Susan Yammer is a member of the course development team and teacher for JOLTT, now the Lookstein Virtual Jewish Academy. She is also a pedagogic coach for graduate education students at the Pardes Educators Program and teaches on Young Judaea Year Course. Before making Aliyah in 2007, Susan worked for more than 30 years in a variety of capacities in Jewish education, and is a 2004 recipient of the Grinspoon-Steinhardt Award for Excellence in Jewish Education.
Susan Yammer is a veteran teacher who developed and taught a number of courses for Lookstein LIVE (www.lookstein.org/remote_teacher.htm), a program for delivering high quality, interactive, online courses to day schools. Jewish Educational Leadership presents an exclusive interview with her.
JEL: You have many years of teaching experience, but this is your first foray into online teaching. What changes did you have to make in your preparation for this class?
SY: I had to take several preparatory steps before becoming an online educator. These included:
- Becoming an online learner
In order to understand what it would be like for my future online students I decided to take an online course myself. It was an eye opening experience. The most important lesson I learned is that being an online student can be isolating and lonely unless significant effort is made by the teacher to create a sense of community. Based on my experience I decided to make creating community a top priority in my online teaching. - Learning and accepting the technology
Before becoming an online teacher I had to learn the technology. I of course had to learn how to use the hardware and software. More important, however, I had to learn to see the technology involved in online teaching as a pedagogic tool that would enhance my teaching and the students’ learning. - Focusing on the power of the written word
I also needed to cultivate an ability to use written communication as a primary and profound way to connect. In traditional classrooms, my relationships with my students were based on face-to-face communication and informal encounters outside the classroom. In the online setting, my interactions with my students would be primarily through written communication. There would also be synchronous sessions (class meetings in real time) and occasional conversations via the internet or phone, but writing would be the most frequent method of communication. I learned to use written communication to reach across space and time to connect with the people who are my students. I learned to communicate content and be mindful that my students could not see my nonverbal behavior to pick up on nuances of meaning. I learned to carefully consider my words, to use humor, emoticons, exclamation marks, and sometimes visual images when I communicated with my students. - Teacher as facilitator
I needed to understand that my teaching stance would have to change to fit my new pedagogic context. As an online teacher, I am no longer at the center of the learning process. Content in an online course is presented via the online platform, not directly by the teacher. My role is to help my students navigate that content by asking questions and raising comments that clarify, expand, or deepen their thinking and understanding. I am not center stage. The students are at the center of their own stage. My role is to facilitate their learning.
JEL: Online teaching is sometimes criticized as being distant, or removed. What has been your experience with this?
SY: One of my main questions before I started teaching online was, “Will I find a way into the hearts and minds of my students?” My experience has shown that the answer is, “Yes.” Not in the same way as in a regular classroom, but yes. There are a number of features that online learning provides that helped my students feel connected to me and vice versa. These include:
- Frequent communication
There were many opportunities for connecting. There were regular emails, Skype sessions and even phone calls. I had many email conversations around both content and class “business.” I have had numerous email conversations discussing the interpretation of various verses from the text we were studying. - Synchronous sessions
There were a few times during the semester when we met live. This was a precious opportunity! I used these sessions for rapid reviews, socializing, skill building, reflection, and, most importantly, community building. I learned to use our synchronous platform as an opportunity to have important discussions reflecting on our learning. An interesting advantage to synchronous platform discussions is the high level of participation due to the multiple ways of interacting. Students can express their opinions by raising their “icon hand” and by speaking, texting in the chat box, or typing onto the interactive white board.
Because almost every student responds, often simultaneously, learning to process, manage, and respond to the incoming information was a formidable challenge for me. I had to learn to pay attention to all the incoming traffic in real time and to decide when to comment, when to mediate, and when to encourage student-to-student conversation. I know that teaching always requires paying attention to hundreds of different stimuli at the same time. However, I had always relied on verbal and nonverbal student behavior. Now I had no facial expressions, vocal tone, or gesture cues; the information I had was more subtle. Becoming an online teacher really required me to learn a new language.
- Being there
The issue of teacher presence is all the more crucial when your students don’t see you. Students need to know there’s someone on the receiving end of the email. I work extremely hard to return emails as soon as possible. Given the Israel-America time difference, immediate response is not always possible, but for the most part I respond to emails relatively quickly and that has a significant effect on my students’ experience of my presence. In addition, having e-mail access to the teacher allows many students to feel freer to comment or ask questions than they would feel sharing their thoughts in front of classmates or by going up to a teacher’s desk after class. The manner in which I respond to these e-mails to clarify or encourage is an important way of showing that I am there f
JEL: What unique challenges does online teaching present?
SY: There are a few major challenges.
- Who’s the boss?
The first challenge is mastering the technology so you don’t feel that it is the master! - My time
The rhythms of online teaching are completely different from face to face classrooms, where the bell and school schedule structure your day. As an online teacher your work time is fluid. This is especially true when teaching from Israel to North America, where the students’ morning is your afternoon. In the beginning I found myself answering e-mails until all hours of the night, grading assignments as they came in. I needed to create my own schedule that allowed me to be present for my students but also allowed me to be ‘off the grid’ at times. - Distance learning
No matter how connected I come to feel to my students, there will always be some distance. I will not see their faces when they read my comments on their assignments. I will not see them interacting with their friends and may not know if they are experiencing other challenges outside of my class. Sometimes that is frustrating. There is a limit to my presence in their lives and if they don’t answer my e-mail, it’s hard to reach out.
JEL: Are there particular educational advantages to the online environment?
SY: There are many. Here are a few:
- Student-centered discussions
What’s powerful about online discussion is that it is student generated. Although I certainly have a voice, the conversation is primarily between the students. They learn to comment, question, reflect, and challenge one another in a respectful manner. Often, in the course of a discussion, you will see students changing their opinions based on the discussion board discourse. This, for me, is collaborative learning. It’s exciting for me and empowering for the students. - Self-regulated learners
Successful online students need to actively manage their time, set goals for themselves, and monitor their own learning. These skills are not easy but they can be taught. One of my tasks is to observe and support students in the process of becoming self-regulated learners; thinking it through with them, letting them practice, and then enjoying their sense of autonomy as they begin to master these skills. For those students who are successful, these skills are empowering and will serve them well in the future. - No child left behind
Record keeping (grading papers, keeping track of student work, etc.) has always been a challenge for me. The tracking systems that I have available on my online learning platform enable me to know what every one of my students is doing every day. I can easily find out how much time they’ve spent on an assignment, how they understand the text, and if any work is missing. And, I don’t even have to enter the data! This system has been an amazing tool for me, assuring me that no student will fall through the cracks. - Living the interconnectedness of Am Yisrael
It’s quite exciting to watch 8th graders from various Jewish day schools across the country meet one another, form connections, and develop a learning community. When an 8th grader from NJ grapples with parshanut or collaborates on creative assignments with their 8th grade peer from St. Louis, they experience the interconnectedness of the Jewish world!
JEL: Is there anything unique about teaching middle schoolers?
SY: For most of my middle schoolers, this is the first time they have taken an online course. Surprisingly, many of them are not tech savvy so in the beginning of the course I do a lot of hand holding. I have office hours for students and frequently meet with them one on one on our synchronous site (sort of like Skype) or just on the phone. Sometimes, I use the help of the school liaison to give additional support.
Middleschoolers are very social! Even for the less tech savvy students, socializing on line is very natural for them. Our synchronous sessions are filled with social texting, finding common friends, Facebooking, etc.
JEL: Can you share some feedback you’ve received from students?
SY: Here are some of the comments I’ve received.
- “The work. It is not busy work, more intelligent work that took me to so many texts. I also enjoyed meeting new kids … I think we will be great friends because we share interests and think alike.”
- “It would be amazing if you taught another course next semester. This has been one of the best classes I have ever taken.”
- “The most confusing aspect of this week was the technological aspect because I’m not good with computers and my Internet kept on not working.”
- “I had trouble with getting the assignments in on time because it was hard for me to find out when they were due and what we had to do. However, now I feel like I have managed to learn how to know when things are due so that way I can do them on time.”
- “I had a hard time deciding which side of the discussion I wanted to take so I kept on switching back and forth.”
JEL: How do the other teachers in the school and the school leadership feel about your virtual presence?
SY: Every school I work with has assigned a liaison who is my contact person. Usually it’s a fellow teacher. In my experience these teachers become tremendous advocates for the program and are very curious and excited about it. A few of them have been inspired to seek out opportunities for online teaching for themselves.
JEL: Can you share some highlights, surprises, or special moments you experienced in your online teaching?
SY: Some of my highlights as an online teacher are just highlights of teaching: when a student who is struggling makes a breakthrough in his or her understanding; when a student shares an understanding of a pasuk or makes connections that I’ve never thought of before. It’s the same thrill and it’s just as thrilling!
One teacher-affirming moment came last spring. One of our participating schools came to Israel for their 8th grade trip after Pesach. It was towards the end of our semester. I had arranged, with their director, to meet the group on Ben Yehuda Street in Jerusalem. These were my students with whom I had been learning with for the past 4 months but had rarely seen! They came bounding off the bus towards me. When their peers asked them, “Who is that?” I heard them explaining to their classmates, “It’s our Tanakh teacher, Mrs. Yammer!!” We proceeded, as a pack, down Ben Yehuda Street, sharing and reminiscing. I felt, “Yes, I AM their Tanakh teacher!!
JEL: What do you see as the future of online learning?
SY: I don’t feel qualified to make predictions. I can say, though, that I have been convinced that powerful, engaging and quality learning can happen in an online classroom!
JEL: What advice would you have for others who might be considering including some form of online teaching into their toolbox?
SY: Three things.
- Be patient with yourself.
- Learn to see the technology as another pedagogic tool and then let it disappear. Focus on your students. At some point teaching online is teaching.
- Make “presence” your top priority. In face to face teaching, your “presence” in the classroom is a given; it’s not something you need to be cultivating on an ongoing basis. As an online teacher, there is a great amount of time and attention given to the way and manner you communicate: e-mails, text messages, video messages, pictures, announcements, grade comments, etc. They carry great meaning and importance and begin to create for the student a sense that you are there both for them and for the class.