By Desiree Cremer, EdD
Everyone has their thoughts and ideas about distance learning. Some see its misgivings while others thrive. Regardless, as of now, distance learning is my reality. My school will continue with distance learning for the entire third quarter. Teachers adapt and mold to their circumstances. At first, there are the usual hiccups, and with practice, a flow emerges, soon familiarity. Teachers do what we usually do, teach.
Our students show up, at least the majority do. Parents and teachers have to be on their toes because of schedule changes, maybe for testing, or just accomodating the many “mandate stuff” that is so ordinarily common in a public school. As soon as the students log on, we enter into another world, our digital classroom. The camera provides me a view into their world, and they have a view into mine. We see each other, and I get a snapshot into their world.
Distance learning and COVID-19 expose our educational institutions’ old cemented practices, such as evaluating student achievement. We need to reevaluate the metric under COVID-19. We hear from educators, is it measurable? Well, a student who logs on from a cramped studio apartment with spotty internet might need to log on a couple of times. The student sitting with younger siblings around a table all distance learning helps them with their technological needs. These students show up, and they are present, for they are teaching us during these challenging and uncertain times that we need a different metric. Students who log on and remain engaged while the television blares in the background and noisy conversation swirl around them. Students who learn in bedroom corners, closets, outside, and in bathrooms. Students who log on from a driving car, sitting patiently in the backseat, listening to the lesson. A teacher pretending that it is not happening just in case it may shame the student. These students have the determination to learn and adapt, rising above their circumstances. They deserve a medal for their perseverance. Educators, what metrics do you have for their resilience? I suggest you include in your assessment empathy, compassion, and logging on as a fortitude for what you determine as a success.
Distance learning has deepened my appreciation for some of my students; I am impressed by their resolution. In contrast, learning online and looking at my students on the screen shows that life continues behind them. One can hear the busy household noises indicating the sounds of survival. It is what happens behind them that frames the story of distance learning. Before the pandemic, we saw our students and had no idea what happens with them beyond the classroom. This pandemic reveals inequities in education, technological access, and poverty. And as educators, we see it and have discussed it repeatedly in the past few months. There is no manual or playbook for evaluating education in the COVID-19 world. However, as educators, we could lighten up and stop holding our students to the pre-COVID-19 metrics. We all learning through discovery during these uncertain times.
True, sad, and inspiring…a beautiful piece for the new year.
This is the truth that we as teachers live in. The education of the majority of kids in America are left up to us, regardless of institutional shortcomings or challenges from every side. Well said. And well written.
Excellent article pointing out the discrepancies between each student’s learning environment, and how this impacts their ability to learn. I agree that evaluation must also include compassion, and that credit should be given for having the fortitude and determination to attend class regardless of the environment the student must cope with.
I agree. Teachers will need to use their full toolbox of strategies to accurately assess.
Poignant and powerful…your words capture the challenges of teaching and learning alongside of our young people. Thank you for this truth that provides a empathetic journey of what Covid 19 has enlightened and shines us as educators and students.
Happy New Year to a teacher who has always placed her students’ situations, backgrounds, and cultural heritage as the root and heart of your curriculum.
This is written with accurate realism of what is challenging our teachers, parents, and especially our beautiful students in the classroom and in everyone’s personal lives. This passionate message comes from someone who is putting herself in the other person’s situation. We need more compassionate teachers like you in order for our students to survive in these times of stress and critical changes due to the pandemic.
The truth. All of it. Such adversity and perseverance is not recognized and acknowledged by the current system. New systems need to be in place for the times we live in. If we have learned anything in these times it is that the static immovable structure of educational system is not made for a world of the future.
We are reinventing what it means to go to school and get an education.