A Parent’s Guide to Distance Learning

A Parent’s Guide to Distance Learning: Tips from Concord Lutheran Academy

In Spring 2020, America suddenly and unexpectedly discovered the need for elementary school students to abandon the classroom and learn primarily from home. As well, many parents of school-age children were also asked to work at home. Each situation provides challenges on its own, but in combination can be especially daunting.

As the traditional time to open schools approaches in August, our hopes of reopening for in-person studies, at least in California, appear to be put on hold for a time. Preparing for school to again embrace the distance learning model will be essential to ensure your child’s education isn’t also put on hold.

Concord Lutheran Academy (CLA) was able to facilitate a relatively smooth transition from classroom learning to distance learning last Spring and we offer these ìTeacher-tipsî to parents facing the same situation this fall.

Philosophy and Goals for Elementary-level Education

Preparations for any activity become clearer when the goals are well understood in advance. At CLA, our philosophy is that students must participate actively in their own education. They must engage their natural curiosity and desire to learn new things in order to succeed. As teachers, we must nurture that curiosity and guide students in a way that enables and supports each student to set and achieve their own educational objectives within an overall structure. We encourage parents to also support, but not short-circuit, their child’s learning experiences.

Among our goals for our students are these primary goals:

An understanding of the sinful nature of all people and God’s plan for our salvation through daily religious instruction. We acknowledge God as the creator of our universe and strive to learn how we can best operate within it, as his people.

Achievement of established grade-level objectives for each of the subjects required by the California Education Code. In doing this, we recognize that some students struggle in certain areas, while others can move beyond grade-level. Our faculty has success in adapting instruction to assist each student to remain engaged in learning and achieve their personal best outcome. 3. Gaining the social skills and self-discipline needed to effectively participate in our complex society and work both independently and in teams to achieve known objectives.

4. Give each student the opportunity to master the life-long learning skills needed to succeed in higher learning (high school, college, and beyond), as well as nurture the interest in doing so.

The remainder of this article will give an overview of how we approach each of these goals in our classrooms and the supportive approach we encourage our parent community to adopt in support of online learning from home.

Instruction that Recognizes God’s Hand in Creation

It may seem intuitive that science instruction should be informed by the God who invented everything, but what about math and social studies? Mathematics goes a long way to explain the ordered way in which God approached creation and the complex relationships that exist between the objects of his creation.

Also, the way that people interact with each other in society is best understood by recognizing that people are sinful creatures living in a world that was designed to be perfect. In this way, our students recognize that utopian visions of social justice fueled only by the ìinherently goodî nature of people are unachievable.

Our parent community shares these Christian perspectives and has taught their children to know God and listen to his voice throughout their lives. We see this mutual reinforcement of God’s truth as essential to the nurture of future generations of Christians and the foundation that students need, especially when they are separated from the reinforcement of their teachers and classmates.

Adapting to different Achievement Levels

Students have varying levels of achievement, especially when left on their own. People tend to learn only those things that interest them and focus on areas where they have short-term success.

Our teachers work diligently to build and sustain each student’s interest in the various subjects that support success in future educational experiences and in life. We expose students to current events, interesting physical phenomena in space and human exploration, and practical application of mathematical concepts to everyday life.

In the distance learning scenario, parents must take on a significant role in nurturing interest in a variety of subjects. We encourage parents to discuss real-world events with their children, recognizing that they don’t have the same depth of understanding that the parent has, but also recognizing that education has a role in building that mature understanding of life. We encourage parents to include their children in applying math to their daily lives, whether in making financial decisions, figuring out batting averages for favorite baseball players, or gas mileage for car trips. The ìwhy it mattersî related to these life lessons is especially important in sustaining interest for most students.

Social Skills and Self-Discipline

Schools are a great mechanism for building social skills. Daily interactions with fellow students and adults help students to learn ways to interact without conflict and how to peacefully resolve conflicts when they do occur. Interactions with family members are different from non-relatives and essential for a student.

In the absence of the controlled environment of a school (yes, teachers sometimes need to referee interactions between students) parents should not shy away from including children in their daily interactions with people outside the home. When on shopping trips, ask children to participate in decisions about which things to buy. This will encourage them to apply academic learning to the real world. Encourage the child to interact politely with people in the store, just as the parents do themselves. Asking questions of store employees helps to build confidence in social situations and to identify sources of reliable information.

Involving children in achieving the objectives of a shopping trip in an efficient manner supports their development of the self-discipline needed in life. ìShiny objectsî are always available to distract people from their immediate goals, but we must all learn to recognize when it is inappropriate to focus on them to the detriment of our real objectives. At other times, however, ìvoyages of discoveryî should be unhindered by time and other constraints. Part of growing up is learning to tell the difference and make both enjoyable.

Life-Long Learning

There are many tools available to support learning. Prominent in today’s world are the Internet and computerized search tools. Our teachers incorporate these tools into the classroom, where appropriate to achieve educational goals. We encourage parents to also encourage their children to use these powerful tools to support research from trusted sources; however, as we all know, there are vast numbers of untrustworthy sources and traps for the innocent littered throughout the Internet. In school, we carefully monitor our students’ use of the Internet and ask parents to also be vigilant.

Recognizing that some people have the goal to convince us to do things that may be wrong, and to present false information to support that goal, is important to everyone. Left without supervision, children may accept this information as true without critical analysis of the presenter’s potential bias and motives in presenting false information. Teachers require that students only use authoritative sources to support research and teach students how to recognize these sources. In the distance learning scenario, parents must also monitor sources and be prepared to answer questions like, ìMom, what is fake news?î

Wrapping Up

Finally, teachers recognize when students have reached the ìlearning overloadî stage. If you wondered why someone invented recess, this may be a clue.

Everyone has days when learning comes easily and days when it seems like learning objectives are at the top of a mountain. Teachers and parents can usually tell when the student needs a break by the increased fidgeting and lack of attention on display. The key, though, is to be watching often enough to notice these signs.

Parents working at home with distance learning students must make a conscious effort to interrupt their own workday to supervise the educational experiences of their children. This is not easy for a parent, especially when their own work is engaging and demanding. Teachers often make a periodic, visual sweep of the classroom to determine the attention levels of their students. Parents might adopt this technique by adding periodic breaks to their own workday to get up from their desk, observe their child engaged in learning, and taking short breaks together, when needed. A short walk outside, a healthy snack, or just a quick conversation may be all that’s required to enable both parent and child to refocus and get back to their tasks at hand.

At CLA, our faculty and parents work together to create an environment that supports learning, wherever that may occur. In the distance learning model, parents must take the lead in establishing that environment and being the primary ìquestion answererî and ìlearning supervisorî. Our teachers do continue to have daily ìvirtualî contact with students and are working on processes to stay connected with parents and jointly evaluate each student’s progress toward achieving learning goals. If you would like to join our educational community, please visit our website (www.concordlutheran.com) or contact our office for more information at (951) 777-4252