News

May 8, 2020

During Teacher Appreciation Week, Career and Tech Faculty Reflect on New Way of Teaching in the Era of COVID19

It’s not your mother’s or father’s classroom. It’s not even the classroom your older brother or sister experienced.

The COVID19 pandemic has completely changed the way education is delivered in the United States. For educators at Capital Region BOCES Career and Technical School who are used to teaching students the skilled trades, healthcare, computer design and gaming in a hands-on manner, the pandemic has turned their world upside down, forcing students more inclined and more successful learning with their hands to learn remotely via distance learning.

During National Teacher Appreciation Week, several Career and Technical School faculty reflected on how the unprecedented global COVID pandemic has resulted in an equally remarkable and unprecedented response from Capital Region BOCES faculty, staff and administrators.

The response – from launching online learning opportunities for more than 1,000 students who typically function better with hands-on learning to organizing meals – was largely instantaneous, with students in some programs taking online learning classes within 48 hours of career and technical school programs closing.

While doing so, BOCES administrators, faculty and staff also organized efforts to provide life-saving equipment to those on the front lines of the pandemic response and orchestrated the region’s efforts to secure from New York State the resources and information needed by students across the Capital Region.

“This has tested the lines between work and home – my children regularly visit my classes. While this is uncomfortable for me, my students have responded positively in this trying time, with my children’s smiles being met with laughter,” said Electrical Trades teacher Travis Relyea.

Chef Paul Dolan said the new way of teaching has brought some positive aspects.

“With daily emails to both students and parents I have seen more parent involvement than your average year. The parents being home with the kids are actively engaged in daily assignments verses quarterly reports,” he said.

“Although the physical daily engagement can never be replaced we have all managed to find ways to make for relevant instruction,” said Dolan who has taught lessons from him food truck and challenged students to learn by using the Chopped TV show model.

Internet Applications teacher Barb Gorbaty said students have been very pliable with the way they learn.

“One of the things I find most interesting is how students are using online discussions in ways that suit them as individual learners.  Some like to be on camera to be part of the conversation, others just mic in, and others are using text chat.  It seems that each student finds his or her own way to participate, focus and learn,” she said.

Besides learning how to teach virtually – something almost every CTE teacher had to learn – the teachers are also learning from each other.

“Tooling U with welding has helped me learn more about the welding content and being able to directly create the science lesson as a direct support to learning the content that week,” said Amy Schrom, an integrated science teacher.

Perhaps, said integrated English teacher Rich Bader, teachers can also learn from their students during this pandemic.

“When I started my online classes a month ago, I was apprehensive about how students would conduct themselves during the video class. I shared NYSED’s Google Meet Etiquette guide with them and was pleased to find that, without incident, right away every student I’ve had on a video conference mutes their mic appropriately and types their questions in the chat dialogue if there’s not a good opening to ask it out loud,” Bader said. “Now if only we could get the teachers to do the same at staff meetings.”

The teachers also said they can see the pandemic having wide-ranging impact on the way education is delivered.

“We have job security – the craft of welding (and all skills) is for the hands-on learner. I can see, though, the lessons for students that miss classes and will make up using the remote lessons from this year,” Schrom said.

Asked about advice for those struggling with online teaching and learning, Gorbaty said it’s all about being human.

“Humor and humanity go a long way in the online classroom,” she said.