Daliya Wallenstein
After remotely teaching the first few weeks of high school, AJA teachers say that remote learning feels remote not only in the physically distant sense. Many say class now lacks the same sense of connection and community felt in physical classrooms. In an anonymous survey, one teacher said, “There is no good substitute for meeting with the students inside the building.” Another teacher went so far as to say, “The distant encounter with the students lacks the joy of learning.”
Despite immensely missing the personal connection with students, most teachers approve of the decision to begin the year remotely. In an anonymous poll, 73.3% of teachers stated that they are “in favor of the switch to remote learning” to begin the school year. In the eyes of most teachers, remote learning is a sacrifice that must be made for the safety and well-being of students and teachers. “I do think the decision is very justified, even if it is less than ideal,” said one teacher. Several teachers described themselves or family members as in the higher risk category, and they explained that teaching remotely allows them to teach without fear’s distractions. The overall view, as one teacher put it, is that “safety of faculty and students are paramount.”
However, when asked if this system should continue “until COVID-19 no longer poses any health concerns,” the faculty’s stance was evenly divided, with 46.7% in favor and 53.3% opposed. While most teachers support the decision to teach remotely for a few months, around half of the teachers do not view this as an ideal long-term plan. Teachers view the risks in opposing ways — either as something to confront or as something to wait out.
There are certain elements of learning in person that remote learning simply cannot reconstruct. To an extent, remote learning places a virtual, yet unbreachable, barrier between students and teachers. Energy and connection gets lost somewhere in transmission between the two computers. Several teachers noted AJA’s uniquely small size can be utilized to create a safe, in-person learning environment. One teacher explains, “Learning in person, and more importantly, learning with peers, is imperative for the social emotional development and well being of teenagers.” Around half of teachers believe that at some point restoring these elements is worth taking certain risks.
Not only does remote learning hamper social well-being, but for many students it compromises their ability to learn. As a teacher explained, “While there are great advantages to remote learning… this is also not how every student learns best. It is also not how every teacher teaches best.” Continuing to teach through remote learning for an extended period of time could potentially impede students academic growth. For many teachers, steps must be taken and changes must be made to teach in person safely. “We have to learn to live with it,” said one teacher.
The other half of the teachers believe that the cost of returning to school outweighs the benefits. Many teachers believe that in-person teaching puts students and teachers in unnecessary danger. “Until there is a cure/vaccine, we should get used to this,” stated a teacher.
“In the eyes of most teachers, remote learning is a sacrifice that must be made for safety and well-being.”
For now, teachers are required to go to the school building at least three days a week to teach. Mrs. Brand describes the school building without students as “missing its beating heart.” Despite missing her students, Mrs. Brand sees too much risk in bringing them back to school too soon. She explains how the stress of school compromises the immune system, making learning in close quarters even more dangerous: “You’re not sleeping, you’re physically active, you’re running around all of the time, you’re juggling all of your classes — that means your immune system to encounter the virus if it does, and being in a physical school means you’re much more likely to encounter the virus. It’s a bad combination.”
In addition to remote learning being protective, many teachers believe that it also provides new teaching opportunities. Hebrew teacher Morah Ariella Livnat says that when teaching remotely “[she] can personalize so much more for each and every student.” When students need extra assistance or enrichment, over Zoom she can easily give them accommodating guidance or work without disrupting the entire class. In addition, she said the chat feature on zoom allows her and students to communicate without disrupting the entire class. Another teacher said, to their own shock, “There have been many things that I needed to adapt to remote learning that ended up working better remotely than they did in person. That was a huge surprise to me.”
Furthermore, after concluding last year through remote learning, some teachers have seen that students respond well to the challenge of remote learning. One teacher listed that remote learning requires “increased student ownership, increased opportunities for developing and practicing life skills, executive functioning skills and student skills.” Another teacher said, “I like that [it] gives students more of an opportunity to stretch themselves, learn new skills, and be more self-reliant.”
Similarly to viewing remote learning’s challenges as areas for students to grow, most teachers believe that the limitations remote learning brings serve as opportunities for them to grow as teachers. “Every limitation or challenge is a chance to think creatively and flexibly… It is all in how we view the path before us — we have these same opportunities with every challenge in life,” said one teacher. Instead of approaching new constraints with hopelessness, teachers thought outside the box and came up with creative lesson plans.
Depending on technology for instruction and exchanging assignments could have greatly inhibited clarity in the communication between teachers and students. Yet instead of accepting chaotic or disorganized interactions with students, teachers looked into how to maintain, or even improve, their exchanges with students. Many teachers learned new technological programs, such as Padlet, or took the time to learn how to better utilize old platforms, such as Google Classroom, more effectively. One teacher reflects now that teaching remotely “forced [them] to distill [their] message in a clearer way.” Without this shift to a technology-based system of teaching, many teachers would not have discovered these potential improvements in communicating with students outside of the classroom. As one teacher noted with a fitting proverb, “Necessity is the mother of invention.” Another teacher reflects, “I don’t think we have or would fully maximize those opportunities as a faculty, student body, or school without this ‘gentle nudge’ that the pandemic has created.”
While many teachers have this positive approach to the difficulties of remote learning, many teachers also listed very real, problematic struggles of learning virtually. For example, teachers have more difficulty in facilitating lab experiments, group work, discussions, and test taking over zoom.
Despite all of the difficulties of remote learning, over two-thirds of teachers remain strong in the belief that for now, remote learning is the best response to COVID-19. Mrs. Brand confidently says, “I would rather fight through [challenges] and learn how to bond with my kids through a computer screen than have any of them get sick.”
School largely defines students’ and teachers’ lives. School demands hours of the day for classes, class preparation, grading, and homework. Yet school also brings socialization, connection, and community. These elements of school impact students and teachers as much, if not more, than the learning itself. Teaching and learning through remote learning sacrifices these aspects in order to keep everyone safe. As upsetting as it is for teachers to physically and socially keep their distance from students, they happily do so for their students’ protection. As Morah Livnat explains, “Better safe than sorry.”
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