Few professions have been affected by Covid-19 as drastically as teachers. It’s estimated that 80% of the world’s youth have had their regular academic schedule disrupted. During this time of uncertainty, Gregg Garner has led two educational institutions (The Institute and The Academy) through the process of adapting their modalities while maintaining their excellence and mission. And now he gets to share his experience with educators and after-school workers by facilitating an online workshop with teachers through NAZA’s Community of Practice.
In response to the exigencies of the times, Gregg Garner has encouraged teachers to adapt. In some ways, he has encouraged them to look to the new-- new technologies and systems. But in other ways, and I would argue more important ways, he’s reminded them of the tried and true, the resources of character and spirit that have always sustained the work of teachers.
One such resource is the collaborative spirit of the profession. Teachers have great hopes for their students, and they know they can't achieve them alone. This moves them to encourage, to advise, and to collaborate. Gregg Garner has always believed that teachers--their character, skills, and passion-- are the greatest resource, and we need to find ways to let teachers draw on each other’s strength and knowledge to face whatever challenges lie ahead.
It’s in this spirit that NAZA conceived the “community of practice,” a digital workshop where teachers will gather and learn from one another. The name of the workshop acknowledges that the teaching profession ties us into a community of people that have a vested interest in seeing everyone succeed.
The name also acknowledges that teachers are a community on the move. They practice. Anyone who has ever been a teacher will know that last-minute change ups, 11th-hour adaptations, and rabbit-out-of-the-hat solutions are all in a day’s work. And that has never been truer than in the age of faltering Wi-Fi and protean schedules.
Educators and after-school workers were invited through this introductory video to participate in the Community of Practice. It highlights the issues that educators face in today’s world, and the ways that this program has been created to address them.
As individual teachers, then, they’ve had to problem solve and improvise, collecting a small mountain of successes, failures, and the wisdom that comes from both. But they rarely get the time to externalize these riches, much less benefit from the riches of others. We’re facing the same problem, and each teacher has part of the solution. This is why the Community of Practice is so important. It gives teachers and after-school workers a chance to slow down, take stock of the problem, and benefit from all that they’ve learned so far.
There is no one more suited to lead this time than Gregg Garner. As the leader of Global Outreach Developments, he has led our organization to see the benefit -- though some of us had a hard time seeing it at the time -- of using education technology and long-distance teaching for many years. He’s been leading long-distance educational efforts since the days of sending VHS tapes in the mail. Along with this, he had the The Academy adopt an online learning management system since it began. All of this put us in a position to effectively take on the challenges that Covid-19 has brought.
We are working hard to make The Community of Practice a valuable contribution to the collective effort of educators during this time. We might not know what the future will hold, but we do know it’s better if we face it together.
CASE is a program of the Nashville After Zone Alliance. The Nashville After Zone Alliance is a network of coordinated after school programming for Metro’s middle-school students. NAZA is a partnership among the Nashville Public Library, MNPS, and other existing youth-serving groups. It is modeled on successful efforts in other cities and is organized around geographically-defined zones.
(1) Berliss, M. (2021, February 9). January NAZA Partner Meeting. Community of Practice, Civil Rights Training, Eventbrite Training, Youth In Action! Open House, & More!
(2) Mollie Berliss, January 2021, NAZA Partner Meeting.
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