Mr. Steven Cooper and Mr. Cory Packer love teaching. The 5th grade teachers at Pennsylvania Leadership Charter School (PALCS) love it so much, in fact, Mr. Cooper often finds himself getting home from a day of teaching 5th graders and jumping straight into leading lessons with his 8-year-old daughter and her friends from the neighborhood.
“Her and three other kids on the street, they’ll go, ‘Mr. Steve is gonna teach us. Some days I’m like, I really don’t want to do the math and school with the whole block, but we’re gonna do it,’” Mr. Cooper said in an episode of Winging It, PALCS’s podcast.
Teaching students at home is nothing new for PALCS teachers, who are used to a cyber learning model.
Getting students involved in an online classroom
Keeping students engaged while they’re in an environment with endless toys and distractions can be a challenge, but Mr. Cooper and Mr. Packer say they’re not afraid to put on a “song and dance” to get students involved. They also know the importance of building relationships through morning meetings and playing games.
“If you create a relationship, the students are going to want to do more,” Mr. Packer said.
That relationship even includes getting pied in the face, an activity Mr. Cooper and Mr. Packer participated in earlier this school year as part of an effort to get students excited for i-Ready. i-Ready is an assessment students take where the results are used to determine subject matter knowledge, ensuring future lessons are at the appropriate level for each student.
Aside from whipped cream-based hijinks, PALCS teachers also use resources like Gimkit, an online gaming platform where teachers can lead students in school-appropriate virtual games like capture the flag and snowball fights. Teachers can add subject-matter quiz questions to the game, and students answer them to earn in-game rewards like snowballs and energy to move. Mr. Cooper and Mr. Packer say students love the game so much, they even play it with each other outside of class time.
Getting creative in a virtual classroom
Both Mr. Cooper and Mr. Packer say the favorite part of their job is, well, teaching.
“When you’re a teacher, you want to work with kids. And when you come to cyber, you think, ‘okay. How is this going to translate?’ Zoom is the platform. I want to be in Zoom all the time, I want to see my students all the time,” Mr. Cooper said.
PALCS teachers also get to be creative with their lessons. Mr. Cooper and Mr. Packer say they love using Zoom breakout rooms, which they described as the virtual equivalent of group work in a brick and mortar classroom. In a breakout room, groups of 2-4 kids can talk about the lesson or assignment. Teachers have the ability to join these rooms to check in on the conversation, giving them time to answer any questions and gauge an individual student’s grasp on the topic.
“If I was in a brick and mortar school, I might stop by that one corner and say, ‘hey, any questions? What’s the conversation sounding like so far?’ I can do that same exact thing. That’s the fun side of it. It’s getting creative with the digital tools we have and creating experiences,” Mr. Packer said.
Growing leadership skills with small groups
These smaller groups also allow students to grow their confidence and leadership skills. In a breakout room, a teacher might ask a student to share their screen and take notes, or make sure the group is on task. For some students, being a leader is easier in the comfortable environment that an online charter school provides.
“The parents will say, ‘he’s so shy, he doesn’t want to talk to people sometimes.’ And I’ll say, ‘well, he talked to four kids today and led the group, and he did an amazing job,’” Mr. Packer added.
Hear more from the conversation with Mr. Cooper and Mr. Packer:
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