All I see on the mommy boards these days (yes, those are a thing!) is questions about school starting soon and how it will be virtual learning instead of in-person due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Every parent’s mind is racing. What supplies do we need? What kind of learning room setup should I have at home? How will I facilitate virtual learning while I’m working or tending to other kids? What will our schedule look like?
Never fear! Our year-round charter school started virtual learning 2 weeks ago, so I can give you all the tips and tricks we have learned along the way! Hopefully this will give you a heads up on what to expect this Fall and you can calm your mind before traditional public school starts back in August.
Disclaimer: Your experience may be different
First thing’s first, everyone’s experience will be different. This is just what we have experienced and I’m guessing some of you will have something similar. Each school will manage their virtual learning separately, so supply lists and schedules will vary from school to school, even if they are in the same county or district.
In our situation, I am a stay at home mom that can facilitate virtual learning without worrying about working another job. My husband is working from home indefinitely since the pandemic, so he is at least another person in the house to fall back on if needed.
My kindergartner is also my first and only child in school right now, so I don’t really have the experience with regular school besides when I went over a decade ago. I’m only having to manage one school schedule right now. I do, however, have two younger children to occupy while my kindergartner is attending virtual school, which has been my biggest challenge.
Educational Quality
Now I know a lot of you experienced the first wave of virtual learning in the Spring when schools nationwide shut down overnight. I didn’t go through that, so I don’t have a comparison. However, I feel like our school has done a great job of getting the educational material taught in a new format.
Our school gives elementary students separate teachers for different subjects, similar to how it probably was when you were in high school. Our daughter has a homeroom teacher who also teaches social studies and science. She has separate teachers for math, reading, and specials, which consist of Spanish, art, music, PE, and character education. This makes it easy to schedule time blocks for each separate class with each separate teacher.
Each class typically begins with an instruction time, such as having the kids listen to a story, question/answer, or repeating facts. They then move to doing a worksheet together on the call. The teacher actually does the worksheet too and shows her work on the screen for reference. She talks the kids through the process, even though she can’t see what they are doing on their paper. Then we usually have another worksheet to complete for homework that will need to be submitted via Google Classroom.
Kindergarten Staggered Entry
Our first week was staggered entry, similar to how it would have been in-person. The homeroom teacher had set time with 8 of the 24 students in the class each day for the first week. They did a fun get to know you activity and spent most of the time sharing information about themselves with the class. They then all gathered together on Friday as a whole group.
The first few Zoom calls of the week largely just consisted of having each kid learn how to un-mute themselves and share something with the class. While incredibly frustrating to listen to, I am happy to say that most of the kids are very proficient at it now only a few days later. I learned that it is important to let my daughter figure this out on her own, even if it takes way longer that it should. Many of the kids on her call are listening in without a parent nearby, so they took a long time to un-mute as well. One kid actually stayed completely muted for two full calls before the teacher worked with him after class to finally figure out how to speak. There’s definitely a learning curve, but the kids caught on fast.
Daily Schedule
Another challenge for our family is accommodating the daily schedule set forth by the school. I am a stay at home mom that never stays home! Our daily schedule pre-pandemic consisted of playdates and parks every morning before we came home for lunch and naps. We even continued our morning outings during the pandemic by going for family walks and playing in the creek every day. My kids have had this same schedule since birth, so suddenly having to work around Zoom calls has been quite a change. I was looking forward to my kindergartner going off to school and just continuing the same schedule with my younger kids, but our virtual learning with live Zoom calls doesn’t really allow that kind of flexibility.
Our school’s kindergarten weekly schedule is as follows:
Benefits and Challenges of Live Calls vs. Recordings
I will say that our school has done a good job of alternating live calls with recorded videos so we aren’t tied to our computer all day. Honestly, neither of them compare to real in-person learning, but I can definitely see the benefit of having live calls over recordings, so I appreciate that they do both. Luckily, both live calls and recordings each follow the same format, so my daughter barely knows the difference.
Recordings
For a recording, there’s obviously no sharing time, just instruction. The teacher speaks to the students and responds like they gave an answer. This can be kind of funny when my kindergartner didn’t reply to the questions but the teacher still says, “Great job!” I feel like the recordings take more effort from me because I want to make sure she is participating correctly. However, I like the flexibility of doing recordings whenever we want. We usually complete these in the afternoon when the younger kids are napping.
Live Calls
While I like the flexibility of the recordings, I definitely feel like the kids get the most out of the live calls. For my current situation, I would prefer earlier and later live calls so I can still take my kids out somewhere in the morning for a change of scenery. Our Monday, Wednesday, Friday schedule with 10:15am and 12:15pm live calls doesn’t really allow for that. I do enjoy the afternoon call at 1pm since I usually have my younger kids down for a nap at that time so they are not a distraction. We usually complete all homework after that last call of the day.
One challenge with the live calls has been keeping my younger kids occupied while also assisting my kindergartner. She still needs some help with muting and un-muting herself or getting the right worksheet and supplies, so I like to be nearby for assistance. I didn’t do it this week, but I have learned that I need to schedule sit down activities with the younger kids during the morning calls. I’m thinking worksheets, painting, play-doh: it will be school time for them as well!
Virtual Learning vs. In-person Instruction
One thing that I have noticed as an onlooking parent, is that the teacher really does miss out on a lot in virtual learning. Unfortunately the kids have to be muted most of the time while on the live calls. This prevents them from talking over each other, but the teacher also misses out on all of the side comments and questions. They don’t get to know their students on a deeper level like they would in the classroom.
For example, during music class the teacher was saying that they were going to sing a G-O-O-D-B-Y-E song (she spelled the word out). My daughter immediately said, “Oh, she means goodbye” but of course the teacher didn’t hear that because she was on mute. It’s sad to see them miss those moments, but when everyone is un-muted it is utter chaos. Luckily the teachers can control that on their end and keep the children from un-muting themselves when it is not their turn, but it’s still a little sad.
The students also get a lot of time to share with the teacher and class as a group, but they don’t get the opportunity to have one-on-one conversations with the other kids. My daughter hasn’t connected to any kid in her class. Although I have heard some of the other parents say that their kids have talked about others that had similar interests during share time. To facilitate those relationships as best they can, the teacher encourages students to make a hand gesture on the screen when someone shares something that they also like. It allows them to basically say “yes, me too!” without actually speaking.
Technical Difficulties
As with anything that involves a computer, there are technical difficulties to work through. One of our teachers has a spotty internet connection at home which causes lagging in her video during live Zoom calls and sometimes she even drops the call. Sometimes the students get dropped from the call due to their internet connections and have to rejoin. The teachers have to actually let you into the Zoom call, so if they’ve already started teaching they don’t always see you in the waiting room. Our teachers usually have their assistants on the call with them to manage those issues and to actually watch the kids, since it’s hard for one teacher to juggle it all. You’ll hear the assistant telling certain kids to sit down or stop covering the camera.
We’ve also had issues with the teacher playing a video for the class and the sound doesn’t always come through. It’s a little weird to watch a guy dancing on the screen with no music! And the teacher doesn’t know the sound isn’t going through so she’s encouraging the kids to dance and sing along to silence. 😂
I’ll say though, with two weeks completed the technical difficulties have been minimal and haven’t been very disruptive! Much better than I initially thought!
Learning Room Setup
Before we got started with our virtual learning, I purchased a desk for my daughter to use upstairs in her room. I thought it would be the quiet space for her to learn uninterrupted. Two weeks down and we haven’t even used that desk! I have her setup at the kitchen table or my desk downstairs so I can keep an eye on her and assist as needed. A kid’s table just doesn’t work for an adult to sit at too, and I like that the kitchen table gives us lots of room. I can sit right by her and reach everything too.
Learning in the main living space isn’t ideal in the morning when my youngest kids are running around, but sometimes they just join in on the call too! This works especially well for the specials like PE and music. The teachers don’t mind if other people join in, and last time one of the moms even started doing squats with the kids during PE! It’s a family affair!
Supplies for Virtual Learning
Device
We were lucky enough to have an old laptop laying around, so we have designated that as my daughter’s device for school. I’m sure she will use it more as she gets older, but right now she just uses it for her Zoom calls. The only issue we’ve ran into is that she’s not that good with using a mouse. My husband and I have discussed that a touch screen really would make it easier on her, but I think it’s a valuable skill to learn how to use a mouse so we haven’t purchased anything else yet. I think the best device would be a touchscreen tablet that has a detachable keyboard so it can also function as a laptop. Our school runs off of Google classroom so I’ve heard iPads don’t work very well. We are looking at getting a Microsoft Surface in the future.
Printer
As for a printer, our school had a packet pickup day where we actually drove to the school and picked up all of the worksheets we needed for the next 4 weeks. I was thinking we would need a printer, but the school thankfully did all of the printing for us!
Pro tip: I created a separate email address for my kindergartner to use for Google Classroom. I didn’t want all of the alerts going to my personal email, plus I was thinking of the future. I have an android device so I can login to both gmail addresses on my phone and get alerts for both. This just separated everything better for me. Some parents use their own email address though. It’s totally up to you!
Our packet has all worksheets divided by which week they will be done. At the beginning of each week we are emailed a “week at a glance” that tells us what worksheets will be due each day. I have downloaded the Google Classroom app to my phone so it’s easy to submit worksheets each day. Just snap and picture and upload!
Other Supplies
Other than the device and packet of worksheets, the only other items we have needed are pencils, crayons, scissors, and glue. I put everything in this handy caddy I found at the Target Dollar spot so I can grab the supplies whenever and wherever we need them.
I’ll admit that we have also done some school on the go. I try to plan park outings around our live zoom calls, but we have been caught doing school in the car once or twice. A portable lap desk has come in handy in those on the go moments so my daughter can still do her worksheets on a firm surface. You could also use this at home while sitting on the couch.
Throughout all of this I have definitely gained a huge appreciation for teachers! Whenever they go back I will be sending in all of the gifts and supplies they ask for! Oh you need a gold brick paperweight? You’ve got it! 😂
What about you? What are you most concerned about with virtual school? Any questions I haven’t covered? Let me know in the comments! Don’t worry – we’re all in this together!