Pam Monder is a long-time educator, community college teacher, and tutor based in Vermont. But even with her extensive education credentials and online teaching experience, transitioning to a fully remote, virtual education style hasn’t been easy for educators at schools not already equipped for it. She has spent the summer reflecting and prepping online lesson plans for the upcoming school year, even during a nine-day, cross-country RV trip to rescue a quarantined family member. Read more about the exciting adventures - and daunting hardships - of a dedicated teacher during the current health crisis.
Where are you located?
I have been a member of the faculty at the Community College of Vermont since 2006 and on staff since 2007. My home base was the Rutland Center; we are a college of 12 centers and our Online Center for Learning. We are the largest higher-ed institute in Vermont with about 7,000 enrolled each semester. Our students range in age from 14 (early college, dual-enrolled) to (the oldest I have had) 82! Many are adult learners with families and jobs, looking to change careers.
What do you do?
I wear a few hats here. I teach up to three classes each semester, typically our freshman seminar and foundational skills courses, although I have taught a variety of courses ranging from Work Place Preparedness to The Literature of Stephen King to Spanish to The Holocaust in Film. I also advise CCV's chapter of the Phi Theta Kappa International Honor Society, and I advise our Student Council. This fall, I will supervise another 35 or so students who will be "embedded" in first-year experience classes as online supports and mentors.
I also worked as part of a local elementary school's after-school enrichment program. I worked with K-6 on activities like sewing, crafting, and reading.
You’ve had a pretty awesome and adventurous career path. What is your teaching background?
Unofficially, I started my "career" at age 16 when I worked at our local recreation department, assistant-coaching gymnastics for little kids. My first paying gigs were as a tutor in high school.
My first real teaching job was in college as a TA for our Spanish dept. I earned a BA in Spanish Ed., and then I got my M.Ed in Curriculum and Instruction. I've taught ELL and citizenship courses. I taught homeschool art at a local art center. I've taught everything from Pre-K to college. I have many additional credits in special ed, curriculum design, and the like. I love to be a student as much as I love to teach!
Describe your experience having to abruptly switch to online teaching last winter/spring when COVID hit. How did you adjust? What was the toughest part?
UGH! Ironically, I was teaching two online courses and one on-ground when my college went fully online in mid-March. The on-ground course, Dimensions of Self and Society, is our freshman seminar. Not surprisingly, about half of those students disappeared in spite of all kinds of efforts to keep them in the canoe!
My center is in Rutland County, largely rural, and access to the internet can be a challenge in the best of times. We also work with many students in the judicial system or who have recently returned to the community. Often, conditions of parole depend on restricted access to the internet and cellphones. In more than one case, I had a student who was sharing very limited access to the internet with several other adults in the same house. Some do not own their own computers and rely on the campus learning centers or local libraries to get schoolwork done.
My own adjustment was pretty easy. I kept doing what I do, a lot of high-touch out-reach to students personally, but I also really relied on our advising staff to help me gently prod and encourage students to finish the semester. The toughest part was knowing the challenges of students who were working the front lines of health care; we have huge allied health care and social work/behavioral sciences who are already working in the field as LNAs or certified abuse counselors. They were working an insane number of hours, homeschooling their children, dealing with unemployment… It wasn’t academic issues that saw students struggling when we went fully online.
The equity gap even became very clear among students at my elementary school. When we went online, the district tried a variety of configurations to keep the children engaged, landing finally on Lunch Bunch during which I read e-books I found online to my K–3 while they ate lunch in front of a screen where we could all see each other in Zoom. Many of the children who have one computer at home, or dial-up, or shared WiFi, could not participate.
Had you taught online before?
I had. I’ve taught Math and Algebra for College online for several years and I have taught English Composition and World Mythology both in a hybrid format and online. I have taken several courses to prepare to teach online, and I have taken a number of classes online. While it is not my favorite delivery system, I feel it can work for students who are ready for it.
What did you learn from that unexpected experience?
That too many students are not nearly as tech-savvy as we in higher ed expect them to be. A lot of people ask me if I mean older students, but, the reality is that even high school students don’t have experience doing library research online. You can’t “Google stuff” in college! Students don’t know how to draft a professional email, so I have wound up with emails like, “Great class today, What the HW? LOL” (I’m not making this up! No salutation, no signature, no class identified...).
Students have no experience with LMSs like Canvas and need help navigating to find the resources they need to learn how to navigate. It’s frustrating! The hardest part was getting students to understand the difference between college expectations around deadlines. I have a much easier time doing this in a face-to-face class. I can tell students! But in this new online world, I can’t be sure that students are reading my feedback, watching the videos I make, or checking their emails. I can feel as lost as they do at times.
I was pretty excited to find a lot of online free sources of e-books, so I could share a screen with my young students and read to them, or better yet; they could read to me, and we were able to discuss the books. I found a lot of fun songs and riddles to share. I was thrilled when the children would come to Lunch Bunch with ideas to share. One of the biggest take-aways is how creative students can get when they want to!!
How are the college's Learning Centers providing support to students since the move to online?
Well, initially, we weren't. But our "regulars" began reaching out to ask if we could talk them through a variety of activities. Nearly all the LC staff had, at some point, given their email addresses to students they often worked with. Two in particular from my campus - Nick, who tutors math up to Calculus, statistics, and chemistry and Sarah, who tutors writing, research, Anatomy and Physiology, and "soft skills" like notebook organization, time management, mindfulness - were really eager to connect with fellow students through email. Because of FERPA and privacy, the college couldn't give student employees Zoom pro accounts, but I would set up sessions and sit in like a fly on the wall as groups gathered much like a study group would in the physical LC. It was great and it got a lot of students through the spring semester.
This summer, the college moved all tutoring to an online service that is free to students, but one that the school pays for. It's great, but students can't request the same tutors or create study groups, something that they have missed this summer. I think this feedback led the college to embed students in classes as mentors and supports. I am excited to begin training hirees in early August. I was our Embedded Peer Mentor Coordinator when we had grant money to support this college-wide. I have seen how enthusiastic students are to have peers helping make sense of college and the online world! I'm so glad it's going to happen again!
What do you wish you’d known from the beginning about teaching online that you know now?
Well, since I’ve been doing it for a while, I feel like I have a pretty good handle on pedagogy and philosophy, but I am a doer, a learner. When we went from Moodle (our old LMS) to Canvas recently, there were just so many “cool tools” to learn. I wish I had been faster to pick up some of the nuts and bolts that make classes more interactive and engaging, like Zooming at different times each week with my math student, or embedding videos instead of providing links that sometimes fail. I end Zoom sessions with check-in polls to see if students are feeling like they still need more of a topic.
I was caught off-guard by the myriad features of Canvas and Zoom, and I am still trying to incorporate them in useful ways. The challenge is to use them judiciously; I don’t want to add bells and whistles just because I can. Less really good stuff is always better than more busy work!
Now that you have a head’s up about teaching online this Fall, what are you doing differently to prepare?
I send out weekly video announcements with a preview of the week’s work. Students say they like this. I have included two discussion forums in each week’s module – one where they can ask each other questions about homework, and one that is purely there to post cat memes and recipes – lol. I call this our “Hallway Chat.” It is a huge help in community building in an online course. These social conversations are in addition to our formal reflections on readings and other material.
As far as the elementary school goes, they are planning to go back in the fall. Sadly, I won’t if we will be in a face-to-face delivery mode. I love those kiddos like crazy, but I don’t see how social distancing and masking, etc. will work with a Pre-K–6 crowd. Since my focus is K–3, I see a lot of less-than-hygienic practices. How will students eat lunch? I know far too many second graders whose hand-washing skills are a little lacking. If my school decides to do after-school online somehow, I’m all over it. Let me get my crazy hats out of the closet for a dance party!
What are your hopes and goals for the next semester of teaching?
Our college has decided to offer 90% of our fall courses in an online format. About 15% of these will be synchronous, meaning students will be expected to Zoom (at a time designated by the college) into a Brady Bunch-style “room” with their classmates and work together, probably in chat rooms, for up to two hours a week. I am excited to be working with student mentors who will, I am sure, be tremendous helpers to both faculty and classmates (the mentors will have already taken the course, so they know the ins and outs. They will get paid and earn hours toward our college’s leadership credential). My goal is to be the best support to the mentors I can be in order to help them help our student body. I have worked with mentors since 2007, and I know how essential they can be for student success and comfort. I had a mentor in a math class a few years ago who monitored her own discussion forum (okay, I peeked at it, but I never commented), and she used to say that we were like the mom and the big sister; there were things students would tell their big sister that wouldn’t tell their mom. She was able to translate for them.
I have attended webinars that make me nervous about the synchronous model, though. Many of my colleagues are not trained to teach online and are hoping to lecture for two hours! UGH NO!!! Since my two classes were converted to asynchronous online, meaning there is no mandatory Zoom time, my hope is that students will have more flexibility to work on classes when they can, not when the college says they need to. I also hope that students will better understand what they are signing up for (rather than signing up for face-to-face class and then going online midway through) or signing up for face-to-face summer classes only to be told, “Oops! Sorry – they will be online, too.”
Finally, since this will be our third (sort of) online semester, I am hoping it will feel less intimidating for students.
How do you think students can make the most of their online education?
Too many students start an online class with no experience navigating complex resources; this is an essential part of any new job – learning the system! Students need to read EVERYTHING they come across the first two or three weeks of the semester to make the rest of the semester go smoothly. They need to invest the time upfront to learn how to use Canvas, the online Library resources, and college tools, like career services and tutoring support which we offer 24/7 for free!
The biggest thing students need to learn to do is ASK FOR HELP WHEN THEY NEED IT!!! Too often I hear students say, “Well, I didn’t want to bother you.” WHAT??? I am here to help; it is literally my job! In order to be successful in school or on the job, one needs to learn to ask for help. It could be the difference between failing a class/getting fired and being successful.
Oh, and use feedback when it’s given! Instructors don’t write feedback for ourselves; we are offering you ideas on improving your work. If you don’t know where to find online feedback this is the best first question to help you start feeling more comfortable asking questions! One assignment I give at midterm is for students to read their midterm evaluations and reply to me with a question or comment. I give them a grade for doing it!
How can you as a teacher be better supported by the parents/students/school board/district?
I would ask parents of college students to not be involved as much as they are in their younger students’ school experiences. Any college student, even a 14-year-old, is considered an adult, and unless they give FERPA permission for us to speak to parents, we can’t! It’s ironic because we do want our parents of elementary school students as involved as possible, but by the time students are in high school, they need to start learning how to make educational choices for themselves; they need to learn self-advocacy.
Our college faculty is supported by a great academic council that actively involves faculty in numerous projects, so we feel very involved in decision making. Faculty at CCV were instrumental in the decision to remain online!
What do you love about online teaching/tutoring?
The best part of online asynchronous online teaching is the flexibility. I am currently on a cross-country road trip, and I can check in when I have WiFi. I can email with students anywhere I have a cell signal. I can set students up with the work for the next two weeks and then interact with it and them when I can.
I do love when students want to engage through Zoom or Google Hangout. I ran learning centers at two of our campuses, and I loved it when students came in to work with me, or when they called or Zoomed. I really, ultimately, prefer being in a classroom with humans I can shake hands with, or hugs, or high-five, so even the virtual interactions make this “new normal” (Boy, I hate that term!) feel more normal.
What is something you’d like to share with others who are starting their remote teaching journey?
Wow – be present as much and as often as you can. In these times of uncertainty and stress, be patient with yourself as much as you would be with your students (maybe even more – if you are new to technology, you are going to make mistakes, forget to turn things on, and not be as clear in instructions as you need to be.) It’s okay for educators to make mistakes. Then we can model for our students how to deal with failures and demonstrate resilience and adaptability. I let my students know when I am having a bad day due to stressors, and I explain how I am working through tough times just as they are. I acknowledge if I forget to turn on an assignment submission button. I apologize and thank them for politely pointing out something I needed to do.
The biggest gift we need to share is that we are human, too. Anyone starting to teach remotely needs to study up and be prepared on both materials and technology. Prepare for eventualities. If things go wrong for us and we cancel class, how dare we expect that our students never drop the ball? One colleague, who was teaching on-ground in the spring, suddenly found herself teaching synchronous math from her car outside a local library where she could pick up free Wi-Fi! In the snow and cold of VT! This modeling inspired her students; if she could find a way to make classwork, they could try, too!
Last, I have found that many of my emails with students may start out about a reading or assignment, but they often turn to the personal. I find that social aspect of teaching to be more important than ever since we are all isolated. I give students some latitude. They can vent a bit, but once their point is made, I ask them what they need to get done today and how they can do it. I ask them to tell me one thing they can do to shake off whatever was bugging them and redirect to get the job done.
Have you found any great resources for students or fellow teachers that help supplement your online learning curriculum?
So many – Free Rice, Khan Academy (check out their units on Growth Mindset!), YouTube, Purplemath, Math is Fun, Math Antics, OWL at Purdue, Grammarly, Grammar Girl, USA Facts, Snopes, Ted Talks, youcubed, This I Believe… These are probably the usual suspects.
I also have found Oxford Owl for children’s e-books, and I rely heavily on subject guides that my college’s library staff has pulled together.
As the elections approach, I send students to I Side With.