Teacher in Utah Interview Full Transcript
Caroline Gardner
Good morning. So thank you again for meeting with me. Sorry for the time confusion this morning. I
Teacher in Utah
No, I didn't even think of I felt sat down. I'm like, oh my gosh.
Caroline Gardner
Timezones always get me they just, I'm like, I'm 22 years old, I should be able to figure this out by now. Like, that's fine. Um, (I didn't hear her) I'm sorry?
Teacher in Utah
It worked out
Caroline Gardner
It did work out. Um, so I wanted to ask if you wouldn't mind starting by introducing yourself and telling me what school you were work at and how long you've been working there?
Teacher in Utah
Yeah, so I work at Timberline Middle School in Alpine, Utah. And it is my first year teaching I student taught here last year though, so it doesn't really feel like my first year in some ways at this school, but, um, it is technically my first year so it's been a crazy first year but I graduated college from BYU for me University with my bachelor's and Family and Consumer Sciences, education. So I teach family to life sciences, which a lot of people don't know what that is used to be called home AK. It's changed now Family and Consumer Sciences basically means I'm certified to teach grades seven through 12. And I can teach fitness and nutrition. So thing textiles, fashion, interior design, career exploration, financial apps, child development.So many but what I specifically teach is child development, interior design, sewing, and career exploration. And at our school, it's grades seven through nine, even though it's a middle school, I know that's not a traditional Middle School, ninth grade is technically high school but our ninth graders don't fit at the high school. So we have big seven through nine And I'm I have, like, lots of prep. So I have lots of students, I have really large classes I found compared to their nation when I talked to other teachers. I have an average of like 37 to 40 kids in a class.
Caroline Gardner
hey, thanks. (my dad walked in) Sorry. I'm home quarantine.
Teacher in Utah
But yeah, so I and I teach only semester long classes as well. So they changed it this semester, except for one class, my seventh grade class. It's a career exploration class and they change every term. Okay. So it's kind of interesting with how this all played out because we ended up going to online learning, like at the very start of fourth quarter, so I got a whole new class that I've never met in person. Because they're all brand new just for this quarter, but I've never seen them. We haven't had a single day of school. Fourth quarter. So I don't know. I don't know what else you want me to say.
Caroline Gardner
oh my gosh. So what is that, like kind of getting to know students completely online?
Teacher in Utah
Yeah, so it was really weird because at first when we saw it, it was March 13, that they told us we were going to go to online and even though I had the feeling, there's gonna be a lot longer than two weeks. It's like, okay, two weeks, like, you know, we'll just figure out something to do online for two weeks. And then when we get back, we'll really be able to get to know each other set up our class and routines and stuff. But it was like a weird timing because I'm like, normally these two weeks are when I do a lot of getting to know you activities and setting up our classroom procedures and routines. So what I have them do is I basically set up a discussion. And they can ask me questions and the discussion. And then I took those questions and I filmed a video of myself answering them all. And then we also had a discussion board where they answered like five questions I had for them. And they posted a picture of themselves with their questions. So I can kind of put a face to the names. But of course, it's not the same, like the names I, I just, there's so many of them and I'd have to go back and look at that picture. Like every time I'm grading something for it to really stick, you know, it's not like you're seeing them every day or having those interactions that make their names stick. So it's hard that's probably the hardest class cuz they don't know me, really so and I don't know them. It's like we're trying to we're trying to get to know each other sites. I try to do as much as I can like hosting videos. We're not required to Live instruction. In fact, it kind of is tricky to do live instruction because they have so many teachers, they don't really encourage us to all require live instruction. So we can't do that, that at least they can actually know I'm a human like, I'm a face behind the screen now.
Caroline Gardner
Yeah. Um, so what does a typical lesson look like if you're doing it all online and not like live instruction?
Teacher in Utah
That definitely depends on the class. I'm with my ninth graders, that's my child development class. And they're the ones who feel like the most mature and their brains are the most developed. I feel like they're the ones who can handle the most on online learning. They kind of don't get confused as much I should say. Um, so with them. We, I don't know if you've ever heard of Nearpod but it's a Education Technology tool. that we use. And I basically can take what PowerPoints we did use in class. So I normally would use Google Slides in class as I present and talk to them about things and we'd have discussions. But I always did have the slides up so that they could take their notes. And just because I'm a visual learner, so I always use a lot of visuals. And so instead, with online learning, since I'm not actually there to teach it to them, I've turned them into Nearpod. And Nearpod basically, allow you to have interactive tools inside of your slideshow. So they can do things like you can put a quiz in there, you can have them draw something, you can have them take a poll, you can have all kinds of things. So it makes them more interactive, and it makes it so I can see if they're really participating with it. And then I have a way to know if they did it. So that's kind of what I grade is there's a quick short quiz at the end of each Nearpod and then as long as they Did that they'll get the points for learning that and I'm not making them take notes. Because why? I'm just like trying to simplify. I don't know, I think that's the biggest thing I found is just like simplifying like cutting out anything that's not essential and just make it optional, but not required. So they do to Nearpod for about a week. And then I give them a list of activities that they can choose from. And they have to get a total of 20 points. So each activity is worth 510 15 or 20 points, and they just have to get told 20 points, it normally is only like one or two activities. But there's a huge long list of like 10 to 15 things and that way if like they're bored at home and some other more activities look interesting to them, they can learn more, they could do more but they don't have to. And, and they said they've really liked that because it kind of gives them the freedom it Gives them, they get to choose what they want to do. But it also just makes it really simple because that's how it is every week, there's two near pods, and then they do their 20 points of activities. And so it's very clear what they have to do for the week, and I just posted on Monday and then it's due Friday. That's really, I don't dock for late work. It's too crazy of a time, like, but I give it a due date, so that way they can stay on track and not feel overwhelmed. That's how that class works my eighth graders, and that's the interior design and fashion class. Right now we're doing interior design, instead of doing Nearpod with them. I actually recorded myself teaching like screen recording, I should say. So it shows the slideshow while I'm talking. Because that's really the best way for them to learn. I think they actually need me explaining it. They can't just learn from the slideshow. So That's how I do that they watch one or two videos. And then there's an activity I have them do, I usually give them a digital option and a physical option if they happen to have a printer at home, and they'd rather printed off and do it by hand, and then just take a picture of it, I let them do that. And then my seventh graders, and we it's a career exploration class. So each week we focus on a different career. And just kind of depends on the career, but I have them do that. It's just you have to make turn everything digital, like all the things I normally like doing class, I have to think how can they do this at home? or How can they do this on a computer? So it forces you to get creative in that way? Yeah.
Caroline Gardner
Okay. So thank you for explaining all of that. That was super interesting. I have a few follow up questions. So you're saying for your ninth graders, the point system that you're using the 20 points, what would be an activity that would be on the list?
Teacher in Utah
So, last week, well, some of the activities I keep kind of each week and for instance, like one of them is to create a short video or a tick tock, since that's what they love these days, um, on something we learned about that week. So really, it's an option each week, but we learned about something different each week. So, um, we were in an infant's unit right now, so they can make the TIC Tock or video that's somehow related to something we learned about that week. Another example is to like last week one was to interview a parent about their first child that they had and how that pregnancy was and how giving birth was. I gave them like a list of questions I could ask. Another example, is like last week we talked about, or technically this week, we talked about Shaken Baby Syndrome. And, um, there's a cool experiment, or anyways, yeah, with an egg that kind of is a visual for you to understand that shaking a baby is worse than dropping a baby. And so you do it with an egg. So that was an I gave them the directions to do that experiment and they had to just like take a picture, I have a video of them doing it to get credit for it. So yeah, there's some things like that are worth five points is like read this article. And it like talks more about it. And there's also like sometimes a link to videos like YouTube videos that explain what we talked about more or like documentaries that they can watch about it. And yeah, I kind of just depends on them. Sometimes they certain art activities they can do. This week we also talked about or not, maybe it's next week, we talked about nutrition, like infant nutrition or toddler nutrition. And so they can make a healthy snack, a toddler healthy snack, which means it's supposed to be healthy, but it's supposed to appeal to toddlers. So it's supposed to look really fun. So there's a bunch of different like links of recipes or different snacks I gave them, but they could also come up with their own, and then they can just take a picture of it. So yeah, things like that just kind of depends on the week. But
Caroline Gardner
do you think online learning has given you kind of like more an opportunity for more creativity because this doesn't seem like you could do all this stuff in the classroom?
Teacher in Utah
This is a hard question. It's like yes and no, because it's just different because in the class, what we normally do with like toddler nutrition, is they um, I bring a bunch of different snacks, like taba snacks to class. We have a ton of them and then they analyze them. So they taste it. They get to eat all of them, but they fill out They discuss, we discuss, we analyze them about whether they're good, they're healthy, whether they're not healthy, whether they would appeal to a toddler or not. So it's like, I don't know, we still do a lot of fun things in class. But yes, it's true. There's a lot of things they can do at home that maybe we couldn't do in class. The hard part is, I feel like we just don't get the discussion as well. And like I thought of, Okay, I'll create a discussion board about this, but it's just, it's, so it's not the same when you're doing it online. Because they, I don't know. I don't feel like it's the same as when you're in the moment actually having that conversation with them. So there are a couple things I plan on doing a discussion with where I don't know if you've heard of flipgrid and throwing out all this technology that you probably don't know, but you can have them reply with videos. And so I'm gonna have them do that for a while. one topic where we usually have a good discussion. But it's also like hard because you're not there for them to ask the follow up questions, or to ask, I don't know, like, sometimes we just have the best discussions in class because someone asked something and it leads to somewhere else, you know. But yeah, it's like these things you can't do because it's not a group. There's just one of them. Like, in my class, we do a lot of collaborating a lot of group activities. But when they're at home, there's just like, you can't make them siblings Don't let them you know. So, yes, and no, there's a lot of there's definitely a lot of cool things. I'm assigning them that we wouldn't normally do for sure, and they are at home. But there's other things that like in my seventh grade class, the career exploration, I think that's probably been the hardest one because that's the one where we normally work on creating games that teach about a career. They get into groups of like four and four, like the Three weeks, we go through a process of creating those games, having other classmates, play them and peer review them. And then they have like a final game day. And it's like, the highlight of everyone's like, at the end of the term, everyone says they loved that. And they there's no way for them to do that really at home. I had them all still come up with a game idea. And they created like a cover for it and right brought up the instructions, but I can't expect them to all create their own game by themselves at home. Like you can't expect them to have the materials, you know, yeah, there's things like that, that they're missing out on, but you just have to try come up with other ways, I guess for them to get kind of the same experience. So yeah,
Caroline Gardner
yeah. So could you talk a little bit about the, like the mood and morale of your students? Like kind of compared to when you guys first started online? Learning versus now. I assume that you guys are online learning for the rest of the year.
Teacher in Utah
Yes. Yeah, we just actually found out this week. So I'm sorry, we don't sound out on Wednesday. I don't know what day it even is So, but yeah, we just found out there's a via which really isn't a shocker. We all like I always stop coming, that still sucks. Um, but I think at the beginning everyone was kind of a little. I mean, even though it was like, sad like you're like, oh, but I think almost more people are a little almost excited, like, because it's new, right? We've never done this. We've never done online learning. So it was almost a little like new and exciting. And then it wore off after that even the first week. Like after that first week, everyone realized how much they liked being in the building. And I think it also was really a little bit overwhelming at the beginning. For them, because even though our kids are pretty tech savvy, they were not ready for this. I mean, there's so I think some of them it was interesting to see how some students literally just avoided at all because it was too overwhelming. I had students who didn't even get online till three or four weeks in because they just said any want to try it was so overwhelming. And but and it's gone on they've gotten better at figuring out how to navigate this technology and I think probably with like getting in a routine and things. And so it's gotten, they've gotten more used to it in that way. But it's gotten harder, because it's been so long since I have been in school and seen all their friends and their teachers and just, it's kind of like they're starting to get like will this ever end like Will we ever go back to school again, you know, because it's helpful. So long. So I don't know, it's like, gotten better in some ways, because they're learning how to use the technology. But at the beginning, everyone was like pretty positive pretty, like, excited and still like trying to make the most of this online learning. And now, a lot of my students, I can tell almost want to like, just give up. Getting so long so yeah.
Caroline Gardner
So what do you do as a teacher to kind of encourage them and not let them give up on work? And how do you bring in students who are disengaged or discouraged?
Teacher in Utah
So I always look we use a learning management system called canvas. A lot of people use Google Classroom, our school asked us to everyone use Canvas. So that's all in one place. on canvas, you can actually see the last time your student or all your students have gotten on to your class. So you can see when the time was and like how long they were on. So especially in the beginning, we would look and see who hasn't even gotten on yet. And at the very beginning, we would just let the counselors know because they don't want students getting emails from all their teachers at first, but after the first two weeks, then they turned it over to us. So now I just always get on and look and if someone hasn't been on for over a week, then I will reach out to them. And I like to email the students first. That's just a personal preference. I like to give them the responsibility. I want them to feel like they are responsible and I value them. I see them as an adult, like as an equal. So I first will email them. If I'm not getting any response from the student, then I'll email the parent. And if I'm not getting a response from emails and sometimes I tried to call the food but You just can't get ahold of, but a lot of times you do get ahold of them that way. And that really helps just to figure out like, Hey, what's going on? Like, I never act upset with them or like, I can't believe it. I'm gonna, I'm, you know, like, you're gonna fail. That's never what it is. It's more just like, Hey, I'm checking in to see how are things going, like I noticed you haven't been on in a while. Because anything I can do to help. And a lot of times, just I find out that they're like, I'm so sorry. I've just been so overwhelmed. I haven't wanted to go out and get on. Or it's like, so sigh like both my parents work and so I'm babysitting my younger siblings, but you know, it's like normally there's things that are totally understandable, which is why I'm being so lenient with grading. Like we are being required to give full instruction. It's not just optional activities like they are being graded but I'm selling it and being very flexible with them and understanding with them. As far as trying to keep their motivation up, keep their spirits up. I, like I said, I send out a video each week at the beginning of each week, I record myself. And in that video, I always try to be very positive, not glossing over the fact that this is hard, still validating, it's hard. But trying to like be an example of like, we can do this like, even though this is hard, and we wish things were different. It's okay, like, we can do this, we can make the most of this. And I think just them even being able to hear my voice again, see me again, helps them feel like a little bit more normal. And then I also do these check in surveys, or, yeah, just a Google form. I have them fill out each week. Kind of just asking them how they're doing. How are you feeling this week? And Like, is there anything, any feedback you have, for me any suggestions for me, so that helps to know to like, where they're at. And I think it helps them feel like cared about, because I care about knowing how they're doing. And I really do read all of their responses. So, um, and I'll try to respond to them. If it needs the response as well. So, I know it's definitely hard though because I mean, not 100% of them. You got registration, like I still have one student in it, who I cannot get ahold of at all has not been on no contact, and it's like, there's nothing like, I can't show up at their house, you know, so, it's just hard, but for the most part, I think my students are doing okay, I feel like I live I teach a demographic that is very blessed. And most of them are not having too hard of a time, other than just like missing their friends.
Caroline Gardner
So do you do teach at a public school?
Teacher in Utah
Yes. Public School? Yep.
Caroline Gardner
And do all of your students have like access to the internet? And did most of them have computers that they can use? Does your school provide the computers? or?
Teacher in Utah
Yeah, they all I would say have access to the internet for sure. And most of them have access to computers, but our school does offer a they rent out Chromebooks. If any student wants on our whole district actually does that. And I think more the reason of people needing the Chromebooks isn't necessarily because they didn't have a computer. Because like I said, like my demographic really is. I'm pretty blessed but they it's more like they have four kids at home who are need to be on a computer to do the learning. And they can't all be sharing one. You know what I mean? So that's why they rent. They're like we've rented out way more Chromebooks. And I think that's the reason why it's just because you think about, like, if you have four kids at home all trying to learn, or even just two or three, like trying to share a computer when you have anyways, and maybe the parent needs a computer for their work, you know, so if there's only one computer at home, that's not enough, so a lot of them have had to rent Chromebooks, but that the school has provided that so yeah, they all do how to access now.
Caroline Gardner
That's awesome. That's really cool. You guys are doing that. Okay, I just have like two more questions. I'm sorry. I'm taking up a lot of your time though. Yeah. Um, so would you say or Okay, so my first question is kind of like a two part question. Um, how are you interacting with students with learning differences? To need more support, and then do your students ask about the pandemic? Like, do they want to talk about that? Do they not want to talk about that? Has it come up? How do you talk about that as a teacher and a leader.
Teacher in Utah
And as far as dealing with students, you know, have learning disabilities or just a harder time, they I, most of my kids, my special needs kids who were in my classes are now just working with the life skills teacher and not actually participating in my class. So that's not really on me anymore, I guess. But one student is trying to actually go the normal route, get her degree, she basically is asking to be treated like a normal student wants to participate in everything. But she does have those learning differences. And so she has really struggled with this online learning because it can be so confusing technologies are Like, no one's there to help you and her poor mom is like Trump doesn't understand it. And so it's just that one, I've had to be in direct contact with her mom a lot. And we set up instead of her having to submit things through Canvas, the learning management system we use, because that just got so confusing and hard for her. I just said, Send me a picture, like just email me a picture when you've done it. And so that's worked a lot better. I think that's taken a lot of stress off of her. And then I also started to create I learned this after the first couple weeks, so he's definitely learning how I create video tutorials where I will screen record my computer, going through the actual assignment in the like announcement videos, I've talked about it, but it's not like they were seeing the actual screen. So I started recording those videos and I that has helped so much. I mean, for all my students, my seventh graders, especially it's This helped them I think, because I guess I sometimes that assume like they know how to use Google Slides. We use it all the time in class. But I don't think I realize how much like I walk around and just answer an easy little question here and there. And now they don't have that and they get completely stuck. So just creating those video tutorials, that helps immensely. I also do offer office hours on zoom if they're needed, but I asked each week if they are wanting them and most of them say no. So I guess they just prefer the video tutorials. So anyways, that's probably how that goes is just being in contact with the parents and then trying to offer as much support as I can from not being there. And then as far as then asking about the pandemic, especially at the beginning, they asked a lot about it because it was like, new and they were panicked about it. And it was scary. It's like what for having the Cancel school like this is serious like, you know, I don't think they realized even though they've been hearing about the Coronavirus, I don't think they realized, like all of a sudden when we're canceling school, and that's like never happened for them, you know, they're all of a sudden panicked about this. And so, like when I had them, ask those questions, my subscribers asked me questions. tons of them were like, Are you scared of getting a virus? Like, are you scared about this pandemic? Are you scared of this? I scared of this? Like, how do you feel about this? A lot of them are related to the pandemic. And it just almost like breaks my heart thank them. So like, panicked and sad about it, but I just would just them I just answer them. And now it's, it's kind of more of an old news almost. So I don't, I don't get them talking too much about it now. Now, it's more just like how long do you think this will last? Like? When do you think this will go to now that we know it's still the end of the question? Yeah, I probably won't even get those questions. So
Caroline Gardner
how do you answer those questions when students are asking you if you're scared, or if you're worried about x, y, and z, what do you tell them? Yeah.
Teacher in Utah
Um, I mean, I'm honest with them. And I like a lot of them and asked, like, Are you scared of getting the virus and I would say, I'm not personally scared of getting it because I feel like I'm healthy enough. I'm young enough that I would overcome it. I'm not at risk. However, I'm scared of getting it and passing it on to someone who is at risk, right? So I would just kind of explain it like that. But I would say, you know, I'm not scared because I am taking these precautions like I am staying at home as much as possible. Like, you know, I'm doing all these things that are going to help me be safe and so I'm, I just tell them like I'm not panicked, like, Is it a little like, Am I a little worried about all this? Yeah, this is all I know. This is all in search. And no, none of us know exactly what's going to happen. But just how being panicked or having fear is not going to help anything. It's not in our control. So, yeah, yeah, that's pretty much.
Caroline Gardner
Okay. There's my last question. Would you say your job is more or less stressful?
Like online learning versus in person?
Teacher in Utah
It's really hard to say.
Because teaching is stressful, just normally. very stressful. And I mean, the thing that online learning takes away is like, you don't have any classroom management. I mean, you don't have to deal with any classroom management, any type of students acting out. You don't have to deal with. Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of things, a lot of stresses it takes away in that regard. I mean, I'm not having to I have way more control over my schedule my day, way more flexible, like I can sleep and if I want to or not, I can go to the bathroom whenever I feel like it. Like there's definitely some pros to online learning. But I would say I mean, I still hate it. I wish I could. It's not what I'm saying there are blessings to have, but I 100% would rather be in the classroom. Um, I don't know that it's stress for me because I am blessed to not be to not struggle so much with technology. Because a lot of other of the older teachers who this was like, the most overwhelming thing for them because they never even use technology much in the classroom. So having to go to 100% technology was like insane And then to do for me it was really stressful at the beginning super overwhelming because we had such late notice, like we were told on a Friday that we are going to distant learning and then we had that weekend like to transfer everything over. And obviously you don't have to have like, the next five weeks laid out, but you have to have at least that week and like even that it's just a lot. And so that was overwhelming. Like that was stressful because it's time consuming, but it takes a lot of time, especially initially. So that was really stressful for sure at the beginning. I think now that we've done it for weeks now. Well, it was five weeks couple we had spring break. So it's been four weeks of actually doing it and I feel like I have it down more now. I've learned what works well for me and my process and I've had some technology hiccups, but I figured them out. So now it goes pretty smooth each week and
So I wouldn't say that technology stresses me out. It's more just like emotionally, more taxing, because I don't like I don't see my students, so I can't really fully know how they're doing. Like only the people who are honest with me and respond to my surveys, do I know how they're doing? I can't force them to do that, you know, and like I said, there's still students who I've had no contact with, I've been able to contact them. So that's, that's the hard part. And then I'd say the other hard thing that's maybe a little stressful, but I've set up boundaries. At the beginning. It was like, answering emails, 24 seven, just like glued to my phone or my computer. Like because I want to be able to give an immediate response because I don't want my students like stressing or like, you know, if they stuck on an assignment, I want to be able to immediately help them. And so, the first couple of weeks, I was like, 24 seven, just answering emails getting so many emails, that was hard, because normally it's like, I would keep my work at school. If I had to go in early or stay late to finish it at school, I would, but I didn't, I never brought it home. So when I was home, I could just be home. And that's been the hard balance to find, because I'm home all the time. So it's really hard for me to like, stop and be like, okay, we are done for today. Like it is time to just focus on other things, you know, keep a balance. But I have set up No, I told my students like if it's between these hours, you can expect a response within like an hour or so you know, and then I told them like after these hours, I'm not going to respond. So you can expect a response the next day or whatever, so they know I'm still going to respond as soon as I can, but they don't have that expectation of like an immediate response. And sometimes at the beginning, they were expecting like immediate grading to, like I've had to really make clear expectations that it's like, I still am a human who has a lie. Like, I can't they just glued to my computer doing this 24 seven. So I don't know. It's hard in ways that I wouldn't necessarily say it's stressful. If that makes sense. I don't think stressful is the right word. I think it's emotionally hard. So I'm not making those connections with my students. I'm not getting to see them. I just I miss them so much, but I wouldn't say it's necessarily stressful for me. For other teachers. Yes, it's very stressful.
Caroline Gardner
So what do you do to kind of like take care of yourself.
Teacher in Utah
Um, I get up and do yoga every morning. That's how I start my day. I love yoga. And since I have flexibility over my schedule and I'm not having to be like up and ready to go somewhere that early in the morning, I have time to really start my mornings on the right side, which is really nice. I do appreciate that. So I get up, I start out, I do not look at my calendar, I try not to look at my phone and just get up, I do some yoga meditation, and then I will eat breakfast. And then I will decide to look at my phone and my computer and things. Every day. I also make sure I actually get outside. I live in a basement apartment that's especially important for me. And whether that's like a luck of run a bike ride. I try to get physically active, you might consider yoga exercise, but I want more than that. So I'll get my heart rate up and I'll get outside every day. Um get away from the technology for a minute and Yeah, that's probably the two main goals I have every day is to do that, that I also I do things that I enjoy, like make time for things that I love doing or I have fun doing just hobbies or if that happens to be watching a movie that night, like just something that I actually enjoy doing. So
Caroline Gardner
that's awesome. Um, well, is there anything that you think that I've missed anything that you think that would give me like a fuller picture of your life or the life of your students?
Teacher in Utah
I don't think so.
Caroline Gardner
Cool.
Teacher in Utah
We pretty much covered it all. So
Caroline Gardner
okay, I have one last question is okay, if I take a picture for the article, okay. A nice zoom interview picture.
Okay, perfect. Well, thank you so much. This was a great, I really, really appreciate it. Best of luck with your students. I hope I everything turns out okay
Thank you, good luck with the rest of your online school.
Two more weeks of school ever!! Thank you so much. It's great to meet you.
Teacher in Utah
You too. See ya.