A Reflection on Successful Remote Learning, a presentation by Shannon and Chris from MB Education

“In times where small instructor-led classrooms tend to be the exception, electronic learning solutions can offer more collaboration and interaction with experts and peers, as well as a higher success rate than the live alternative.”

- Keith Bachman

How to do remote learning, explained by teachers and students

    Remote learning has become a 'normal' thing to say these days. Like masks, social distancing, and Covid-19, you hear these phrases more often. I never thought in a million years that I would be complimenting someone's mask as I work in the retail industry on Saturdays. Anyways, back to the topic at hand. Remote learning has been more widely available and used by students across Canada due to the ongoing pandemic. Many teachers were just tossed into it and it was overwhelming for so many of them. Other teachers would consider themselves techy and it was a breeze. This past Wednesday, I had the opportunity to listen to Shannon and Chris from Manitoba Education about having a successful remote learning experience. Personally, I have yet to do remote teaching. I know a bit about being a post secondary student doing online learning, the good, the bad, and the ugly. I have had some classes that have been more successful than others. I have liked certain aspects of online learning and struggled with other parts of it. These experiences will affect my teaching practices, remotely or not. In this blog, I will share a few things that I learned about from the presentation and then reflect further about what remote learning looks like in an early years classroom. 

Shannon and Chris brought up a lot of interesting information for High School teachers to take into consideration as they think about remote learning. One thing that I could integrate into my own classroom is Brightspace. Brightspace is a learning management system (LMS). In short, LMS is a program that teachers can use to share assignments, upload instructional videos, and have students submit assignments. This learning management system is used across Manitoba primarily by remote learning teachers, however, it can be used by in class teachers as well. You can have your students make a portfolio which will follow them the rest of their school journey since it is on the world wide web. I personally think that having an online portfolio is beneficial, especially from a sustainability perspective. Most of our students worksheets/written assignments end up in the recycling or garbage, never to be seen again. This online portfolio allows students to keep track of students work responsibly. The second topic that spoke to me was about collaborative tools to help create engagement in the classroom. In my last placement, we did a novel study on Charlotte's web. After each chapter, I would have a discussion with my students about the specific chapter and make extensions to their own personal lives. I had a few students who were always willing to answer, a few who shared sometimes, and those who didn't share at all. Halfway through the novel study, I started asking specific students to answer a question so that I could hear other students opinions but they often said that they didn't have an answer either so I went back to having students put their hands up. I wonder if something like flipgrid, padlet, or another discussion platform would have helped my students to be engaged in their learning experience. I can't dwell on the past, but I am going to take using discussion forums in my classroom under further consideration. Students in early years are starting to read and write so their responses may be short, however this would allow me to hear more opinions within the classroom. 

Remote learning has become important, especially during a time when we are supposed to spend apart to help keep everyone safe. Like I stated earlier, I have not had to teach online yet but I have heard from teachers in my previous placement about the struggles they had teaching online and trying to engage with their students. Our students, like us, are now facing stresses that they have never had to before. Our world has turned upside down. Everyone is experiencing this change at the same time. We can't see our friends and family. We don't want to offend people as we shop at the grocery store. I know that as an adult, I struggle with living in the middle of the pandemic. It is important to keep our lessons engaging, especially when we are doing online learning. Using remote learning is a bit different when helping early years students. In my literacy interventions course, one of our assignments was to do a running record with a real live student. Due to Covid restrictions, I had to do this online on a zoom call with a little girl that I know who is now in grade three. We started reading our text but due to lag time on both our ends, sometimes she needed a prompt and I wasn't able to help her and she got a bit frustrated. I was frustrated with myself because I wasn't able to be helpful. Although I was discouraged, I saw it as a learning experience. 

This got me thinking about how I can encourage my students to be active learners online. Mike had us do a Flipgrid on how to engage our students online. Although my answer was not related specifically to technology, it is important to have a personal relationship with your students. In a remote learning situation, you could individually ask each student about how their weekend was or you could put an online discussion board where students can draw pictures or write down what they did. You could do a poll if your platform has that available so that you can review the students responses. You could pose a would you rather question online to get the students engaged in their learning. In online learning, it is important to have movement breaks or mindfulness break as well. A normal classroom day is filled with different activities and opportunities for breaks. It is important to give your students opportunities to destress and stress to help them concentrate better during formal learning time. Lastly, I believe that we can utilize online platforms to help us help students. We could use a platform to hear them read aloud and do a running record or check fluency. This could help guide our prompts and direct our instruction to best assist each individual student.  I am sure that there are many more ways to engage our early years students online.  I am going to end this blog post by sharing a video I found that breaks down five different websites/apps that you can use in your own classroom. I found it helpful to watch and I hope that you do to! Do you have any other ideas? Do you have comments or questions about what I have posted? Please share them in the comments.

                                                      Make your Lessons Fun and Engaging!

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