Helping Your Child Understand Their Virtual Classroom

These days, many parents are asking how they can work without interruption while their child is doing virtual learning at home. With young children (K-2) this can feel daunting. You may be concerned that your children will need your support not only in completing their work, but in learning HOW their virtual classroom works. They will! They will need your help learning how to participate in their virtual classroom. A proactive way to promote independence is to spend time upfront supporting your child in their virtual classroom. This means sitting with them until you feel they can participate 90% of the time independently. Then you will be able to focus on your work with less stress and fewer interruptions.

Spoiler alert: There are no easy hacks, but starting the year off with this teacher trick of the trade may help you and your child have a more independent, productive and less stressful year.

As teachers, we know that teaching routines and procedures are the key to having a class that runs smoothly throughout the year. From day one we teach students how the classroom "works", so they can be independent and focused on their learning rather than worrying about how to do all the things school requires.

Some of these procedures include how to line up, how to use the bathrooms, and how the cafeteria works. We support them in these tasks until we know they understand how to participate safely and effectively with minimum adult help. We even give up our own lunchtime the first two weeks of school so that we can ensure they know how to get lunch, eat safely and clean up. Don't we have other things to do?? Absolutely - a LOT of other things. However, we know that focusing on teaching routines at the beginning of the year goes a long way towards having happy, confident, and INDEPENDENT students.

In the same vein, you or another adult may want to sit with your kids consistently at the computer for the first week (ouch) of distance learning and then frequently thereafter until your child is showing a complete understanding of the routines and procedures of their virtual classroom. For younger children this will most likely take more time. The skills they will be learning may include: learning how to mute their mics, turn their cameras on and off, raise their hand electronically, and ask and answer questions. We teachers will be teaching and practicing these details with them, but with your support the mastering of these new tasks may take less time, which will give you more time to work. Without interruption. It's also helpful for you to see how your child's teacher will be running class, what their expectations are, and how the children will be showing what they know, so if your child does struggle, you will understand how to help them.

As the first week moves along, you will want to gradually release them....which is also what we do in school. We continue to support them until we see they are beginning to understand what to do. As we begin to see them acting independently in basic tasks, we gradually remove them from adult supervision. The goal for you would be to sit with your child for the first 3-5 days at a minimum. The younger they are, the more time it may take for them to master virtual procedures. Once they begin to show mastery of participating in class, you can spend less time with them each day. You don't want them to rely on you to do everything for them. That may end up creating more reliance on you, which means less time for you to do your job. Gradual release = independent children. I've never believed in the throw them in the water method of anything (not that there's anything wrong with that), but I happily stood in the water with my children until they were able to swim safely on their own. Once I sensed that they could handle that distance, I began to stand back further and further each day, until one day I realized I could sit in a chair, read a book, have a snack, and not worry about them drowning.

Another way to support your child's independence during virtual class time is to make sure they understand how the device they are using works. This may sound simple, but it caused some significant issues with some of my kids in the spring. Some children may be use to using tablets and phones instead of laptops, so if the platform for your district works better on a laptop (many of my students had issues participating with phones and tablets) you will want to help your child adjust to this new type of technology (the two main issues were them finding where things are on the keyboard, how to use a mouse or touch pad, and connectivity, mostly on the iPad or tablet). If you are unsure of how any of the technology works, ask. the. teacher. ask. the. teacher. ask. the. teacher. No question is too small or too big. If your teacher doesn't know the answer, they will find someone who does. All teachers want our students to be able to fully participate so all children can learn as effectively as possible in the virtual classroom. The only way your teacher will know you or your child needs help is if you ask them!

You will no doubt receive information electronically about how the virtual classroom will work, but again, sitting with your child during their first week of virtual learning can ensure that both of you understand the procedures and expectations for distance learning. Because this will probably be a lot of new information for you and your child, you may want to take notes on the basic functions of the virtual classroom and tape it up next to your child's workspace for easy access. This can make it easier for you to help your child quickly when the have an urgent question about how to participate, and you need to get on a zoom call for your job.

Think about it: When you start a new job, you often have a mentor who will sit with you, answer your questions, help you understand how things run in the office. and what the expectations are for your job. Once you understand the basics, you can perform your job independently. If you are anything like me, you would probably have sticky notes or notes on your phone for a quick reference guide to help you remember the important procedures. That way you can be more productive and effective in your new job without having to ask or go through pages of online manuals.

Sitting with your child at the beginning of the school year may be one of the most helpful things you can do to ensure your child can work independently. Setting your child up for success is not only important so they can do their work, but so you can do your work without your kid knocking over your coffee. Sitting with your child at the computer may put you a bit behind in your work at first. It may seem unrealistic. It may seem that making the time for this is hard work. However, it will set up your child for success and independent learning for the rest of the year. It is worth setting aside time at the beginning to give your child the tools needed to have a successful year.