Our Distance Learning Schedule

DITL Distance Learning Schedule of a Teacher-Mom with 3 Kids

Do you ever wonder what distance learning schedule teachers use when they have three kids at home and a class to teach? With distance learning in full effect, many teachers are working from their homes to educate the students in their care and crafting effective distance learning schedules. From meetings, to lessons, to learning how to use new-to-them technology, teachers are expanding their always growing teacher skill set in distance learning. Furthermore, they are also parenting which can feel like being in a tricky circus act. Here I share my distance learning schedule for me as a third grade teacher, teaching digitally at home, while three children of my own finish up their year with distance learning.

Day in the Life with Learning and Teaching Virtually (with three kids!)

5:30AM Wake up to a catchy song. Thank you for writing this Matthew Wilder. Click here to experience it for yourself.

Ain’t nothin’ gonna break-a my stride
Nobody gonna slow me down, oh no

5:30AM Work on a gratitude practice. Myself and one million Rachel Hollis fans around the world are doing the #fivetothrive and I drank the water so I’m hooked.

Today I am grateful for Dirty Chai (Black tea with Espresso Coffee) and Almond milk for coffee.

6:00AM Put on noise-cancelling headphones, load inspiring and educating podcast playlist and walk briskly through the neighbourhood for two hours.

8:00AM Shower. Contemplate putting on makeup and then decide that sunscreen should suffice.

8:30AM Prompt children to start their morning routine and decline Netflix watching request.

The Distance Learning School Day Begins as Scheduled

9:15AM Distance learning schedule starts now at the dining room table. Oldest child reviews work needing to be done for the day. She uses the laptop to create detailed to-do lists on Peardeck as a means to procrastinate from doing what school work actually needs to be done. She’s a lot like her mom that way.

9:20AM Gather materials and load websites that will be used for class meeting this morning.

9:25AM Login to google meet keeping the mute button on and video off. Listen to students as they enter the classroom talk about what they have been up to. Miss them.

9:27AM Youngest child asks for a snack. And if she can’t have a snack, can she watch Disney Plus instead? Decline.

9:30AM Unmute on Meet and display video. Engage students in learning through games, lessons, number talks, questions and answer periods, slideshows, virtual field trips and academic teaching on a whiteboard paddle. Wonder what my own children are doing in the living room while I’m in my meeting. Remember that they are capable and responsible children. Think back to that time they made lemon squares.

10:30AM Middle child has been sitting and waiting because she doesn’t know what to do for the assignment that I printed out last night despite the highlighted in neon pink instructions at the top of every page. Sit with her as she completes one activity sheet because evidently she completes her work more quickly when four eyes are on her paper instead of two.

11:00AM Youngest child finishes a colouring sheet and places it on the tower of colouring sheets from the previous two months. Decline her request for a snack. Wonder if colouring should now be her official curriculum.

11:30AM Read emails. Respond to google classroom inquiries about the text boxes disappearing, no assignment appearing and the question: “what’s an adjective?”

Distance Learning and Parenting: Changing up the Schedule

12:00PM Make a lunch that will please everyone’s tastes. Just kidding, I am not a miracle worker. Prepare sandwiches making sure to keep the crusts on and the milk in cups all unequal. Watch as kids carefully eye each cup looking for the most milk. Doing this helps to develop their learning skills (collaboration) and then their communication skills (questioning). Tell the youngest child that her cup will be yellow today.

12:30PM Think about how the afternoon might have started off more smoothly if the youngest child got a different colour cup. Plan supper.

12:45PM Help oldest child with home learning. Look on Hapara, Seesaw, Class Dojo, email accounts, and google classroom to figure out where the link would be posted for the afternoon Meet. Make a mental note of how if I wrote this stuff down then I would remember and that yes, I will start that tomorrow.

1:00PM Step on a birthday cake made of LEGO. Check email. Water the houseplants. Make another Dirty Chai Tea.

1:30PM Create a Google slideshow math lesson and record a video for asynchronous learning. Wing it because scripting videos now would require an extra three hours in the day.

2:00PM Take children for a long bike ride around the lake. Take note of how the baby geese are growing up. The mama goose is still protective and bops her head and hisses when she feels people get too close. The muskrat is still hiding but we know where he lives now so we check every day to see if he’s on his front porch. The herons are still wading. The mama duck still has her entourage with her. We wonder if she gets bored swimming back and forth.

3:00PM Have a snack because it has been an eternity and a day since we ate.

3:30PM Tell children to go play. Work on the computer. Rub eyes. Make another tea.

5:00PM Read a few chapters of my current e-book from the local library because the digital loan is expiring at midnight. Reply to the youngest child that an apple and a glass of water would be an appropriate snack.

Dinnertime Rush After Distance Learning

6:00PM Make supper. Ask children to clear off the dining room table, put away learning supplies and then set the table for supper. Do this three or four times, getting louder each time.

6:45PM Eat supper. Ask each child what went well in their day, what was their favourite activity or moment. Listen to their answers and wonder how to make tomorrow better. Let some guilt set in about whether I was mom-enough, or teacher-enough or if my house was clean enough. Snap out of that thinking quickly and suggest a post-dinner walk.

7:15PM Walk around the neighbourhood with the kids collecting rocks and sticks. Once home, step over the treasure trove of nature goodies on the front porch.

7:30PM Watch an episode of “The Great Canadian Baking Show” with the family and wonder if somehow tomorrow’s home learning can involve cannoli baking.

8:15PM Help children with bedtime routine. Decline additional bedtime snacks. Read another story. Get another glass of water. Answer existential questions that only ever come out like the chocolate (After Eight.)

8:30PM Tell children to be quiet. A bunch of times.

9:00PM Tidy house. Get the mail. Pay a bill. Chat with husband. Answer emails and texts relating to volunteering jobs. Put in a load of laundry. Fold a load of laundry. Pile laundry outside of kids bedrooms and make a mental note to remind the children the next day that their clothing is outside their bedroom door and it needs to be put away and is not the first obstacle in an indoor race.

10:00PM Sit down on couch with husband and spend 30 minutes trying to agree on a show to watch on Netflix. Begin show and give in to the weight of heavy eyelids.

Teaching at home and Virtual Learning with kids

I have three kids at home and 20 students to teach in my classroom. Through synchronous and asynchronous teaching and distance learning, our days are filled with information and imagination. There are many days that are emotionally challenging, and balancing it all is a struggle. I hope that sharing this day in my life of virtual teaching with kids at home might help you in some way, whether that be through connection or humour or distraction.

I would LOVE to hear from fellow teachers on what is going well with teaching from home with kids. What works well? In all honesty, my biggest takeaway is how much I enjoy time outdoors with children. Everyone seems happier when they are outside. I hope you get a chance to go outside today too!