>> I think what's maybe the most successful
in my remote teaching and student remote learning
is actually the students' ability to adapt.
I'm Claire Hamel, and this is my teacher story.
Hi. I'm Claire Hamel, and I'm a reading interventions teacher.
I teach grades kindergarten through 7 in small groups
at St. Joseph's School in Summit, Illinois.
In March of 2020, our school had to switch over
to distance learning, which was very unexpected,
and our school wasn't quite ready
with e-learning types of systems set up as some other ones might.
We also had a school
with not too much technology available to us,
or not as many resources. So we got very creative.
We started by using our parent contact platform
to send assignments to students,
and provided things like papers that they could print out.
Sometimes we would video call with the students,
but there was no set standard,
and it was something that we had never experienced before.
Someone like me is also an intervention teacher,
so I don't have a whole class of my own,
I would pull small groups from classes.
So my role was even more confusing
because I didn't know when or what times
that I should be meeting with students
and what kinds of assignments I should be doing,
since it was very different from what I normally did.
So it all started for me with making a video each day
and reading out loud,
reading one of the storybooks I had at my home,
and doing a read aloud that students could watch at any time
while they were home.
So it evolved from that to actually using the Learning A
to Z products, and creating assignments
that students could do with Kids A to Z, the digital platform.
That also proved to be a little bit difficult,
because students didn't all have technology at home.
So while I had some students being able to meet with me
and do assignments on Kids A to Z, many I had not heard from.
So luckily, as things moved on, they improved,
and more kids were able to use things
in this current school year, the 2020 to '21 school year,
because we were more prepared
to have those kinds of options available.
Actually, one of the things that ended up working
was just to drop off --
well, print out and drop off items at the school.
So using the Reading A to Z programs and leveled readers --
I mostly used the leveled readers with my groups,
and sometimes the foundational skillsets,
so like the phonics readers and things.
The thing I like most about that
is that they have printable consumables
that I can provide for the students,
so I used those already before the pandemic.
But then because of that, I knew that I could have things
that I could leave for the students
to pick up after a certain amount of days,
or whatever it was, to make sure there were no germs.
Then students could pick them up and have the physical copy
so that if they were able to meet with me --
that was great.
But if not, I could still write down everything
that they needed to do,
and they still had book in hand at that point.
So it still is not ideal,
but then we were able to keep moving forward.
For fun, as much fun as we can have with my students
during this school year, we've had Fun Fridays.
So some of my groups -- not all of them,
but the upper grade ones that I work with --
we've been playing Boggle,
so we used to play the board game in class,
but it's great that it's a kind of game
that all I need to do is put some letters on the screen,
and then have the kids start making words.
And it also is some literacy practice, too,
so they really enjoy it.
And they like competing against the teacher as well.
We've just been doing some Fun Friday.
Also, I like to incorporate videos in the lessons,
or songs in the lessons every once in a while.
Again, this is something I did before the pandemic,
but I love that it's still really easy to do
while I'm distance teaching
and they have distance learning, because it's all digital,
so they really enjoy that part, too.
I think there certainly are social emotional issues
to address.
With every student I've worked with,
even before the pandemic happened,
it's something that I think schools
really should incorporate more of, anyway.
So I think this is a good kind of a silver lining
that's come from the pandemic hopefully,
that more schools and teachers are going to be incorporating
social emotional learning in their classrooms regularly.
So luckily, at our school,
we do have counseling services available.
I know there have been students that have had
some very rough home situations
caused by Covid-19 or otherwise, or both,
and that has been available for them.
Additionally, when I meet with the students,
I do allow time for them to open up
and discuss anything that's going on.
Also, sometimes we have to scrap a lesson for the day
and just talk.
Other times we might change what we're doing,
and I might find a text that's a little bit more appropriate,
or that might help them through whatever problems
that they're dealing with.
In some students, I have seen a Covid gap,
and in others I have not.
My situation is a little bit different than what one
would typically think about with remote teaching.
I've been teaching remotely myself,
but some of my students have been back in the classroom,
and others have been at home.
So the ones that are back in the classroom, I've seen,
have done a little bit better, but not necessarily.
Also, before, there was --
I can think of at least one student
who we didn't see from March until September,
so certainly there's a gap there.
And there were many students across the nation
I know also fall under that category
that just had no technology and no ability to meet,
up until they actually physically came back to school.
So I think that's a very real issue.
But what we did, luckily when that student came back,
was to continue services with him and individualize
and personalize lessons as much as possible,
using differentiation,
as I normally do anyway with my position,
but also seeing further help
because this student was also struggling beforehand.
So we as teachers right now are really balancing,
is it because of Covid-19 that this student is struggling,
or is it because of the change in routine?
Or is it because they actually had a learning issue?
So we certainly have been looking a lot closer into cases
that have come up like that,
with regard to any learning gaps they might have.
I think what's maybe the most successful in my remote teaching
and the student's remote learning
is actually the student's ability to adapt
to whatever was necessary.
The students have gone from getting just video lessons
from me and doing them whenever they wanted,
to finally being able to meet with me
in a small group via video call,
but still meeting with me, and having printable things.
Actually, when things got really bad and numbers
went very high in the community,
I was unable to go to the building,
and a lot of the classes were also remote,
so the students again had to adapt to being totally digital,
which a lot of times we were able to make our own materials.
The students would have just their pen and paper at home,
scissors and cut-out flashcards if they didn't have notecards,
and things like that,
and they would really take it upon themselves
to do whatever they had to, to be able to participate,
and really looked forward to school.
So I think the success has to come from the students
and their parents helping them
with everything that they needed to do to be able to sign on,
and to be able to learn with the class.
So I'm just happy that I had a bunch of families
and students that were able to, and happy to, participate.
The Learning A to Z products
that I have been using throughout the year,
and the past several years, have mainly been Reading A
to Z and Kids A to Z. Mostly I've been using
Reading A to Z, because some of my students
have not been able to use the technology at home,
or there's not an easy way for me
to have the students complete assignments
and be accountable,
because if their parents aren't home, for example,
having them reminding them when or how to sign on --
that can be a little bit tricky. So the majority of the work
that I've been doing has been a video call with my students,
and then using Reading A to Z and all the tools on it
to show the students the texts, as well as annotating the texts,
and then using the tools like the graphic organizers
and writing those in,
and having students just use their pen and paper
at home to follow along.
That's been a lot easier, I think.
And I've seen a lot more student success
with the pen and paper, or pencil and paper,
and then actually physically writing things out.
So I think that's been helpful,
to be able to have the digital component,
because the kids do like earning the stars
and making their avatars.
But they also, when I'm teaching,
I like to be able to have things that they can follow along with
and actually write down themselves.
I think a breakthrough that I had with the Learning
A to Z products that I use
is actually just to use the phonics and decodable texts
before teaching a leveled reader,
because what I've seen with my students --
and this, again is for intervention,
so I might not do it
exactly the same way in a General Ed classroom,
but for students who really need explicit phonics instruction
like mine do, this has worked immensely.
So I've used the decodable readers
and focused on a specific phonics component.
Then we read a leveled reader, and the students are not
only practicing their comprehension skills,
but now they can apply that phonics skill we just worked on,
and we go and find words that find that phonics idea
that we've been working on.
And we've been doing that and kind of switching off.
So I think that's been a really helpful part of instruction,
and it's helped the kids a lot.
I like Reading A to Z especially for distance learning,
because what I've needed as a teacher in this time
is to be able to find a text for my students
that they don't need to print out,
because many that have had to be at home don't have a printer,
or if they're back at school,
their teachers might not be able to print it out for me,
or I might not be able to get in the building
because of other reasons.
So having just a purely digital tool
that I can show them but also mark up --
that has been the most helpful thing to me,
because I can open the projectable version of a book,
for example,
and annotate it and show the students what I'm doing.
It's better if I have the printable version
and they're following along and doing the same with me,
but this still allows, even if they don't have that,
it allows them to see my thinking and my process.
So that's been very helpful -- highlighting things,
or also adding text boxes or questions,
or writing things down --
that's been extremely helpful for the instruction.
If I could say anything to my students and their parents now,
it would be thank you.
Thank you for being so flexible and understanding,
knowing that us teachers are adapting every day
and doing things as best we can
in a very much ever-evolving situation.
And thank you for knowing that we also still have
your students' best interests at heart,
and that we are going to get through this.
And thank you for all your support at this time.