Teaching in Transition: Finding Balance Between Tradition and Modern Practice

Teaching in the Digital Age

Students today are a different breed. They’re definitely not like the kids I learned alongside growing up, and they’re not the same kind of kids I taught nearly twenty years ago. With the rise of digital technology and, more recently, social media, students are receiving information at exponential rates — whether that information is accurate or not. For some of them, traditional classroom learning can feel like a relic of the past, especially after the pandemic, when their entire learning world shrank to a 13-inch rectangle.

So now the question becomes: where do we go from here? How do we support our kids’ learning without pretending the pandemic never happened — but also without repeating the digital overload of that time? I genuinely believe the answer lies somewhere in the middle, especially for the Grades 6–10 students whose most formative developmental years were shaped by pandemic learning.

The Power of Pens, Pages, and Highlighters

I want to be clear: I don’t believe that “old-school” teaching should disappear. In fact, writing by hand, reading from physical books, turning pages, and highlighting text still hold real value. Research has consistently shown that reading on paper often leads to stronger comprehension than reading on screens.¹ Likewise, studies suggest that writing by hand engages the brain in ways that support memory, visualization, and recall — one study even found that handwritten note-takers completed tasks 25% faster and showed heightened brain activity in memory-related regions.²

Some researchers even argue that cursive writing may act as a bridge between the tactile, spatial benefits of handwriting and the speed of digital communication — a way of connecting the “old world” and the “new world” of learning. It’s a reminder that we don’t have to choose one or the other.

Putting Students in the Driver's Seat to Learning

Recently, I’ve been listening to Kim Lepre’s podcast Teachers Need Teachers. An intermediate/middle school educator from the United States, her show offers practical support and fresh ideas for new and novice teachers navigating today’s complicated classrooms. Out of the many episodes she’s released since the podcast began in 2024, one really resonated with me. It was called ONE Simple Shift in Teaching Saved Me!

This episode pushed me to rethink how I teach. It taught me not to abandon what’s worked for decades, but by blending it thoughtfully with newer approaches. And honestly, I’ve just begun experimenting with this hybrid method myself.

Recently, I recorded a short instructional video for a Grade 7 class with the intention to upload it online for students to view at home, but instead decided to present it in class while I marked some assignments. To my surprise, they learned more from my short video than from my live teaching. When I paired the video with worksheets to guide them through the key ideas, their engagement and understanding improved noticeably. This small experiment helped me see the potential in giving students more autonomy, more movement, and more ways to interact with content. And while they work on tasks without an often boring 20-minute instructional block from me, I was able to circle the classroom to observe their learning more closely.

This aligns with the “modern classroom” approach, inspired by the Modern Classrooms Project, where students watch short, segmented lesson videos at stations around the room and then work independently at their own pace. Meanwhile, we as educators circulate, troubleshoot, ask questions, and actually teach rather than talking at the front of the classroom. It puts students in the driver’s seat — and places us where we’re most effective: beside them.

Learning to Let Both Worlds Breathe in the Classroom

Though I've incorporated some of the Modern Classroom Project approach, I continue to teach in front of the classroom - but not excessively. I also provide notebooks, introduce hands-on projects, and integrate real-world observations into assignments. It’s not perfect, and I’m still learning, but I’m starting to see how bridging the old and new can support learners who have grown up in both worlds.

Education has changed, and so have our students. But that doesn’t mean traditional methods should be discarded, nor does it mean we should retreat into the screen-heavy habits of the pandemic years. A blended, modern-classroom approach allows handwritten notes, books, and tactile learning to coexist with digital tools, video lessons, and independent stations. By meeting students where they are — and honouring where they’ve come from — we create learning environments that are more balanced, more flexible, and more human. And if this helps students actually learn, connect, and thrive, then it’s a direction we could continue to explore.

References:

1. Print vs. digital comprehension Delgado, P. et al. “Don’t Throw Away Your Printed Books: A Meta-Analysis on the Effects of Reading Media on Reading Comprehension.” Educational Research Review, 2018.

2. Handwriting and memory/brain activation University of Tokyo. “Writing by hand enhances brain activity, memory recall.” Press Release, 2021.