Practical and personal guidance in a time of COVID
Times are tough and that means everyone has to adapt, get out of their routines and muster up some resilience.
How that is done is another challenge, but there is help and strategies to be found. Getting through this odd time will require competencies in two parts; the personal aspect which involves looking out for your mental well-being and the practical, around the skills required as learning switches to a remote, technologically based mode.
PeopleBench has put together a community of practice which seeks to disseminate research based initiatives that help school communities to function at a high level.
They have a bank of practical advice compiled by their diverse team of professionals and have released two new research-based strategies designed to build resilience during the virus.
Their Resilience at Work model (R@W), is an adaptation of the Kathryn McEwan and Dr Peter Winwood model. The R@W, comprises seven points, all good practical stuff which provides a reference point when it’s all looking a bit overwhelming. The R@W includes resources adapted for educators and a supporting webinar.
The R@W model includes strategies like ‘Interacting cooperatively’ which means providing feedback and support from others and seeking the same for yourself or ‘Living authentically’ which involves ‘Knowing and holding onto your personal strengths and having a good level of emotional awareness and regulation.’
It’s inevitable that a large part of schooling will be conducted remotely, whether that’s a long-term thing is debatable but certainly remote teaching and the specific skill set that that requires will need to be contended with.
PeopleBench’s Skills Matrix for Teaching and Working in an Online Delivery World is a practical piece of thinking that provides some direction for what has been a very rapid readjustment to teaching off campus.
“Teachers need to upskill so they can deliver through multiple channels, there’s technological competencies, course design competencies, online pedagogy and online delivery of instruction,” says author of the matrix Dr Vicki Cameron, Chief Education Officer at PeopleBench.
“School leaders can look at the matrix and identify where their staff needs some extra professional development, they can individually tick off the skills matrix using three categories; this person is an expert, this person is competent or this person needs some extra professional development,” Cameron says.
The matrix breaks down what is required into three rubrics; Technical, Professional and Personal and breaks down those into easily understood and easily applied initiatives, providing some scaffolding for adapting to what will be new ground for many.
PeopleBench advises asking staff to self-assess via Survey Monkey, gathering feedback and setting up professional learning in areas where staff have identified they need support. They suggest identifying staff who are coping well and encouraging them to help others using buddy models or small groups to help share expertise.
“We have an exciting community of practice where all these resources plus media interviews and articles that we have written can be found so anyone can access them,” Cameron says.
For more https://www.peoplebench.com/