Donna High in her classroom back in 2016.
Back in April, we talked to Donna High, a long-time homeschool educator, parent, and current private school librarian/educator in Illinois, about how she and her fellow teachers were adjusting to remote teaching during the current public health crisis. After more than two decades teaching seven kids at home while also going on to complete a degree and several certification courses, Donna is relying on vast experience and resources to navigate the volatile world of education in 2020. Currently, she’s preparing to be back in-person at her school with students this Fall.
Where do you work?
I’m in Sycamore, Illinois, at the Cornerstone Campus of the Aurora Christian Schools system.
What do you do?
I am a library media specialist - I’m not a librarian, I have an LMS certification. I’ve been in my current role for six years, and I spent a year prior as a teacher’s aid in this school. I see the kids K-6 once a week for 45 minutes, where they check out their books and I teach a 30 min lesson. Depending on the grade, the lessons could be on the Dewey Decimal System, fables, folk tails, map skills, atlases, fairy tales, online catalogues, united studies on things like the Iditarod dog sled event. I plan an annual book fair which is SO much work because I don’t have a committee, I do it myself with a couple parents or 6th graders who volunteer to pitch in. I also run an 8th grade book club - we typically meet once a month, although it’s been a little less structured recently.
Describe your experience having to abruptly switch to online teaching last winter/spring when COVID hit. How did you adjust? What was the toughest part?
It was tough. We actually had a teachers’ in-service on Friday, March 13, planned, where we were supposed to discuss putting lesson plans online so anyone could step in our shoes and figure out what we were doing. But we didn’t actually think we’d BE DOING THEM online so soon.
Up until about a week before that day, we knew things were happening in the world but we were told that at our in-service we’d only be talking about going online IN CASE we ever needed to. At the time, I was consumed with planning my book fair so the whole thing was really only on my peripheral. We finished our day with the superintendent around 3pm and at 3:30 our governor (Pritzker, of Illinois) announced that as of Tuesday classes would be closed! That meant we only had the weekend to work on our own, not together, to put our classes online. Then Monday our kids would be in school for the last day - which was supposed to be the day of my book fair! Instead of a week-long book fair it turned into a one-day book fair.
Be there for your kids but if they don't get everything done, it’s not the end of the world. Be flexible. Enjoy time with your kids and looking at what they’re doing.
How did you manage to navigate the next three days?
I met with three of my classes that I didn’t normally meet with on Mondays, just so I didn't have to meet with them online the rest of the first week.
They gave teachers a Tuesday as a teacher time to do all this so we all came to school with no kids. I’m sitting there thinking, “I have one lesson plan online - I have no idea what I’m doing.” People were in various states of even understanding what we were doing.
Since we spent Tuesday still prepping, I actually didn’t teach online lessons until Wednesday. My colleague Trisha saved me - she spent 15 mins walking me through Google classroom and G-Suite.
How were you doing after two weeks in?
It’s still a learning process. Learning Google classroom was the first biggest task. Teachers are using a few different programs to make videos but I’m just trying to stick to Google classroom. I do tend to use my spring breaks looking into doing different educational things so I guess this year will be nothing new! I’m learning a lot of little hacks just to help with efficiency and also make instructions more clear to parents and students.
It’s been hard - it’s been challenging. Until I actually got going with Trisha’s help I was almost in tears myself thinking, “They’re expecting me to do this, I don’t know how to do this, She learns everything from tutorials on Google.”
It’s also quite challenging for the parents. They don’t want to homeschool, they’re paying tuition dollars for us to teach their kid.
After the initial shock and learning curve, I think online learning went really well! It was definitely an experiment in flexibility in patience. Online learning provides plenty of opportunities to get creative for teachers, students, and parents.
How are you and other teachers making online curriculum doable for parents yet creative for students?
Teachers are good at finding creative and innovative ways to teach so kids don’t get bored online but we have to be careful that it doesn’t add so much onto the parents. Special classes or studies like poetry, crafts, etc. would be great if we were in a classroom but not everyone necessarily has the tools and supplies to do these things. With younger students particularly, we face the challenge of meeting parents where they are. Some are doing great, and some require follow-up to do the bare minimum. That was something I learned while homeschooling: be flexible, but it’s follow-up.
We’ve modified our lesson plans as much as possible and incorporated fun and visual things to differentiate our video lessons from just us standing up in a classroom talking (though there’s plenty of that, I’m sure!).
As a parent-turned-teacher, what’s your observation on how parents have been during this process?
This doesn’t have to be done perfectly. It’s not a perfect situation, it’s not the situation we’d have at school which would also not necessarily be perfect.
Jack [my oldest son, now 31] learned all his math and science sitting on his bed in pajama pants. Eventually I didn’t test him because every time I talked to him, he knew how to do the problems and he was teaching everyone else in the family how to do their problems.
I know it’s hard on parents, but we’re in a global pandemic with state or school district mandates to close schools, and we all have to make the best of it. Our teachers are absolutely fabulous, and they’re doing all they can to make it fun and exciting and easy to understand, myself included.
I tell parents: stay calm, they’ll do it eventually, it doesn't even have to be today or tomorrow. In addition to my instructions for students, I started adding very specific notes to parents and tips on how to talk to their kids about whatever topic we’re learning. I also include ideas on when to incorporate learning chats: when you’re washing dishes, picking up toys, whatever.
Your child doesn’t have to sit in front of a computer from 8-3. If you're busy during the day, or mom needs to work, do it after dinner! When we were homeschooling, we’d just incorporate talking throughout the day.
What are some ways in which parents can be flexible and incorporate teaching moments throughout the day?
It gets more serious in middle school but K-5 parents can adopt the attitude of independent study - doing it when you can. Your child doesn’t have to sit in front of a computer from 8-3. If you're busy during the day, or mom needs to work, do it after dinner! When we were homeschooling, we’d just incorporate talking throughout the day. One kid would be setting the table while I finish cooking and we’d be talking about the characters in the book they’re reading. If they’re supposed to turn something written in about those characters, you can jot the ideas down and write them down later when you actually sit down at the computer. Learning at that age is supposed to be fun - the more fun, the more learning.
My daughter-in-law doesn’t have WiFi, but her five-year-old son has been doing these take-home booklets his preschool teachers sent home, and they’ve been reading drawing, practicing letters and words, and learning about planets.
How can parents support teachers during this time?
Be there for your kids but if they don't get everything done, it’s not the end of the world. Be flexible. Enjoy time with your kids and looking at what they’re doing. One mom of one of my students works and runs a business from home and the only time she has to do this is over the weekend so that’s what her kid does. That’s how it has to be, but it’s just for a time, even if that’s for seven weeks - or seven months! - that is still just for a time. I never really learned this til I was homeschooling, but public schools don’t finish all their lesson plans and workbooks every year. So don’t get caught up in having to do everything in the ‘Nth degree.
Overall, how do you think remote teaching went?
After the initial shock and learning curve, I think online learning went really well! It was definitely an experiment in flexibility in patience. Online learning provides plenty of opportunities to get creative for teachers, students, and parents.
Any final takeaways for teachers move to remote teaching?
Keep that relationship going with your kids because with all the online technology you can lose touch. I’ve been personally writing back to everyone who submits something and call them by name and interact with them and connect with them. That is an intentional way to keep those relationships going when you’re doing e-learning. Talk to them online just as you’d talk to them in school. Some of the teachers for younger classes are even doing bedtime stories for them! That relationship aspect is important even when - especially when - you’re online.
Seems like a great time to hire a tutor, too, if you can!
Donna and her family (including two daughter-in-laws and a nephew) in 2018.