Valley View Teacher Talks Online Learning Amid Coronavirus Crisis

BOLINGBROOK, IL — As we enter the second month of coronavirus school closures, teachers across the country are having to adjust to leading online lessons for students at home. Some are using the popular video game 'Minecraft' as an online classroom, others are teaching math in virtual reality. Here in the Valley View School District, Humphrey Middle School teacher Stephanie Sewasciuk spoke with Patch about her own experiences leading her sixth grade classroom from home.

Here is the conversation she had with Patch, edited for clarity and brevity:

Patch: Ms. Sewasciuk, with everything going on, what kind of changes have you had to make to your lesson planning?

Sewasciuk: It's been so different to connect with students online. Luckily we have Google Classroom that we've been using all year. Teachers make it a point to get on there every morning to connect with students, and that's where we kind of post the assignments for the day. We've been doing that, as well as Zoom chats with students, so it's really nice to see them face-to-face. It's hard because we obviously want to be in the classroom, but we're doing the best we can under the circumstances. I think just being there via email for students... it just lets them know I still care about them.

P: Is it more or less a regular day schedule, where the kids get online at 7 or 8 a.m. and finish at 2 or 3 p.m., or is it more of a free-form, 'here's the assignment, we'll meet up at this time' type of thing?

S: It's kind of more like [free-form] in middle school. I'm required to take attendance by noon every day and [students] check in. I'm an English Language Arts teacher, so what we do is we post the assignments for them Monday morning by 9 a.m.; all the assignments for the week, just so they can work at their own pace to get everything done. Then throughout the week we're giving feedback to them, we're having online discussions, just to keep them informed and make sure they're getting the learning they need.

P: How do you keep them accountable with the assignments they're doing?

S: So I can speak for myself being the ELA teacher that I am. We have a platform called 'Actively Learn,' and it is where students read articles and there are questions embedded in there that they have to answer. There's discussion questions, there's writing prompts; the good thing is we are able to see in real time what they're doing. For them to go on in the article, they have to stop and answer questions, and then I can see what they're answering and give them feedback immediately. If they're struggling with something, I'm able to help fix that problem and kind of guide them in the right direction.

So Actively Learn is a great resource that we've started using. 8th grade piloted it all year, so they're very familiar with it. 6th and 7th grade, we're learning as we go. But we've had meetings, we've had tutorials, kids have been given videos and step-by-step instructions to kind of get them into it, and so far so good. We're day three in it, and kids are doing it. That's the best we can hope for as of now.

P: Do you think, given what you've heard from within the district, that there's a chance kids might be back in school this year, or do you expect that home-learning is going to be the new normal for now?

S: Oh, I have no idea. You'd have to ask district admin that. I'd love to be back in the classroom and see my students, but I guess only time will tell with everything that's going on right now.

P: So the coronavirus crisis is really kind of alerting people to the power of digital meetings, online meetings, all that. Do you think that come next school year, if things are back to normal, you'll be making more use of online learning techniques than you did prior to the crisis?

S: Maybe, possibly. I know Google Classroom we use all the time in school, we're just using it a little bit more now. We do connect via email with kids throughout the year. I don't know about Zoom meetings, just because we will have that face-to-face contact with the kids daily, but right now it's a great resource when we can't see them, to still actually see their faces when they're in their own homes.

P: What would you say is the most challenging aspect of working with a digital classroom like this?

S: I would probably say just not seeing the kids every day. I'm used to seeing my 6th graders every single day for 82 minutes, and I mean [not seeing them] is hard. We have to learn how to make it work the best we can. We're all lifelong learners here, so we have to reflect and make changes and do the best we can to help our students and let them know we still care about them and make sure they're still learning.

P: On the other side of that, what would you say is the most uplifting thing you've seen, either from students or fellow teachers, during this home learning phase?

S: Just, everyone's there for each other. We have [team] meetings multiple times a week and department meetings and our administration has been wonderful. I mean, they've given out their cell phone numbers to teachers; any time of day if we have questions, we can call them. They're always available.

We have our student services staff - the deans and the counselors - that if we have any problems connecting with kids, we can get a hold of them... they're just doing everything possible to make sure we're able to connect with these students... So we're all there for each other and trying to help everyone succeed.

P: Is there any specific book or work that your students are working on in your course?

S: They have to what's called 'power read,' where they choose a self-selected book, and they're encouraged to read that on their own. Then we're using the Actively Learn platform, and we're using, it's called 'Achieve 3000,' and it's the same thing we've used all year, where there's different articles embedded, and they have to answer questions... and do reading and writing together with it.

P: Any stand-out work on any self-selected books that your students have given you?

S: No, it's more of just discussion questions that they're asking. Like if they read a really good book, they put it in Google Classroom and they say, 'hey, here's a good thing,' and they give a little book talk to students about it. This is something that's great because it hasn't been prompted by me. I just expect that they read... They're taking it upon themselves to have these discussions. Sometimes when I'm not even around they're recommending books to each other, which is really great.

P: Is there any testing involved still or has that been put by the wayside?

S: No, we're not doing [testing] any more. The [standard] assessment that is given every spring; we don't have to do it this year, and post-assessments, as of now, are all on hold. Everything's just kind of wait-and-see if we'll be back in school or not.

P: I think that's just about everything. Thank you very much for your time tonight.

S: Perfect. Thank you so much, take care.

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