By Kennedi Combs
December 9, 2020
After four long months, the first full semester of remote learning has come to an end. Teachers and students alike have communicated virtually over the course of this semester to help keep Covid-19 cases low.
East Clark Elementary School, located in inner city Cleveland, is among the many schools that went completely virtual.
Third grade teacher at East Clark, Cherylyn Williams, shares her appreciation for online learning. “Before we found out we would be completely remote, I was really panicking about having 25 children, coming from 25 different households, in the middle of a pandemic. It just seemed like it was going to be very dangerous. So it was immediate relief when I found out we would be teaching 100% online.”
However, at 57 years old and new to the age of technology, Ms. Williams admits she wasn’t the most tech savvy person. “I had no idea what I was doing. I had to learn an entirely new medium for a job I’ve had for 28 years.”
To help conquer this new feat, Ms. Williams watched youtube tutorials, consulted with colleagues, and contacted other teachers all across the country through social media. All of these things combined helped her to become acclimated with the technology she needed to virtually teach her third grade class.
“I’m part of a Facebook group page called Black Teachers Rock and the people on there helped me out so much. I met a lady on there who is a teacher in Hawaii. We met on facetime and she showed me the ins and outs of Microsoft Teams, which is where we meet our students everyday for class. It was a life saver.”
A colleague and long time friend of Ms. Williams, Verna Chambers-Weeden, swears by educational websites such as Imagine Learning, Starfall, and Read Theory in helping to get her students to further understand the concepts she teaches in virtual lessons.
As a second grade teacher, Ms. Chambers-Weeden views these websites as invaluable. “These websites make it possible for students to learn after they log offline with us. It’s something that I learned about this year that I’ll definitely use for the rest of my career.”
As helpful as technology is when it comes to remote learning, it also causes a major problem for students who don’t have up to date software or any technology at all. As part of the Bold Visions in Educational Research book series, one of the authors, Kate E. O’Hara, describes the often overlooked aspects of technology for urban students.
“The use of technology in urban schools is multidimensional, layered in complexities yet too often it is viewed as one-dimensional, void of context, with cultural, social, political, economical and ideological forces that impact the use of technology by both students and teachers rarely taken into account.”
Cleveland Metropolitan School District combated this dilemma by assigning laptops, tablets, and hotspots for wifi to students who needed them. All that was required was that parents and students come to the school that they were enrolled in and sign the technology out.
Ms. Williams also helped in any way she could. “I had 10 to 15 parents, from my classroom alone, come up to the school within the first week needing a computer,” she said.
“I actually bought two ipads for two students who accidentally broke the school’s devices and delivered them to their respective houses. I want them to have everything they need to learn.”
However, what about gym class? How do you teach physical education through a computer screen? Physical education teacher and a coworker of Ms. Williams, Janice Colvin, answers these questions. “Well, it’s a lot less physical. Every once in a while I’ll have the kids stand up where they are and do jumping jacks or run in place but for the most part I teach health and talk about things like peer pressure. It’s definitely a different type of gym class.”
In recent weeks, the United States has come closer to releasing a vaccine for Covid-19 to the general public and have confirmed that vaccines will be available early 2021.
Ms.Williams is excited to get back to face to face instruction.“I hope we can get back safely as soon as possible. I miss getting to know my students and making a real connection with them, not just through a computer screen. It’s the reason why I became a teacher.”
