Remote Learning

 Remote learning is weird. It has been a learning curve and it has had it's fun movements but it also has had it's awful ones. I feel so disconnected with the students. I feel like if I continue doing remote learning I might as well just record the lesson and use it every year and I won't have to teach anymore. All I would have to do is hit play and answer any questions the kids have. Although, during remote learning I have realized that kids don't ask anything. after I'm done explaining I stop and ask if they have any questions and they all won't say anything. I don't know if it's because they are shy or maybe they are not even in class and they just turned on their computer and went to do something they actually like. I mean, I won't blame them because that's what I do in my university classes. During the fall I would put in my headphones in and I would go play a couple rounds of golf while the professor talked.  Now, I go on hikes while they talk, I rather be doing something then sitting in front of a screen. So, if I can't even sit still and pay attention to class, how do I expect my students to do the same? I know that there is many ways to make remote learning fun and interactive but I feel like that only works for about 20% of the students. The rest have suffer in their education because of the fact that we are virtual now. You can build an online school and have students learn from the same lessons and have the same resources but every one learns differently. They need that face to face connection for them to be interested and learn. The worst part is when half of the kids go to school one day and the other stay home to do "home learning" and then they switch. We are separating friends and making them do work at home that we all know they will not do. I currently sub in the Brandon school division and it is scary to see what is happening to the kids. My grade 10 math class was so behind because they aren't learning like they used to. Teachers are cramming so much work so they can "finish" all units but what is the point of that if they won't learn anything because it is too hard to learn that way.  Kids are being overloaded, teachers are exhausted, educations is at a stand still. We will not move forward until we get back in the classrooms. You can argue that some teachers are really good at remote learning and the kids are learning because of these amazing teachers and that is true. There are some teachers who are amazing at it and they work so hard and long hours for their students so they can learn everything and learn it well. But is it fair to the teacher? I know many teachers who are doing everything for their students and they are tired. They sleep, eat, breath how they are going to make learning better everyday. They are preparing so much stuff so it's easier. They are learning so many different websites, programs and stuff to help them be better teachers and yet they are only getting around 3500 dollars a month for this.... I know that this is the way we have to do this because of the virus but we need to consider the well being and the hard work teachers make for their students. For now we just got to put up with it and keep doing what we do best and that is helping kids learn no matter how hard it can get.