How I Do Distance Learning

I recently spent a teacher work day preparing for the return of hybrid learning at our school. We are calling it Hybrid 2.0. It may be hard to believe, but I could actually feel the tension in our staff. The nervousness and worry were palpable, and we were on Zoom!

I made the conscious decision not to get caught up in this negative energy. We have maneuvered the many changes from March 2020 until now. Why is one more change bigger or worse or more foreboding?

Let’s take a look at the way things evolved for me.

The way that I handled our emergency distance learning in March was OK, at best. I learned as I went. I tried things. Some worked. Many did not. I got better at it. I tried a variety of different “really cool” apps. The kids were overwhelmed. I couldn’t keep up with logins, passwords, and making sure that my students could find the many places where I asked them to go. I backed up, re-grouped, and simplified.

Then, over the summer, I thought about how I would tackle whatever scenario I found myself in as school resumed in late August. I kept coming back to the thought that I know how to teach. I have done this a few times before. Just because the kids will show up on a screen, it doesn’t mean that they will not need the human element of teacher and student. What has always worked best for me was simple. We read. We write. We talk. We think. I move around a lot as I do these things.

So, my husband and I sat out on our deck, brainstorming. We do this a lot. Our brainstorming session resulted in these ideas:

-A microphone/camera that can follow me as I move around the room to teach.

-A drone (controlled by someone who knows how to control drones) that follows me as I move around my room to teach.

-A private camera-person who follows me as I move around my room to teach.

I am currently using none of the above ideas. They are all cost-prohibitive. They are involved. Two out of three require expertise that I do not possess. However, that doesn’t mean they weren’t helpful. They led me to a simple idea that works well for me.

Here is how I am actually teaching in my distance learning and/or hybrid classroom. I borrowed two rolling tables that can be raised to counter height from a “flexible seating classroom” in our building. Flexible seating is not being used during the pandemic, so the furniture was being stored in our school. I raised the tables to their highest standing position. I placed them on opposite sides of my classroom. They can be easily moved as needed, because they are on wheels.

On each of these tables, I have a Lazy Susan made for electronics. These were inexpensive. During every class on Zoom, I place my laptop on a Lazy Susan. I can spin the laptop so that the camera is looking wherever I need it to look in my classroom. Sometimes it faces me. Other times it faces a whiteboard or my SmartBoard or props of some kind. If the desired view is too far from one Lazy Susan, I pick up my laptop, and I move it to the other one.

I continue to move around my room as I teach. I continue to use the things in my classroom. My students feel as though they are in room B-8 with me…sort of. When I pick up my laptop to move it to another location in the room, I say things like, “Come with me,” or “Let’s go over here,” to my students. They have gotten into the habit of responding with, “I’m coming, Mrs. Tisch!” or “Let’s go!”

I have colleagues who are incredibly astute in their knowledge of tech and devices. They have beautifully elaborate set-ups of multiple monitors that all “talk to each other” and connect. That is truly amazing. We have all learned so much since March 2020.

I, on the other hand, have two tall tables. Each table holds a Lazy Susan. This set-up came after a whole lot of trial and error. And guess what! We are all doing what is best for our kids.