COVA Model and Me

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The COVA model is an ideal approach that I am happy to participate in. I feel like it is a definite solution to many challenges in our current post-pandemic educational landscape. One of the many things schools have been really battling is student behavior. Many factors of COVA would assist in that area because along with choice, ownership, voice, and authenticity; the responsibility and ownership of the learning would once again be in the hands of the learner. This really isn't possible without digital tools. Once the pieces were in place, it would turn learning away from a transactional experience (teachers tell me what to learn, how to learn, when to learn, and what learning looks like) and into a transformative, deeper, personal experience. In our current system there are limitations, one of the biggest hurdles being the lack of understanding of how to teach this way. This is not a way that is taught in methods class or something student teachers experience in the student teaching practicums on a regular basis. I would like to say that I have a learner's mindset, but it's not perfected. I am always learning. I crave learning. I can't get enough of it. Despite that, I still need continuous refinement when it comes to certain trigger spots I have due to the pressure and expectations I place on myself. I want to learn and apply my learning to the best of my ability, and to me, that is at deep and high-performing levels. Realistically, that is not always possible. Even knowing that, it's still frustrating to me. I think the most challenging aspect of COVA is the shifting of the role of the teacher as "expert" into the role of "coach, facilitator, activator, consultant", and the shift of student compliance into students asking questions and taking risks.

Another challenge of COVA is actually going against the static standard. It's so hard to try something new when you don't have the social support and encouragement of your peer group. I remember when I took a leap of faith and started incorporating flexible seating.

Little by little I began changing out the furniture. Swapping chairs for yoga balls, bean bags, and cushions. Then more dramatic things like taking the legs off of a table. Changing desks out for different table shapes, bringing in a sofa... so many options. The biggest thing is I went from telling my students what flexible seating they could sit in and started letting my students choose where and how they wanted to sit during lessons, work time, etc., and change throughout the day.

I had so many teachers think I was crazy. "No one will sub for you." Well, I knew what I had done was grounded in research and with my learners in mind.

It was a ROUGH start, it involved lots of teaching, reteaching, and revising with MANY teachable moments along the way. But after about 6 weeks, my classroom changed from traditional desks and chairs in groups of 4 into this amalgamation of seating and "unseating" options with student movement. But for our classroom family, it was seamless and as natural as breathing. We developed a flow. My classroom went from having lots of behavior disruptions to very few. My learning scores actually improved. When the time did come for a sub, the sub actually wrote a note to my principal telling her how nervous she was to start but that by the end of the day, she thought the whole school should do that. One change, the belief that my learners had to have choice and ownership and feel comfortable in our classroom to learn, yielded high results.

Change is hard.

Change is messy.

Change gets you strange looks and whispers in the hallway.

But when it ends up working...man, it's amazing.

That is what I think about COVA. Implementing it and promoting it is going to be hard. It will be messy. It will be like an uphill climb while others are coasting down, but the view at the top will be worth it.

Reference

Harapnuik, D. (2022, December 12). Applied Digital Learning. Harapnuik.org. https://www.harapnuik.org/?page_id=8517