A recently published blog by Evan Stewart reminds educators that trying to create new routines in remote teaching is not as easy as it seems. The title of this post (and his) is a reference to the movie “Mean Girls” which is a comedic adaptation of the sociological study of adolescent girls “Queen Bees and Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends, and Other Realities of Adolescence.” The moral of the story is that as we engage in routines and habits over time, uncritical reflection makes it hard to question their truth. The meaning and power we give to routines and practices makes it difficult to challenge the need for them or to think about how they could be otherwise.
Stewart asks us to consider, how might we make a new routine or make up for old rituals lost under our new remote teaching? And, how do we make them stick and feel meaningful? Educators need to be careful implementing the same classroom routines in virtual spaces as a lot of the norms and assumptions coming into physical classrooms are no longer there. So even though we think we are reproducing the same practice, in reality, we are trying to make fetch happen.