What It’s Really Like to Teach High School In Person and Online at the Same Time
What it's really like teaching high school in person and online at the same time
I have a classroom with 37 high school students staring at me. My breath quickens, making my mask wet and hot. My current lesson is over and from the corner of my eye I can see my unread email count increasing. Emails from my online students, most likely about an activity that isn't working or an assignment they can't access.
It's no big deal for classes to go wrong. It happens all the time, even for experienced teachers. I'm good on my feet and usually my students have no idea that I work part-time.
However, this year is different.
I get paid a little extra to teach the online world history course, which consists of about 80 students from eight different high schools in our sprawling district, including urban, suburban, and rural areas. Each of them has their own reasons for choosing online courses over face-to-face classes. In addition, I teach World History and US History to 150 in-person students. I pride myself on my engaging classes and my ability to make history relevant to students...but my style is difficult to apply to my online students. I don't know them as well as my personal students. It's not the same no matter how hard I try.
Some students get involved. Some not.
During the day while teaching in person, I receive more than 50 emails from my online students. These emails come from 20 to 30 very dedicated and active students. Where are the other 50 to 60 students? I ask myself this question. All. Day. Long.
The emails that active students receive are usually related to their misunderstanding of an assignment or a technical error. Although I'm trained in both online teaching and blended learning, I can't always solve all problems. Luckily for me, the active students let me know quickly. I then strive to fix things so they can keep a handle on their work. All while keeping my personal students engaged and engaged.
I often look at the list of students who have not volunteered at all. At the same time, I notice that the number of students who have engaged with our online learning management system is decreasing week by week. When we see these negative patterns, we have been instructed to contact their parents. But that takes time, and they rarely respond.
Preparation time is now technique time.
Yesterday I came to school early because our copier broke down again the day before. I set up my classes for the day. While I have prep periods, I know I will spend this time troubleshooting my online classes and striving to find fun, interesting, engaging, and educational activities to ensure these students have a quality receive education. All of this adds to concern for students not logging in and completing assignments while trying to contact their parents to ask for help and nudge their students.
The bell rings and we begin face-to-face classes. A new element of my professional teaching to students is a constant reminder to put the masks back on. They don't usually complain if they stick to it. In the meantime, I'm switching between masks to find the most breathable one. I find it stifling trying to speak loud enough for students to hear and understand. (Note: I have found that masks made from swimsuit material are the most breathable!)
After the students have participated in our daily activities (with no group work due to social distancing), I pause to have a quick look at my email. I wouldn't normally do this, but I can't risk emails from my online students going unanswered for too long. As soon as I have corrected, optimized and/or better explained the individual tasks and activities, the online lessons may run smoothly. Or not? During the day, the tasks from the online courses roll in. Some of these are current tasks and some were due a month ago. I try to grade quickly and give feedback to students, but it's not always easy.
Most of the time I feel like I'm literally building the plane as I fly.
How do you deal with online and face-to-face classes at the same time? Join our WeAreTeachers HELPLINE group.
Also, that's not what we meant by hybrid learning.
