Learning as We Go

Now, over a month into e-learning with our girls, I’ve realized how very different each girl’s experience has been.  I’ve been wanting to capture these days, as much for me as for you.

M, who is in 7th grade this year, is already an e-learning pro.

Our school has 3 junior high teachers who teach all of the 6-8 grade classes.  These are the same teachers she had last year and the same she will have next year.  It helps to have an established relationship with your teachers before heading into a remote learning environment.  She knows what to expect from them, and they know what to expect from her.  

Last spring when we were all thrust in to e-learning, her teachers figured our quickly how to make relevant, rigorous curriculum through a computer screen.  This fall, they upped their game even more.  M has 1 e-learning classmate and together they have scheduled 30 minute daily live lessons with each of their 3 teachers.  This time is used to teach or reinforce lessons introduced via the virtual classroom through Google Classroom.  She submits all assignments through Google Classroom and even sometimes takes tests this way.

Each teacher has daily office hours she can attend virtually if she has additional questions.  In addition, her Literature/Language Arts teacher is recording the daily lessons she teaches to M’s classmates who are attending in person.  M can watch those in advance of daily meeting or go back and re-watch later if she needs reinforcement while working on schoolwork.  That’s been kind of nice.  In a “normal” school day, you cannot rewind your teacher if you can’t remember what she said about a concept or assignment. 

Her math/science teacher has been live streaming his class on YouTube for e-learning students to watch and hear classroom discussions.  I think that is a big plus, because at this age, so much of the learning comes from the discussions.

I know she misses her classmates and her BFF, who is sitting in that classroom.  When she is connected live to her classroom, she can see her friends and hear their voices.  They all think it’s completely hysterical when through the computer screen, they see her raising her hand to ask or answer a question.

The kids in school have PE a couple times a week, which is not included in the e-learning curriculum.  That doesn’t concern me at all though, because finding Marcella outside, jumping, running, biking, or swinging is a normal and usual thing around here.  She is not a sedentary kid.  Although music and band are completely off the school curriculum this year, the school is continuing “technology” lessons.  This year, you can see a great deal of focus has been put on preparing the kiddos for potential mandatory e-learning later this year.  Their lessons are clearly focused on how to create documents and use the tools within the Google Suite.  

We set up her work space in her bedroom because she needs a lot of peace and quiet and not a lot of assistance from mom.  But truth be told, if she can take her work outside, she usually does.

She’s really rocking 7th grade...straight A’s so far.  There are bumps, sure.  But I’m so grateful I’m not divided between helping my kids schooling and working from home, like so many parents are this fall.  I have the time to explain ratios if it didn’t make sense during the math lesson.  I can re-learn and then re-teach what a present participle is, should the need arise.  

Her biggest struggle is “work-life balance.”  When your bedroom is your school, it can be hard to end your day.  There are always a few more assignments out there that could be worked on.  DaddyHealy can relate, since his bedroom has been his office for 6 months now.  There is no closure for his work day either.  Maybe they need to lean on each other to figure out this one together.