麻豆传媒入口

The thought聽ended almost before it started: 鈥淭his is so overwhelming.鈥� It was all one teacher managed to type before she stopped short, vexed into silence, perhaps, by the sheer size of the problem. In the pregnant pause that followed, undoubtedly, every teacher tracking the unspooling thread鈥攁bout the dizzying, rapidly escalating viral crisis that was closing schools across the country鈥攔ecognized the chasm they were all facing as well, and took a deep breath.

In the next few hours, over 500 teachers joined two Facebook conversations about teaching during the coronavirus pandemic, spilling out their concerns and anxieties: What will we do if the schools close for months? How can I shift to online learning if we鈥檙e closing tomorrow, or even in a few hours? How will special education students be cared for, and IEPs administered? What about children who have no internet access, or who will be required, as Keith Schoch thoughtfully noted, to 鈥渂ecome de facto babysitters鈥� for their brothers and sisters. 鈥淭here is no digital divide, but there is a digital abyss, and America鈥檚 rural poor are living at the bottom of it,鈥� said Anne Larsen, with devastating concision. What if, in the end, the school systems decide that online learning is working just fine, and never reopen?

The panic was all perfectly understandable.

But there were plenty of teachers in the mix who had weeks of crisis experience under their belts by that time鈥攕everal in Hong Kong and Italy and the state of Washington, for example鈥攁nd others who had long careers in online and distance learning. In the end, too, there were many fantastic, highly creative teachers providing strategies as fast as the obstacles appeared.

At the highest level, a shift in mindset would be required鈥攅ven the most optimistic educators conceded the point. There are plenty of strategies and tactics we鈥檙e covering at 麻豆传媒入口鈥攁nd we鈥檒l continue to鈥攂ut here are the crucial emotional and psychological scaffolds that our audience agreed would be needed to teach in this new paradigm.

Expect Trial... and Plenty of Error

Start by being reasonable with yourself. It is, in fact, impossible to shift to distance learning overnight without lots of trial and error. Expect it, plan for it, and do your best to make peace with it.

鈥淚 can tell you, now that we鈥檙e in week 7 of online learning, that much of what you will do will be trial and error,鈥� wrote Stacy Rausch Keevan, who was teaching in Hong Kong. 鈥淒on鈥檛 stress about that鈥攊t won鈥檛 do you any good. For my middle school English and humanities classes, I鈥檓 offering the same lessons I would normally do live, but in smaller doses.鈥�

Acknowledge the Extraordinary

Reset your baseline. We're all operating in the shadow of a global pandemic, and it is disorienting and limiting. Business as usual is unrealistic.

The real 鈥減oints to consider鈥� are not 鈥渢he strict adherence to 鈥榬egular鈥� conditions and norms,鈥� wrote Amy Rheault-Heafield in a reply to a question about how to structure distance learning like more typical learning experiences, 鈥渂ut how to provide a rich experience to all learners who are now without 鈥榯raditional鈥� teachers standing beside them in classes.鈥�

So while you should try to provide 鈥渕eaningful activities,鈥� cautioned elementary teacher John Thomas, 鈥渨e should remember that on short notice鈥攁nd because many of us have limited PD utilizing these tools鈥攚e can鈥檛 tackle everything immediately. In other words, we should give ourselves the time and the permission to figure this out.鈥�

Reduce the Workload (for Yourself and Your Students)

If your district allows it, you should plan to do less. Students won鈥檛 be able to work as productively, anyway鈥攕o if you can鈥檛 scale back you鈥檒l be sending them work they cannot do鈥攁nd your own life and family need added care.

鈥淔eedback from students and families over the last 10 days in Italy is 鈥榣ess is more,鈥欌�� commented Jo Gillespie. 鈥淐onsider that parents are trying to work from home, and siblings are vying for computer and Wi-Fi time. Try Google quizzes using Forms, a reading log, some short live sessions with teachers and classmates, maybe vocabulary extension, maths and geometry problems (but not too many). And that鈥檚 probably enough.鈥�

And Keevan, the teacher in Hong Kong with weeks of experience, confirmed that time and distance play funny games during a crisis: 鈥淲hat would normally take you one class period to teach in the classroom will probably take you twice as long.鈥�

No Person Is an Island

Humans are聽social animals. Working from home, or worse, from quarantine, is isolating and often depressing for both teachers and students.

Make a concerted effort to speak to other colleagues and trusted professionals to provide emotional and psychological context to your work. Teaching at this moment is extraordinarily hard, and you鈥檒l need the virtual company of people who are experiencing what you are.

And don鈥檛 forget to 鈥渞each out to students as often as you can,鈥� said Keevan, who still teaches classes live despite a (slightly inconvenient!) 13-hour time difference. Or you can facilitate peer-to-peer communication. John Thomas assigns pen pals in his first- and second-grade classes, so that kids with no internet can feel like they belong.

Everyone Thinks They Can鈥檛鈥擝efore They Can

Some degree of pessimism and self-doubt comes with the territory. Teachers in the Facebook thread advised more perspective-taking and being more patient with yourself: You know how to teach, and you will figure this out in time.

鈥淲e are in week 7 and I have three children of my own at home,鈥� wrote Salecia Host, a teacher in Tianjin, China, reflecting on the arc of her emotional response to the crisis. 鈥淛ust take it day by day. It gets less overwhelming and more routine.鈥�

Try to remain calm鈥攖hough you鈥檒l have a few moments where that goes out the window鈥攁nd keep plugging away: 鈥淏eing open-minded and flexible is key,鈥� said Kaz Wilson, who also works in China. 鈥淓veryone thinks you can鈥檛 until you pause, talk it out with folks who are doing it, and know that you鈥檒l get through it.鈥�

Mind the Gap

Your work will be hard, but there are students facing more severe challenges. Students with no internet or no computer will need support, as will those with learning differences or other circumstances that make distance learning especially difficult. Supporting these students was on almost everyone鈥檚 mind鈥攊t came up dozens of times in the Facebook thread.

鈥淚鈥檓 in Italy. Our schools closed a few weeks ago without any previous warning. We shifted to online immediately. It is hard and exhausting,鈥� admitted Eleonora Borromeo, before providing a ray of hope. 鈥淓quity is an issue. Assessment is an issue. But the students are doing their best and giving us the strength to go on.鈥�

Solutions from our audience of teachers focused on the old analog approaches: paper-and-pencil tasks, workbooks and activity packets that can be mailed home, and updating parents and students via phone calls daily.