Lockdown Experience: Connection and Community

A reflection on lockdown by Isla Flood: ESOL teacher, co-ordinator and teaching and learning coach.

This lockdown experience has been a…erm…‘unique experience?’... a ‘roller coaster’?.. a ‘time for reflection’?... it's so difficult to describe something so 'unprecedented' (and how many times have you heard that word in the last 3 months?!).Like many others I’ve experienced huge highs and lows, feelings of disconnect, loneliness and depression along with soaring highs, magical connections and empowerment.The college I worked for closed back at the end of March.  The next week we were online.  Teachers pulled up their britches and got stuck in.  In some ways with our 16-18 cohort we were lucky, we had been trialling Teams and learners were getting used to navigating online spaces but it had never been their only source of education and regarding our adults, well unfortunately we hadn’t prepared them well.  As a part time adult provision we get timetabled last and end up all over the college; computer rooms and IT facilities are premium and rarely available for these classes so lots of our learners struggled to even log in or access email.  However once locked down, teachers persevered, they upskilled, they rang round, they coaxed students online and by the end of term we’d experienced approximately 75% engagement from a cohort that could have been discounted from the start.It was full of challenges for all parties.  Working from home, or should I say ‘emergency remote teaching and learning’comes with lots of challenges.  Students and teachers have families to care for, children to home school and support, and people got sick and sad and disconnected which meant teaching and learning needed to have a different focus.With our 16-18 cohort, we focused on checking in, well-being and keeping up connection.  Our teenage learners quickly drifted into nocturnal habits which was no surprise - a large percentage of our intake are traumatised and struggling with mental health issues and without college to go to their routine was obliterated.  We quickly learned that if we were going to engage them we had to work with their patterns, so we attempted a mainly asynchronous style of teaching, sending out work online, videos, online quizzes and activities set through Teams and OneNote, with a focus on encouragement and the 'carrot' rather than the stick. Whatever we got engagement wise was a positive, we were working in an emergency situation and just being able to connect and check in was key.We recognised early on that most of our learners only had phones, so the material we designed and used needed to be phone friendly.  Tools like Microsoft forms and Quizlet were favourites because they translated so well to the smaller screen and enabled us to assess work with ease.  We supported with phone calls, video calls and chat messages, and ended with some wonderful group calls to our classes, scheduled in the afternoon for our late risers.During this time, I felt and still feel all of my initial emotions.  Lacking my staff room and physical connections I sought that interaction online.  Twitter became a bigger habit and through my follows and network emerged some real saviours of sanity and engine rooms of inspiration.  The most powerful connection and community I’ve ever been part of emerged from Twitter, from lockdown, from people I’ve never met in person or if I have only briefly.  #JoyFE, started as a broadcast live on Twitter, something I tuned into in the mornings for inspiration and a sense of belonging.  It was presented and hosted by Lou Mycroft and Stef Wilkinson, leaders in FE that I follow and am inspired by, and we chatted through what we were all thinking and going through.It was just after this that the #IdeasRoom emerged, and at first, I didn’t think I could join it. I didn’t see myself as having big ideas to develop or share and wondered how I could contribute as well as how awkward I would I feel in a virtual room full of strangers or people I'd only connected with online.  Then I took the plunge and I’ve never regretted it.  The amazing atmosphere of the #IdeasRoom comes from the Thinking Environment principles that Lou Mycroft works by and which Nancy Kline created.  The Thinking Environment is a set of principles to work and to coach by, to enable thinking to flourish, ideas to flow and magic to happen.I know this may sound cooky but it’s transformational, and not just another buzz word to describe a bullshit process in FE. This is real. In this #JoyFE community, I’ve found the most welcoming and empowering space where I have learnt so much and been able to ‘be’. Once you’ve been in a Thinking Environment, every other meeting that is not in that format will drive you insane. The strict but simple format allows for true ease and equality of thinking.  You do not have to come with an idea.  You can just listen. And you’ll learn that it’s the listening that’s the power.  The generative attention of someone listening to you or you listening to others is a phenomenal sensation.  In a further education environment where work is piled on, you are multitasking your multiple tasks and breaks and pauses are becoming less and less, this room, this process, this community enables you to take stock, breathe and reflect.  And what comes from that, well that’s the magic. In the past 3 months I’ve seen radical curriculums of hope developed, opportunities of work and experience have flooded in and great steps of change have been taken. Within one week a magazine was produced and published and has now become a monthly occurrence, training has been designed, courses restructured and research has developed.My takeaway from this time has been the enormous importance of connection and community, the power of working together for the greater good and the joy in our constellations, rhizomes and networks to be self-ful and kinder people.   What will you take with you from this time?Link to the AP Guide: Creating Spaces to Think in Further Education and Training (Thinking Environment)https://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/content/etf2872Further Reading:https://www.hltmag.co.uk/apr19/creating-a-thinking-environmentInterested in exploring your thinking? Join the #IdeasRoom (Zoom room) on Wednesday evenings at 8.00 pm.  Direct message me @islaflood or @loumycroft on Twitter for access.