Jackie Hendry: When South Dakota schools closed those months ago, teachers had to make an emergency move to online or distance learning. Now, as students head back to the classroom in these strange times, many teachers are considering new ways to learn. Two of those teachers join us today.
First, we welcome Erica Boomsma. She teaches fourth grade at the Washington 4-5 Center in the Huron School District. Erica Boomsma, welcome back to In The Moment. Thanks for being here.
Erica Boomsma: Thank you so much for having me.
Jackie: We also welcome, Lori Wagner. She teaches high school math for Northern State University's Center for E-Learning. Lori Wagner, welcome back to you as well.
Lori Wagner: Hello, Jackie. Thank you so much for having me.
Jackie: So, let's see, I think, Lori, we're going to start with you today because we are hearing more and more about a lot of existing online learning resources that many of us weren't aware of before COVID came to our state, including NSU's Center for E-Learning. So, maybe tell us a bit about that program and how you're using it to teach high school math.
Lori Wagner: Okay. Well, I'm in my fifth year at the E-Learning Center and we teach students throughout the state of South Dakota. And we have them in three different learning modes, basically. We've got online strictly, we've got a blended learning model and we also have the DDN model. And so, the three models that we have, the online is, as you would expect, strictly online. But, the two that we really focus and have been seeing a lot of increase with students have been the blended and the DDN.
And the blended learning is kind of like a flipped classroom where we do two two one model where we have two days of video lessons and then two days where we actually do a live connection with our students. And one day that is a work day.
And then I also have the DDN model that is live with my classes five days a week. And those are a variety of different schools put together into one class. And so, it's been a great program and we've seen our numbers increase and we also were able to give out some lessons this last year that some of our schools in the state have been able to use through the Department of Education.
Jackie: Tell us about some of those lessons that you've been able to give out for teachers who don't have that same experience with teaching through the internet.
Lori Wagner: Right. Well, what we did is we made sure that there were readily available materials via a video that we were able to do as well as any of the additional resources that we use. And so, those were on the DOE site. And from what I understood, they were quite widely used by different teachers in the state.
Jackie: Erica, I'm going to bring you into the conversation now because you're in the Huron School District. Tell us a bit about how you're preparing your classroom as you go back this year and what looks different and maybe what looks the same.
Erica Boomsma: Well, I am sitting in my classroom right now. So, I'm sitting in my classroom. I have 27 desks. They are all socially distanced. And then we, of course have the desk protectors, the plexiglass goes on each one of them. It looks different, but at the same time, it is the same because sometimes even though things look a little different, that feeling of being back in a space where you're learning and you're together, that same feeling is here. So, I am thrilled to be here.
We all wear masks full time because we're required to. We're in yellow right now. If we ever go into green, then things change. The kids will come in with masks. And that does make a difference because when you see one another, you do have to start looking beyond just a person's, I guess your mouth. It's your eyes. It's your body. We've become a lot more animated here. I think that we are talking a lot more rather than just sitting and letting our face do the talking. We hear a lot more animation in our voices. And I think that it's bringing out a real strength in some of us. Although, [inaudible 00:00:04:06], we're always worried right now, those strengths are coming to the front.
Jackie: Talk to us about some of the creative ways, Erica, that you've been hearing about your colleagues and other teachers around the area adapting to using websites and different virtual things for learning and how you're carrying that in into this year.
Erica Boomsma: Sure. Well, we have had a lot of nice technology in our building. Right now, we have, are going to be face-to-face, but we have one digital teacher. However, we all have our own websites that we have made earlier this spring. Everybody is reading on YouTube and sharing that information. I know some of my co-teachers have Bitmoji classrooms and the platforms that are coming forward.
It's important to remember that the platforms we were using before we went distance ed, we can still use those. And any kind of situation where we can bring more visitors into our Zoom classroom world the better. So, even your volunteers can come into your classroom via Zoom or FaceTime. If it were distance ed, I would invite them, so that I can monitor. But within the classroom, our volunteers are still going to come into our rooms just on an iPad, so yeah. It's been interesting.
Jackie: Yeah. And for folks who don't know, a Bitmoji, it's one of those kinds of like little avatar thing. You create a little kind of cartoon character that sort of looks like you and put in different poses and things like that.
Erica Boomsma: Yes. What that does is bring that factor of homeyness to our kids, and it makes it a little bit fun, especially because I teach fourth grade. When you have that set up, you have the ability to link different websites to this page. So, when I have centers in my classroom, I can have a center on my Bitmoji site page and I can link all of those to the little, I mean, to the little visuals I've decided to put them with.
Jackie: So, Erica, I've heard it said by other teachers, a bit of a concern about going back to the classroom because some of the difficulties or challenges with that emergency move to distance learning last year. Those difficulties haven't necessarily been worked out everywhere. And the concern that if we have to jump back to online learning, we'll be in the same spot that we were last year. How do you feel it's looking for your classroom and are you prepared to jump back online if that's what it comes down to?
Erica Boomsma: Right. That is exactly what we all feared at the end. I mean, I think, the South Dakota Department of Ed had a really good end of year mentoring workshop and I got to be a part of that. And one of the things that we talked about was thinking about what happened at the end of last year and what you wish you had known.
So, starting with all the information that you already know how to do, I mean, celebrate that look how far we've come, but what else did we need to have put in place? And our district has made sure that we're all trained in Google Classroom. We all have our websites up and running. If we would have to go into distance learning, we couldn't transition very smoothly into that right away, because we have our platforms for communicating with parents. I did not have anything when we started in the spring and it was so stressful and upsetting. But now, I feel I can do this and we can make this if we have to.
Jackie: Yeah. Lori, when you mentioned offering some training for teachers to adjust to teaching online, but I'm curious about for high school students who maybe this is their first experience with online learning. Are you finding that there is an adjustment period for students as they use this method for the first time?
Lori Wagner: Oh, absolutely. Every year, we have students who are learning online for the first time. And so, we spend a lot of time easing them into and training them from the difference things that we use in our classroom.
It's amazing how many students really are not great communicators as far as email and things like that, and so it's really important for us to lay the foundation of what good communication looks like as far as the procrastination and time management are very important to students.
And so, we always start our year with a really good foundation of what online learning looks like, what it requires and, basically just trying to get to know the kids real quickly and moving into it very smoothly.
Jackie: Wow! What are some methods for teaching kids how to be clearer communicators when you're largely text-based? Because those are life skills that are going to continue long into the future.
Lori Wagner: Absolutely. We just make sure that we are really good modelers of what a good email looks like. We talked about different times where students will put in, they'll type an entire message into the subject line because they're unaware. And so, these are those little things that we don't, we take for granted, but they're not that familiar with. So, we just make sure that we model those things, demonstrate what it looks like and that really seems to take care of it.
Jackie: Erica, when we're thinking about the stress that the pandemic and these unusual circumstances have put on everyone, kids aren't immune to that at any age. Talk to us about how, as we're moving into this new year, things look a little different. Fourth graders are aware that things are different. People are stressed out. How are you helping them recognize their emotions and deal with things in healthy ways?
Erica Boomsma: Well, school has always been a place where we deal with that cognitive part of a person, so that part of that academic thinking. What's really, I don't want to say a benefit, but there is a silver lining. The pandemic has brought to the surface that we know we need to be addressing our students' social and their emotional needs even more. And when we would do social and emotional learning for kids, we really have to think as soon as we can get them into our classroom, we want to start developing that awareness of self, how to make a responsible decision. And we want to develop those relationships as fast as we can.
When we have relationships that are with our teachers that are strong and trusting, our kids are much more likely to want to take risks. And they are resilient to failure, and they are striving for more success. So, we want to make sure that we teach them how to understand feelings in their body. When they started having that feeling of, oh, I'm feeling overwhelmed. My heart is beating faster. I am breathing faster. This is a time where I need to be taking a break. And that can especially come if you are a being alone in front of a screen for long periods of time, maybe it's your mask, but being able to feel that. And then being able to say, I need a break , maybe have a coping mechanism, deep breathing.
Another thing we can do is keep them involved with other classrooms. So, there is a website called empatico.org, and it is free to all teacher K-12. This is a free service where it is about social emotional learning. You are paired with a classroom or in our country or around the world and you chat via video. And there are different lesson plans you can do, or you can make up your own.
But, we want as many connections to our kids as possible and different cities, different States give us a different outlook and let us know that we're normalizing the situation that we are in right now. If we want to be face-to-face, you can always work with that teacher to do science lessons together, and then be on Flipgrid where you could share responses to maybe different activities you're doing in the classroom. All of the relationships we need, we need to create quickly because we just don't know how long we're going to have our kids in our classrooms, so.
Jackie: Erica, as we are entering our final few moments together, for other teachers who might be listening to this, there is no shortage of information out there from Pinterest to everything else. But, what are some of your favorite resources to turn to when you're looking for some creative solutions to this new school year?
Erica Boomsma: Oh, definitely. Head to EduPlay. Mind Up has a really nice amount of stuff. Another place that you're going to want to go, if you're a teacher and we feel the stress, is Headspace. Headspace app is offering free access and that's a $12.99, so $12 dollars and 99 cents per month for this app. It is free for K-12 teachers and staff and administrators. It's very nice and it can really help you come to a place of, I feel safe myself and calm, so that we don't burn out. If we're going to be here for kids, we have to take care of ourselves as educators.
Jackie: My guests have been Erica Boomsma, a fourth grade teacher at the Washington 4-5 Center in the Huron School District. Erica Boomsma, thanks so much for joining us again. You're welcome back anytime and good luck moving into the new year.
Erica Boomsma: Thank you. Good luck to everyone.
Jackie: Well, also joining us today, Lori Wagner. She teaches high school math for the Northern State University's Center for E-Learning. Lori Wagner, thanks for your time as well, and good luck to you too.