Many students feel like they’ve been on a perpetual summer, knowing that no matter what, school in the Fall will be different, and also that teachers will grant lenience now more than ever before. Last Friday, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced that counties on the state’s coronavirus watch list cannot reopen in-person instruction without 14 days off of the list; this list includes Alameda, Santa Clara, San Francisco & Los Angeles Counties. The Superintendent of the Palo Alto Unified School District, Donald B. Austin, stated in his Announcement of Distance Learning that:
Under Board Policy 2210, and as a school district within a county currently on the "watch list", PAUSD will open on August 17 in distance learning for the elementary, middle, and high school levels
Donald B. Austin, Ed.D. Superintendent of PAUSD
Whether or not students do return to school, they can expect things to be very different. According to California's industry re-opening guidelines as of July 17th, school days would begin with temperature readings & symptom checks, teachers will be regularly tested, mixing and mingling will be minimized, personal space maximized, and neither students nor teachers may sing indoors any longer. Risk will be minimized at all costs, so even if students are in school one day, they may have to shift back to shelter-in-place at a moment's notice; schools are preparing for such situations.
As schools figure out their strategies for re-opening safely and modify lessons for remote learning adaptations, we hope that students and teachers may return to their yearly curriculums both safely and effectively. 7EDU Impact Academy has long believed that the future of education will be rely on technological tools that have, in many cases, improved both the teaching & learning experience. From our fully online academic support & private counseling services to our weekly virtual live classes to our blog posts, 7EDU has consistently emphasized the strengths and advantages of online learning.
We've seen students who struggle with in-person learning but perform amazingly online, other students with the exact opposite strengths & weaknesses, and some rare students with little to no difficulty adapting. Our educators make their best efforts to maximize the potential of each individual student, using technology to enhance the learning experience and teaching our students to manage their online learning environments well. Many a headache can be saved thanks to the neat things we've learned over the years, so many headaches we aim to quell!
Meanwhile, we leave you with three of our most practical pieces of advice regarding Online Learning Management:
1. Get comfortable in your virtual seat. In other words, learn all the ins & outs of your (or your child's) school's Learning Management System & prepare yourself to use the tools at hand. If you can contact your peers and instructors, download and submit files, and easily navigate to see one's course calendar, grade, and modules - then you'll be fine. If not.... prepare before class starts!
2. Practice good online learning management yourself. Seriously - children need a good model for learning in general, and to see you reading, enjoying, and interacting with your distance learning material (i.e. Learning how to Manage Online Learning) can leave a positive impression and framework for virtual learning. Furthermore, if you don't handle it well but still subject your children to take classes online - in their eyes, you're being a hypocrite.
3. Gradually implement or increase the use of applications, extensions, and other tools to personalize the experience. The more positive exposure children have to a tool or a technique, the more confidence and interest they'll have in using it themselves. Throwing in a quick synonym check-up, dictionary definition, or translation of a word by a simple double click can be almost magical to a child; if teased right, they'll aim to one-up you eventually, and if you've taught them right, indeed, they will.
In case you missed out last Saturday or just want to see it again, we've uploaded the recording of Jun's Presentation on Remote Learning for K-8 Families! You can watch this & our other recordings on our Youtube channel. Let us know what else we can help you with :)