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Remote Learning
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2022-04-29
For Those Most at Risk, COVID-19 Is Not Over
This is a news story from Inside Higher ED by Josh Moody. As schools begin to resume to pre-COVID standards, not all are happy with this change. Those with disabilities worry about the loosening guidelines and how it would affect their health. COVID rates vary across the country, but many colleges are starting to drop protocols. Some disability advocates claim that this is a wrong decision from the colleges doing this, as it is putting people at high risk in more danger. COVID Safe Campus, a group of high-risk academics and activists with disabilities, recently launched a report card grading college coronavirus policies. The effort, they say, grew out of concerns that high-risk individuals are being left behind as colleges return to pre-pandemic normalcy. Colleges are graded on masking, COVID-19 testing and vaccination policies, and access to remote learning. Of the 90 institutions graded from this organization, majority have received a D or an F, and none earned an A. -
2020-09-08
Remote Learning
This was my son on his first days of remote learning in Kindergarten. He was a great trooper and worked hard to have the sense of being in school. Some days were more difficult than others, but overall we made it through and we continue to prosper through this pandemic. -
2020-08-26
Working From Home
When my son started Kindergarten remotely in August of 2020, I was required to work remotely for the first time ever. It was the hardest year for both myself and my son. Being that it was his first school year, I needed to split my time between fulfilling my job requirements and helping him learn how to use the computer properly. -
2020-10-02
Back to School (post-quarantine): Teacher Edition
Back to school is always a scary day for kids, but it can be for teachers too--especially after getting used to remote learning for so long. 2020 was my first year as a teacher. I started teaching online, and we eventually transitioned back into the classroom. For me, it was my first time in the classroom. I was super nervous about teaching and about all of the risks involved with school reopening. Thankfully, my school administration helped make everyone feel comfortable, and we had a lot of fun celebrating the start of school! This is a picture with a coworker of mine, my "classroom neighbor." -
2021-01-25
Returning to school in a pandemic
Teachers all over the world had their entire profession change when Covid-19 struck. They had to take on more roles and wear new hats. This article shares the story of three teachers and their experience with remote learning and thoughts on returning to school. -
2020-12-16
Bring Your Pet to School Day: Quarantine Edition
2021-2022 is my second year being a middle teacher, but it feels like my first. Teaching for the first time last year was a whirlwind. From teaching students how to use their devices to pull up our class page and join a Zoom meeting to getting all of the technology to work on my end, it proved difficult many times. Not to mention, kids enjoyed the luxury of crawling right out of bed and attending class. Sleepy faces, tons of distractions, and technological difficulties made up about 90% of remote learning. However, there were often fun moments where we could put aside the learning for just a bit and focus on lifting each other up and getting to know each other. I took one day to have a "bring your pet to class" party. It ended up being much more convenient than bringing animals to "real" school anyway. The kids ran across their house looking for their pets and brought them up to their screens. Some had multiple pets to show off! Moments like these made 2020 memorable--for good reasons. -
2020-03-20
The Signal of Approaching Silence
On Friday, March 20, 2020, I was grocery shopping at Hy-Vee in Canton, Illinois when my mobile phone pinged with an alert from a local news app: the Illinois governor had officially issued a stay-at-home order to prevent the spread of Covid-19. Rumors of the impending order had been circulating for the past few days. I teach English at Canton High School, and we were scheduled to start a week of Spring Break that Friday. That morning the principal had cautioned us to take home our computers and any teaching materials that we might need, just in case we did not return to school after Break. So, the text message confirmed a stark reality. Talk of the stay-at-home order overtook the conversations of shoppers around me. People were speculating about what would come next, now that schools and businesses would be closed. I remember passing the meat counter where I overheard the department manager taking a phone call from a gentleman who wanted to place an apocalypse-sized order of beef. This is it, I thought to myself, trying to figure out what kind of groceries to buy that would sustain my family over for an indefinite period of time, because even though the stay-at-home order was for just two weeks, I had a sinking suspicion we were not going to best Covid-19 in two weeks’ time. I began pushing my cart up and down the aisles faster, a little more frantically, in response to a burgeoning awareness that the virus could already be circulating within our community. Looking back now, I see that we were somewhat cocooned in Fulton County, Illinois, a mostly rural county. The health department announced the first positive case on April 10; the first death occurred on October 21. The virus was slow to take a foothold, but eventually it did. In late July, our school district’s board unanimously voted to start the school year fully remote. Each school day, teachers reported to ghost-town school buildings and holed up in their empty classrooms, with admonitions from administrators not to co-mingle with each other. During that time, I dutifully logged onto Google Meets for each class period, where various avatars greeted me because students were not required to turn on their cameras, so none did. Sometimes I got to hear tinny student voices, which sounded a lot further away than across town, and I wondered if each voice matched the person I pictured in my mind’s eye. I had never met the majority of my students in person, and the photographs on our school’s student management system had not been updated since the fall of 2019. I remember the frustration I struggled to keep capped when I would call on students and be met with silence. Were they even sitting by the computer? Were they afraid to say something in front of their classmates, lest they look stupid? Were they just willfully ignoring me? Were they okay, physically and mentally? I pulled more words out of students through written assignments and chat boxes than through Google Meets. Although part of the student body returned to in-person school in January of 2021 while the rest remained remote by choice (we taught both groups concurrently), it was still difficult to get students to speak, even to each other. Sadly, many of our students had become so accustomed to the idea of school as a radio broadcast—one from which they could easily disengage if they so wished—that they no longer felt it necessary to contribute their voices. In Illinois, we’ve been told that all students will return to in-person learning in the fall of 2021, with few exceptions, but I fear the virus has done irrevocable damage to our students’ speech. -
2020-06-29
What should the school year of 2020-2021 mean for Cal High’s students?
This is a set of three articles from The Californian, the student newspaper of California High School, each one arguing in favor of a different stance regarding the reopening of San Ramon Valley Unified School District schools. In the articles one can see the concerns that motivated high school students (well, three students in one high school) to form opinions about various forms of learning during the pandemic. One article argues for fulltime in-person learning, one article argues for completely remote learning, and the third argues for hybrid learning, a mix of the two. An illustration also accompanies the set of articles. -
2021-02-19
The Person I Can No Longer Be
This pandemic has been a disaster for parents. We have two adults working from home, two remote learners, and a 3-year-old. Cut off from our usual support systems, many days we feel like we are hanging on by a thread. I write a lot and have been chronicling our day-to-day activities (or lack thereof) throughout the pandemic. -
2021-01-21
13,000 School Districts, 13,000 Approaches to Teaching During Covid
As a teacher, I miss our old normal. I miss my students. I miss the connections. The numbers where I live are pretty high and we have not been inside a classroom since March of last year. The kids are not doing well. No amount of scaffolding would be enough right now. My English Language learners are struggling and most have just stopped coming. Parents are frustrated (understandably), and it is evident in their desperate e-mails to me. I am failing them all but I keep pushing and adapting for them. I am so homesick for these kids. Seeing how other schools are dealing with Covid-19 definitely makes me sad. Apart of me wants to go back so badly that I would risk getting sick. The other part of me knows that I have children of my own and asthma. I need to be here for my own family. -
2020-11-22
A Superintendent On What It's Like Overseeing A School District During The Pandemic
Lulu Garcia-Navarro interviews the superintendent of Great Falls Public Schools in Montana about COVID-19 and schools. -
2020-03-13
Mom!!! Is the coronavirus over yet?
This drawing from the Seattle Times was released on March 13, 2020. Now five months later, this cartoon is relatable to mothers all across the country not just in Washington when it was thought to be the epicenter of the Covid pandemic. Our new norm includes masks, social distancing, and enforced closeness with our family. Most parents are still working remotely while most schools are still not back to normal. Putting the mom shame aside, I would say that after months and months of this I have found that too much togetherness is too much of a good thing. -
2020-08-25
A mother captured an emotional photo of her son crying in virtual class to show difficulties of distance learning during pandemic
When her son returned to virtual learning last week, Jana Coombs saw him struggling. Her 5-year-old, a kindergartener at a school in Coweta County, Georgia, was so frustrated with the remote back-to-school experience that he put his head down and cried. Jana Coombs story is not unique; it’s the same story experienced by thousands of mothers who now find themselves running back and forth to their children’s computers trying to make sense of remote learning. This article is an accurate glimpse into the home of every mother with a school aged child and how their lives have been affected by Covid. -
2020-08-27
The Good Stuff
The COVID-19 pandemic has rocked our world. We face new and unprecedented challenges daily. Amidst the chaos, I am doing my best to remind myself to lean into little moments of joy. I am a teacher with 2 elementary school aged children and a baby. Teaching my own classes, while facilitating remote learning for my children, and caring for a baby is difficult to say the least. Did I mentioned that I'm in graduate school? This past week, just when I felt that it was all more than I could handle, I captured the sweetest moment between sisters. While I can't wait to get back to life and school in actual classrooms, I know there are parts of this experience that I will miss. Moments like this are definitely one of them. -
2020-03-23
The Onion Reports that Nation Close to Getting Videoconferencing Software to Work
The Onion has been having a field day with the unbelievable times we are living through. They are doing a great job making fun of what is happening and our reaction to it. This article, written as we had to make an overnight change to working remotely and homeschooling, makes us laugh at how we struggled to get the videoconferencing software to work. People across America were all saying in union, "Can you hear me?" "Can you see me?" and "I don't know how to fix it." -
2020-06-17
Numb
As I gear up to teach high school remotely this fall, many members of my community are demanding "robust" and "rigorous" curriculum with a live daily bell schedule. We have received the opportunity to train on a host of technologies. Conversations are centered around ensuring that students do not fall behind academically. For me, these topics are misguided. How can we teach students rigorous academics without first addressing their emotional well being and the state of their mental health? If we truly want students to learn this year, we need to first focus on who they are and what they need as humans. Only then can true learning occur. Numb, created by Liv McNeil - a 9th grade student in Canada, captures what many of our students are likely experiencing during the COVID-19 pandemic. I hope that global education systems can prioritize the mental well being of our students over "rigorous" and "robust" curriculum. -
2020-07-25
Break the Union
Recently my school district announced that we will begin the school year with remote learning. While many members of the community were in favor of remote learning, many were also incredibly vocal about their wish for a return to full in-person learning. This does not surprise me. There will always be multiple perspectives and positions on any major decisions that need to be made that impact large groups of people. Some individuals in support of full in-person learning have taken to social media and have begun attacking district teachers blaming them and their union for the district's decision to start the school year with remote learning. There is an aggressive tone to many of these posts. As a parent of children that attend school within the district, as well as teacher within the district, I worry about the environment that teacher's are going to be educating children in this year. With remote learning, we will literally be teaching in the homes of parents that are openly demonstrating hostility toward teachers. This brings a great deal of worry and anxiety as I prepare for the upcoming school year. -
2020-04-28
How to Get Out of a Zoom Meeting Humorous
During the quarantine period, most people worked remotely. Zoom was the name of the software most commonly used for meetings and schooling with everyone at different locations. This guy made a funny video about pretending his internet connection wasn't working. Of course, his technique wouldn't exactly work, but it's still funny to watch. The creator is Zach King who is a magician. You can check out his YouTube channel if you want.