On this week's episode we share our thoughts, feelings, and reflections on our first full week of remotely educating our students from home. We take a look at what's worked and what struggles we're having during this time.

When we recorded Episode 34: Remotely Educated virtual learning was a coming reality for Tom and a potential for Luke. Here we are days removed from that conversation with some advice and reflection from what we presumed from the start and what we know is most important now. We, ourselves, have done quite a bit of virtual learning.

Stay connected, but not too connected.

We are ones to be attached to our phones and our thus our email. We welcome the contact from our students at all hours of the day. I am not opposed to checking my email as I lay in bed to reply to a student concern or question. This obviously is our choice and not the choice of others. Separating yourself from email is more of the norm and needs to be with virtual learning. We have found that students are working at anytime of the day. Some students choose the regular school hours others are working in the evening. We have found it beneficial for organization and sanity to limit our "available" hours. We have discovered that creating available hours creates an urgency for the students to communicate and get the work done. If you choose to communicate outside of those hours, that is up to you.

Last Minute Virtual Learning?

Some of us have been thrown into this situation given little or no notice from our district or state to move toward virtual learning. We reference back to our previous Episode 34 when we discussed non-negotiables for this learning. It CANNOT be just something to do. In the rush we encourage you to focus on reinforcing tasks and extensions of learning to get a handle on maybe how and if you are going to teach anything new in this virtual classroom. At the very least outline the amount of time that your students should be working on a given subject an than offer a set of options for the to fill that time or extend that time if the original assigned task is completed. A BINGO board or menu of options works well.

The Parent Perspective - Create Structure

Give the students a schedule. Collaborate with others in your school or grade level to create some common routine for your students. In the case of my 1st grader, this comes in the form of a GoogleSlides presentation. Each slide is a separate task for the day. Don't for get to include recess, art, music and brain breaks. These are some of the things that keep hte kids motivated. Instead of GoogleSlides, it might be a checklist or what the students might write down in their assignment notebook.

Mandatory or Optional

Districts have taken varied approaches with virtual learning. Engaging the students in something new, may not be an option. This reinforces the extension and review approach that we have encouraged before. If you've been mandated to make this an optional opportunity for your students, try to engage them nonetheless. There are plenty of students looking for the chance to grow. Use those successes as modeled motivation for the students who are not quite as interested in jumping at this chance to learn.

Engaging the Disengaged

When we approached virtual learning last year, it was just one day. Many students took the approach, "its one day, I'll make it up later." This situation is much more complicated. "I'll do it later" approach is not going to work. The students who are not as self-directed and benefit from daily interaction with the teacher are struggling to engage in this learning. We are not physically there to be with them through the process. This becomes inherently inequitable.

We are still here and we still care. This is not our choice to have these days off.TwoTeachersPodcast

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