Five Ways to Remain Impactful During Remote Learning

Photo credit: (c) 2019 Scott Freiberger

By Scott B. Freiberger

In the recent Disney tour de force “Mary Poppins Returns,” the venerable Meryl Streep captivates audiences with the melodic “Turning Turtle,” a quirky canticle in which she conveys a series of unbalanced events, “…all because the world is turning turtle!”  Intentionally penned to be outré and tongue-in-cheek, this dynamic ditty may indeed be apt at depicting our current topsy-turvy reality for both turtles and humans alike.

      Disconnected from daily school life and separated by screens, it’s imperative for students to feel a sense of connectedness, and social-emotional learning (SEL) has become particularly pressing.  Research indicates that infusing SEL into curricula may help students acquire the social, academic, and life skills necessary for attaining emotional well-being and achieving classroom success.  Additional research highlights SEL programs helping mental health, augmenting academic achievement, and bettering behavioral outcomes.  Supporting students as they introduce ideas, reflect on feelings, and acknowledge actions, particularly during these turbulent times, has become critical.  Given the need to increase students’ confidence, emotional regulation, and social skills, here are five ways to ensure teaching remains impactful during remote learning:      

      1. Connect and Reflect

First, connect with students as often as possible.  The quality of a [student’s] relationships and social interactions shapes their development and health.  Your online connection may not need to resemble Scooby Doo and Shaggy (“Zoiks!”), but bear in mind that learning extends across the settings a person lives in: family, community, and school.  Strike a healthy balance between synchronous (real-time) and asynchronous learning, assigned tasks which are completed by students, uploaded, graded, and returned. 

Maintaining regular class meetings via an online learning platform such as Google Hangouts Meet, Microsoft Teams, or Zoom establishes consistency and unites students with teachers and peers.  In addition, adopting a private mobile messaging platform such as Remind or pinging parents via Class Dojo helps educators, students, and families connect.  Programs such as See Saw further enable families to view student work and provide valuable insights, while educators can record student progress in relation to standards-based benchmarks.

      You may also want to consider providing a sample schedule with built-in learning blocks; then, establish virtual office hours for further support.  Remain authentic and consistent.  Children tend to do better with transparency, established routines, and a steady stream of stints.  Ensure students have time to create, connect with immediate family members, and reflect, and encourage children to share feelings and thoughts in addition to work during virtual meetings.  Creating a safe, healthy virtual space should also lead to more desirable discussions. 

          

      2. Praise the Process

Esteemed media mogul Oprah Winfrey commented, “I will tell you that there have been no failures in my life...There have been some tremendous lessons.”  Model for children that not only do we all make mistakes, but we may also grow exponentially from them.  In our current school systems, children are typically judged based on the “artifacts” that they produce, while the learning journey tends to be largely ignored. 

Praising students’ efforts may bolster self-esteem, garner greater understanding, and encourage uncommon undertakings.  Throughout the learning process, celebrate student success often.  Instill pride in ongoing progress as well as summative accomplishments; in the words of Henry B. Adams, “A teacher affects eternity; [she or] he can never tell where [her or] his influence stops.”

          3. Real-Time Responsibilities

We are seeing a sensational shift not only in our daily lives, but also in our long-term thinking, and learning around the world is being re-imagined.  Assignments that prepare students for inquiry, research, and in-depth discussions are becoming essential.  One framework suggests the teacher model a task with students observing followed by the teacher and students completing the task together; students then attempt to complete the task collectively while the teacher observes and conferences.  Finally, students attempt to complete the task alone. 

With this model in mind, consider infusing project-based learning activities to provide opportunities for students to consider their interests, delve into their passions, and respond to real-world challenges.  Students may work individually, in pairs, or in teams, with benchmarks and reflection sheets ensuring accountability.  Brief virtual office hours held several times a week could also assist students in their research and guide them as they consider new challenges.  

          4. Survey your Students

Which problems would your students prefer to perlustrate?  Surveying students will help ascertain potential topics of academic interest.  Providing a smattering of subjects for students to scan should keep students intrinsically-motivated.  Empower students to delve into their passions and talents.  Carefully-planned projects could also infuse student choice and collective voice regarding provident action plans and prudent projects, resulting in invigorated interest, terrific teamwork, and increased intrinsic motivation. 

While we once held student-centered conferences to empower children to self-reflect and forge their own academic paths, consider open-ended questions such as:

• “What made you decide to choose this topic?” 
  
• “What are your thoughts?” 
  
• “What makes you say that?”
  
• “What are you learning?” 
• “How could I better support you?” 

By guiding students to self-reflect and discover on their own instead of imparting judgment, students can self-actualize, form their own opinions, and ask for support sans suspicion.

      5. Set Goals and Empower Students to Achieve

The sudden shift to e-learning has been a sudden shock and tumultuous time for many.  After thanking students for their wonderful work, inquire about their goals.  What do they hope to accomplish?  What do they aspire to achieve?  By putting pen to paper, students can outline a list of short and longer-term goals, narrow each list down, and then fine-tune their focus on measurable steps to achievement. Mindmaps and flowcharts may also make learning more lucid.  Help students to better fathom real-world experiences (I offer a wealth of resources here), and increase opportunities for students to consider how they could contribute to their families and society, and have a more meaningful community impact.  Remind students to stay healthy, stay safe, stay productive, and stay connected.  Above all, strive to keep the light of positivity and educational enlightenment well-let, because dynamic days are dawning.

BIO

Scott Freiberger, a passionate literacy coach with school building/district leader certification, is honored to be the 2018 TESOL International Teacher of the Year. 

Twitter: @scottfreiberger

 

This article also appears here.