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Old Boys' News

Flexibility key to Elementary distance learning

In mid-March, when the Coronavirus pandemic closed all schools, the entire Selwyn House School curriculum had to be transferred to an online structure overnight. In Elementary School, this called for a much more flexible framework than the one adopted for Middle and Senior Schools.
 
Selwyn House Elementary School Head Kathy Funamoto describes her new distance learning curriculum as “a hybrid model.” It’s easy to see why that’s necessary. Elementary students make up a much broader range of ages and skill levels than students in the upper grades do. “I can’t imagine a Kindergarten student sitting in front of a computer screen for too long a time,” she says.
 
The COVID-19 situation has created challenges for everyone, Mrs. Funamoto points out. For instance, half of Selwyn House Elementary teachers have children under the age of 5 at home. Parents—who may be working at home while their sons are doing their distance learning from Selwyn House—may be finding it difficult to gauge whether their son is completing his work.
 
“We need to be explicit to the parents about things that are instinctive to teachers,” says Mrs. Funamoto. In the pre-pandemic world, a teacher in a classroom would present a lesson and could see right away which students understand the material and which don’t. In the online world it may be a few days before a teacher gets work back from a student, so there’s no instant feedback.
 
“It’s a learning moment for the parents as well, as they become sort of home-based teaching aides,” she says, “but some parents are asking for a little more instruction, and so we’re working on that.”  
 
“Everyone’s finding these times so difficult, so, for them, I’m trying to say, ‘Don’t be so hard on yourselves.’ My message to families is: ‘If this doesn’t work for you, it’s okay.’”
 
“What we’ve done is more organic,” she explains. “All the teachers are on board with the plan, but it’s not as rigidly structured with respect to time. With the younger boys it’s a work in progress, because we’re just trying to assess their daily learning.”
 
On April 6, the school launched a new centralized website called Selwyn House @ Home, which explains the functioning of the school during the shutdown period. The Elementary section of that website can be found here. New content will be added as of 8:30 am every school day.
 
“That was the major part, adding that centralized website,” says Mrs. Funamoto. “The parents can go to one site where they’ll see their son’s day, and if they have multiple sons in the Elementary level, they have just one place to go.”
 
Any kind of live classes are done on Zoom, a popular videoconferencing app. These may include full classroom instruction or chats, as well as small-group video conferencing or drop-ins, where a teacher sends out a link that any student can use to contact the teacher for a consultation.
 
Fortunately, Selwyn House has long had a solid grounding in technology such as Seesaw. This digital portfolio app allows students to post their work where it can be reviewed by teachers and parents. For the past three years, Elementary students had been using Seesaw a few times a week. Now it’s multiple times a day.
 
“Our platform for sending information home, especially in Grades 1-4, where parents are very much involved and helping us teach, is Seesaw,” says Mrs. Funamoto.
 
“Grade 5 and 6 were already using iPads loaded with Google Classroom and Google Calendar, so I think that was an easier transition. They were, for the most part, ready to be distance leaners.” 
 
Many things remain unchanged since the transition to distance learning, says Mrs. Funamoto. Although it’s all homework now, teachers still give assignments with deadlines, and follow up on them. Math, grammar, reading, spelling, language, writing essays, reading novels, are all still part of the new program. Teachers will still assess a student’s grasp of the course material. A Selwyn House report card will be issued in June, with a written comment in both languages, whether it has actual marks or not.
 
Fortunately, much of the new learning environment comes naturally to elementary-aged children, Mrs. Funamoto says. “Most boys are online and they’re happy. They were very, very happy when we started the Zoom lessons, because they got to see their classmates and teachers.”
 
“It’s really important for the group to see that, even though they’re in a strange environment, they’re back in school. It’s a mix of trying to keep engagement and enthusiasm, and to continue the curriculum at a pace where there is learning. But we have to be careful because it’s a difficult time.”
 
As Headmaster Hannaford has said, at this time, more than ever, at Selwyn House we truly value community over curriculum.

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