Pandemic Pods Are Too Risky for Your Child. Try Modified Distance Learning Instead.
And work with teachers, not against them
As a parent of school-age kids, you’re worried sick about sending them back to school during a global pandemic.
And you’re absolutely right to feel this way.
The sense of foreboding doom if Covid-19 comes home with one (or more) of your children is very real. This is true whether your school reopens normally or only for a few days a week.
On top of the agonizing decision you have to make soon about school, maybe your family is experiencing job loss or you’re working less or at home. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by it all.
If you’re struggling to pay the bills and wondering how on Earth you’ll be able to juggle work and schooling your child at home, have you considered guided distance learning?
It’ll remove the full responsibility for your kids’ education from your shoulders, but still allow you to participate significantly in their lives and education during quarantine.
And more than just as the IT help desk support (getting and keeping them online during school days), or school disciplinarian (screaming at them to get back to work when they goof off, tease the dog or switch on video games).
Guided distance learning may be just the thing for parents who want to keep their kids safe from Covid-19, while providing grade-level continuity and structure to their children’s learning all year long. It will ensure a smoother transition to school when it finally reopens safely because your kids haven’t missed a beat.
So even if the school year starts off in class and you choose that route, but shutters in the winter due to a predicted viral outbreak, you’ll be able to do school at home from the get go.
Best part: No worksheets…unless your child insists! (Yeah, right.)
Not Really Homeschooling
One reason you may not wish to take total charge of the education of your kids is your belief that you’re not qualified to choose a curriculum or create your own.
So, you think, homeschooling is not an option.
But, what if you didn’t have to worry about the curriculum?
I’m not suggesting full-blown unschooling which could result in complete pandemonium at your home where no one learns anything.
Guided distance learning means you take the best of both worlds (regular school and schooling at home), and combine them into an instructional program for your kids at home.
Your children’s teachers at school are still calling all the shots in terms of setting out learning objectives.
But exactly how you meet those objectives is up to you and your kids.
You don’t need to research your state’s educational standards for every subject. Nor do you need to create content so that your kids meet those standards.
Your children’s teachers have already done that.
What you need to do to make it work:
- Your commitment to be involved in your children’s learning. That’s a given, right?
- The time to research learning activities that will engage your children and meet standards (if the prescribed ones aren’t doing it) This can be fun for both of you!
- Agreement with teachers on assessment tools (which could be the teachers’ own) Collaboration is key.
Getting Started
Before starting the school year, stop by the school for textbooks. If your school has any other learning materials that your children would typically use in class (like word tiles, multiplication tables, dictionaries, calculators, etc.), sign them out, too.
If the school doesn’t allow this, ask for a list of books and other materials. If you can’t afford to purchase them, ask your children’s teachers if the school provides the textbook online or similar resources. Your local library may have suggestions, too.
That’s the guided part of guided distance learning.
The distance learning part is where you come in.
For the first units of all major subjects, one by one:
1. Read through unit objectives.
2. Look at the textbooks or the school’s online presentations of material that meet those goals. (Arranged previously by the teacher.)
3. Search the web for activity ideas on how to assist your child in grasping the main concepts. ( You may not need to — Only if your child frowns or groans at activities the teacher suggested.)
4. Send your children’s teachers a list of 1–2 alternate activities (and their weblinks or reference) that teach the same learning objectives for all major subject units for your children.
5. Considering the teacher’s assessment tool for each unit, determine if your selected activities will be enough for your children to do well on the assessment. (Ask the teacher if in doubt. This is teaching to the test in reverse.)
6. If needed, look for other activities for your child to complete the unit successfully.
7. In cases of great disparity between what your kids actually do and its assessment tool, propose an alternative assessment that teachers approve.
Then repeat these steps for each unit during the school year.
Too Much Work?
If you’re a frazzled parent who had a tough time last spring getting your kids to follow (and understand) video lessons, or having to prod them to do worksheet after worksheet, guided distance learning will avoid these major pitfalls of doing public school at home (that is, crisis schooling).
It’s now in your control to set your kids up for success.
No doubt planning is involved. But it’s a chance to include your children directly in designing their own education. After all, it is their education.
You don’t have gobs of time to search for activities for each unit of every subject. How about selecting 3–4 grade-appropriate activities that meet learning goals and inviting your children to choose one or two from those?
This way, they can’t blame you for a bad choice if it turns out to be something they’re not thrilled about! (You may need to thoroughly explain the activity before they choose, so they know what they’re getting into to.)
Most importantly, it gives them a sense of ownership of their education. They’ll be more likely to follow through and progress this way.
Added bonus: You’ll have the chance to work one-on-one with your children as you select activities together. Think of like selecting your favorite toys in a toy store!
It’ll be quality time with a purpose.
Here are some places on the web to start looking for alternative educational activities.
TIP: Homeschooling groups will have lots of options, too! There are literally tons of free resources available. Contact me for additional help or ideas. Remember: You’re not alone!
Teamwork Required
Guided distance learning involves both you and your child in a partnership to make the school year as pleasant and interesting as possible while still following the curriculum that everyone else, in theory, is following as closely and as completely as possible.
So, the following school year (2021–2022), if your kids return to the classroom, they won’t suffer from brain shock. They won’t need to figure out how their year homeschooling or unschooling fits in with the next grade level’s work. Nor will there be any gaps in learning from differences in curriculum. (A common problem homeschoolers face when transitioning to public school.)
Guided distance learning eases the transition back to regular school (whenever it happens).
With guided distance learning, it would be like your kids were enrolled in school all along during the pandemic, but just not in the physical building.
No gaps. No interruptions.
Assessment Strategies That Make the Grade
To reduce the likelihood of your children simply forgetting whatever they learned, assessments are needed. In an important sense, assessments gives purpose to your children’s work. It holds them accountable.
Knowing there’s a final test or cumulative project to complete that’s equivalent to a significant part of their final grade, your kids will retain information in long-term memory better than if there weren’t any kind of assessment.
You, in conjunction with your children’s teachers, decide if the prescribed assessment tools are good indicators of their learning. Teachers may need to modify them. Not to simplify standards or measure other things, but to recast their assessments in ways that correspond with what your kids actually did in the activities that the teachers pre-approved.
Isn’t this interaction with your child and the teacher better than constantly reminding your child to listen to video lessons, making sure they’re following along, and supervising worksheet completion and submission?
In all those roles, you’re acting more like the police or an administrator of your child’s life.
Do you really want to do that again?
With guided distance learning, you get to work collaboratively with your children and alongside your children’s teachers to custom design their education while still meeting grade-level expectations mandated by your local school district.
This is the best way to get through a global pandemic as painlessly and as safely as possible will your kids keep up with school standards at home.
