents learnt to measure their tea and sugar carefully and to live without butter. The war ended, rationing was lifted and the world reverted to the old normal where these commodities were plentiful. We are being asked to stay home until the curve flatlines and then we will have the freedom to return to the old normal.
We are not living in unprecedented times. Pandemics have swept the world for centuries. From the regular outbreaks of the feared bubonic plague in the Middle Ages to the horror of the Spanish Flu which stalked the world from 1918-1920 and killed over 20 million people, humanity has been confronted with the threat of death from unseen viruses. This virus, like ones before it, will be subdued and precedented times will resume.
However, what this pandemic has given us is opportunity—opportunity to go forward to create a ‘new normal’ and opportunity to live and work in unprecedented ways.
At St Peters, we are in the enviable position of being ready to seize this opportunity and create a ‘new normal’ of teaching and learning. Our new Junior High Precinct building with its soaring ceilings, open spaces and intimate breakout rooms provides teachers and students with an environment which facilitates collaborative and creative teaching and learning.
Our students and teachers are venturing into a world where there are new ways of ‘doing school.’ What teachers saw as challenges a few weeks ago, they now see as opportunities. Students who saw it as their teacher’s job to keep them on task now take responsibility for their own learning. Teachers and students who thought there were limited ways of learning now understand that we can teach and learn in previously unthought-of ways.
In time, we will walk back into classes but not necessarily the classes we walked out of. We will create a ‘new normal’ and transfer the skills and strategies we have learned from at-home learning to our at-school learning and begin an exciting journey into unprecedented times.
Sue Grotherr
Head of Secondary School
