Remote-Learning Lessons Emerge At Troup

Kushe Darden’s son is supposed to be at school for the majority of the single father’s 47 to 70-hour workweek. Now, with pandemic-era distance learning in place, Darden is responsible for whether his 7‑year-old Kaleb learns anything on any given day.

Kaleb was making rapid progress in reading as a first grader at Augusta Lewis Troup School before the Covid-19 pandemic hit. That progress has slowed, Darden said.

“I know he is going through the motions. I don’t know if he’s actively learning it now,” Darden said.

Through trial and error, Darden and other Troup parents and teachers are finding solutions that may come in handy if distance learning continues in the fall.

Constant Contact

On an ideal day, Darden and his son would start working through his reading, writing and math assignments first thing in the morning. Then they would complete craft projects together. Darden recently taught his son how to make butterflies out of pipe cleaners.

“We can get a lot done in four good hours. We can really buckle down and focus on it. Four hours is his prime effectiveness before it starts being a chore,” Darden said.

This schedule is not always within Darden’s control. On Monday, one of the two security companies he works for called him in early to fill in on a morning shift. The Friday before that, he worked from midnight to 8 a.m. and then 3 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Often Kaleb completes his assignments in the four hours before midnight.

What helps Darden is constant communication with Kaleb’s teacher, Kristina Crivellone.

“I feel like I have a teacher on call, which is very beneficial when I’m trying to be a makeshift teacher,” Darden said.

Darden said he likes Crivellone’s daily lesson plans. He knows that not every teacher puts in the level of effort she does, he said.

He said that he wishes he had more training on how to set a good daily schedule for his son. He also wishes he had a form of parent-to-parent communication so he could set up calls with his son’s friends.

Otherwise, Darden’s own schedule is his biggest challenge. If he had had more time before the pandemic hit to switch his hours, it would have been easier to keep up his son’s learning curve, he said.

“That’s more of a me thing. I just need to give more time to it. We have to buckle down harder.”

One Powerpoint

Kaleb’s teacher, Kristina Crivellone, has found it helpful to streamline assignments for her scattered students.

“It enables students to be as independent as possible. There are families with multiple students or who are still working out of the house,” Crivellone said.

Crivellone makes one PowerPoint for every day of class. The PowerPoint has the day’s schedule, including lunch and snack times. The slides include videos of Crivellone where she asks her first graders to repeat sounds after her or write a few sentences to finish a story she reads to them.

She incorporates links to reading and math games, with the login details written on the slide. She uses only one set of software per week, so students do not get overwhelmed with the options and barriers of remembering how to log on to each one.

Crivellone (pictured) settled on these teaching methods through trial and error, informed by detailed parent surveys about their stress levels, the number of catch-up days they need a week and what has been good and difficult for them so far.

Many of the obstacles listed in the survey responses are out of her control, like a parent managing distance learning for seven children, or a guardian getting sick for days.

“The entire nation is going to be set back,” Crivellone said.

“We do see summer slides. Our goal was not to make this a spring and summer slide. I’m most concerned that they are involved in literacy, that their sight words haven’t fallen to the wayside because of the lack of time in the classroom.”

Crivellone lauded her principal, Eugene J. Foreman, Jr, for emphasizing to parents that Troup is not looking for perfection during this time.

Troup has schoolwide ​“Wellness Wednesdays.” The school provides resources to families on mindfulness and ways to cope with stress. It also functions as a catch-up day for students who have fallen behind on assignments.

“Mr. Foreman has told parents to do what they can and stay engaged. As long as they are doing that, it is enough. That mantra has raised participation,” Crivellone said.

On a good day, all but five or six of Crivellone’s students complete her slideshow. Most of the time around half to 75 percent have. She accepts all late work. She is contemplating numbering her slideshows, rather than dating them, if distance learning continues in the fall.

She said she hopes that it will be safe to do a combination of distance and in-person classes in the fall. This would allow her to distribute paper materials, so kids do not need to spend all of their time on a computer.

“I want to have my kids in front of me, telling me the craziest things. It makes me so happy. Anything like that feels like a win,” Crivellone said.

Playing Teacher

Once Troup 7‑year-old Jase Patton internalized the idea that this spring was not like summer break, he got excited about the learning he needed to do.

Jase’s aunt and guardian, Robbie Patton, said that the first grader knows he still has to go to school, even if that’s within his own home.

Jase gets up at around the same time every day, eats breakfast and starts Crivellone’s daily powerpoint. He asks his 4‑year-old sister Kalee, who will eventually go to Troup, to get out her flashcards so they can do their homework together.

“He wants me to see that he is a big boy. He tells his little sister, ​‘This is what we do at school.’ He is trying to teach her and be the bigger brother, and I just support him,” Patton said. ​“She’s hyped up with him.”

Patton was the manager at Panera Bread until the pandemic hit. She’s currently working part-time for the nonprofit New Reach until she can return to her job at Panera, she said. Her mom watches Jase and Kalee while she is at work.

Jase teaches his aunt how to set up the technology he needs to use, and she gets to see what he is doing in school. She praises him for being the teacher in these interactions and rewards him for all his hard work.

“When we’re at the Dollar Store, I don’t have a problem with rewarding him with a small ball for when he can go outside,” Patton said.

Or, she gets him a mask so he can go to the store with her, she said.

“It’s important to let them know that they are being appreciated. We are proud of them. It is hard to get up Monday through Friday, even in school. I am happy that he is still doing that and being responsible,” Patton said.