Building on What we Learned Last Year, Part 2
This is the second part in a two part series. For Part 1, go here.
The swift-but-necessary process to transition from face-to-face learning to online teaching in K-12 classrooms across the country affected not just millions of K-12 students but one or more of their parents. Suddenly, parents had to meet the educational needs of their children by assisting them with online learning. Teaching strategies that included kinesthetic and tactile learning processes, grouping, socio-emotional learning, and moving about became limited tools for teachers.
No matter how competent, teachers did not know how to continue the learning processes for children that occur through face-to-face interactivity, such as developing socio-emotional skills, playing with peers, developing relationships with peers, learning games or blocks, etc. As Reich noted, many teachers, regardless of their best efforts to transition to online learning, realized all too quickly that there were greater challenges than the role technology previously played in a classroom.
Two insightful thought leaders in this issue of change, both David Eagleman and Justin Reich connect the brain’s ability to grow with learning in a world of technology. Eagleman reminded us through his exploration of the brain and ability to grow that every child living now has a brain that developed as part of the Swipe Generation.
Children’s brains have adapted easily to the new way of learning, much more quickly than their parents. Parents must learn to trust in the ability of their children to accomplish the learning tasks presented to them in distance learning, which requires early online parent training.
So how can we strengthen the connections for parents struggling to help their children with distance learning? Here are a few helpful suggestions to follow for online parent training.
- Survey the parents. Find out what you can leverage from student home lives to spark learning.
- Build and cultivate parent learning communities through systematic marketing for the purpose of building an online community.
- Train parents early in the school year. Give parents incentives to become involved.
- Run rolling sessions of training for parents and offer some type of reward.
- Give parents a sense of control by providing guidelines.
- Use digital learning strategies and activities to increase more engagement and participation.
- Train parents in critical home routines and learning for their children.
This is the second part in a two part series. For Part 1, go here.
Image above by Shafin Protic.