Skinker DeBaliviere Teachers Rise To Distance Learning Challenges

Original printed byline: Cristina McGroarty

Summer 2020

Dedicated teachers — New City School distance learning illustration.

Historical Summer 2020 article. Dates, prices, services and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.

In the last days of February, COVID-19 became a topic of conversation in teacher workrooms not only in St. Louis but around the world.

As many schools prepared for spring break, conversations about the virus became ubiquitous.

I teach in the Trudy Busch Valentine School of Nursing at Saint Louis University.

I gave my midterm exam for my Child Health Nursing course to seventy-seven Junior level students on Wednesday, March 4th. One student who had not performed as she had hoped on the exam came to my office to talk about her results.

I never imagined that she would be that last student I saw in person for the rest of the semester. SLU broke for spring break that Friday.

I spent the next week in continual meetings as we played out the scenarios and kept an eye on the news. One week later, on Friday, March 13, we were all learning to navigate our New Zoom accounts. None of us returned to the classroom for the rest of the semester.

The same scenario played out across the world.

We all know how the 2019- 2020 school year ended.

Some parents worked from home; others continued at the workplace as essential workers. Thousands of students learned from home, simultaneously finding any way they could to at least virtually connect with their teachers.

The entire world changed, seemingly overnight.

As a teacher it was jarring, stressful, time consuming, rewarding, beautiful, humbling and just about every other adjective you use to describe something unexpected, awe-inspiring and awful all at once.

I had to move my nursing course content online and still make sure my students stayed engaged.

I had to teach students to be nurses without patients.

The challenges popped up overnight, and they just kept coming.

Some of them we could predict and plan for, others left us blindsided.

As with most everyone these last ten weeks, we have been trying to adjust and readjust and readjust again to life at home.

I find myself wishing these days away and trying to savor every family dinner and the time spent together.

There have been struggles and blessings and beauty that have emerged.

My own children participated in distance learning and after day three of week one I realized what an enormous amount of work distance learning was going to be and had been from their own teachers’ perspectives.

I told them every day, before you get off that Zoom call, or when you sign off an email to thank their teachers.

If you live in Skinker Debaliviere, then I am sure you know a teacher or two who moved their entire classroom online in a matter of days.

I spoke to just a few of the many teachers in our neighborhood to find out about their experiences.

If you have a minute to ask your friendly neighborhood teacher how they adjusted, what they missed and what went well, I suggest you do it. You will see the heroism of our teachers firsthand. What are the main challenges you have had teaching from home?

Each teacher I spoke to mentioned how they missed the personal contact. Lecturing to a computer is just not the same as a lecture hall full of half awake college students, sassy middle schoolers or wriggly kindergarteners. Teacher Lisa Horner spoke to what each of the teachers mentioned when she said, “We certainly don’t choose to become teachers so that we can sit in front of a computer all day.

The hallmark of good teachers is the relationship they create and nurture with their students. Relationships are really fundamental to teaching.” Julie Schoemehl is a teacher in the Rockwood School District and talked about a variety of challenges including technology, parents’ schedules, trying to keep learning interesting and engaging for her 2nd graders and the most important aspect of teaching: human connections. “Everything I love about teaching is gone. No hugs, smiles, jokes, stories, pictures, creative ideas… No seeing the lightbulb when a concept is learned. Reading to a screen did not have the same feel.

I looked forward to my class Zoom meetings so we could see each other, laugh, share happy thoughts and play a game,” Schoemehl said. Pattie Voss, a school counselor, talked about the loss of connection with her students, “As the school social worker, so much of my job depends on connecting with students and families in-person. At school, a child’s behavior and body language are the main indicators that they are struggling in some way. Communicating through emails, phone calls or google-hangout chats was helpful, but even virtual face-to-face conversations are no replacement for being

in the physical presence of kids.” Shelley Parker teaches at SIUE and talked about the difficulty transitioning to working from home. “The biggest challenge in the beginning was making the switch. Establishing new routines and some order.

As the expectations that we become better and better at this requires more time learning and updating existing courses.

The CURRENT challenge is knowing how to draw some boundaries so that this job does not become even bigger and more time consuming.

There have already been many days I realize only after a stretch that I have been putting in a 12-hour day. That is fine – for some days – but not for every single day of the week.

We want to do well for our students, but to do that sustainably, we have to keep ourselves in good shape too.” Sarah Solverud, who teaches middle school went above and beyond to keep her students engaged.

After weekly video lessons, she reached out to each and every student individually through a variety of means. Sarah said, “Although I was giving personalized attention, it did not seem very personal since I was far away.” That is dedication.

Her going above and beyond paid off as Solverud spoke to the strengthened connections within the classrooms she looks forward to next year. Chanaya Jacobs teaches at New City School and shared her challenges, ”One challenge for me was to redesign existing and create a new curriculum for my young students to navigate independently. Having a limited amount of faceto-face minutes with my students posed another challenge.

I could meet with students one-on-one, but it was difficult to show what I was saying and see what they were writing.

The camera and share-screen features helped, but it took more time than when in-person.” What’s the biggest surprise reaction from the students? Pattie Voss was surprised at the number of students who seemed surprised by how much they missed being at school. “The middle schoolers, of all people, were the most vocal about it.” Pattie reported. For Julie Schoemehl, the most surprising things related to distance learning involved her students’ progression. “My students who were struggling actually showed more progress and improvement,” she said. “One reason may be that my struggling students now had added support from home, they could make their own schedule, work at their own pace and no judgement from peers. Whereas my high achievers struggled, not only with the change of schedule & workload but also with the lack of notoriety and status in the classroom” When asked about the positive aspects of distance learning, Schoemehl talked about renewed family connections. “Overwhelmingly the fact that families have slowed down and connected again,” she said. “I am thrilled with the answers I received when I asked my students what they liked best-playing catch everyday with my dad, morning bike rides with my family, learning to cook dinner…etc.” Sarah Solverud’s measures to stay in contact with her students is something she sees as benefitting her classroom next school year. “Since I was constantly connecting with the students and parents, I feel like it strengthened our relationships.

I was able to lean in on a few of my students who may have started to back off their work, and encourage them with love to stay connected. Since I will teach most of these students again next year, I hope that these connections with my students as well as their parents will create an even stronger community in our classrooms next year.” Chanaya Jacobs explained that “the biggest positive is my appreciation of how hard my students are willing to work, and the parents’ appreciation of how much I do for their children.

I felt an even stronger partnership with families.” This experience will make each and every teacher a better teacher.

This experience has shown what heroes all of our teachers are.

They are essential workers who put their heart and soul into their work, and form the future through our children. Shelly Parker spoke beautifully to what I believe most of us hope to be true of our own experience with this time at home social distancing. May this positive slant ring true for all of us. “The most positive thing that has come out of this situation so far, is the level of gratitude and appreciation I feel every day,” she said. “I find I have this for everyone and everything, especially the rather simple things.

I am grateful to have tea in the morning, grateful to have a wonderful neighborhood that I enjoy getting to spend more time in, grateful for the garden and the life that continues in spite of everything.” Thank you to all of our teachers.