A Virtual Start

A False Start To A New Year

Ahh.. the beginning of a new year, filled with opportunities, new goals and… more screen time?!? Thanks to the uptick in the new Omicron variant and the rise of Covid-19 cases in our region, school kicked off with a virtual start to the new year. After months of in-person classes, Cyla and Rachael talk about the pows and wows of learning in this way, with online school for elementary students. Plus what it will mean when the kids finally go back.

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Massive thanks to the awesome friends that lent their voices to our vision at the top of each episode.  Kelley Buttrick, Jill Perry, Nicole & Lila Britton, Trevor Johns, Caroline Slaughter, Tiffany Morgan, Cassie & Sabrina Glow ++ Jason Shablik & Van Gunter for their audio genius - we adore you all! 

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In Gratitude,

Rachael Laya & Cyla Grace Hoffman

Transcription:
[1:02] Stupid mike, hey, who are you calling? Mike, I'm mom not mike, I'm jokingif you were mom, I wouldn't be calling you stupid.

Ah good one, good one. Good one.

[1:19] Hi, hi, happy friday.

[1:24] Happy friday, which is not really friday if you're listening to this, well maybe it is, but if you're listening to this on the day it came out, it might be next Wednesday, who knows?

But today is friday here in the she sounds like me studio, we're recording it on Fridays, we're gonna set you right, right, right, so happy friday.

Say happy friday and happy friday if you're listening on a friday and if you're not happy whatever day that is.

[1:51] Happy, whatever day, happy monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, thursday, friday, saturday and sunday, Happy Day, Happy Day because it's the end of the first week of school in 2022.

[2:06] Starting off with a bang with a virtual start, virtual start to the new year, something we hadn't experienced yet in this school year thankfully.

I mean, I can't believe it took this long just to get to one.

It was strange, it was really strange because we haven't done it yet and I haven't done it on teams because we used an app called teams to do it Microsoft teams.

Yeah, yeah and they were and everybody was having a really hard time because it was glitch ng and they were getting kicked out and they couldn't hear and nobody knows how to mute their microphones. Exactly.

Their dog barking and their mom yelling at the baby brother. Same thing happens with adults and all these virtual meetups and zoom rooms and team meetings and all the things.

And everybody has been adapting fairly well.

[3:06] But it is interesting to come back to you after not having had that experience in quite a while, at least from a school's perspective.

Right? So you went back to school in person in the fall and you've been back ever since with no option to quarantine or no,

sorry, no need to quarantine thankfully, you guys have stayed face to face which has been quite a blessing.

And and now, you know, we had to deal with what we had to do with the new variant and the fact that there just wasn't enough teachers to support and to be safe for everybody involved.

[3:46] And thankfully we are going back to school in masks on monday on monday, we just got the news.

[3:56] Thank the baby jesus for jews.

We can still thank the baby jesus.

[4:05] Okay, anyway, sigh since I thought our listeners could relate best to your experience.

Why don't you talk to us about the highs and lows or the power and the wow of going back to virtual this week.

So the Pao was that everything was getting disconnected and,

glitchy and that and another Powell was that I wasn't able to hug her and say hi to any of my friends because we were,

all on mute, I quote.

Um and it was not able to be interacting and we were just sitting at home.

[4:55] But the wow was we were sitting at home and we had breaks and could be with her family. Yeah, that's true.

A power for me was that they had a schedule and uh never stuck to it, which is fine, we can be fluid and understanding the complexity that these teachers must be going through.

Well, not true. We had a schedule, But every class is like 20 minutes long and then I have an hour break.

That was weird. You're supposed to have a 10 minute break and an hour long class.

Yeah. I don't know how it got so consolidated, but because you go between so many different teachers in a day,

That it made it very difficult to continue to work if you like me, like, you know, trying to work here from home and every 20 minutes or so, you're like, I'm on another break.

I'm like, how long is this break? 30 minutes? Okay, go back to school. How long is this break?

An hour? What? That was a little stressful for mom.

I finally figured out what the hour and a half break is, what recess.

[6:03] You, but you don't normally get an hour and a half break for recess, you get like a 20 minute break for recess to explain that.

I don't know, I'm sorry, it's a virtual school, what do you expect?

I don't know. But I think everybody did the best job they could possibly do.

And your particular school did an excellent job of rising to the occasion and going immediately back into using technology to serve the greater good and the best way.

You know, that they were able to and that's that's a lie.

You gotta roll with the punches, you gotta roll with the punches and still stay focused and keep an optimistic attitude and know that,

you know, no matter how frustrating it is for the kids or the grownups, it could be worse. It could be worse.

We could be sick, we could not have technology,

we could be accumulating all these off days and then have to pile them on in the summer when the weather is really nice and you would rather be out at camp or playing with your friends on a vacation, right?

So you know, at least we have the resources to get it done.

[7:17] What were some more of the challenges that you faced in kind of learning in this way?

[7:24] Um, one of the challenges I would face is that.

[7:29] We weren't getting to explain it, but the teachers weren't being able to explain it that well because they had such a short time or they can't write it on the board,

and some of the people were left clueless and some people were like,

oh, like I learned this in second grade, I can just do it.

So you didn't feel like you could get the individual attention or maybe students didn't get the hands on. Yeah.

Because normally you're able to raise your hand and ask questions or go up to her desk and ask personal questions and you're only able to like,

raise your hand and every, virtually every virtually and every once in a while they will call on you.

But if you had an immediate question and they don't call on you, you're screwed.

[8:19] Yeah. Yeah. Maybe we could use a different word to describe that, but I feel what you're saying.

[8:29] Why are you laughing? You say screwed all the time.

Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Maybe that, well, you're, you're really messed up. How about that really messed up? You know, you you're in a hole.

[8:46] Yeah, that's a better kind of. So I think one of the things that I noticed was um that it's really easy to be distracted at home.

Yes, entirely because you have a bunch of stuff by you and a lot of people that were like in my class that were like in their bed.

[9:07] Half asleep, still some kids were coming in live from their from their bed, but they had a background on, so no one would see them.

Right, Well not everybody has a desk to work at, so I get that and you kind of want to take advantage of being comfortable at home.

But also when you're at home, like you sit at your desk, right, there's some things that are easy to kind of distract you with where you may not have that when you're at your school desk and your teachers got a full eye on you.

I know I didn't tell you, I haven't told you because this happened today and I was getting really sleepy.

I put a piece of tape on my nose because I had tape, so you're just goofing off on camera a little bit, just a little Okay, fair. So you're amusing yourself?

Yes. Yeah. I was half asleep because it was like the end of the day, you're kind of fading out.

What were some of the things that your teacher would do to kind of get your attention to really back in?

[10:08] They would actually call on you if you if they saw you like, they would be like, pay attention.

I'm calling on you. So random call outs. Yeah.

For questions that they would ask that did that ever happen to you? Were you know, the piece of tape was not noticed?

Okay. Good. But would you ever, were you ever not paying attention when you were called on?

No, I was paying attention.

So when I was kind of like fading out, it was like just we were watching the video that was like going over what we had learned, so.

[10:45] So during these experiences when you're like kind of falling out, how do you stay focused?

So if I'm going off the rails and I see something that I'm kind of d focusing on, I will push that aside or take it off of my desk and re insert myself into the conversation.

[11:05] I will breathe and then look at the teacher and finish my work.

[11:12] Or if I'm two doing something then I'm not focused about, I will breathe.

[11:22] Stand up, shake my body off and sit back down and get back to work.

Those are some really good tips. Do you find that picking up a fidget or something like that?

Is that helpful or distracting both?

I would say helpful because it will relieve like anxiety about like, oh my God, we're on screens, I'm gonna mess up, I'm gonna do work that I forgot to do.

[11:52] And then it's distracting because you're just playing with it and not focusing because you're like, oh, I want to pop this, pop it, and then you'll get distracted and keep going while your teacher is teaching,

and then school's over and,

you've learned nothing. Yeah so one of the things I like which is an unexpected like we mentioned is all these breaks in in normal school you would have much shorter breaks.

You would be moving between rooms or out to recess or lunch.

But these brakes are a little bit more significant. Do you feel like that is helpful to give your brain and body and focus a break or,

does that put a lot more space in between your last train of thought or your mindset of of studying and paying attention And is is it harder to come back in?

So me personally I wish that they just got it all done in the first two hours Instead of having like an hour break every 20 minutes.

[12:58] So we could get school done before 2:00. So I could have more free time.

Right? So you wish it was clustered and consolidated down to just for time wise and focus wise it also is hard to go off and be chilling and doing,

uh some exercises and then come back and I'm like,

I was just out of school why am I in school again?

So your brain waves have like gone to a different place in these bigger brakes and it's hard to come back.

Exactly because you lose focus in what you're doing and then you come back and you're like school brian back on and it's still just a like schools over. What are you talking about? Interesting.

I know that part of what they've tried to do is keep your specials going during this time because we had P. E.

And art was able to happen and like a little bit of construction.

So art, we just got a pad of paper and then drew art on the paper.

[14:07] And then for pe you had to like find a wide open space and do jumping jacks, curl ups and push ups and jogging squats and your exercises.

And then in instruction we practice tape measuring. That's cool.

But it wasn't working, it was more like kind of checking the box, is getting it done, trying to fill the time a little bit.

I'm with you, I actually agree that there should have been or could have been some consolidation in the day.

The way the schedule was initially laid out was quite a bit different and I know You've exaggerated a little bit, it's not like your classes were 20 minutes.

Um but they were definitely a lot shorter with these much bigger brakes and I'm sure it was a logistics issue for them, meaning like a scheduling, coordination issue.

Um And and that they did the best that they could, but I think for all students and for their grown ups that we're trying to manage it on the back end,

it would have been nice not to get interrupted every so often um with new schedule changes and needs, but you know like we said, we do the best we can.

So one of the reasons I think um the classes were a little shorter, it was because there's less that we're able to do because we're not in person.

[15:36] Like normally the teacher gets, gets paused every five minutes to answer questions,

so and then that takes up time and there's like board activities and activities that you have to turn into her immediately so she can process it and stuff.

Like in reading we would have phonics but we don't have phonics because we don't have our books.

And was there any homework expected? No Except for like a few experiments and tags that were like fun.

Yeah. Oh speaking of tag because you're busy. That was interesting because you switched over to a different teacher.

Yes. And so you met this teacher for the first time online this week and you said the transition was a little dicey.

[16:27] Like it wasn't your favorite experience in school, right?

Because I was used to a different type of teacher. And then we switched over.

I had a kind teacher that just was like oh you didn't finish it, I'll give you three more days right?

And then I switched over to a teacher that's like get it done today.

I want it turned in tomorrow like a very strict and a different approach right? She wasn't very strict but she's not,

my other teacher, you mentioned that she reminded of of me on my angry days.

Yeah, terrible poor teacher, poor kids.

Yeah, but also it's probably very frustrated because she has been dealing with glitches all day and we're her last kids of the day,

and she had a switch, a midyear shift of all new students on the first school day of the year, none of which she had known before because this was her first day in this role, right?

First year in this role and then the first day of the new semester.

[17:37] And for the first semester you have half the kids Because they do testing during the first semester and at the start of the second semester they get two times as many kids.

That's true. Yeah, a bunch of new students come into the program.

Yes, interesting. That's a good perspective to have. So I like that are just like five or 10, 7 people that were in our class. So how many are in that class now for you?

Maybe like 15? Oh, wow, great.

Yeah. So it's a big change for everybody and I have to say I really appreciate your perspective of putting yourself in your teacher's shoes.

That's a good kind and empathetic way to look at that situation. So maybe she's not always like mom on a bad day.

Yeah, maybe she was just having a bad day. Yeah.

So we cut her some grace and you said by the end of this week it got better. Yes, it's much better now.

She has got it figured out better goods online is Yeah. And maybe when you meet her in person next week, who knows?

She'll warm right up and maybe she'll be your favorite teacher, your new favorite teacher, maybe.

[18:51] Now in Microsoft teams, are you able to chat between students or between the teacher and the student?

So on teams, there's a little speech bubble in the corner, but you can, you can chat, but you can't direct it to one person or directed to the teacher. It's just open.

Okay. So if you use it then everyone sees it, which might be helpful if she's like, okay, first person to type in.

[19:19] The first person to type in the correct answer to 14 times 21 or something like that.

And so you're able to use that. And then, because we didn't have access to a lot of your books and things like that, how else would the teacher be able to give you educational resources?

So they'd say get a piece of paper and something to write with and just they would turn on their dot camera and then you copy down with the writing what you're supposed to write.

So I used my school journal. Okay. And then they played videos and other resources like that. Yeah. Mhm.

How long do you think you could last doing virtual school again without losing your mind?

Maybe like a month. And then I'd start like going crazy.

I mean like I technically did it for a whole school year.

Well, that's true. You know, I saw an interesting meme image like a graphic image the other day that said the last time school was normal.

[20:25] For and it listed every single grade and it was essentially two years ago.

So the last time you had normal school was first grade.

[20:37] Right? Which seems like forever ago because it was right in third grade, right?

And can you imagine if you were in first grade and you've never had a normal school experience or you know, second grade and.

[20:56] Kindergarten was kind of you started school in this way and you were playing with digit blocks.

Yeah, but you didn't have the interaction, you know? And I think that that's the biggest miss.

Honestly, I think the higher grades are the best years.

[21:14] Well, we'll see about that. Third grade is the best year so far so far.

Okay, well they're getting better as you go up. That's good to know.

I hope it stays like that for you. Getting more challenging and I like it.

Well, that's a really good perspective to have. But I wonder, you know, some of this, the covid precautions in place have been necessary in some aspect, right?

And everyone has a different opinion about that. We're not here to judge anyone's feelings about how that is, but it does break my heart for the younger kids and the older kids that are more isolated during these times.

And a lot of things can creep in like depression or anxiety or loneliness because you rely on your social circles so much to do entirely.

And so since, I mean, you're a good example of just being an only child, I have no siblings to get annoyed about or to play with. Right?

And so you're really counting on those friendships and not being able to engage on a regular basis in person.

It's frustrating, It's got to be a challenge. So I.

[22:27] So I commend you for staying focused and giving it your all and having a positive attitude this week and being kind and respectful to your peers and your teachers who are working so hard out there.

Yes, we have got to go teachers, you go teachers, all the educators and administrators out there that are working to make this experience the best it possibly can for students.

Um our hearts are with you because this is no easy feat, right?

And through all the doctors and the nurses for making it possible for the teachers and the students to make this happen, This is true, this is true.

I mean, I don't know how they do it, you know, I mean, I'm faced with it for one week while I'm trying to manage the business and work from home and I don't know how people do.

It will have more than one kid or who are also the teacher and the mother at home and um, or even homeschool full time, it really does take a certain,

level of patience and dedication and, and gosh, just willpower to get that done.

[23:39] So hats off to you guys and to the students that are doing their best.

You know, so excited to go back to school.

Yes, I am excited even though we have to wear masks will be okay.

Absolutely, we sure will and it's for the betterment of our community and so, you know, we're here for it.

[23:59] Well wish us luck. Hopefully you stay in school, no matter where you are. Hopefully you have these in person opportunities, let us know what your situation is.

You can always get at us on social media, you can send us an email or give us a call on the hotline, she sounds like me on the socials and she sounds like me dot com. That's the right cy.

Um, so let us know how it's going for you and we'll keep you posted if we stay in school, be cool, stay in school, be cool. Stay in school. School is new. Cool.

Yeah, yeah. Alright. Everybody have a great week and we'll see you next time. See you next time. Bye bye.