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Abstract

with phone meetings.</p><h1 id="df54">Cultivating participation</h1><p id="299d">The first weeks were very tricky as we had to retrain the students to understand what was expected of them. Lesson plans had to be scaled back, and we scrambled to make explanatory videos available to share. We found that videos are a nice resource, but face-to-face action on a screen is far superior.</p><p id="6d6e">My normal duties involve working with small groups of children on an individual basis rather than a large class setting. I quickly found that I could best serve the students by acting as a tutor to cover the assignments of other teachers.</p><p id="b5e9">Assisting the students in getting through their assignment packets allowed me to help with their ELL needs and ensure they were up to date on the concepts they were required to meet by the end of the year.</p><h1 id="a5be">An abrupt transition</h1><p id="a2b7">The rapid onset of the pandemic required us to transition to an online platform with almost no preparation. Although it wasn’t an ideal situation, we were able to take advantage of our time, learn on the fly, and make dramatic improvements before the end of the school year.</p><p id="9806">One of the most amazing things we observed was how well the students adapted to online interactions. In many cases, the students were more familiar with the nuances of programs like Zoom, and Google Meets than the teachers. For example, a student taught me how to share my screen in a group meeting, and he was delighted at his ability to help out.</p><h1 id="4142">Few behavioral problems</h1><p id="6935">We quickly found that digital meetings worked better with tiny groups or individual students. I arranged my schedule and made appointments that afforded me one-on-one t

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ime with my students, and I also took on some of the workloads of my colleagues.</p><p id="bdd8">The students were delighted to attend meetings. There were a few instances where they arrived late, but for the most part, I was very impressed and encouraged by the level of responsibility they showed. The meeting time was designated to help them with problems they encountered during their work, and to help introduce new topics. Most of my students learned to take advantage of this time.</p><p id="2932">Although the students did not get the advantage of a full school day of lessons and interactions, they seemed to bring an extra focus to the digital, one-on-one meetings. For students without internet access, I scheduled regular phone meetings, and we also made encouraging progress.</p><h1 id="3fb3">Online learning is top quality education</h1><p id="de57">There has been a lot of debate lately about whether schools should open again in the fall. I fully recognize that we were unprepared to transition to an online platform back in March. However, my school district saw a tremendous improvement in the quality of education we could make available in our few short months of online operation.</p><p id="41ab">I’m confident that after an entire summer of additional preparation, we can hit the ground running in the fall and provide an online service that is the equivalent, and in some ways superior, to normal classroom education.</p><p id="23e2">It’s important that we make the right choices to preserve the health and well-being of our children. I’m proud of the dedicated educators in my district that have gone the extra mile to ensure the children of our community remain safe and continue to have access to the highest quality education possible.</p></article></body>

Being An Educator in the Time of Coronavirus

We’ve learned a lot about switching to online education, and we’re improving all the time

I work as an ELL teacher in Wisconsin. I am fortunate in that when the schools were shut down, I was able to continue working via telephone calls, education packets, and online meetings. My school district is a 50-minute commute, so at first, it was a relief not to have the drive time. But my colleagues and I quickly found ourselves scrambling to adapt our curriculum to an online format.

The challenges of rural teaching

The pandemic has given teachers everywhere a better understanding of the daily realities of their students’ home living situation. We were surprised to discover that a large percentage of our students didn’t have access to computers or the internet.

Our district offered to lend Chromebooks to students in 4th grade and up. We welcomed students that didn’t have internet access to come and log in via Wi-Fi at the school parking lot. However, this solution was impractical for children that lived far away or those that had parents with work obligations.

For students we couldn’t access on the internet, we prepared and provided learning packets combined with phone meetings.

Cultivating participation

The first weeks were very tricky as we had to retrain the students to understand what was expected of them. Lesson plans had to be scaled back, and we scrambled to make explanatory videos available to share. We found that videos are a nice resource, but face-to-face action on a screen is far superior.

My normal duties involve working with small groups of children on an individual basis rather than a large class setting. I quickly found that I could best serve the students by acting as a tutor to cover the assignments of other teachers.

Assisting the students in getting through their assignment packets allowed me to help with their ELL needs and ensure they were up to date on the concepts they were required to meet by the end of the year.

An abrupt transition

The rapid onset of the pandemic required us to transition to an online platform with almost no preparation. Although it wasn’t an ideal situation, we were able to take advantage of our time, learn on the fly, and make dramatic improvements before the end of the school year.

One of the most amazing things we observed was how well the students adapted to online interactions. In many cases, the students were more familiar with the nuances of programs like Zoom, and Google Meets than the teachers. For example, a student taught me how to share my screen in a group meeting, and he was delighted at his ability to help out.

Few behavioral problems

We quickly found that digital meetings worked better with tiny groups or individual students. I arranged my schedule and made appointments that afforded me one-on-one time with my students, and I also took on some of the workloads of my colleagues.

The students were delighted to attend meetings. There were a few instances where they arrived late, but for the most part, I was very impressed and encouraged by the level of responsibility they showed. The meeting time was designated to help them with problems they encountered during their work, and to help introduce new topics. Most of my students learned to take advantage of this time.

Although the students did not get the advantage of a full school day of lessons and interactions, they seemed to bring an extra focus to the digital, one-on-one meetings. For students without internet access, I scheduled regular phone meetings, and we also made encouraging progress.

Online learning is top quality education

There has been a lot of debate lately about whether schools should open again in the fall. I fully recognize that we were unprepared to transition to an online platform back in March. However, my school district saw a tremendous improvement in the quality of education we could make available in our few short months of online operation.

I’m confident that after an entire summer of additional preparation, we can hit the ground running in the fall and provide an online service that is the equivalent, and in some ways superior, to normal classroom education.

It’s important that we make the right choices to preserve the health and well-being of our children. I’m proud of the dedicated educators in my district that have gone the extra mile to ensure the children of our community remain safe and continue to have access to the highest quality education possible.