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Challenges I Faced Teaching Online
Parents could sometimes be too afraid to let their child struggle to answer and tell them the answer within three seconds of the question being posed. This trained the child to depend on the parent to the extent that they would not think for themselves and instead wait and look to the parent for the answer.
Some parents would not consider the learning environment of the child and let them take the class in a car, a house they were having a party in, walking down a street and in restaurants. Although the child in the car and restaurant were given a quiet space, it was still difficult for them to concentrate outside of their usual study area.
Parents would leave the child for the whole class without checking in
Children would change to another app on an iPad and never come back
They would play with toys in their room and ignore the teacher
Their siblings would come and distract them
I had one girl nearly always falling asleep in the online class as parents had not made sure she was well rested before class.
The Importance of Building Parent Partnerships
After approaching the parents of the children struggling to learn due to the environment or parental interference in the learning process, we found the parents to be quite responsive. Sometimes there was a disconnect between the two parents for various reasons, and after discussing best online learning practices, both parents understood how best to help their child be more engaged and focus on the class.
Through building these relationships, we also could learn more about the child situation at home and encourage parents to try to give them a nap an hour or so before class to ensure the child gets the most out of the class they are paying for.
Unfortunately, in some cases, parents still felt the need to provide answers to their baby as they thought it reflected poorly on them if their child took longer to think of an answer than other children. One child in particular where we had talked to their parents on numerous occasions about how children need time to think and that their actions were interfering in the learning process. This parent still chose to ignore our advice and valued keeping face over the child actually learning.
In this situation, I felt that the child was losing all her confidence and never tried to answer her own for fear that her father would correct her. She had previously been doing classes in the centre with me, and although she slowly got to her answers, she would always have the right answer. This was a sad experience. Seeing her treated like this by her parents made me think that online classes were harming her learning.
Parental Connections to Improve Student Learning
In-class
The teacher could send an assignment home requiring the children to make a shot video talking about one wild animal and one pet. This will connect parents with the topic they are learning in class and help parents develop their schema by introducing some of their knowledge on the topic. The parents will have the advantage of knowing which animals they like, so they can help to engage the child by keeping it focused on their interests. Then in the video making stage, the parent and child can work together practising what they will say before recording.
Online
The ELL students in class showed they were struggling more than the other students. Maybe providing these two students with a preview of a very similar word problem with one number the same and one number different could help them be prepared for class. Having practised and seen a video of a teacher doing the problem would give them a basic understanding of the problem and allow them to build upon this schema in class with everyone else. If they struggle too much compared to the other students, they will not participate in social learning in small groups and other group activities.
Doing a preclass preview with the parents involved could also be an option that helps to improve the struggling students' abilities and make them more engaged during the actual class.
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