I work at a private school with a population that is very blessed. My husband calls my students the “silver spoon kids” because they are so taken care of. When we first went virtual in March 2020, we sent kids home with iPads (older grades took their laptops) and we continued to have class and just make it work. We continued on and did a virtual small group summer tutoring program too called The Reading Zone. The Reading Zone was a way to connect with students we never had the opportunity to communicate and connect with before due to geography. We had students from Hawaii and Ecuador all learning how to read. 

The Reading Zone also provided an excellent spot to practice new computer skills with Zoom and Notebook to figure out the best way to deliver lessons. Last year also had many challenges before a vaccine came out with quarantining for 10 to 14 days. My co-teacher and I did some different varieties of delivering lessons to our first graders including some lessons in a flipped classroom. We would provide videos with activities, give them time to complete them and then meet with students individually. We could see their work and check in and see what was hard and what they were doing really well. We would also give multiple times where the students could talk to each other to create some normalcy and social interaction which is what they needed. 

This year in the classroom brought more hybrid learning which is my least favorite type of classroom environment. It is really hard to make sure the student online is engaged and so are the students in the classroom. 

At the end of the day, students have the potential to learn wherever they are. However, it is definitely best for students to be in school learning so they can get the hands out experience to great a multisensory classroom to better grasp new concepts.