May 30: Reflections on Distance Learning

The distance learning experiment began two months ago today. Teachers, students, and parents all had to learn how to make it work along the way. Some things worked, some didn’t. The district staff who slapped the original plan together all in a matter of weeks may be all intelligent and experienced, but they are only people and are subject to the same limitations as the rest of us. 

After two months of teaching from my home office, I feel I’ve got some of the distance learning process figured out. Here are a few things I’ll be keeping in mind for if/when we eventually fall back into the same routine at some point in the coming school year.

*Be flexible with your time. Office hours mean there are times you’re expected to be available, but not every child or every family will be able to align with that schedule. 

*Stay in touch with the families. Some families will roll with it all fairly well. Some will be anxious and confused. Some will not be very involved at all. 

*Make your directions abundantly clear. Sooner or later, you’re going to explain the directions to an assignment in a way that aren’t as straightforward as you intended or believed them to be. In a classroom, you can monitor and adjust. You can’t online. There likely will be times when the best thing to do will be to accept it didn’t work and move on. Video or audio instructions are very helpful. Some kids still won’t watch them and will do everything wrong.

*Understand that sometimes things will not go the way you want and there won’t be much you can do about it. It’s hard to find a balance between the rigor of assignments being too easy and too difficult. Sometimes you’ll thread that needle, sometimes you won’t.

*Some kids who are used to trash talking through their gaming and texting online will think that kind of discourse will carry over into their school work. If they aren’t going to show simple respect online, you probably have the capability to limit their interaction in the digital classroom setting. Use it. I did, once. I had to put up with a temper tantrum in an email later, but it worked. 

*If there’s a kid in your class who never shows their work, never hands things in, complains constantly about what they need to do (and there is at least one kid like that in your class), you’re going to have to monitor their participation very closely. If you have ways to stay in contact with them, use those to remind them about what they need to do. If they aren’t getting their jobs done, let the families know. With some families, that works brilliantly and you’ll see immediate results. With others, you’ll at least some improvement, either overall or in spurts. With a very small number of exceptions, it won’t make any difference at all. 

*Realize when you have video chats that sometimes the kids are only there because they want to see their classmates, and they couldn’t care less about what you’re trying to teach them. 

*Your email inbox is going to get ridiculous. Whatever tools you have, keep the important messages tagged because they’ll disappear in the crowd five minutes after you first see them. 

*Be flexible in your expectations because you don’t know what anyone is going through, but hold them accountable for what they’re expected to do. The day is going to come when they need that skill for real.