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A Teacher's Perspective on Remote Learning

We reached out to long-time StudySync teacher, Kate Hertz and asked her how she plans to respond to a shift to #RemoteLearning. Kate is a National Board Certified Teacher and English Department Instructional Coach at Geneva High School in Geneva, IL.

Kate Hertz:

To start preparation for a remote method of learning is not all that different than preparing for other lessons. Educators still have to consider the learning environment, the time frame, the objectives, and most importantly who your students are that will be doing the learning. While the method of approach is similar to any lesson plan, certainly the tools that will be used and the environment will be the biggest shift to consider.

As the COVID-19 Virus discussion has unfolded, I've done what I do with any potential need to shift course, and I've considered alternate plans to the road map I've sketched out since the beginning of the school year. I teach in a school district that students have access to bringing devices to and from school from 6th grade through 12th. So, my high school students do have computers they could access. However, without prior notification of the need to take their devices home the expectation that all students would have their device at home, or even have a wi-fi connection, is not a guarantee. The best case #RemoteLearning scenario would have students notified of the need for the school to close with the opportunity for them to prepare and bring their devices home. But, like all emergency situations, that isn't the only scenario that might occur.

I work at a K-12 Community Unit School District that was initially planning to treat any need for #RemoteLearning like any other emergency day that would be made up at the end of the year. However, discussions are being held to determine what a #RemoteLearning scenario might look like, if it becomes necessary. So, families and other community members would find out following already established emergency protocols. No official plans to coordinate consumables, workbooks, or other tools are underway at this point, but teachers are certainly thinking about what tools they have and what expectations they could have for various scenarios.

As I've pondered the potential scenarios, of course my plans include the content-specific resources and supports provided on StudySync, but also how I might leverage our districts use of Microsoft Teams and the Office 365 suite of products to collaborate digitally with my students. I am currently in a unit where student-lead poetry recitations, discussions and presentations are a large portion of the activities we are doing in class. So, if needed, I would ideally set up a video chat with the class during the established class meeting times and have the students log in to have a live video chat session that I would moderate.

Try to normalize the paradigm as much as possible.”

While the students and I have yet to actually participate in this type of activity, I am confident that I could walk them through the steps to join the chat and establish protocols for the interaction because we use Microsoft Teams to collaborate with my peers throughout the school district for meetings, and I've used other online meeting software to interact with educators across the globe.

A couple of personal tips to fellow teachers that she formulated after a night’s reflection plus what she describes as a “very highly-engaged day of discussions and decision making,” would be:

  • Always communicate the goals of any new endeavor.
  • Distinguish the difference between #RemoteLearning and e-Learning, and other solely computer-based forms of instruction. These methods of instruction are not the same, despite the fact that they share similar tools to execute learning.
  • Extend a lot of grace to others in the midst of this time: colleagues, students, administrators, parents, and the community. This is truly an unprecedented challenge for us to navigate.
  • Try to normalize the paradigm as much as possible.
    • Let people work with resources that they are comfortable using.
    • Don't change systems or resources for others (educators or students) any more than is necessary--there is already enough unfamiliarity and uncertainty in the current climate.
  • Leverage the chances you get to talk about being a discerning consumer and purveyor of information.
    • Like a good reader, pay attention to the contextual clues to form your own opinions about what is going on around the circumstances.
    • Like a good writer, choose your words carefully and speak in clear and balanced terms when you make your points with others, especially in a crowd.

We loved hearing from Kate to better understand how we can support you, our partners. Please let us know what you need via implementation@studysync.com.

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