What is distance learning comprised of? At Clearview Elementary School, it’s comprised of hard work, adapting, and successes.

“All staff, administrator, teachers, and support staff are learning a new way of teaching,” said Principal Sheri Rutar. “Our learning curve for technology and all its capabilities has been very steep and it has come to us very quickly. Every day adults are learning more and more so that we can support our students the best way possible in our new world of education.”

Although they’re all following District 742 guidelines and working together in district-wide support teams, teachers have also been finding distance learning success in their own way.

“The students had been using Seesaw platform previously, so that helped with the transition,” said fifth grade Spanish immersion teacher Kari McRaith. “But the biggest thing has been that the kids miss the social aspect of it. The majority have been here for six years, so it’s super emotional for them.”

She said students are also disappointed and emotional about missing out on fun activities they’d been looking forward to – the talent show, Gamelan, the Spanish immersion concert, the Inventor’s Fair, and fifth grade graduation.

“We’re still planning to do the Inventor’s Fair,” said McRaith. “But the kids will be making videos of their inventions instead.”

Some of her students are flourishing in the new environment and some are really struggling; she said it’s hard finding a balance that works for both groups. Videos and audios that she records, along with occasional YouTube videos, help. She also varies the way students need to respond to their assignments, such as an online paper one day and explaining with a video the next, providing students different ways to engage and succeed.

Setting up on Google Meet and Zoom has helped a lot, because now everyone is able to see each other for at least a little while each day.

“I know some of the parents are concerned with the amount of screen time students have right now,” said McRaith. “But we need to keep teaching them.”

Fourth grade Spanish immersion teacher Jason Badger said there really is no typical day in his distance learning classroom, it just depends on what they’re learning.

“Initially we worked mainly with the online platform Seesaw, where I load lesson videos and then the assignments they have to do,” he said. “The goal is to move toward regular lessons on Google Meet or Zoom, but there’s a lot of troubleshooting that has to be done. Often half the students will say they couldn’t get it to work.”

Because of the amount of time and effort it takes to keep up with just one area of content, he and his fellow fourth grade teachers each took a content area to teach and focus on; other grades levels in Clearview have done the same thing.

“We had less than two weeks to prepare for distance learning, so it was a scramble,” said Badger. “But the majority of students are doing the work and doing it very well. There’s been some big pros. For example, students have the option to record assignments, so I’ve been hearing more from the shyer kids than I did all year. And some parents have time to sit with their children, so they’re spending more time together.”

“Although it’s been a challenge, there’s a lot to be positive about.”

George Bienusa is Clearview’s Physical Education teacher, one of the subjects most difficult to teach remotely. Science teachers across the district are attempting to stay uniform, basing things off how their students are doing and then adjusting as needed.

“I do a lot of internet research,” he said. “And I’m on the PE Central Facebook page, where phy ed teachers across the world help each other.”

He ‘sees’ students in each class twice a week. His approach has been to create a video of himself demonstrating an exercise on one day, and a skill on the other, so the students can see him doing it first. Then they receive a 10 to 15 minute assignment based on what he showed them. For example, this week it was juggling.

“I can’t really assess everything because we’re not together,” said Bienusa. “For example, when the assignment is an exercise they just respond back that they did it. If it’s a skills-based assignment, some will just respond back and some will send me a video or picture of what they did.”

Along with the negatives, he’s also seen positives come of this new way of life.

“When kids are participating a lot of the parents are joining in on the activity,” said Bienusa.

“I had the younger kids create an obstacle course (they loved it!) and parents were joining them. That’s been great to see, but it’s just not the same [as face-to-face].”

Online teaching has been a new experience for art teacher Anna Barton, too, but she’s been collaborating with the district wide K-5 art team, as well as the ‘specialist’ team at Clearview.

“I’ve been reassessing and readjusting based on what works and what doesn’t,” she said. “I have to stay aware of what supplies the kids will most likely have at home.”

She teaches one lesson a week to K-2 students, and two to second to fifth graders, posting them as either slide shows with a voice over or a short video. The students create the project and then send her a photo of it. The majority of her day is spent going through all their responses.

“I’ve been trying to do themes,” said Barton. “For example, we created an interior design pop-up room and an origami house.”

Themes also vary depending on grade level. Recently the students created self-portraits; K-1’s were based on what they want to be when they grow up, second and third graders’ were portraits of themselves as superheroes, and fourth and fifth graders created theirs based on the artist Victor Nunes, who creates his art by laying down an everyday object and then drawing around it, turning it into something else entirely.

On Fridays Barton offers optional projects students can choose to do if they have the supplies. One her favorite so far was last week when students sent her a video teaching her about art.

“A lot of them replied,” she said. “They were very entertaining and repeated a lot of what I’ve said in class before.”

So far online meetings have been just for fun. Last week the kindergarteners’ theme was to show the class their pet or a stuffed animal.

“A lot of kids have been sad,” Barton said. “It’s hard. It makes you realize how much you miss them and how much you love your job.”

“It isn’t a lie by any means that we all miss the children horribly and would rather be in our buildings with them and their smiling faces,” said Rutar. “Until that time, we will continue to do google meets to see each other as well as teach and learn via technology.”

“I’m very proud of my staff and how hard they have worked to learn the Seesaw platform that our elementary schools in St. Cloud Area School District are using,” she said. “Every day, they’re digging deeper into their own lifelong learning to create more engaging lessons for our students. I could not be prouder of each and every one of them.”