So, the other day was virtual Wednesday, a day that I personally dread. Wednesday is the day of the week when all of my students are at home attending classes remotely, regardless of the group they are in. As part of the Hybrid learning model, on Wednesdays, our schools remain closed so that each group has three days of remote learning and two days in-class learning.

If you teach like me, regardless of level, you know the ceiling fan well. Pretty soon you will be able to identify almost any make and model in fact. I say this because this is the face of our online students right now. Allow me to tell you my story. You may find it sadly familiar to your own.

On remote day I vow to teach the kids “live.” For those of you unfamiliar with this term that simply means that the camera is rolling and the microphone is on. In my district, the expectation is that the students follow their regular bell schedule. The teachers, as a rule, still have to report to their buildings.

I get to my room get the computer going, set up the smart board. I put some music on, depending on my mood and the topic we are discussing. The bell rings, the kids start “popping” in. I ask them all to put their names in the chat box. I see a couple of faces, but mostly its corny icons, even though the district administration insists on the kids showing their faces. Yeah, OK, good luck with that. I ignore that little detail anyway as I tell them (for the umpteenth time) to put their name in the chat box for attendance purposes. I haven’t told them yet that I now receive an attendance report automatically after each class. Maybe one or two of them might actually wave to me. After what seems like an eternity, the attendance is taken and I can finally begin.

I briefly speak to any housekeeping issues, reminding them of due dates and so forth. Then, finally, the lesson actually begins. Now some of you may already know that once you begin your presentation, you can no loner “see” your students. That’s when the exodus begins.

For me, the exodus began when I started talking about the causes of the French Revolution. While I realize its not exactly riveting stuff to a bunch of 15-year-old kids, that is my job and I am determined to do it, remote or no remote. I poured my heart and soul into that lesson. I ranted and raved about the inequitable distribution of wealth! I bemoaned the ineptitude of Louis XVI! I railed about the lack of representation in the third estate! On and on I went reaching a fever pitch as a mob of Parisian’s stormed the Bastille!

I had finished. If I had had a live audience, I would have taken a bow. I asked a question to check for comprehension. Crickets. Actually, I’m lying as I didn’t even hear that. What I really heard was nothing. Absolutely nothing. I stopped presenting and looked at the screen where my students should have been. What did I see? Ceiling fans, nothing but ceiling fans. Most of them did have lights. Some were on, some were off. In that class of 25 students (who were all present when I took attendance) not one student was visible. Not one student responded to my question. Finally, I asked if anyone was there. Silence.

I felt completely and utterly dejected. I tried to rationalize it. “It is early”, I said. “The French Revolution isn’t exactly exciting stuff”, I said. But nothing worked. The rest of the day was pretty much the same except during my 5 th period class. When I finished and had switched back there were the ceiling fans…but wait! Is…that…a…face? Well, it was a half of a face. Poor John fell asleep at the computer, listening to me! I can swear I noticed drool on the keyboard!

This is our world folks. Our children and our students are sitting in front of computers or tablets for hours on end. They are bored. They are not being supervised. They have no accountability. As for us teachers, we are very frustrated. We’ve tried everything in our arsenal but nothing works. How can we engage our students while they are remote learning?

Unfortunately, short of some futuristic virtual reality machine that completely immerses the students into your classroom, there is not much you can do, or is there? While there is no panacea, no sure-fire method that will keep your students engaged, there are some things you can do to try and generate interest in your online class.

As you have no doubt figured out, I teach Global History, not an easy topic even in the physical classroom setting. In the online environment its even tougher. But, the one thing that makes teaching so challenging is that you our constantly having to re-invent yourself. Once again, I’ve had to do just that. Here are some ideas that you can try that may, or may not work for you.

Before each class, I pipe in some music. In the mornings I keep it light, some classical perhaps. My go to’s are Beethoven and Mozart, maybe some Vivaldi in the spring. For the rest of the day I try to gauge my student’s interests. The end result is that some days Metallica goes on, some days Billie Eilish. I always try to keep it PG for obvious reasons.

Try to get to know your students. I’ve found that even in the actual classroom its harder than ever for me to get to know the kids when they are all wearing face masks! The one advantage of virtual is that this is a non-issue. You can usually catch them at the beginning of the class when most are actually showing their face (for attendance of course) Try to engage them. You don’t need to get their life stories, but I’ve found that most teens will talk to you, if they feel comfortable enough; to put another way, if they think you are “cool.” Sometimes, I tell them some funny story about something I did, or I’ll make fun of my age. The key is to keep it light. It won’t always work, but it is certainly worth a shot. The idea is to keep up some form of dialogue. Then, slowly, bring them around to the lesson you want to teach. For you, the key is to look at the bigger picture. If the aforementioned cost you three to four minutes so what? Even if half of them stick around for the rest of the lesson, you’ve already won.

If that approach is not for you, if you are determined to have your student’s attention for the full class time, you can always try this. As I said earlier, you cannot see your students once you have begun your presentation. There is a work around though, if you have another terminal or laptop available to you. A colleague of mine found a simple solution to this issue by simply logging in to his meet with another laptop. That way, he can glance at the one screen to see if his students are paying attention while he is teaching. Personally, I find this to be distracting.

At the end of the day, some of these approaches may work, some may not. But I always try to be realistic. As we have all learned at this point, you cannot control your student’s behavior when they are not in your classroom. At home, they are bombarded with a multitude of distractions that just do not exist in the classroom. Unfortunately, there is nothing we can do about that in the current COVID environment. The best we can do is adapt.

Writer: David Moglia

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