With statewide K-12 school closures extended to at least April 20 by the Idaho State Board of Education to slow the spread of the new coronavirus, Moscow teachers say they have been hard at work developing lessons and curriculum to provide instruction at a distance.
The board’s announcement came Monday, extending the closure of Moscow schools, which would have ended April 6.
Just returned from spring break, Moscow teachers said they spent Monday and Tuesday of this week developing instructional material for their students. Moscow High School English teacher Rachel Thompson-Lyon, who has been teaching for 26 years, said she’s been doing her best to adapt to the shift.
She said it’s not necessarily ideal to have students staring at screens all day, so she is working to find a way to make this time constructive. An advocate for old-fashioned paper and pencil, she said she’s now allowing students to turn in homework as a Google document and providing comments online. In the near future, she said she hopes to have developed lesson plans that are specially tailored for online instruction rather than just transplanting a lesson designed to be delivered in person.
“I’m actually playing around with the idea of the kids doing something for their final project like either as a podcast or a video, because that would use the online platform rather than writing another paper,” Thompson-Lyon said. Then that would be something that they could watch or listen to each other’s — I’m trying to provide them with an audience that’s more than just me and shooting a paper to me.”
Thompson-Lyon and her colleagues in the district agree that finding ways to keep students engaged at a distance will be a key challenge in the coming weeks.
Rachel Marone, a Lena Whitmore Elementary School special education paraprofessional who performs a wide range of support roles for her students, said it will be particularly difficult for her students to stay engaged through distance learning.
She said many of her students are not as independent as those receiving more generalized instruction, which creates additional challenges in providing the same quality of instruction and opportunity for growth as their peers may be getting during the closure.
Because there won’t be a teacher in the room to help them work through material, she said she’s left trying to predict any challenges they may have so she can address them ahead of time.
“I’m trying to think ahead to what roadblocks are these students going to have, when they’re at home doing the work I gave them and what materials do they need so they’re not like, ‘What am I supposed to be doing here?’ ” Marone said. “None of it’s new information. Nobody right now is sending out brand new content, we’re trying to just sharpen skills that have already been taught.”
Marone said she thinks it is likely teachers will have to begin delivering new learning to their students through remote instruction after April 6.
Access to technology and the internet is a consistent concern throughout the district, Marone said, but it is of particular concern with students who require specialized instruction.
Moscow School District special education teacher Marianne Sletteland said this is why she and many other teachers have offered packets of material for students to work through that can be picked up by a parent or delivered to their homes. She said she’s also providing online instruction as much as possible and experimenting with teleconferencing platforms to deliver live remote instruction.
“I’m attentive, I call them a little bit more than every day and the parents don’t seem annoyed by that at all — I don’t mean that sarcastically, I think they appreciate that,” Sletteland said. “Communication is big anywhere and it’s an especially big part of our roles and our jobs and responsibilities and it’s even more important now — especially with all of the changes and how fast they’re coming.”
While they have pledged to do their utmost to shore up education during these closures, most teachers agree: they miss their students. Thompson-Lyon said she hopes Moscow students know just how deeply their teachers care about them.
“I’m missing jokes that are cracked in class, and I’m missing watching their faces light up when they get an idea; I’m missing the problem solving,” Thompson-Lyon said. “One of my favorite parts of teaching is when I see a kid or a group of kids and they’re not getting something — I like figuring out another way to explain it to them and I’m kind of missing that part too.”
Scott Jackson can be reached at (208) 883-4636, or by email to sjackson@dnews.com.
