From Getting Smart, January 11, 2022, by Tom Vander Ark

It’s hard to see trends in a crisis. And now layered crises–pandemic, climate, racial reckoning, economic inequity, geopolitical tension–is the new normal. We’re living through a jumble of unexpected events that thwart pattern recognition.

Most schools are starting 2022 in person but with a disappointing COVID surge and renewed questions about how to best safeguard students, teachers, and communities. After two years of pandemic education, fatigue is the overwhelming experience of many educators.

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Team Tools and Staffing

After a hundred years of teaching as an individual practice, personalized and competency-based learning has been creating the need to work in teams. Next Education Workforce at ASU Fulton Teachers College has been advancing team-based preparation and staffing in Arizona schools for the last four years. In dozens of districts across the country, Opportunity Culture has been promoting team-based staffing leveraging the multi-classroom leadership of great teachers.  

The rapid shift to remote learning during the pandemic pushed school districts to adopt common learning platforms and versions of team staffing (including full time, part-time, pre-service, substitutes and community resources). The adoption of common enterprise tools and team staffing means less autonomy for individual teachers but stronger support and potentially more autonomy for teams within an aligned system. Read more…