It Takes A Village (My Experience Preparing for Remote Learning)

As we move into a Remote Learning period starting Monday, March16th, I would like to share some of my experiences and reflections from the past week (especially for those educators who work in schools that are not closed yet.) I am a 4th grade math and science teacher in the Worthington City School District in Worthington, OH.

Because none of us has been down this road before, we are all in it together. Below I have offered the timeline and some tips of how my teaching partner, Morgan Tudor (@Ms_Tudor) and I have navigated these uncharted waters. 

Tuesday, March 10 - 3:00pm

Our school district notified us of the possibility of an extended school closure. Of course with all the news around the impact of the Coronavirus worldwide, it wasn’t a shock. However, the feeling of shock set it rather quickly when you realize that you may have days or hours to prepare students for weeks of learning outside of the classroom. 

Here’s what we decided to focus on:

1.) Develop a communication plan with parents. 

For us, this step was easy. We would utilize Email, Bloomz and Google Classroom because these are all familiar to our students and their parents. We also developed and sent out a survey to the parents so we could gauge technology access at home.

As soon as we knew how we were going to share information/assignments, we quickly moved on to the next more time-consuming step.

2.) Prepare and send materials/supplies home with the students ASAP. 

You don't know if schools will be closed the next day or in three days or in a week. Having supplies at the students' homes will be really helpful moving forward. You may not even know what you will have the students do with the supplies, but it gives you options as you move into the planning phase of Remote Learning.  We prepared and sent home the following supplies the day after we were told an extended closure was a possibility:

Math workbook, science workbook, vocabulary workbook, 2 library books, 2 science magazines, 3 science leveled readers, and a two-gallon ziplock bag of 'art supplies' that contained seven sheets of colored paper, 4 different colored markers, a glue stick and a package of 12 pre-sharpened pencils. 

My students use "community supplies" and they don't have their own supply box or pouch. It would have been much easier for the students to take their own supplies home of course :)   I also am very fortunate to have had all these supplies in my classroom or available in the office. But, if you have limited resources, maybe consider sending a mixture of supplies (some students get crayons, some thick markers, some thin markers, etc.) 

We set up an assembly line that the students went through to gather their supplies. It took a little time but I’m glad that we were able to send so much home with the students (especially on such short notice.)  The TWO-GALLON ZIP LOCK BAGS were crucial. Unfortunately, one-gallon bags were slightly too small for the materials we were sending home. 

We asked the students to bring back the supply bag the next day because we wanted to add more if we had school. Luckily we did have school so we added: 5 sheets of white paper, 2 dice, flash cards, and Studies Weekly Newspapers.

3.) Gather BOXES:

If you are planning on sending weeks of supplies home with the students they will need more than a book bag to carry the supplies. So, ask parents to send in medium-sized BOXES and ask your custodian, secretaries and food service manager for available boxes.

Wednesday, March 11: 

4.) Include students in the conversation

My teaching partner (@Ms_Tudor) and I had a team meeting the day after we received notice that an extended closure was a possibility. We asked the students if they had heard about the Coronavirus (all said yes), and we asked them to share one word about what they have heard is going on in the news. They immediately said words like: "Scary, Death, Sick, Worried, Confused, No Cure, Worldwide, etc."

We talked about the importance of knowing the basics about the Coronavius and what everyone can do to combat it (wash hands, sneeze/cough properly, stay home if sick, etc.) THEN, we talked about things out of our control like if school closed for an extended period. Immediately there were mixed emotions in the room and an abundance of questions. We acknowledged the variety of emotions and explained that if our school decided to close we would use "Remote Learning." 

Remote Learning occurs when the learner and instructor are separated by time and distance and therefore cannot meet in a traditional classroom setting. (trainingindustry.com)

We made it a point to say that the “Coronavirus” won’t stop our learning, it will just allow us to learn in a different place and possibly a different way than we are used to. We ensured them that we were developing a plan that would hopefully replicate their school day, just at home. 

So, we asked a very basic question: “What parts of your day would you like for us to try to replicate for you at home.”

The students immediately said things like:  Morning Meeting, Quiet Time, Lunch, Recess, “Soft Start”

Instead of focusing on our content areas, we ran with it and said that we could easily come up with a way to include these parts in their Remote Learning experience. 

When we told them that they could ‘do anything they wanted to do’ for recess, the room lit up! The entire tone of the meeting changed! Students quickly asked if they could play video games, sleep, watch TV, etc. for RECESS????  We said yes (of course with parent permission.)  :)

It was evident that Remote Learning didn’t have to be negative but it could actually be “fun.” In real time I could see the students’ attitudes change. Their ideas snowballed into many other great ways to still learn at home. In retrospect, this community ‘groupthink’ was one of the best parts of our week. 

The questions changed from “What assignments will we have to do?” and “Do we have to do schoolwork everyday?  to “Can you replicate _____ part of the day at home?” “Can we take ______ home to do for social studies.” “Can I do my own science experiments at home even if you don’t assign them?” 

It was obvious that the students’ mindsets had changed. Now, Remote Learning was an exciting journey that we were going to be on together. 

So…. those four steps were crucial:

1. Develop a plan to communicate with students/parents
2. Send home as many supplies/materials with students as possible
3. Gather Boxes
4. Brainstorm how to make remote learning a possibility WITH your students

As I reflect, there are three more steps that were crucial to our preparation for Remote Learning:

5.) Determine HOW you will remotely teach:

Next, @Ms_Tudor and I quickly discussed our “Remote Learning” strategy. We started to brainstorm how we would teach the students everything we needed to teach...online.  It quickly became apparent that we didn’t need to change our approach to teaching at all, AND we didn’t need to teach only using digital tools! 

Typically our day is structured with a mix of offline activities, hands-on activities, online activities, collaborative activities, independent activities and much much more. We try to include as many opportunities for the students to collaborate, create, communicate and think critically as we can and not all of that occurs online.  So, we decided to utilize the digital tools and websites that we already use with the students but we agreed to not SOLELY depend on these tools/websites for our ONLY means of teaching. 

Thursday, March 12- 

6.) Organize and send home more materials/supplies

Luckily, we had school on Thursday, March 12 which gave us a little bit more time to think about the resources we wanted to send home with the students. Then, we started organizing supplies to send home (again). We quickly made copies of a few things that we knew we would typically use in our classrooms over the next few weeks: math study guide, poetry packet, book study information etc. 

Then, we looked around our classrooms for other materials and supplies the students use throughout the week. I literally scanned my room, looked in cabinets, shelves, etc. and quickly made a list of other items that we could send home with students. Even if I didn’t have enough for ALL the students to have the same items, I wanted to utilize as much as I could.  I found the following that I considered sending home with the students: 

@WalkingClassroom Kits 

Engineering Kits

Cognitive Learning Games 

Over the past few years, @Ms_Tudor and I have written and been awarded grants for all of the items listed above. We are very lucky to be able to provide our students with such a variety of materials to create and learn with, so we decided that it would be better to put these items in the students’ hands during the Remote Learning period than to have these valuable items sit in an empty classroom. We know that some pieces likely will not be returned, some boxes may be returned broken, and maybe even a game/kit or two might not be returned at all. However, we felt the reward was worth the risk. 

So, we numbered all the games and kits and let the students choose. We entered in all our students’ names in a random name picker website (https://www.abcya.com/games/random_name_picker) and let the fun begin. The students who were chosen last actually got a chance to choose “two” items, so in the end, all the students were excited to take home something unique from our classrooms that they could use/play with their siblings and family members. 

I understand that many teachers won’t have access to these type of materials/supplies in their classroom, but my suggestion would be to look around your room to see what you can let the students CHOOSE to take home. (Ex. BOOKS) Many students felt really lucky/special to be the “only one” who got to take home a specific learning material. 

Next, we created a “Remote Learning Inventory Checklist", printed it on brightly colored paper and gave one to each student. 

As the students packed up on Thursday, we told them to check off which items they were taking home. The inventory checklist can help them remember what they need to bring back to school when we return. Not all items were checked off by every student and students could add other supplies they were taking home to the back of the handout.

So, on Thursday, we sent as much home as possible with the students in book bags and the BOXES that we requested from parents and ones we found around the school. We told the students that if we had school on Friday to only bring their math workbook and an independent reading book with them.

Another reason that we felt it was important to send physical supplies with the students and not just rely on online-learning tools, was because not all students have access to internet or functioning devices. And even if they do, devices break, internet goes out, etc. One thing that I ran out of time but I would suggest creating would be a list of "Alternate Assignments" that the students could do with the materials that they brought home. (Ex. Read and complete book study lessons, practice math flash cards, play math dice games that we play in class, be creative with the art supplies, listen to Walking Classroom podcasts, play the cognitive learning games or create with the engineering kits, etc.)

Friday, March 13- 

7.)  Final Preparations

On Thursday after school, we were informed that Friday would be our last day for three weeks. After school on Thursday, we created a template for the students “Remote Learning Daily To Do List" and a video on how to sign in to Google Classroom at home. 

On Friday we showed these to the students. In retrospect, I likely spent too much time filling in all the blanks with specific ideas for Day 1 of Remote Learning. Knowing where to tell students to look is critical, they’ll be able to figure out the format once remote learning begins. So, showing them a blank template would have been good enough. 

We then tied up loose ends, answered questions, taught them how to email us, surveyed them on their feelings, and enjoyed our last day together. 

Below is a word cloud based on their responses to the following survey questions:

1. List three words describing how you are feeling about not coming to school for three weeks:

2. What are you the most excited for during the Remote Learning period?
   
   

3. What are you the least excited for during the Remote Learning period?

Obviously, there are a lot of unknowns ahead of us, but with @Ms_Tudor and the other colleagues at our school, I am certain that we will provide a unique, engaging and educational Remote Learning experience. 

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Saturday, March 14- 

"It Takes A Village"

As I reflect on the week, I would be remiss if I neglected to mention all the people who are doing their part to help classroom teachers teach remotely:

Intervention specialists met to gather work for EACH child appropriate for their specific needs and goals. 

EL teachers helped translate and provide materials for our shared students. 

Related Arts teachers gave us materials (ex. recorders) that our students could take home. 

My school’s principal (@RobMessenheimer) checked in on teachers, students, and support staff. He remained calm and transparent during a very difficult week.  

District leaders developed resources for K-12 teachers that we could utilize for lesson planning purposes, parent communication and much more. 

Students' parents have offered to help and have thanked us for our efforts. 

Students have emailed and written notes thanking us and telling us they’re excited for Remote Learning. Here are two that made me smile:

Educational companies are flooding our inboxes with information on how we can use their products online. Many are opening up resources to students and teachers for FREE to help us during this time. 

The Family Mentor Foundation (@FMFOhio) provided THREE WEEKS worth of buddy boxes/bags for students with food insecurities.

Some local restaurants and businesses are offering free food for kids, free internet for families and much much more. 

Like everyone, I have felt a range of emotions this past week, but one of the most  overwhelming feelings I felt was one of gratitude. I feel so thankful for my family and friends, for my students and their families, for my school and district colleagues, for the community and state I live in, and so much more. 

In the past I have used the quote “It Takes A Village to Raise A Child” but never has this quote been more appropriate than now. I have no doubt that we will get through this difficult period, but we must do it together….just remotely :)