Distance Learning Worksbook

 Kharen Minasian and Debra Kidder's short text, the Distance Learning Workbook: Hands on Approach to Virtual Teaching, is an accessible and easy to read. It's 34 chapters are mostly two pages each. They are to the point and full of first person experiences. It starts with how to approach day one and goes on from there. Importantly, the authors would suggest that any day could be day one of virtual instruction. While consistency is important, improvement is worth the change.

The authors are proposing work for fully remote classes, not concurrent ones. Since my district and many around me are running concurrent models, I read it through that lens. They suggest that students not spend all day in front of the computer, a factor many synchronous programs are requiring. In my district where we are allowed to let students go for independent work after the midpoint of the class, students generally remain tuned in for support with independent assignments. Some of the ideas would work if everyone, regardless of whether they were in a brick and mortar or virtual setting were sitting in front of their device and working. Some of them are just impractical for concurrent programming and need adjusting.

The first thing that the authors assert is that SEL and relationship building take prominence, especially in the beginning of the year. This could become a question of the day- What is your favorite pizza topping?- a Jamboard four corners what you think about x, or write three words that describe how you are feeling in the chat box. The authors assert the importance of saying every child's name every day before lunch, or every period. I have used a roster to make sure I address everyone, but popsicle sticks, random name selectors and moving through the list of names of participants can all be effective for getting to everyone.

The authors argue that virtual instruction truly should be student centered, focused around peer to teacher relationships and real world connections to content. Activities like breakout room discussions, choice boards and virtual fieldtrips allow for students to work collaboratively with choice. Feedback, they argue, should be specific, especially in a space where so much nonverbal contact is absent. Writing feedback should be focused on how to improve- everyone can and should.

I really liked the questions they pose for students to provide feedback to teachers.

• Can you easily find what you need in the digital classroom?
• Have you had any technical issues and do you know how to report them?
• Are my lessons, assignments, and due dates clear to you?
• Do you feel comfortable asking questions?
• Do you feel like you're being heard in this class?
• How would you improve the distance learning experience? (p. 64)

I would like to make the questions a little more open ended, like what makes it easy to ask or what makes it hard to ask questions? While these sorts of questions should not be a daily ask, regularly checking in with student perceptions helps to make the experience more valuable to the students.