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Last week was our first week of the school year. Our classrooms are a hybrid of face-to-face instruction and distance learning. Each of my classes includes both in-person students and students who attend from home via Zoom . I want to share some observations and experiences. 1/?
I also experienced the parent side of the process, as my youngest daughter is distance learning, and my other daughter is attending a technical school on an A/B day schedule & distance learning for our home school. Some of my observations are from my daughters’ and wife’s POV. 2/
We weren’t trained on some of what we need to do to succeed at this. We weren’t trained to deal with both in-person students and distance learning students simultaneously. We weren’t trained on our new ceiling cameras, which were installed just days before school began. 3/
Using Zoom was an issue for some, but I have a bit of an advantage because I use it and other video communication platforms such as Discord to play tabletop roleplaying games online every week, so it wasn’t difficult for me to implement in my classroom. 4/
We were trained in the use of our new LMS (Schoology) and our new online textbooks. I’m pretty happy with Schoology so far, but I won’t be introducing the online textbook until late next week. We have so many new programs to learn, and I don’t want to overwhelm the students. 5/
Some of my fellow teachers seem to be trying to teach as if they are in a traditional classroom. This is NOT a traditional classroom, and you cannot get the traditional classroom experience under these conditions. Don’t even try. 6/
My school requires that all distance learning students have their cameras on. I don’t enforce this. I give the students the option. They log into Zoom, I welcome them, they say hello back (either verbally or in the chat), and that tells me they are present. 7/
My 12yo’s biggest fear was that her video feed would be seen by the students in the classroom, and even though it’s not supposed to happen, it happened twice on the first day of school. 8/
Teachers need to check in with their distance learners regularly throughout class, either verbally or visually by looking at their computer screens. This should be done just as often as you do visual check-ins with your in-classroom students. 9/
Both of my daughters have had to wait up to 20 minutes for a teacher to look at their computer screen to see that a question had been asked in the Zoom chat. 10/
(Students have been taught to NOT speak up without raising their hand first. While on Zoom, my daughters will not verbally interrupt a teacher to tell them that something is wrong or that they do not understand or that they cannot keep up. They WILL post it in the chat.) 11/
Some teachers have the online students muted, and apparently the students cannot unmute themselves. I don’t recommend this. I’ve told my distance learning students that if they need me, they can speak up at any time. 12/
My wife had to call the school to have the office tell a teacher that her microphone hadn’t been on for half of the class period. In another class, the teacher didn’t turn her video on for the entire class. She had audio, but my 15yo had NO IDEA what was going on. 13/
None of these people are bad teachers. On the contrary, I know many of them to be fantastic teachers. However, this is an unprecedented situation, and we’re stumbling through it as best we can. We’re learning, just as the students are. (I say this to my students repeatedly.) 14/
Audio has been an issue in some classes. Sometimes teachers walk too far away from the microphone, or their voices are just too soft for the microphone to pick up. Masks muffle our voices considerably, making it difficult to be understood. 15/
I wear a portable headset microphone and amplifier so that the classroom students can understand me, the microphone picks me up for the distance learners, and I don’t have to strain my voice because of the mask. (Still, after day 1 my throat was BURNING.) 16/
Slow down. Some teachers are moving through material at their normal, in-classroom speed. This doesn’t work for most of the distance learners. It WILL take them longer to follow instructions. Accept that you will probably not cover everything you want to cover. 17/
If your distance learning students are using just one computer device for school, they cannot follow what you are doing AND do it themselves at the same time. They have to switch screens to be able to do it, and they will take longer to finish. 18/
Suggest to your distance learning students that they use two screens, even if it means using their phone as one. If you use a timed activity or a website like Kahoot! in class, your distance learning students cannot be competitive if they have just one screen. 19/
Flexibility is paramount, especially since we are relying so much on technology, which is notoriously unreliable. I teach in a rural area, and not all of our students have good Internet access. Friday’s inclement weather caused several disconnects. 20/
I start my Zoom meetings right after my previous class ends so that my next Zoom students aren’t waiting while I’m greeting the classroom students. The distance learners are able to at least get into the waiting room, and they know I haven’t forgotten to start the Zoom. 21/
I don’t really care if a student logs into Zoom 5 minutes late. I don’t admonish them. I tell them I’m happy they made it. This is all hard enough without making students’ lives even harder. (If it becomes a habit, I’ll look into it, but right now, no.) 22/
