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Building Relationships at the Start of Remote Learning


To all teachers and students reading this, I’m Kevin Ruiz a rising senior at Cleveland STEM high school, starting the first week of September I'll be starting my senior year, and with that comes lots of excitement but also disappointment that we won't get to start our senior year being in school with our classmates but we still have virtual learning and with that comes a lot of new experiences and difficulties but I will lead you guys through a collection of blogs that talk about what we as students will need when it comes to our situation from a high school seniors perspective.

Building Relationships at the Start of Remote Learning

At the beginning of the year, us students always find ourselves doing icebreakers to learn our classmates and over the years you slowly know everybody in your high school, by senior year you probably do know everybody so the ice breakers become useless at some points, but usually we were never really able to establish a great relationships with the teachers 1 on 1 unless you went out of your way or a teacher made the effort, but in most cases we really don’t get to know the person that we would rely on for the school year, but now it is even harder for us to build relationships with other students and teachers because of virtual learning, as a student going into his senior year it's more important to me to build a relationship with the teacher because virtual learning may be easier or harder for some kids, for me it is harder because I'm a student who needs to be in a class like environment to really learn and intake information well, i am someone who can get distracted easily at home and i just need that setting of a classroom. Communicating with a teacher you trust is so much easier because you can ask the questions you need to be answered and get the help necessary.


Creating a System for Your Students

Teachers should be able to create a system that works for their class. A system where students can connect with their teachers and build an actual relationship for the benefit of the teacher. If a student can trust their teacher, the feedback will be much better, students will be able to go out of their comfort zone and get the help they need. If a teacher knows their student well and has met with them countless times, they will be able to know what's best for that particular student. As a student struggling in Calculus in the middle of this whole pandemic issue, it was really hard for me to understand what I was learning as I was just confused on everything, so I reached out and my teacher was able to set a time with me 1 on 1 every week where we would review the assignments and topics being taught and it was very helpful I was connected with my teacher and it helped me raise my grade. I feel The system that a teacher creates should be able to work a regular schedule and a schedule that meets the needs of the student just like how mine did, there are many ways to have a system that works, few examples listed below, and what us students want is to have somewhere we can go and get that support that we need during this virtual learning setting

Having Weekly or Daily Check-Ins

Having daily or weekly 1 on 1 check-in with each student would help build a base to work on, for students going out and getting the help they need, being able to connect with each student regularly, I feel will be very impactful. Students will also be able to get more engaged as they know they have to meet with their\ teachers every week or day, and could also be used for a grade, giving the students more motivation to attend these check-in meetings but we as students would most likely prefer not to have attendance be graded, it should be based on our learning abilities, following the Floop philosophy. In other ways, we can track attendance and if students begin showing signs of regression, we can show it to them and identify the problem if attendance is the problem. meeting with teachers, students will have a place where they can ask questions when they are struggling, in a time where things can get very confusing and students have a hard time staying focused.

Office Hours

With office hours, a teacher can set up a specific time every week where students join their call and ask questions. The problem with this is that students might not join, since this wouldn't be required and other students might take up all the time but this could still be a good setup for teachers to have regular meetings with their students. Students would know when their teachers are available and work around their schedules. I was a student who would visit a teacher during office hours especially if I am struggling to understand the information that I am being given, it's just a good spot where students can actively join and maybe even have a discussion and help out each other if other students join. Teachers need to be emphasizing their office hours especially if that is their only way of communicating with their students out of class, having students know the importance of office hours will get them to come.


Floop

All of these ideas can be very attainable through Floop. Floop allows students to reach out to their teachers outside of school and share work, receive feedback, and also interact with their peers. Students could share their work with other students or the teachers directly and receive feedback when the other person is active on Floop. Floop is free for everyone until October 2020, But starting October 2020 for as low as 7$ a month a teacher can sign up for Floop and have access for up to a year, prices do vary and schools and districts can contact our Floop team for custom pricing!


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