Pandemic Hybrid/Remote Instruction

The covid pandemic forced educators to try new things and rethink education.  As a special education teacher of students with low incidence disabilities (nonverbal, significant cognitive challenges) it was perhaps an extra challenge as our classrooms were the first to be brought back in many districts requiring teachers to truly teach hybrid.  Part of my day was in person and part of the day was remote.  The pandemic provided a handful of challenges, some successes, as well as some pretty good results for the profession as well as for me personally.

    Challenges included having a lack of specific direction, unexpected slamming of tech in our face, regression of behaviors for fully remote students as well as trying to support parents struggling with time and tech.  When remote teaching began the administrators had to reach out to the teachers as the experts.  Luckily I had been working with several online platforms anyhow and was able to identify Unique Learning System, Boardmaker online, and Reading A-Z as asynchronous resources.  However to truly engage students teachers had to get creative quick.  I was able to suggest making home-ade green screens for our Special Education Cooperative and an administrator there made it happen.  For me, this was key in engaging two of my most cognitively challenged students. The unexpected technology deep dive into google classrooms or microsoft teams had everyone in the uncomfortable stage of learner.  My district had Microsoft teams and I was able to navigate it but as I noticed my own children’s use of google classrooms (which seemed less messy to me and more user friendly for students) I often wished I could have chosen which platform we had.  It was both nice and frustrating how teams continually adjusted itself through the course.  Once you thought you had something figured out it would be switched but for positive intent, I am sure it was always a useful change for the system as a whole.  Students who struggled with behaviors at school continued to struggle at home and I was faced with an awkward position of trying to encourage parents without expecting too much from themt to change what they were doing to support appropriate behaviors.  I could see some of my past year’s hard work slip away and it was heartbreaking but I didn’t want to embarrass the parents or expect too much since due to the disabilities they HAD to have someone sitting with them on the other side of the screen and some were missing out on work or struggling with younger siblings.  Since I am contracted out to a district with a very high level of low SES students this also appeared to translate to parents with very limited understanding of technology.  I had to record several how to videos to support as much as I could and was able to convince the district I was contracted out to, to  allow a socially distanced way to bring parents in to teach them how to use the computer and applications.  I literally had two parents who did not even know how to capitalize letters on the computer (the ridiculous passwords had a mixture so no wonder they never logged on til I had them come in!). 

    Successes were successful mask wearage, less stress each day, individual needs were met better, parents became computer literate, translation needs for the district became clear and I was able to have true teaming time with my classroom staff.  Once hybrid began and I taught in person students in the morning (calling in my remote students for the morning meeting) the worry over whether they would wear masks was a concern.  As I had taught a behavior classroom for 12 years prior to my cross categorical of autism and significant cognitive impairment, I was pretty sure I could train any behavior.  That high expectation paid off as all of my students wore masks.  As I had an odd mix of 2nd through 6th grade (due to district staffing situation) I found this was a huge success.  I was also adamant about keeping distance to the chagrin of my paraprofessionals I am sure as I often reminded them of the protocol.  I noticed if teachers did not expect the mask wearage then it didn’t happen and honestly that bugged me out a bit because I believe almost anything is possible if you try and it seemed to be a genuine safety concern.  When all students came back this year they all were successful maskers, even my most beautifully stubborn student with down’s syndrome, who has his moments, wears his mask more than 80% of the time.  another success was that I was surprised with how less stressed I felt each day.  I was able to divide my day up and focus on some students in the morning when my remote students did their asynchronous activities and vice versa in the afternoon when doing live calls with my remote students.  Often in a normal year I would be taken from my actual teaching to deal with behaviors, bathroom assistance or one of the many other random things that happens with such a diverse group.  I felt more of a teacher and less of a babysitter with the way the year went.  In line with that I was able to split lessons better.  I also did not have to cover support specialists instructional time if they were sick, whereas in the past if a support specialist didn’t come in for their time I would have to have a plan in place and absorb the student in my other groups. Instead of leaving students to do ‘independent work’ for rare opportunities to get one on one instructional opportunities, I was able to schedule the day for one on one or into groups that made sense.  Being that my room was so diverse I had readers and non readers, students adding and subtracting and students still counting withing 10.  With less students at one time I and my paraprofessionals could really focus on individuals not groups that don’t always make sense or by letting students do independent work (often busy work for some of my students as they do not have the skill yet do do things independently that grew them).  Parents became more computer literate as I was able to share screens, model with my screen and be a live support during remote calls. Along with this it seemed that the district became more responsive to the languages of their students.  I had for a long time translated everything to spanish (I only had spanish and english learners) but it became clear for all teachers that to make this successful we would have to meet the families where they were and that often began by translating.  The last and best success was the time I was able to team with my paraprofessionals.  During hybrid we had a mid afternoon time to meet without students (VERY rare but VERY IMPORTANT) all together to review assigned lessons, teach new strategies, develop supports for students and debrief on data collection.  In the past few years I had 20 minutes where paras were there with me without students, this year I am back to none.  This time built in, without having to repeat everything, model multiple times because there is not enough time with all at once, and have an opportunity for a full team discussion was THE BEST!  

    The result of the pandemic hybrid/remote teaching was that it made it hard to return to what was, parents were more aware of expectations, the district was more responsive to the community, I was encouraged me to diverge with my career and made me more healthy.  After working in a situation with less stress (not covering for absent support services, having to stop my lunch or plan to assist with a student, simply have a real uninterrupted plan time on that note, less students and staff to manage all at once) it made coming back to work with no true classroom or support staff team planning difficult again I was aware of just how much I loved the hybrid situation.  True students had a harder time learning with it but I was a more effective and healthier teacher.  Healthier not just because I wasn’t so stressed by the all-at-once demands but also because kids were wearing masks and even my student who was a spitter didn’t figure out to take his mask down to spit at you if he was mad, or those who put their fingers in their mouths or nose had an extra barrier.  Add to that the embedded handwashing times it made for much fewer germs.  By the end of the hybrid and remote situation parents truly knew what their children were engaging with at school and I feel that it assisted their ability to support student’s academic successes. I was especially pleased with the emergence of more concern for all of the spanish speakers in our community.  The district had a history of actually going to legal actions to NOT have to do some of the recommended instructional strategies for ELL student in the past by proving their ability to support students but it became very clear that they would have to put an emphasis on their respect for diversity and support of families with other languages during remote and hybrid teaching.  Lastly, I left the situation wanting to change the direction of my work.  I had, for a long time, had a goal to go into administration but after many many tries to do so and even move to a different type of teaching position I was unsuccessful in my location and others (going to other locations was my own choice as anything I was offered resulted in a large paycut).  However, knowing how less stressed I was and how good it felt to actually plan for instruction and be able to teach  primarily helped me realize that there are other options.  I also felt as I handled the technology pretty efficiently and that also gave me confidence to think beyond what I was currently doing.  It also made me far more interested in technology as a whole both in teaching and very much outside of teaching.  I told myself that I would see this group of students through to a new location this year but I would be trying something new after this year to try out what else is out there and to change my scene as it never evolved to what I originally intended anyhow.  And of course, lastly, I was LESS SICK! Less stress, less germs, it was great because we all know the teacher guilt of taking a day off and the annoyance of typing out those lesson plans just to be out for sickness.

    Many people hated the remote and hybrid teaching but I believe I thrived through it and embraced the challenges, enjoyed the success and am excited about where the results may take teaching and myself into the future.

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