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Article Response Paper

Mikki Steele

Education Department, Geneva College

EDU 482: Academic Skill Intervention for Exceptional Children 4-12

Dr. Mack

February 14, 2022

This article is about teaching during the pandemic and how it changed education for both

the teachers and the students. I picked this topic for the article response because I thought it

would be useful to learn about since online learning and navigating the classroom in an online

setting has become a necessity in the last two years. It gave great advice for how to deal with

teaching online and giving students a quality education despite not being in a regular education

setting.

The article was written at the end of 2020, the first year of the pandemic. Learning was

still primarily online, or in person but with masking. It teaches five lessons: focus on what they

need, pay attention to things parents are least likely to help with, make social interaction a

primary feature, avoid do-it-yourself school, and new challenges reinvigorate teaching. Moving

to online learning forced districts and states to reevaluate what curriculum was necessary for

students to learn. It became apparent that teachers should figure out where their students are

academically and emotionally and adjust their lessons according to that.

COVID-19 also forced teachers to reevaluate the way they assign homework, especially

in the elementary setting. Because parents are not actively learning the things the students are

learning in class, it will be a lot harder for them to help their kids, on top of trying to work from

home.

One of the biggest things the pandemic has taught us as a culture is to really value face-

to-face interaction. If we can keep this and make this a priory, even in out online classrooms, it

will make the students feel comfortable, seen, and included.

Students are in school to learn from their teacher, not teach themselves their lessons.

Making sure that you have synchronous lessons when online will benefit the students greatly.

Handling the online classroom is a challenge for everyone, from first year to seasoned

teachers. Although this can be frustrating, it keeps teaching fresh, new and different for both the

students and teachers.

Online learning is something that will not go away anytime soon. Even now, two years

post-lockdown, online classes are still something that is heavily used. Knowing and trying to

implement these lessons in my classroom will be very beneficial. Although these tips are

primarily for teaching online, they are still very useful for teaching in a regular classroom

setting. For example, figuring out where your students are at both academically and emotionally

is huge. Meeting the students where they are at, rather than expecting them to know everything

that they are “supposed to” according to the standards is going to be so beneficial for all students,

but especially students with special needs. Keeping these tips and tricks in my back pocket will

not only affect the way I teach online, but it will also help the way I teach in my regular

classroom.





Resources

Fisher, D., & Frey, N. (2020). Lessons From Pandemic Teaching for Content Area Learning.

Reading Teacher, 74(3), 341–345. https://doi.org/10.1002/trtr.1947