Here is one teacher's take away from remote learning and my

Posted on: July 15, 2020 at 13:29:23 CT

predictions. With the current discussions on how to we should return to school I thought they may be of interest to some. End all public schools is not currently an option so I could not really care less what that crew believes about this issue.

A few facts to know first.

1. My school district issued laptops or computers to students several years ago so that access was already in place.

2. We already had a learning management software program in wide use for about five years before this happened.

3. Teachers had been previously asked to use the system but implementation was up to the teachers and compliance was all over the board.

4. I was probably the most prepared teacher in my building because all of my lessons, homework and assessments were done online for several years before this hit.

5. I am only speaking to high school students. I have no idea what it was like for elementary and middle School teachers.

6. My district made it very clear to the students that fourth quarter work was expected and would be counted. Many others announced it was optional and got the results you would expect from that.

My Observations:

My advanced students, Physics, had no issues with online learning 49 out of 50 completed all online work with no discernible effects, only small deviations in the grades one direction or the other that you would expect over a quarter. These students were already used to working independently, asking questions and were very self-motivated. The only differences for them were that I was not there to actually present the PowerPoint lessons and instead of directly asking me questions we did it through emails and a few zooms. I had originally intended to cover seven units during the last quarter but cut it back to five, but this group was actually ahead of my usual place so there was no significant difference from previous years.

My remedial group, Physical Science, was a very different story. They had the same setup as the advanced group and had been doing everything electronically all year. Out of roughly 100 students I had two irregular attenders who actually improved their grade, about a third maintained their grade, a second third dropped on average an entire letter grade and roughly one third did not participate the entire fourth quarter.

My conclusions:

1. For a small number of students remote learning works very well. But for the most part these are the self-motivated kids that do well no matter how the lessons are presented. There are a very small number of marginal students that enjoy the freedom of remote learning and excelled at it.

2 For roughly the middle 60% of students this did not work well. Many students in this group need constant instruction or in many cases affirmation to progress through a lesson and many need that nudge every few minutes to continue working. Most in this group are incapable of working independently for any meaningful length of time and are easily distracted from the work at hand. Without the teacher, or another adult, physically in the room interacting with them they will not be successful.

3. For the bottom 20% or so this was a complete disaster. This group needs constant intervention often from specialized teachers to meet even minimal instructional goals. In my experience this year these kids just faded away. You could not engage them because you could not contact them. In some cases the parents were initially helpful but that also faded over time. I think in most cases the parents got tired of the battle and just threw in the towel.


My Predictions:

1. Online learning will continue to grow, it is a good option for a small percentage of students at this time.

2. If your district already has the infrastructure in place and teachers well trained in the systems then it is a decent option. Not as good as face-to-face but marginally effective. If your school does not already have the infrastructure and training in place then digital learning will be a complete cluster.

3. Schools that opt for digital only instruction will see dropouts sky rocket. It is too easy simply fade away when there are no personal interactions. Not to mention that a large number of potential dropouts are caught by teachers or other professionals in a school and convinced to stick it out. Without personal interactions that number will plummet.

4. We are still using teaching methods that are one hundred years out of date. This could possibly be the event that has us reevaluate our educational system and the methods we use. This will be difficult because of inertia and resistance from teacher unions. By the way I am very much opposed to these groups, they focus on what is good for the teachers not what is good for the kids.

These are my Observations as a veteran teacher who is heavily invested in using digital learning in my classroom. I'm sure others, including my wife, had very different experience.