Welcome to the inaugural post for the TpT Teacher Trend Report! Each month, our Education Content and Insights team will be surveying educators about their experiences during this unprecedented school year and reporting our findings here — so you can keep your finger on the pulse of what’s going in the world of education. Stay tuned each month to learn more about what educators’ top priorities are, how they’re tackling challenges, and more.
For September, we dove deeper into how teacher collaboration has changed this past back-to-school.
Finding: Teachers are relying on each other more for support and inspiration.
Teachers are increasingly turning to each other for support — over half of educators (52%) said that they have been collaborating with other educators more than they did this time last year.
When they’re collaborating, educators are focused the most on supporting their students (29%), developing curricula and assignments to meet the moment (29%), and supporting each other (22%).
Findings from this summer
In preparation for back-to-school 2020, teachers spent the summer learning and preparing for different scenarios.
- The majority of teachers were focused on distance learning lessons (58%), social and emotional learning (SEL) (38%), and developing classroom culture in a virtual environment (38%).
- In order to prepare for those areas of focus, teachers were learning on their own (50%), participating in virtual workshops (44%), and taking PD courses (38%).
In addition, for many of the teachers we surveyed, the rapid changes in instructional delivery, health and safety concerns, and school closures exacerbated burn out and demoralization.
- 47% of surveyed educators indicated that they had considered making a job-related change in the last month — including taking a leave of absence, retiring, changing their career, or teaching a pod.
- 24% of educators indicated that their morale level was high, while 32% said that their morale was low.
- 26% of educators implementing or preparing for hybrid instruction are confident that they can provide effective instruction. And 31% of educators preparing for remote instruction are confident that they can provide effective instruction.
Check back next month for the October TpT Teacher Trend Report.
