A number of online learning platforms will be utilized by students, parents, and teachers in both the remote and hybrid learning models slated for school reopening.
Platforms like Modern Teacher, Seesaw, Nearpod, Google Classroom, and Flipgrid all allow teachers to efficiently provide instruction, enable students to be independent while also having access to support, and engage various age groups in unique ways.
In order to provide the best learning experience for students, teachers can choose to implement any number of these platforms in their online classroom.
Assistant Superintendent Richie Smith discussed the value of these programs at Thursday’s All-Island School Committee meeting, where he stressed that these platforms serve as tools for the strong teaching staff of Martha’s Vineyard Public Schools.
Teachers from around the Island who teach a broad range of age groups and classes gave in-depth presentations on each one of these learning platforms.
Smith said organizational platforms like Nearpond and Modern Teacher offer starting points for parents and students to access instruction from their devices. Learning management platforms, such as Seesaw and Google Classroom, Smith characterized as being tools for teachers to use to advance their lessons and planning.
All of these tools can be implemented in a synchronous (real-time) or asynchronous (accessed through a playlist) learning sphere.
Assistant Principal for the Tisbury School Melissa Ogden said that in the spring, the rapid transition from in-person to virtual teaching put teachers into a situation that they weren’t ready for.
But now, many teachers have had training with the virtual learning platforms, and all have been familiarized with how instructing kids virtually works.
Ogden said Modern Teacher provides a structure that helps with digital instruction. “Structure helps to streamline how parents and students access remote learning,” Ogden said.
Ogden said the Tisbury School is looking to reorganize the website so every teacher would create a landing page to house contact information, announcements, office hours, and other useful information for families.
Ogden said it is important for students and parents to have a “one-stop shop” where they can see all the weeks’ activities and assignments in one space.
Tisbury School teacher Sue Adamo was the first to present her sample landing page. She said a parent or student can simply go on the school website, click on her name, and immediately have access to direct links to previous assignments, instructions for students who have questions about learning platforms, and other useful information.
Adamo also said students can access their asynchronous work and activities playlist from the landing page. In the fully remote model, students would have synchronous learning most days, and Adamo said links to daily morning Zoom meetings would be available on the landing page.
Hope Fecitt, another Tisbury teacher, said the landing page is a place to access links to multiple things that kids and parents need, in order for students to participate and complete instruction. Fecitt said she would include a daily morning message in the hybrid model, where much of the remote learning would be asynchronous.
“I would record myself greeting students and giving them tips and reminders for the day. This is a way I could still connect with students even when they are working remotely,” Fecitt said.
After teachers showed some examples of possible landing pages, presentations were given on the various learning platforms.
Oak Bluffs teacher Anne Davey presented Seesaw, which she said can be used for all ages. She said teachers can use Seesaw to provide instruction during Zoom meetings, create activities that engage students, and provide project-based learning. Seesaw also collects students’ work into a portfolio that can be reviewed by families and teachers.
And Davey said Seesaw is “very interactive,” so younger students can connect more with what they are learning. Seesaw has something called the “Family” application, which allows parents to access information about their childs’ daily activities, participation level, grades, and feedback from teachers, all on their cell phones or computers.
With Seesaw, Davey said, students can also send private messages to their teachers, which can be translated into 55 different languages automatically by the program.
“It’s a great way to build community, and it allows for very close collaboration between students and staff,” Davey said.
Teachers and students can also record voice messages and send them back and forth to each other, which Davey said mimics an actual conversation.
Oak Bluffs teacher Eve Heyman said Google Classroom provides a layout where students can access all their classes, review past assignments and grades, and see what they still need to do for the day or the week. A calendar allows students to see the day-to-day structure of courses, and there is a to-do list option where they can check off assignments as they complete them.
Heyman said parents can sign up for something called a “guardian summary,” to see if their child is missing work, and review how they interacted in their online classroom.
Chilmark School teacher Donna Swift gave a presentation on Flipgrid, which she said works across all grade and content levels. But Swift said Flipgrid is a great option for special classes, such as music. “My classes have a lot of discussion and a lot of verbal feedback,” Swift said. “With Flipgrid, I can put directions here, and students can read them or have them read [by the program] if they are an emerging reader.”
Committee member Alex Salop wondered whether there is a duplication of efforts by having to synchronously teach one cohort and then provide asynchronous on-demand learning to the other cohort.
“Are you doing your job twice to teach this way?” Salop asked.
Committee chair Robert Lionette said that with all these additional steps to providing instruction, “it is going to be incredibly challenging to get through the curriculum in the same time frame.”
He asked what percentage of the curriculum the Island school systems expect to cover over a semester, or over the entire year. Smith said the school is charged by the state with completing the entire curriculum, “so that’s what we are going to try and do. That is the challenge that teachers have.”
Smith said that although teachers are at “different readiness levels” as far as remote instruction, he said the work that was done in the spring and the voluntary training conducted over the summer is a testament to how hard educators on Martha’s Vineyard are working.
“There are tremendous teachers throughout this district. They are very much working and looking to improve. It’s not because we are telling them to, it’s because they are dedicated and passionate about what they do,” Smith said.
Alison Smith said the online programs are only as good as the participation of students.
“If we have these kiddos who are essentially on their own for three days out of the week [in the hybrid model], this is what we are dealing with,” Alison said. “These kids will have some sense of loss in terms of the curriculum, if they could come out with 20 percent of what would typically be expected in a year, well, that is something.”
Richie Smith followed up Alison Smith’s comment by saying that although teachers have a very high expectation that they are working toward, “they are also realistic as well.”
Chilmark School Principal Susan Stevens said there is an “incorrect view” out in the community that remote instruction is easy, and that teachers are “taking it easy” when using these platforms and planning the week for their students.
“It was incredibly hard and lots of work to plan and implement remote instruction. People often think this is the easy way out, and I am sure most teachers would prefer to be in the classroom than teaching remotely,” Stevens said.
Oak Bluffs Principal Megan Farrell said when her school enters the academic year, they are going to have an assessment schedule to determine where kids’ learning level is, if there is learning loss, and how to mitigate that loss in the future.
“The rigor is in place, the assessment is in place, the capacity to grow all of our students far more than 20 percent is in place. With our amazing team of dedicated teachers, I am quite confident we will get through this year, our kids will be socially and emotionally stable, and academically secure,” Farrell said. “I push back on the lost year idea, because we are not going to allow that to happen. We are too dedicated, we are too concerned, and we are too professional.”