Building a Thriving Remote Classroom with Dr. Tyrone Howard
"This is an opportunity to learn and engage and really start to get to know students in ways that many educators have never gotten to know their students. And this is where you can take the time out and not feel the pressure from the upcoming benchmark or not feel the pressure from the upcoming testing. So I just hope that teachers take the opportunity because who knows when we'll ever have this kind of a window to really begin to invest personally into our students in ways that we typically want to, but we may not have the opportunity to do so with the typical day-to-day schedule that we oftentimes find ourselves in.”
In response to an LA Times reporter’s question about how teachers are adapting to remote learning, Dr. Tyrone Howard stated, “Teachers’ relationships with students before the closures could affect whether some show up. The ones best able to take lessons online already had strong relationships with their students and their families.” In this episode, Dr. Howard speaks about the transformative effect of remote learning on relational trust, equity, empathy and inclusivity. This was a powerful, casual discussion centered on Dr. Howard's unapologetic belief that Spring 2020 should be explored and researched for its unique opportunity to stress relational teaching over curricular and instructional achievement.
Dr. Tyrone Howard is Professor of Education at UCLA. He is also the Pritzker Family Endowed Chair in Education to Strengthen Families and Director of the Black Male Institute. Dr. Howard is the author of several books and publications on topics related to multicultural education, the social and political context of schools, urban education, and social studies education. Dr. Howard’s most recent book, Students Must Thrive, was published in 2019 and is a compendium of current research on SEL/wellness, critical race theory, and critical pedagogy. “Student learning will not be maximized until student social emotional wellness is prioritized.”