Living the engineering design process
As school buildings closed last spring and classes transitioned to online instruction, In4All took a moment to pause and consider how we would best support teachers and students during this time of immense change. Instead of jumping into plans or figuring out a different way to do things they stopped to ask educators, “What do you need?”
As an educator leading a school community in the midst of this pandemic, I found this was a very different approach than other organizations. Almost immediately after school buildings closed I started receiving an influx of offers of services, products, and advice seminars. In4All took the time to listen to what educators needed and built their response based upon those needs. After gathering that information they made adjustments to their programs in order to still meet the needs of the educators and the students that they serve.
To further understand what educators were experiencing as the fall of the 2020-21 school year started, In4All‘s board took time during our October board meeting to listen to the voices of educators. Ann Schott, a teacher from Mooberry Elementary, Myra Barringer, a teacher from Greenway Elementary and Xavier Chavez, a teacher from George Middle School took time away from their very busy life to share their perspectives of what it is like to teach students through a screen. This conversation was moderated by Scott Fletcher, an In4All board member and Dean of the Graduate School of Education at Lewis & Clark.
This opportunity to hear from teachers helped to inform the In4All board members on the challenges of educating and supporting students through a global pandemic. The teachers shared how the transition to teaching online left them feeling like they were a first year teacher again. The teachers were honest in their concerns and frustrations but also inspiring in their efforts to meet the needs of all of their students.
Board member Rob Walters of Umpqua Bank shared that he had a new perspective about how this time will impact the social development of students because of lack of interaction. “Hearing directly from educators who are working through these difficult times I was overwhelmed by the scale of the challenge faced by our schools, teachers and children in a remote learning environment. I was very impressed by the dedication and effort our educators are taking to continue to support our children. I’m very happy to be a small part of an organization that can help.”
It also highlighted for him the multiple levels of decisions around the logistics of potentially bringing students back into classrooms. This opportunity to grow as a Board in our understanding and insight of what educators and students are currently experiencing allows us to make more informed decisions about our role in caring for our community during this unprecedented time.
This winter as the newly revised programming rolls out, In4All will have an opportunity to learn and grow as an organization. As the business partners connect and share with classrooms in the new format, there will be more adjustments to make. Approaching each interaction as a learning opportunity is how as an organization we are modeling the engineering design process that we bring to our students. The lessons we learn about our programming and our response to the input from teachers will provide us valuable feedback on how we can enhance the relationships between our industry partners and schools. This time presented us with many challenges but these challenges also highlighted the strength of our organization, that we are responsive to the needs of the teachers and students whom it serves.