Editor’s Note: The term developing story has taken on a new meaning since November 2019. At that time, many Americans read news stories about COVID-19, not thinking it would impact their lives, but come March 2020, nearly every American’s lives were turned upside down.
As scientists learn about coronavirus, as medical professionals deal with its aftermath, as people clamour to keep their jobs, students and teachers grapple with the reality that they cannot meet face-to-face, but rather have to figure out how to end a school year in ways that no one could have foreseen in November 2019.
When ProPublica and the Chicago Tribune surveyed the state’s 38 regional offices of education to e-learning plans approved before the pandemic forced buildings to close, they found that 670 of Illinois’ 852 public school districts and special education cooperatives; roughly one in four, or about 200, had plans approved before March 17.
E-learning plans, designed for no more than five days of instruction within a calendar school year, are different from the remote learning plans that school districts have been advised to use to finish the 2019-20 school year.
Just as the story of developing remote learning plans has been told, we believe that it is also important to record history from a variety of sources and perspectives. There is no doubt that within two or three weeks, education, as many Americans knew it, was turned upside down. There is also speculation that in the coming months and years, the COVID-19 pandemic may open the doors for new avenues of educating children.
Over the next three days, we will provide perspectives on what remote learning looks like at this point in the story from teachers, students and parents. We reached out to a variety of people all over East Central Illinois and some in other states. We provided anonymity to those who responded so that people would feel like they could be honest.
The Mahomet Daily and SJO Daily team will continue to provide a platform for different perspectives to be shared as the education story unfolds. This story may be in its infancy, and we understand there is much more to be understood.
Remote Learning: The Teachers’ Learning Curve
By FRED KRONER
Teachers are all college-educated and had long ago settled into a comfortable routine in their individual classrooms.
They’ve learned, from experience, that they need to always be prepared to adapt and innovate; sometimes on the spur of the moment.
For more than a month now, teachers nationwide have faced the ultimate challenge. Due to the COVID19 pandemic, they have been teaching remotely, a scenario which will carry over through the final weeks of the spring semester.
They have relied on their colleagues, their administrators, on-line search aids and their own ingenuity to create a workable situation for the group of students they are tasked with teaching.
The Mahomet and SJO Daily contacted an assortment of teachers, not only from Central Illinois, but also from other parts of the state as well as other parts of the country, to get a glimpse into what their professional life has been like during this unprecedented time.
Many – but not all – asked to speak anonymously so they could be completely open with their comments.
We learned about their resourcefulness in not only including parents as an integral part of the process, but also in how bus drivers have made a contribution.
Shawn Skinner is a high school business teacher at St. Joseph-Ogden. His work day from home starts early.
“I am on my computer by 7:30 and responding to any questions that students and parents have,” Skinner said. “I assign the day’s work for all of my classes between 8-8:30 in Google Classroom.
“Then I will grade the previous day’s work. I have my classroom notifications on and I am available to answer any questions that the students might have.”
Skinner finds that every day is different.
“I have had days where I only get one question,” he said, “and I have had days where I had one question every half hour.”
Kourtney Bradd is a first-grade teacher at Heritage Elementary School. She said there is not a cookie-cutter model that all teachers should follow while instructing during the pandemic.
“I think remote learning looks different in every classroom, grade level, school, and district,” Bradd said. “There is no ‘one size fits all’ model.
“Every teacher, school and district had to find an approach that worked for them. Some schools are still altering their approach.”
In Bradd’s situation, there is less reliance on technology than there is for teachers at other levels. Hers is a more hands-on approach.
“I would love for my students to be able to participate more using technology, but I realized it was unrealistic to rely on first-graders to submit assignments electronically,” she said. “I felt that they needed to keep a learning model similar to what they were used to doing at school, which was more of a paper/pencil approach.”
Some parts of the day that were popular when the children congregated in her classroom remain a part of the school-day routine.
“I email my students a daily read-aloud video of me reading a chapter book because that is something they always enjoy when we are at school,” Bradd said. “I also try to touch base with my students using a Google Meet virtual meeting once per week.”
At Oakwood, staff are asked to keep ‘office hours’ on school days between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m.
“We check e-mail frequently and respond to students and parents in a timely fashion,” said a physical education teacher. “Time is also spent preparing for future lessons.
“The amount of time I spend varies, because I am sometimes responding to emails at different times of day and am sometimes grading and recording assignments.”
In a sense, he said, it’s almost like his job description has changed.
“I spend less actual time than I do under normal circumstances,” he said. “It is more of a clerical job now.”
In Florida, a 1990s Mahomet-Seymour graduate teaches economics and macroeconomics at a high school near the Gulf Coast. He had an idea of what he was getting into when the state mandated remote learning.
“I taught Economics at our district’s virtual school for a few years,” he said. “I would do that after school and in the evening – in addition to my normal teaching load – so I was prepared for what it entailed.
“I already had a Google Voice phone number and I use that to text students about assignments they haven’t completed.”
Just because he had some experience in that endeavor doesn’t mean it was a welcome change.
“It is strange to spend the day working in this manner,” he said. “It is somewhat frustrating.”
A high school teacher at Mahomet-Seymour also felt ready for this style of instruction.
“I did my masters in tech for education and part of it was about teaching online,” he said. “I felt very prepared and ready to go with online teaching.”
A high school teacher at SJ-O has settled into a workable daily routine.
“Each day I check the previous night’s assignments and issue grades via google classroom,” he said. “I then prepare materials for screen sharing purposes for my two zoom office hours.
“I hold different office hours for each of my preps each day of the week. For my larger classes, I repeat materials on back-to-back days to allow for better discussions.”
He estimated that approximately three-fourths of his students are completing assignments with some regularity.
There are limits, however, to the numbers that are manageable.
“During the first week, I had over 40 students show up for a zoom class,” he said. “That made discussions close to impossible.
“During office hours, I am able to share presentations, linked material and video clips.”
Reaction to remote learning depends on the person who is speaking.
At Belvidere North (near Rockford) a University of Illinois graduate who is teaching junior American literature has heard the gamut of opinions.
“We are hearing from parents on both sides,” he said. “About 20 percent say we’re giving way too much (work), 20 percent say way too little and about 60 percent say we’re just right.
“It’s hard to gauge.”
There is one pattern that he and other educators are noticing.
“The results that I am seeing is: the students who are largely slackers when class was in session are the ones with whom we are not having contact,” the Belvidere teacher said. “We are to count a ‘contact’ as an email, a text, a phone call or some kind of communication between a teacher and a student.
“We take attendance based on this.”
During a recent two-week period, attendance increased slightly.
Between April 6-9, 47 of 1,530 high school students at Belvidere had no contact in any class; 285 were without contact in at least four subjects and 805 had not made contact in at least one class.
Between April 13-17, at the same school, there were 29 of the 1,530 students with no contact in any class, 197 without contact in at least four subjects and 741 without contact in at least one course.
“Teachers are to document attempts to contact students who are not on board with the remote learning,” the American literature teacher said.
For his classes, he has 110 total students.
“I have about a dozen who simply are not on board,” he said, “so 89 percent have made enough contact that – along with the work they completed while we were in session – they will pass my classes.”
Not all of his colleagues have had the same success.
“I have a friend who’s a science teacher, and he reports that only 43 percent of his students have made sufficient contacts – or completed enough assignments – to pass his physics class,” the American Literature teacher said. “I think there is a great variation between the departments.
“I think science and math have had much lower participation numbers than we have in English.”
Belvidere set up a system that teachers can use if they need to place calls to students or their family without revealing their personal information.
“The school district does not want students to have access to our private cell numbers (from texting) or land lines,” the American literature teacher said. “If we phone a student, we are to work through some system at school the computer techs have set up that hides the phone number from the person you are calling.”
At Heritage, a physical education teacher said the student engagement has been high.
“I have 95 out of 98 students that have accepted the invite to my Google classroom, which means they know what they are supposed to be doing and around 80 percent participation in turning in the assignments,” he said. “The first week was 78 percent turned in and last week was 83 percent turned in. I am hoping this trend will continue.”
He has employed a keep-it-simple plan.
“With the approach I have taken, I really have not had to worry about the different learning styles,” he said. “It is basically thinking of some fun activity and doing it for at least 20 minutes.
“Most of the student’s submissions go way over the 20 minutes expected. I think that has helped. When we first started remote learning, we were concerned about our students’ mentality and I did not want students stressed with PE, something that should help relieve stress, by writing a paper or doing busy work.”
SJ-O’s Skinner said participation in his classes is holding steady.
“About 85 percent of my students have participated in some capacity,” he said. “A little under 60 percent of my students have completed 80-100 percent of their work.”
Another SJ-O teacher had hoped for better participation, but said the result is what he anticipated based on the criteria set by the state.
“This is how I thought it would go from my end,” he said. “I have been disappointed that I have not seen some students at all, but that also was not surprising.
“When the state mandated that grades could not be lowered due to work done – or not done – several students checked out. Others see the work as merely extra credit and are frustrated to find out that is not the case.”
One of the challenges is reaching the students and connecting them with the material. Not everyone has internet access or even a computer.
In Florida, one district has found a creative way around that problem.
“Our bus drivers are delivering and picking up paper assignments for students who don’t have internet or a computer,” a high school teacher said.
Even if students have a computer, it doesn’t mean they are all able to be on the same page, however.
“My school district has been 1-to-1 with laptops for over 10 years, so every student has their own device as issued by the school,” said a Mahomet resident, who is a junior high teacher in McLean County.
The teacher said a number of factors affect a student’s ability to learn in the current environment.
“The lack of equity is evident,” the teacher added. “Not all students have internet access, support from parents or the self-discipline to participate every day.
“I already knew, but it has been verified, that nothing can replace the human connection of our schools. It serves its purpose for the situation and time being, but I would not consider it an effective long-term option.”
The teacher said that the emphasis was on continuing to do the best possible job while keeping the circumstances in mind.
“When we started this endeavor, (the principal) made it clear we would grant ourselves and students grace and do what we can to make ourselves available to our students and families, especially for their social-emotional needs,” the teacher said.
A physical education teacher at Heritage offered students options.
“I have set up a Google Classroom and ask the students to participate in at least 20 minutes of activity a day as well as any comments or thoughts about what they did or felt after doing it,” he said. “Some students were having trouble using Google Classroom, since it was new to them, so after I shared some how-to information, I said if they were still having issues, they could just keep a written journal.”
There are other obstacles for area educators than the availability of the internet.
“While my assignments and materials are all on-line, getting student participation and attendance to a level that is rewarding has fallen short,” a SJ-O teacher said. “I am keeping track of attendance, participation and grades, but there seems to be a growing sense of futility in the case of some students.
“Others though are amazing and continue to inspire me to keep teaching to the best of my ability. Some of the students have blown me away with their approach to a difficult situation. Others have been absent.”
Bradd has had to abandon one practice which worked well in her classroom.
“At school, I pride myself on differentiating my instruction through small group teaching to meet the academic needs of all my students,” Bradd said. “I quickly realized this was not as feasible during the remote learning process.”
The M-S high school teacher said not everyone will thrive in a learn-at-home-alone environment.
“That would be one of the hardest parts,” he said. “Some of the students’ learning styles are not suited for this.
“Just trying our best to teach this way and keep everyone safe.”
SJ-O’s Skinner does his best to keep in touch with students.
“The importance is communication,” Skinner said. “This to me is the most difficult part of e-learning. Not being able to talk to the students directly is incredibly hard. I have made many phone calls, emails and google classrooms posts.
“If I were in the classroom and I saw a student struggle, it’s an easy access to communicate and help that student. If my email or call goes unanswered it’s tough to help that student. I made 27 phone calls between Monday and Tuesday (last week). The majority of the parents and students I spoke to were just happy to hear a voice from the school and understand that we really are still here and we care.”
The McLean County teacher shares Skinner’s empathy for the frustrations of trying to reach students.
“The hardest part of remote learning implementation has been the human interaction piece, the ability to deliver a lesson in person and measure my students’ understanding right there in my classroom,” the teacher said. “It’s extremely difficult to measure understanding without the ability to talk with them in small groups, one on one, etc.
“Not seeing my students every day and being in the same space with them is the biggest challenge, hands-down.”
Many teachers are not instructing at the pace they would if they were in their classrooms.
“I am not giving the classes a full workload every day,” Skinner continued. “With my particular classes, they are all really classroom engagement based and active learning happens over the 40-plus minutes I would have them.
“In our Info Processing class, which is a form of typing/keyboarding education, kids log on and get to work for 35-40 minutes daily.
“I assign them typing projects, but one student may be able to finish it in 10 minutes, while it may take another 20 minutes. It’s keeping them active and working on those skills that have become important.”
In Florida, the teacher who instructs International Baccalaureate (IB) economics said, “we have dramatically reduced the workload. For one class – Honors Economics – I give one assignment and a quiz each week. My IB course no longer has an exam, so they are doing a project that will take them to May 15, when our seniors are finished.”
Heritage’s P.E. teacher likes the way some students have embraced their assignments.
“While my instruction is simple, ‘do at least 20 minutes of activity a day,’ the students have done a great job of making it their own,” he said. “Some kids have been fishing, riding bikes and hiking. One student said his family did a karaoke night, canoeing, fitness videos, riding bikes and going on walks with their family.
“In my classes, I hope students can develop lifelong skills, not just do enough to make the grade. To see all the creative activities students have been involved in is wonderful.”
Teachers are making adjustments as needed.
“A typical workload in the traditional school setting is not possible via remote learning,” the McLean County teacher said. “Students should spend no more than 20-30 minutes per subject, per day.
“I have found higher participation and completion of activities if the amount of time per day is nearer 15 minutes a day. In order to accommodate for that, I often provide two days for activities taking over 15-20 minutes.”
A P.E. teacher at Oakwood has found that flexibility is of paramount importance.
“I have given students different workout options along with written work,” he said. “Students who have their own workout routine are encouraged to use what works best for them
“It is difficult to have much accountability for the independent work. The written work is usually limited to one typed page per week. Students typically have a heavier load of written work in the academic courses.”
Teachers are frequently not restricting their work days to the hours they would have while at school.
“I’m trying not to spend more than I would normally,” the Florida teacher said. “I do stop working at 3, but I still answer emails and text messages after that.”
The Belvidere teacher follows a similar strategy.
“We are to be available for the kids 9-noon and 1-3 each day,” he said, “but what I’m finding is a lot of kids work at night, so I check my emails in the evening also.
“I had one student ask me to share a document with him at 12:40 a.m. I told him that he needs to go to bed. It’s funny, but I get email from students at all hours of the day and night.
“We aren’t officially required to respond to emails when we’re not on our ‘office hours.’ We are told by administration that we should not respond to anything on the weekends. We are not at everyone’s beck-and-call 24/7.”
Working from home requires planning and coordination with other family members in an effort to avoid distractions and conflicts. This is true for teachers, whether they are also parents or not.
“I’m a schedule and routine person,” Skinner said. “That’s how I function, even at this time. Therefore, lots of people in the house have to function right along with me.
“We all have our own work spaces and assigned times we are working. With me, my wife and four kids at home, we all have work online to do, so we do the best we can to not bug one another.
“Around 3 p.m., it gets a little hectic as everyone is pretty much done with being online at that time.”
The Skinner household has been a busy one during the past six weeks.
“We have a senior in college home with us, a freshman in college home with us and my son is a (high school) sophomore,” Skinner said. “All of them are doing e-learning and then me teaching this way.
“I can see first-hand how hard this is. If the wi-fi acts up, who gets to be the first one back online? Fortunately, we all have our computers and we have our own areas we work in. But not everyone is that fortunate.”
Being both a parent and a teacher has helped Skinner to become sensitive to what other families are facing.
“The students that are engaged are AMAZING to me,” he said. “I have a few kids that ask questions daily. I see kids just nailing it on their work and that’s amazing.”
Both the Heritage P.E. teacher and the M-S teacher have spouses who are involved in education and each has children at home.
They try their best to keep a routine.
“Distractions happen,” the Heritage P.E. teacher said. “My wife and I have three kids at home. She is a special education teacher.
“She is usually hunkered down at the kitchen table working on her IEP and student packets while I try to keep the kids busy outside or watching a show.
“We also try to work while our kids are working so it is quieter than normal. They are younger, so we don’t get as much work done, but everyone understands it is school time. For my work, I use my phone and can be updated throughout the day, so I am not tied to a computer.”
Sharing the workload is a critical component.
“The hardest part is also helping kids at home,” the M-S teacher said. “My wife is (in eduation).
“We each set up time where we are working and the other parent is the main helper to our kids, so our kids feel they have the support they need and we can do the work we need to do for work.”
For the educational process to go smoothly, teachers say a key element is parental involvement.
“I have heard a few stories of parents holding kids accountable and even participating with them,” a high school teacher at SJ-O said, “but times like these, the parents are almost more important to the child’s growth than the teachers.”
Added another teacher from SJ-O: “They have provided support and encouragement, but not all are engaged.”
The McLean County instructor believes some parents are helping in areas beyond the classroom courses.
“I do think MANY parents are making the most of it by providing life-lessons such as baking, cleaning, planning and cooking meals as well as other chores, spending time outdoors as creative and valuable lessons which substitute very nicely for the actual school experience,” the teacher said. “Everyone is doing their best and that’s all that matters at this time.
“I think parents are doing what they can with the resources they have. The lack of equity is apparent, though, because not all students have parents at home to give them direction, motivation and/or assistance as they need it.”
Skinner said parents have had their duties expanded.
“Parents have become remote educators and supervisors in a manner that was bestowed upon them in an instance without any way to prepare,” Skinner said. “They are learning right along with us.
“Most of the parents I communicate with say two things: they appreciate me reaching out and checking up on their child and they ask if I have any suggestions to share when their child is struggling to stay motivated to work.”
Bradd said for the age level she works with, she is appreciative of parents taking on extra responsibilities.
“At the first-grade level, parents have played a huge role,” Bradd said. “While the daily work was intended for the students to complete independently, 6- and 7-year-olds need an adult to help them manage their time, stay on task, and assist with technology.
“Parents have helped facilitate the remote learning model. In some cases, they are helping multiple children within a household and continuing to work their own full-time jobs.”
Bradd is also thankful that if an interruption had to take place, it happened now and not a decade ago.
“When I think back to the beginning of my teaching career 11 years ago, we would have never had the technology to be able to support remote learning,” Bradd said. “Most schools now are one-to-one, or nearly there, when it comes to technology.”
Students are not the only ones who are getting valuable lessons now, she added.
“In the last month, I have watched lots of online tutorials to learn more about Google Classroom, Google Meet, Google forms, and more,” Bradd said. “These are technology platforms that I have never had time to research or use in the past. Turns out even teachers are able to learn during remote learning.”
Teachers aren’t anxious to look too far ahead. They are trying not to think yet about what could be in store to start the next school year.
“Right now, I’m focusing on the here and now,” the McLean County teacher said. “It does no good to speculate or worry about next school year.
“Whatever happens, I will strive to educate my students according to best practice and provide support for their social-emotional needs.”
Skinner said that if an interruption occurs during the 2020-21 school year, this spring can be used as a learning tool.
“The only encouraging aspect if we must do this again is the fact that we have had this experience,” Skinner said. “What worked, what didn’t work and more importantly, what would we do differently.
“We learn from this and we would be better as educators, students, etc., to handle it. There’s no way you can replicate the learning that takes place in person, but you can teach and you can learn remotely.
“It’s just not the same, and to me, it’s not as good.”
Summer may turn into a time for additional teacher preparation.
“I have not thought about what it would be like to start in this manner in the fall,” Skinner said. “We are fortunate that we will have at least two months to analyze and process this.
“If we have to begin that way, or if we have another session where we have to teach remotely, we will be better prepared for it.”
The Belvidere teacher believes remote learning would need to be restructured the second time around.
“I think schools will dramatically re-assess the level of unaccountability on the part of students,” he said. “The work will have to be for a grade, and students will have to learn new concepts and progress.
“There is no holding pattern, so to speak, that the kids have this year. The remote learning will look a lot different if we have to do this again in the fall because there will HAVE to be accountability on the part of students, and this ‘one contact a week’ to be counted ‘present’ in attendance will not fly.”
The current guidelines – as established by the state – are that students can not finish the semester with a lower grade in any class than they had at the end of the third quarter.
Skinner understands that, but he wants students to recognize what quality of work they are doing.
“If a student does a project or a test and they do poorly on it, they deserve to know what their grade is and what took place on that assignment,” Skinner said. “It’s confusing for parents and students because they do poorly on an assignment and you post that grade, they immediately want to know how they can get a poor score if they can’t have any grades lower than what they previously had in class.
“It goes back to communication. Ultimately those grades can’t negatively affect their overall grade, but I can’t not let them see how they really did on that assignment. And then trying to provide guidance on what they did wrong and where they might have mistaken something.
“Ultimately the grade isn’t what matters. What matters is if the student has got a firm understanding of the lesson and skills that we are teaching.”
The Belvidere teacher feared the grading plan was a recipe for disaster at the outset. Those concerns didn’t come to pass.
“To be totally honest, the participation among the students is much higher – and the work is of a greater quality – than I expected.
“When the Illinois State Board of Education mandated that: 1) we not grade the completed work and 2) anything going toward a grade cannot harm the student’s existing grade, then I fully expected my students – especially those passing the class – not to do much of anything, at all.
“I am pleasantly surprised by the number of them who are working. Those who are not engaged, were not engaged when we were in session. Of about 100 students, I will have about 10 who will receive an ‘incomplete’ on the class.”
Though he doesn’t want to be the voice of doom and gloom, he offered this assessment.
“Until there is a vaccine – and we’re talking at least 18 months until: 1) it is created, 2) it is tested, 3) it is brought on the market and 4) there is enough out there to inoculate 300,000,000 people – then this Coronavirus will run rampant all over the world,” he said.
“If ‘stay in place’ is the only true guard against the disease at the current time, then I don’t see that changing for at least all of 2021. I will be very surprised – astonished, frankly – if we have a complete school year next year.”
The Oakwood P.E. teacher sees a way in which remote learning can be utilized in the years to come.
“I don’t think there is a replacement for face-to-face teaching,” he said, “but some remote learning could be incorporated in the future.
“I think it would be good for all schools to utilize remote learning on days when school is canceled for inclement weather, thereby eliminating the need for make-up days.”
And no matter how sophisticated the technology, at times human frailties make an appearance.
“I was in a Zoom meeting with our District Social Studies Curriculum Specialist the other day,” the Florida teacher said. “Someone asked one of ‘those’ questions. Someone had forgotten to mute their mic and we all heard this guy say, ‘I hate stupid people.’
“Awkward, but hilarious.”
