Ashley Justice, a precalculus and AP Calculus teacher at Wawasee High School, uses a laptop computer to record what she does on the smartboard in her classroom. The recordings can then be made available to those students in virtual learning. InkFreeNews photo by Tim Ashley.

By Tim Ashley
InkFreeNews

SYRACUSE — A few years ago, the Wawasee Community School Corporation implemented eLearning which at that time was primarily meant to avoid having to make up school days missed due to the weather. Teaching and learning could still go on even when students and teachers were at home.

But then the coronavirus pandemic took hold in March a year ago and it was soon discovered eLearning, though certainly better than nothing, was falling considerably short. Contact between students and teachers was primarily limited to emails. That system simply wasn’t designed for an extended period of learning from home.

Fortunately, virtual learning was adopted and has been used since the beginning of the current school year for those students in quarantine due to close contact tracing for COVID-19 or who have tested positive for the virus. And also when the high school and middle schools went entirely virtual, which was the case in the first week after the Christmas break. It is a more personal form of learning and allows for more engagement between teachers and students.

Students can access virtual learning from their Chromebooks through Google Classroom, Google Meet and also Zoom. Students and teachers can see each other and teachers can even “visit” students one-on-one.

Three Wawasee High School teachers recently commented on virtual teaching. At times, they have had to engage students both in-person and virtually. Challenging for sure, but many teachers have persevered and found ways to adapt to a new form of teaching.

“I think the main setup difference is that students are logged in to class live and can communicate with teachers,” said Jeff Phillips, who teaches U.S. History and economics, about the differences between eLearning and virtual teaching. “Elearning as we have done for snow days and things like that is more of an at-home assignment where students communicate via email more often than not and only if they have questions about that assignment.”

Ashley Justice teaches precalculus and AP calculus and said, “Google Meet allows us to teach directly to the students, they can give us direct feedback and ask questions right away — as they would typically do in the classroom.”

Chemistry teacher Daniel Wray said teaching with Google is more face-to-face and is real-time. He added eLearning “just doesn’t reach that level of connection.”

Clearly, no school corporation could have been prepared for the pandemic and having school shut down for months, and teachers, staff and administrators found themselves looking for answers. “Last year everyone was just figuring things out and teaching was not even the main focus,” Phillips said.

He said the lack of personal interaction with students has been the hardest part of virtual teaching. “This isn’t unique to teaching as this has impacted all types of professions as well as personal lives of everyone,” he noted. “But the central aspect of teaching, developing relationships, is much more difficult. In addition, that weakness makes it more difficult to help students both academically and with other issues that may impact their academics.”

Justice said her biggest difficulty is being able to discern if students are really understanding the material during class time. She can’t physically walk over to them. “When we are virtual, they are more hesitant to speak up,” she said. “At the end of the day many of them are exhausted from being in online meetings all day, and I have found their energy to be low during that time.”

Also, it is difficult to plan ahead when it is not known for sure whether students will be in the classrooms or it will be all virtual.

Wray noted what is missing is seeing students ”get it” because the student is not in the room and he can’t look into their eyes.

Each of the three teachers emphasized virtual teaching is much better than eLearning but the best way to teach is with students sitting in the classroom. But they have found ways to adapt.

Justice said she records her lessons each day and uploads them to Google Classroom as an extra resource for absent students or those who are struggling. She added she has grown personally and professionally as she has learned to adapt to “an ever-changing” environment.

Wray said he has tried to make the lessons even more interactive and student-driven.

Phillips may have summed up the feelings of several teachers. “From a social, mental health and academic perspective, there is nothing that replaces direct interaction. I think that is something that most people have realized throughout this last year.”