Remote classes are continuing this summer, including classes for educators who are working hard through their summer break to try to get a better handle on virtual teaching.
“Everybody is trying so hard to be prepared going into the fall, and to give students the best education possible, whether it’s remote, whether it’s in the classroom, or whether it’s both,” said Kim Kaplan, a practicum coordinator at Lasell University.
She is leading weeklong courses this summer in “Untangling the Web: Best Practices for Online Teaching.”
“It’s about everybody having a place where teachers can go and can become more familiar and more confident with online teaching, understand the research behind it, and make themselves more prepared for the fall,” Kaplan said.
“Any way that I can improve myself teaching, I’m all for it,” said Julie Kelly, a kindergarten teacher at Cabot Elementary School in Newton.
She's entering her 20th year teaching, and noted that, “Kindergarten is hands-on, it’s joyful, it’s active, it’s playing. And all the sudden we were at home and we were in front of computer screens, and it wasn’t the same.”
Kelly said that, through this course, she feels like she’s learned ways to better engage her students online, despite the inherent barriers of remote learning.
“It’s actually been a really teachable moment for me,” said Kelly. “Now I know what it feels like when someone’s asking you to do something and I don’t know how to do it and I’ve got to work really hard on it. It’s what I ask kids to do all the time, and now I know what that feels like first-hand.”
These teachers say whatever school looks like in the fall, this course in virtual teaching will help them navigate the new normal.
