Teachers are asked to teach kids at school and at home simultaneously
School districts are under increasing pressure to reopen
With third grade back in the building, Meghan Foster was teaching math one recent morning to two classes at once: 14 students who filled her classroom on Maryland’s Eastern Shore and another six children logging in from laptops at home.
To make it work, the veteran teacher from Caroline County used a desktop computer, a laptop and a document camera, adjusting for glitches as she went along. She strove to meld the in-person with the virtual, to strike a balance between children who are near and far.
During a pandemic school year when nothing in education has been perfect, the kind of double duty needed for simultaneous instruction is its own kind of lesson, Foster says.
“Sometimes, I want to teach them how to multiply, but I end up teaching them how to persevere when things get tough or how to problem solve,” said Foster, 41, who called it the greatest challenge she has faced in 20 years of teaching.
Simultaneous teaching — also called simulcast or concurrent — is what many districts across the country have settled on in an attempt to solve the logistical jigsaw puzzle involved in bringing back some students for in-person instruction while others continue learning from home.
And it’s about to get ramped up in dramatic fashion. Under pressure from President Biden and governors, and facing mounting evidence that schools can reopen if safety measures are followed, districts in the Washington region and nationwide are embarking on the difficult mission of returning hundreds of thousands of children to classrooms that have been shuttered for nearly a year.
Even as the vaccine rollout continues, not everyone will go back to school. Many families are choosing to keep their children home, deeming the health risk too great. Schools may limit in-person days to allow for adequate social distancing, making for a hybrid approach that combines virtual and in-person learning.
Supporters of concurrent teaching say it reduces staffing problems, minimizes disruption by keeping children with the same teachers and allows for a relatively seamless reversion to total distance learning, if a class or school sees an outbreak of the coronavirus.
But the experiences of teachers who have been using the concurrent model since the fall show it also places tremendous demands on educators. Teachers are performing two challenging jobs at the same time — while navigating pandemic-era classrooms where desks are six feet apart, masks are a must and everyone is hemmed in by strict safety rules.
Some teachers maintain the hardships are outweighed by the benefits of getting students back inside classrooms, where they can better connect with peers and teachers and get face-to-face help when they need it.
That’s the way Foster sees it — and she adds a bit of fun, too, calling her virtual students “zoomies” and her in-person kids “roomies.” She says the playful nicknames are a way to bring them together as one class.
But critics say the concurrent model could lead to burnout or even cause teachers to leave the profession. It also doesn’t make sense, they say, because teaching kids virtually requires different instructional methods than teaching in person.
“It is not humanely possible to engage kids in person and online at the same time with the attention that is needed,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers. “Teachers are very, very, very frustrated by this.”
Skeptics also argue there are other ways to provide in-person instruction during the pandemic. Some schools are bringing students into classrooms to do virtual learning, and hiring “classroom monitors.”