Distance learning, emergency learning, learning in place, continuity of learning…so many names for one concept! With schools across the country closed to prevent the spread of COVID-19, teachers have stepped into uncharted territory to deliver instruction to students remotely. Some teachers are fluent in distance and digital teaching, some teachers are learning new technology and then, sometimes the same day, having to support students and families in using the same technology for the first time.
I mentioned in my last post that this whole undertaking is very much a work in progress and that is definitely holding true now. Learning new things, implementing new instructional practices, reflecting on the experience and adapting for the next time are all regular parts of the day for most teachers, however, they do typically have longer to go through these phases than the breaks that exist between Zoom sessions.
Having to simultaneously be a beginner and an expert is giving some teachers the feeling that this isn’t going well, when that may actually not be true! While I think we would all agree that we’d rather be safe, healthy, and back in our classrooms with our students we still have an opportunity to keep learning right along with them to finish out the year as strongly as we can.
With that said, here are Five Tips For Keeping It Real About Distance Learning!
1. Be as patient with yourself as you are with everyone else. Helping students and families navigate the new virtual learning environment can be challenging and takes a lot of patience, calm, and willingness to try different things. Sometimes things go well on the first try, and sometimes they don’t! And you know, that’s always been the case. Be honest and positive about your own learning curve, and you’ll find that you are putting your students and families more at ease as well.
2. Watch out for new shiny. There’s a real temptation right now to try out all the things- Boom Cards, Google Classroom, Kahoot, virtual field trips, breakout sessions in web conferences, you name it! Every day a new message hits my box about a site or a tool that is giving away a free membership to teachers to support distance learning. I am not dogging these people at all- that’s super generous! What I will say is that it’s important to be mindful about what you personally can do right now and what you can take on. It’s easy to feel frantic when you’re trying to do many new things at once. And with that said…
3. Start with what you know. Working within whatever guidance you’ve received for distance learning, start with what you know! If you’re a whiz at Google Apps, start there! If you were already using Kahoot in your classroom before school closed, work that in! If you know all about breakout rooms in Zoom work with that! Starting with what’s familiar will give you the confidence to expand and try something new.
4. Remember that not all learning is academic. What are your students observing you do right now? They’re watching you try new things, demonstrate flexible thinking, recover from mistakes, learn for the future, and celebrate your own growth! And that’s just for starters! This is an opportunity for teachers to model so many healthy coping and problem solving strategies for students, and personally I think students will remember that, and will remember the novelty of this situation, much longer than they’ll remember how long it took to get the session connected or get the webcam to work.
5. Keep your documentation current. This is the administrator in me coming out- I’m positive most teachers have been tasked with keep track in some form of when instruction occurred, who was there, and what the outcome was. It’s a lot to keep up with in addition to virtual instruction and, in many cases, working with your own kids! The best advice I can give here is to make closing out your documentation part of your daily practice. If it’s always kept current then there will never be an issue of someone wanting to see it, right? We all live in the real world, and in the real world people spot check paperwork. Be ready for it and save yourself the stress.
How are you doing with distance learning? What has been hard? What has been easy? Share your thoughts in the comments!
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