With many of the New York and New Jersey region’s Jewish day schools temporarily transitioning back to virtual learning as a result of students testing positive for COVID-19, Hidden Sparks has released five tips for teachers to support students in mainstream Jewish day schools.
Hidden Sparks spent the summer months studying the impact that virtual learning has had on students and how teachers can rise to the challenges brought on by the pandemic.
Hidden Sparks’ Social Emotional Learning Coach Lily Howard Scott, MS, has developed these tips for the transition back to virtual learning
- #AloneTogether– create space for students to connect- Learning remotely can leave children feeling disheartened and disconnected from each other and their schoolwork and jumping right back into the standard curriculum can alienate them further. Therefore, Hidden Sparks suggests building in time for students to reflect on the transition to remote learning, to share their questions and to connect with one another.
- Keep things fun – When learning remotely, a disengaged student can simply walk away from their computer. Whenever possible, weave in games, such as a virtual scavenger hunt: “Take 30 seconds and bring something back to your computer that sparks joy. Go!” These scavenger hunts can be connected to the academic curriculum—a math teacher, for instance, might ask students to grab any object that can be split into thirds, such as a piece of paper or a cookie. It’s very important to create more interactive learning opportunities for students.
- Get kids moving – For younger students, create hand signals (I agree, silent cheer, and mind-blown, to name a few) that allow children to participate physically even if they aren’t speaking. Also consider asking kids to stand behind their computers and participate in silly one-minute movement breaks a few times each day.
- Create a remote learning classroom charter – Ask children how they want their new remote classroom to feel (not deadly-boring? Fun, even? Respectful?) and record their answers. Then, as a group, develop a list of agreements or rules that will help cultivate such an environment. Many of the agreements will be online-learning specific, related to the use of the chat-box, muting/unmuting, and the like. This charter will enable both you and your students to anticipate remote learning management issues before they occur.
- Remember how difficult virtual school can be on families, and be flexible – It’s frustrating to pour your heart into a lesson and receive partially completed work (if any at all) from some students. But remember that your Zoom portal into a student’s home only reveals a sliver of their quarantine reality. Siblings may need to share devices, an internet connection may be unstable, and parents may be struggling to balance work commitments with ensuring that young children sign on to meetings on time. Before you reprimand students, try to learn more about their particular circumstances and then consider how you might differentiate or support accordingly. Unfortunately, a student who feels that they’ve gotten in trouble for one of these things during remote learning is more likely to turn-off from the lesson which leads to a larger issue so keeping the moral high is more important than ever before.
Over the coming weeks, Hidden Sparks will offer free programming to assist teachers and parents help ease the impact of the transition between in-class and virtual learning. The seminars are part of Hidden Sparks Without Walls.
“The challenges of virtual learning are enormous for all students, especially the struggling learners. It has been equally challenging for educators as they grapple with this relatively new teaching method to try to make the virtual learning experience as engaging and stimulating as possible for their students,” said Hidden Sparks Executive Director Debbie Niderberg.
“We have learned much over these past few months that teachers can benefit from. These sessions harness that thought-leadership and provide recommendations and tools that participants can immediately adapt to their classrooms.”
On Wednesday, Oct. 21, veteran behavioral specialist Jeanine Fitzgerald will present to teachers and parents on “Helping Children Cope: Putting Humpty Back Together Again!”
On Tuesday, Oct. 27, dean of Yeshiva University’s Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration and Hidden Sparks Co-Educational Director, Dr. Rona Novick, will discuss with parents “My Child’s Worries About COVID – Typical or Excessive.”
The series will continue with a Wednesday, Nov. 4 presentation by Azrieli Associate Prof. Dr. Laya Salomon for teachers on “Developing the Art of Asking Powerful Questions in the Classroom.”
For more information or to register, please click here.