We survived a week of eLearning here in South Carolina. We never get snow that sticks in the winter. But this year, we got an whooping 6-8 inches. I know, all you Northerners just spit coffee all over your keyboard. But remember, this is the South. We don’t do snow.

So, eLearning swooped in to save the educational lives of our students. And for 4 days, we conducted Google Meets, we had class discussions and had numerous rounds of “Show & Tell” featuring dogs and cats.

People like to complain and say that eLearning is hard on parents. And I can only imagine it its. But listen, teachers aren’t exactly living our best lives either. Do you know how hard it is to conduct a Google Meet with a tired, hungry and over-it two year old? Try typing an email with wrangling said two-year away from your keyboard, coffee and mouse. It’s like the Hunger Games.

Thankfully my children’s school went back to in-person on Wednesday. And the rest of the week flowed MUCH smoother for me.

If we have an eLearning days in the future, I would love to try new things like:

— Have students work in groups then come back and “teach” the rest of the class

— Create more guidelines about having everyone turn on their camera. I think that would help increase student participation.

I would love to hear what other teachers have done with virtual or eLearning!! I don’t see this going away, and so let’s do what teachers have always done, take something and make it GREAT!