I am a high school teacher living in unprecedented times.
While the COVID-19 pandemic has changed everybody’s daily lives, it has sent me
into a whole new virtual reality – the world of remote learning (and teaching).
Though it has its challenges, I am grateful that remote learning has allowed
many educators, like myself, to continue impacting their students’ lives.
When remote learning was first proposed as a realistic
possibility, I was intrigued and excited. Some of my colleagues were nervous
for the change, but I must admit that, as an introvert, the prospect of
teaching from my couch was appealing in some ways. But, after a few weeks, the
novelty wore off, and I started to notice some changes in my students’
behaviors and attitudes.
I noticed that my students had become easily irritable and
withdrawn. While I encouraged students to speak out and to answer questions,
more often than not, I would end up talking to myself. When I asked my students
about this change, probing them to share the most frustrating parts of remote
learning for them, a theme emerged. They were frustrated with the
repetitiveness of their classes. As it turned out, every teacher was starting
every class with some version of, “How are you doing?” or “What have you been
up to?”. These questions, while well-intentioned, became monotonous and
frustrating after the students had been asked them 5 times a day, every day,
for two months straight.
This small monotony was just a microcosm for their entire
remote academic experience.
Monotony on a larger scale had led to stale classes in which
students struggled to engage and couldn’t enjoy themselves. Their inability to
comfortably interact with each other caused them to retreat emotionally and
avoid social interactions.
While we have been able to replicate the academic elements
of face-to-face learning through remote classrooms, it has been difficult, if
not impossible, to replicate the social elements. In its current
implementation, remote learning is solely focused on the continuation of the
academic elements of school. Remote learning often seems to remove all
student-to-student interaction, and severely inhibits or removes any
student-to-teacher interactions, as well. Asynchronous assignments allow
students to continue their growth academically but do not create opportunities
to grow socially or emotionally. And, unfortunately, I don’t believe that the
in-person interactions in students’ day-to-day lives which prompt social and
emotional growth can be fully replicated via remote learning, even with the
implementation of Zoom and other video conferencing platforms.
If you surveyed a sample of educators, regardless of their
background, to determine why they became teachers, I would presume that most
would say some version of “I want to contribute to students’ well-rounded
development.” Regardless of our field of expertise, the element of teaching
that makes it fulfilling is most often what happens beyond the academic. Most
teachers use their platform as an academic teacher to encourage young people to
be comfortable in their own skins, and challenge them to grow, not only as
learners, but as people.
In order to continue teaching our students in a well-rounded
manner during this pandemic, we must think creatively to minimize the differences
between face-to-face and remote learning in terms of social and emotional
development. If we do so, not only will we see happier and healthier students,
I imagine we will also see improved academic success and classroom engagement!
After taking the time to understand my students’ fatigue
with the monotony of virtual classes, I made a promise that I would try to ask
more interesting questions to start class every day. For a time, I found
success with goofy questions. One of their favorites was, “Would you rather
have a pet Zebra or a pet Ostrich?”. Students that hadn’t spoken for weeks chimed
in about their preferences, sparking a lively debate about which animal would
be the best pet. While the interactions were not entirely the same as they
would have been in-person, there were familiarities that I found
encouraging. The comradery was back, my students were joking and
disagreeing, and speaking freely. I saw more smiles in that class than on any
previous day of remote learning. And, while that conversation took 20 minutes
out of a 50-minute class, for the remaining 30-minutes, the students readily
engaged with the material!
Guest
blog author Nick Manfreda is a high school math and economics teacher at Newark Academy in
Livingston, New Jersey.
