In this month’s blog, I write about the shared experiences of teaching from the other side of the Zoom screen in CovidLand. The article is from two perspectives: my point of view while teaching a science course to college students and my daughter’s experience teaching third grade in a public school. The students are from widely different backgrounds and have unique challenges.
Mark: Libby, we both spent a long Fall semester sequestered in our homes, teaching remotely, and trying desperately to keep our students engaged. Looking back to that challenge, I have to say the hardest part was the first week—getting everyone familiar with the new routine. I think my biggest surprise was how resilient my students were in adapting to the new learning platform. Granted, my college students came to this challenge with different perspectives and skills than your elementary school kids, but it still amazed me how they stepped up in so many ways.
Libby: Yeah, the first week was a HUUUUUGE curve ball because many of my students weren’t familiar with the devices they were using (laptops versus tablets) or the routines. So, on top of learning how to log on to Zoom, we also had to teach them how to use a mouse, terms like “tab” and “address bar” and how to do things like copy and paste. Once we figured out screen sharing, that made an enormous difference.
Mark: For sure. We really crashed into the online learning after the Spring lockdown. Alec MacGillis wrote about how things were going for students in Baltimore. It paints a bleak portrait of chaos: online classes with student no-shows, class schedules upended at the last minute, Zoom links that led nowhere. I feel the Fall semester startup went smoother.
Libby: It was such a different focus from how we normally start the year. You mentioned your students’ resilience, and I must say my kids really impressed me with how open they were to interacting in this virtual space, engaging enthusiastically with a teacher they had never met, and jumping right in. That first week I met so many pets and brothers and sisters, and I really got to see my students as whole people instead of just their student selves. Now I can name their siblings and guinea pigs, I know more about their hobbies and interests than I ever have before, and we have all bonded in our commiseration of the “Younger Sibling Camera Bomber.” Being on camera and observed by countless parents is a bit nerve-wracking though. What are some challenges you’ve had that wouldn’t have been an issue in a face-to-face environment?
Mark: The biggest challenge I’ve had is what I miss the most, seeing my students face to face. Most of them prefer to stay behind the black wall; that is, with their video turned off. As a classroom teacher for over two decades, I had grown used to scanning the room. As I spoke or asked questions, the student expressions were the best signal to me if they either got the concept or understood the answer to a question. Now all I see is their name or worse—the name of the device they’re using (e.g., Big Bob’s Laptop). And speaking of devices, another hiccup we all face as teachers is technology’s persnickety gift of breaking down at the precise moment you most need it the most. Curse you, Murphy! A couple of days before my first class, my laptop crashed after a Windows update. Dead as a doornail. But no worries, I had a backup desktop I could use. Nope. That computer’s integrated video card couldn’t handle the Zoom session. Argh! I’m sure you might have had a few techno-nightmares on your end.
Libby: And what can you do? Send smoke signals? Frantic calls to families telling them to figure something out? One of the funniest tech hiccups was when I unexpectedly dropped from a Zoom session and my class was still in the room. Zoom randomly made one of them the host, and you can imagine the fun they had in muting everyone. I confess, I’ll miss that mute button, and I’m sure the kids will miss having the ability to turn my volume down! It hasn’t been all bad though.
Mark: It’s a shame that Zoom doesn’t have a remote unmute-the-mute feature for teachers hosting class online. But I guess that might create other problems. How do you keep the class fresh and engaging?
Libby: We’ve had talent shows, “walked” on Mars, and I’ve even been to all my students’ houses; those are some things that hardly ever happened in the before time.
Mark: You mean virtually, right? I don’t think parents would like teachers showing up uninvited for lunch.
Libby: No, I mean I literally went to all their houses. I surprised the students but set it up with parents beforehand.
Mark: What other changes did you see after moving to virtual classes?
Libby: We have a longer lunch break than we were used to, and playground duty is no longer necessary. And I’m truly lucky in knowing that my kids are in good places where someone looks after them, listens to them, and provides for them. However, the strain of almost a year now with remote learning is clear. I think adapting to yet another new normal is going to be our next enormous challenge.
Mark: I wonder what that new norm will look like. There’s already chatter about colleges offering more online instruction. Many private colleges have closed permanently, and others are considering how to transform their brick-and-mortar infrastructure to better meet virtual or online instruction. At my college we offer three approaches to learning: traditional online instruction (asynchronous), teleconference classes that meet at set times (synchronous), and classes that meet both online and face to face (hybrid). I’ve taught the synchronous virtual format for the past year and my students tell me they prefer this to asynchronous learning. They like meeting other students online (Zoom break-out rooms are a must have) and speaking live with me to ask questions and iron out issues. My high school teaching friends tell me they are simultaneously offering all three formats for all their classes. When I imagine trying to do this simultaneously, it makes my head spin! What’s happening at the elementary grade level?
Libby: We’re about to move into a three-way hybrid, offering live lessons that online students can attend, asynchronous content in case they can’t attend, and also teaching face to face with all new routines and procedures. The logistics of all this stresses me out, but I miss my students, even though we’ve only met a handful of times in person. I miss sitting beside my students and working with them in person. However, I have a friend in Florida whose son is face-to-face daily. She just received her seventh phone call warning of exposure. It feels like only bad choices are options.
Mark: I hear you. Nation-wide, nearly 40 percent of parents have opted to have their children learn fully remotely through at least the first few months of this semester. That number reflects the deep divide among the city’s families about how to approach in-person learning.
Libby: And a big divide in the ability to have their kids stay home and have support. I think this is an economic gap more than an ideological one. On the brighter side, we had our first snow day yesterday! Since we’re all teaching online, our county tried to make it a day like any other day, but YOU try to get an 8-year-old to pay attention to poetry while snow is melting outside. So, we compromised. They could go offline in the morning, and on-line class in the afternoon when the snow turned to mud. It worked out great for everyone because I could actually get some planning done! I have a firm 4 PM rule during the week and I make Sunday my workday. How have you balanced the workload with being at home?
Mark: Burnout is a big risk right for many teachers. We all need to practice a little more self-care, such as putting limits on ourselves. I teach in the evenings, so I limit my off-line work to three or four hours in the morning when I’m fresher, then try to work out in the afternoons and do some personal reading. This breaks up my day and allows me to fit personal time into my schedule. I feel for parents and students who don’t always have this option. I honestly think parents are in the tightest bind right now. It’s almost impossible for them to supervise their children’s online schooling and hold a job, even if they’re working from home. Do you have any advice for parents struggling to keep their kids engaged in learning online?
Libby: I really believe my family community is a bunch of ROCKSTARS. They have been truly understanding of the challenges right now, and respectful of my boundaries. Sadly, a lot of schools, mine included, might have missed an opportunity. Instead of standards and assessments, we could have focused on personal growth, interests, and goals. While I think some teachers did this anyway, we missed a chance to reexamine how we do school. Being a parent is hard but being a teacher/parent is harder. My families have found ways to make it work, but to expect them to take on this role was unfair. If we had focused on other things, engagement might not have been as big a problem. But that’s not where we are at this moment. We have attendance issues, connectivity issues, and the “homework battle” has become a war because it’s ALL homework.
Mark: So, what can parents do?
Libby: First of all, contact the teacher if they haven’t reached out already, and explain what you see from your end. They might not have answers, but at least it will challenge any assumptions that they have made. Ask to see the lesson your child enjoyed the most that day, or the hardest one. Pick your battles—what matters most to you? For me, that means are they safe, do they have someone to talk to, and are they growing in some way? However, I am not relying on a scholarship for my child to attend a university, so I know for others, grades might be the most important thing at the moment. It’s another glaring gap in our experiences during this pandemic. But with elementary school kids, trust me when I say that they will bounce back academically—it’s the trauma that will be harder to overcome, so focus on the social-emotional well-being and we’ll figure out the other stuff on the other side of this thing.
