At the Cromwell Learning Center of Ädelbrook, we serve students across a variety of abilities and ages from middle school through high school. For our students attending in person, they have been working hard to learn our new safety rules, wear masks, and adapt to new schedules. For our students learning from home, they are learning and improving their ability to learn through Zoom and Google Classroom. However, it cannot be discounted how much learning our teachers are doing. With students starting back-to-school both in-person and online on August 28th, our teachers are adapting to “synchronous” learning and teaching.
What is Synchronous Learning?
For us, this occurs when some students are learning in-person, while a student from home joins the lesson via Zoom video. This allows our teachers to provide group instruction such as Morning Meeting with everyone in the class at the same time, no matter where they are located.
How Does the Teacher Manage In-Person and Remote Learning?
We are fortunate to have incredible support staff assigned to each student to help keep kids engaged and on-task during lessons. As it is in person, some days can be more challenging than others, and not everything goes as planned. However, the teachers and staff have shown their flexibility and creativity in the face of these challenges.
A Day in the Life
I was fortunate to observe a lesson taught by our Maple Academy teacher, Ms. Cook. She has been with Ädelbrook for many years and knows her students extremely well. Because of the relationships she has developed with her students, staff, and families, she is able to implement synchronous learning twice daily, provide individual Zoom sessions, and include her remote student for classes in music and art. Careful planning and enthusiastic implementation of lessons helps that student remain engaged with his peers and continue to make progress even from home.
As we continue to learn to navigate synchronous learning and fully remote learning through these unprecedented times, we continuously search for ways to increase our ability to problem solve, learn new techniques, and provide the best education that we can for our students!
Catherine Riker
Director of Education, Maple Academy
Ädelbrook Learning Center of Cromwell