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I don’t hate hybrid teaching

Published by SraSpanglish on

It may be the most dangerous option outside of 100% business-as-usual. My daughter’s school may have called the FIRST DAY to let us know 2 employees had tested positive. But overall, the first week was not nearly the horror show I expected.

In fact, I think this could end up a step toward the way schooling should be. Here’s why.

The class sizes are finally small enough that we can chat and get to know each other quickly, and well. It’s only been 2 days with each set of my kids, but I can pretty much put a face with every name. Two years after that year with A/B classes alternating daily and up to 35 kids per class, I finally feel like maybe I’m not suffering from early onset dementia.

I was seriously starting to doubt my mental capacity, y’all.

Instead, I’m able to call up a face and seating location for 90% of kids as I go through the practice discussion boards on Canvas, as each kid declares themself a math/science/history/art person and reveals key details like the capitalized letter in the middle of their name or their dabbling I’m freestyle rapping, their passion for hockey or their preferred gaming console (and believe me, the rapper and the hockey kids are the OPPOSITE of who you would anticipate for each!)

The online component keeps an open line between me and the kiddos so learning doesn’t get left at school, like I felt it did last year. I did get pretty good at setting limits then, but I feel I did so well that I can loosen them back up a little now. The sudden transition in March meant we couldn’t expect or enforce anything, but now I can look them in the eye twice a week and message them when I can’t, for whatever reason, and expect a reply within, you know, the same week.

Limiting my teacher choices (seating, activities, etc) might be stifling, but it also frees up a little brain RAM so the number of choices I’m making at one time is perforce minimized (see: decision fatigue…is my picture next to the article yet? Maybe it’s just in the dictionary.)

The in-person component is real time together. I was so, SO worried that I’d have to stay in a bubble at the front of the room and never be near the babies or look over their shoulders, but the Powers That Be decided as long as we keep our masks on and spend less than 15 minutes together, we won’t spread disease. Of course, that remains to be seen, as we could all be incubating as we speak. However, it has been such a relief to greet students and help them individually, and just, you know, say something to their faces about their work.

I don’t know about them, but I feel like we’re closer if I get to tell the girls who used volleyball for their proficiency analogy illustrations how ill-fated my brief foray in knee pads when I moved senior was, or to acknowledge my fellow artists’ skills with just a quick comment! Even if it’s not terribly meaningful to them yet, the fact that I get to feel it again after feeling so cut off from it for a couple of years bodes well for our future endeavors.

Actively promoting connections before content is something we should have started YEARS ago. OK, I should have started years ago. It was just so easy cheating and getting to know my kids a year before they had my class. I was totally lost as to how to achieve the same thing within a semester. I was getting there with the suggestions from Jon Cowart’s book, but having the district and admins say this week HAS to be “Unit Zero,” if only to get the virtual vs. hybrid situations straightened out in the meantime, has sort of freed me to actually do that. As my FLANC friend put it:

It’s worth taking the time to try to make a connection with every single student, even if it means a few fewer ‘instructional hours.’

Robbie Richwine, 2020 FLANC VP

I think the hybrid setup has highlighted this for me in a way that “normal” and online school couldn’t.


SraSpanglish

Laura Sexton is a passion-driven, project-based language educator in Gastonia, North Carolina. She loves sharing Ideas for integrating Project-Based Learning in the world language classroom, including example projects, lessons, assessment tips, driving questions, and reflection.