Day One & Two - 5th Grade Distance Learning

Day One & Two

Distance Learning - Public Schools

Distance learning last year was a waking nightmare for me. With too many kids in classes without access to the internet or computers, many kids didn’t attend class at all near the end of last year. My daughter was in class but having an anxiety attack on a daily basis. Her teacher struggled to adapt her lesson plans to function in a way that worked for her classroom. Often times we would be sent power points the children were expected to fill in and the text for the lesson was barely legible in a poorly compressed and deformed JPG next to an off center text box that had no way to indicate it’s where you were supposed to place your answer.

This year, however, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that her teacher was more prepared, patient and understanding. She asked what our concerns were, where we would like to see areas of growth, and showed real interest in Hailey’s learning this year being successful. 5th grade was the BEST school-aged year for me. I felt like I was on top of the world. I was passionate about learning, I was passionate about my community and school and I had one of the greatest teachers I could have possibly imagined, Mr. Haws at Hanson Elementary School. This year, I’m beyond thrilled that my daughter seemingly has an incredible teacher who is as invested in her learning as much as we are.

I know a lot of other parents are out there and struggling so I figured I would share my experience here and encourage everyone else to comment their experiences as well this year when it comes to distance learning. Hailey will be sharing her impressions as well.

Hailey’s Impressions

First Impressions with her Teacher

I liked the teacher this year a lot. She was very understanding and sweet. While most teachers don’t let kids use the bathroom, she lets us and she wants us to feel comfortable at school. She made learning a lot easier by explaining things to us instead of just expecting us to figure it out. She would show us visually what we’re supposed to do and she would do the project with us. I personally thought that my teacher on the first day of school was great. I thought it was great that she gave us breaks in between subjects as well. If I was frustrated with the lesson, I could take some time to calm down. It gave me time to prepare for the next lesson without diving into it as well which helped me get in the right head space.

Sebastians Impressions

Sebastian: I actually like, it, but it’s definitely different. Most of the time I’m just pinning Hailey in the zoom call and I know she’s pinning me.

Bebo: So it was pretty fortunate that the two of you got to be in a break out group huh?
Sebastian: Two years in a row!

Sebastian is Hailey’s friend. He was in the room while we were writing this. This was his contribution. haha.

Bebo’s Impressions

So day one, my coparent comes in my room, brings me Hailey’s computer and tells me it’s not charging. Turns out, it has a weird super old charger and we can’t find a replacement version anywhere that would get here in time for her to have a computer for school on Day 2. She can always use my laptop, but it’s not the same as having her own device. Eventually, we cave and decide to get her a new computer. She desperately wanted something that she could use steam on, as well as play Roblox on but on the other hand, I wanted something that she could either draw with in photoshop as I want to teach her more about how to use it, or, something she could animate on, like Flip-a-clip. This left us two options: a touch screen PC and an apple iPad Pro. We decided her having her own steam would be cooler so me, her dad and I could all play video games online together. Granted, our interests rarely cross over when it comes to video games, but I’m holding out hope that some day we’ll find one that we can all enjoy together.

Anyway, enough day dreaming, we got her a computer, it was miserably expensive but hey, Credit Cards.

Here are just a few of the things that I noticed that improved over last years distance learning disaster.

The Kids & Teachers are more prepared

This year Hailey’s teacher seems far more prepared to teach the kids than her teacher did last year. It doesn’t feel like a frantic scramble to figure out how to teach at a distance, instead the teacher is using zoom to have in-class discussions with all of the students. Thankfully, because kids in my daughters generation have grown up with technology in hand, most of them know how to use a computer and can easily mute and unmute themselves. So far we’ve had several hilarious incidents where a student forgot they were on camera and did full on dance in front the camera, of course, these were my daughters close friends.

Smaller Class Sizes

So far, I’m far more optimistic about this year than I was last year. Her class is half the size at just 14 students. I’m relieved to see that there are a few kids she was friends with last year who are also in her class and also relieved to see that a few of them aren’t in her class. My little chatter box child mostly goes to school for the purpose of socialization. Needless to say she wasn’t particularly excited about distance learning this year. With that said, we’ve kept her safely socializing with a limited number of her peers and so far, I think we’ve managed to keep her mostly happy despite the fact that she’s not constantly living out her extrovert wildest dreams.

We’re learning together

Over the summer we got her in weekly therapy and the communication between the two of us has improved dramatically. While collectively, we are terrible at things like going to bed on time or remembering to eat, together, we have some pretty powerful creative energy. Over the summer while working for Guildhall Studios, she helped give me a lot of design direction especially when it came to color palettes and layout. It was incredible to see how much graphic design know-how my 10-year-old had absorbed simply by existing in a world that’s so carefully crafted to appeal to her.

On Day 2 of school her teacher screen shared a schedule and showed that they have an independent study time. I love this because, thanks to working from home, I can be more involved in this and we can talk about this later in the evening. I’m hoping that her and Sebastian will watch a video game documentary with me this evening and we can all take notes about what we learned and go over their “All About Me” Google Slides assignment.

Needless to say, I’m notably more enthusiastic about distance learning this year. While we’ve had a daily panic attack every single day that she’s been in school, it honestly hasn’t disrupted her day in a way that has been detrimental. Most of the time she’s able to skip 10-15 minutes of class here and there and jump back into her assignments after I’ve removed a sliver from her foot or calmed her down from an anxiety attack after seeing the librarian she doesn’t like very much at her school.

Overall, I’m breathing a huge sigh of relief this week. I’m glad she seems more engaged than she was last year, I’m glad she seems to be able to relate to her very young and technologically literate teacher and I’m really excited to go on this journey with her this year. I hope that her 5th grade is ten times as good as mine was and if I’m being honest, 5th grade may have been the absolute best year of my childhood. My child started hers off by informing her teacher that she would rather be stuck on an island with someone she hated so she could eat them.

Happy Summer of 2020 Y’all. Onward to Fall and Pumpkin Spice Lattes with Pumpkin Bourbon candles and knit sweaters. I’m ready. Are you?