Notes from the Field: Remote Learning
Over the past two and a half weeks, as we’ve coped with the rapidly-changing realities of life during the COVID-19 crisis, we have witnessed tremendous resilience, determination, flexibility and compassion in our PCS community. And, the spirit of care and connection fostered by our collective efforts to carry on in the face of profound challenge and uncertainty is helping us realize just how much community matters to learning at PCS.
With only days’ notice, teachers and staff left their classrooms, resources and materials to shift to an at-home virtual instruction model intended to honor the project-based, learner-centered approach that is central to learning at PCS and key to nurturing the social-emotional, as well as academic, lives of PCS students.
To date, the PCS remote learning program combines:
synchronous learning sessions conducted live via Zoom
remote assignments facilitated through Google Drive and Classroom
individualized, small group instruction led by facilitators and learning specialists
continued specialized resources for students with specific needs
weekly enrichment offerings in Art, Spanish, Music, and Wellness
digital collaborations among students
curated collections of digital and screen-free resources for families
and, loosely-structured virtual meet-ups for students just to hang out and chat with much-missed classmates.
“Our goal,” wrote co-directors Liz and Kathryn in a letter to families, “is to keep students learning and engaged without compounding the stress that we are all feeling.” And so far, thanks to the remarkable dedication and creativity of students, teachers and families, we are finding our way -- a winding, hilly, mud-puddled way, for sure – but a way nonetheless. Or, to be more accurate, many ways.
While the PCS remote learning program offers a roadmap for continued virtual study -- with varied structures, suggestions and practices to accommodate individual learning styles and home schedules -- we are mindful that not all who wander are lost. There are plenty of PCS families happily exploring away from screens and schedules. There are also families who may sign on one day and log out the next, either because a family member needs to work, or because the baby is crying, or because kids need to take a break or a bike ride, or because it’s raining, or because it’s sunny … and whatever the reason, it’s okay! In fact, it’s more than okay: it matters, and we’re learning.
We’re also learning what matters. As we march forward and figure out how to “do PCS” through computer screens and an internet connection, we’re learning that it’s not the screens, or the internet, or even the “do”-ing, that is so important to continuing our educational progress. It’s theconnectionthat matters.
Students and facilitators are working together to solve problems, pose inquiries for the new World Oceans unit, and vote on books for shared class reading. They’re sharing their challenges, feelings and worries in digital class journals, helping each other sound out words in Zoom reading groups and showing each other treasures in their homes during virtual snack time. It all matters, we’re learning, because these acts of sharing, showing up, helping, and solving are how we connect and build community in the face of distance and uncertainty.
Learning to Be of Service
From this place of renewed strength and connection within the PCS community, we are looking out to see that we can be of service to larger community again. Already:
writers in the upper grades have interviewed family and community members to chronicle their experiences of the COVID-19 crisis and identify areas of need locally,
students across grade levels are contributing to the international rainbow scavenger hunt project, aimed at uniting neighborhoods in a collaborative art project to lift children’s spirits,
this week, Mrs. DeCecco delivered the first batch of home-baked treats and messages from PCS kids and families to the outreaches and shelters we’ve partnered with during the school year,
and, as we speak, songs and messages of support, hope and well-wishes from PCS students are arriving in the inboxes of residents at Peconic Landing, who are in our thoughts and prayers as they isolate from friends and family to prevent the spread of the virus in their community.
And of course, it seems so obvious now, that this is how we “do PCS” –- in school or from home --we reach out together, and through this outreach knit our community into an ever-widening circle of care. Whether we’re working online or walking around our neighborhoods or baking in our kitchens or singing in the shower, we help our children and students find opportunities to reach out and connect in a way that widens our circle of care and makes the world a better place.
So in this spirit, we are reaching out to invite you to join us: to hang a rainbow in your window, bake cookies for Mrs. DeCecco’s next trip to Coram, record a song for a Senior at Peconic Landing, sign up for an interview to share your experience of quarantine, write a thank you note to a healthcare worker. Or, tell us what you’re doing to stay connected and caring; maybe you know of someone who needs help or an organization that needs support. We’re including a link to the东恩d Community Action Opportunity databasethat we’ve created; this is a public document that we hope you will help us to grow. We also hope that you will share your outreach with us: please,send us an email, share a photo, or tag us or comment onInstagramorFacebook. It matters, we’re learning, because when we keep reaching out together, it makes our community so much wider and stronger.