But the skills they gained while learning remotely are still serving them well, she says. Now her kids are back in school on a hybrid schedule. “Sometimes he would be shy about that, because he wasn’t used to emailing and feeling like that was something he could do, so he had to build his assertiveness,” says Airman. Through distance learning, he has learned to speak up and seek help by emailing his teacher if he needs it. Carter is in fourth grade and also has dyslexia. Online learning also helped Airman’s youngest child become more self-confident. For them, being at home means “fewer distractions” and “fewer kids around you to get your mind off academics.” Pope has seen this play out with some other students who have trouble paying attention. Sadie was overwhelmed at first, but eventually the seventh grader figured it out and mastered time management, a skill “that you don’t oftentimes learn until you’re in high school or college and really have to buckle down.”īoth of Airman’s sons have attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, but that didn’t prevent them from doing well with distance learning. She says this was particularly helpful for her older children, Nate and Sadie. When distance learning first began, Airman created a checklist to help her kids, who are academically gifted, keep up with their assignments. “I feel like my kids are kind of ready for college, because they had to learn some organizational skills earlier than they would have,” says Airman, a library media specialist at Due West Elementary in Marietta, GA. Jessica Airman says she’s seen similar changes in her children, ages 14, 12, and 10. It’s time management, project management, responsibility, maturity.” “I just really wanted us to get through the year, but he has amazed me. “I really had no expectations that Dylan was going to do so great,” says Pagel-Hogan. That’s not something Pagel-Hogan says she or her husband pushed him to do. “I work one day ahead so that I can have a three-day weekend.” “I think the thing that I like most is that I’m able to work ahead on a lot of my ,” says the academically gifted eighth grader. In addition to an improved social scene, Dylan likes the self-pacing of online learning. Middle schoolers don’t often get that choice.” “And, he can choose who he spends his time with. “Some of the typical social anxieties and stressors that middle schoolers face-he doesn’t have to deal with them right now,” says Pagel-Hogan. Pope, who holds a PhD in education, says that learning at home can be a welcome reprieve for kids who have experienced unpleasant social interactions at school.Įlizabeth Pagel-Hogan says that’s the case for her 13-year-old son, Dylan, who is attending his Pittsburgh area school’s online academy this year.ĭenise Pope Photo courtesy of Challenge Success “I’ve seen different kids thriving at home for different reasons.” “It really depends on the kid,” says Denise Pope, a senior lecturer at the Graduate School of Education at Stanford. Why are these kids doing well when so many are floundering? Students from low-income families who lack reliable internet service and quiet places for doing work have struggled in virtual classrooms.īut a subset of students is thriving in this environment, earning better grades, and improving executive functioning. Overall, distance learning tends to pose many challenges to students, particularly those who are younger and who have learning differences. And, she’s gaining confidence,” says Bruehl. “Suddenly my daughter’s ahead in reading, and her math is really good. “We both had this point of view that most kids in the world are probably going to be a bit behind academically, and so, if we could help our community by keeping her home as well as benefiting her emotionally, that was an easy decision for us.”īut then they noticed something surprising. “We also knew, in making this decision, that there was a good chance that she’d end up behind this year, and we were just prepared for that,” says Bruehl. Plus, their daughter suffers from anxiety, and they knew attending school during a pandemic would be stressful for her. Her parents made the decision to keep her home from her private school because they would both be working from home and could support her in her learning. Their six-year-old daughter, Fox, like millions of other students, would be learning remotely. Eighth grader Dylan Hogan attending school online Photo by Elizabeth Pagel-HoganĪ school got underway this fall, Thalia Mostow Bruehl and her husband, Alex, who live in Chicago, didn’t have high expectations for the year.
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