Our guest blogger is Kit Betts-Masters, Director of Learning Science at Abbeyfield School in Northampton, and the science teacher behind “Gorilla Physics”, a YouTube channel dedicated to helping students get the top grade in their exams. Kit has used Tassomai in his school since 2017 and is a big fan of the program so it made sense for us to support his channel and to invite him to tell us about his experiences of teaching remotely during lockdown.

Teaching remotely has not been an easy transition for anyone, but the teaching profession has jumped right in and worked tirelessly to rise to the challenge.  In the first period of school closure I told my staff that success would be less about the work that we set, and more about the way that we engaged the students in that work.  We had some success and I’m pleased to say that when the students returned it did not feel like we had “lost learning” and there was no need for a reduced “recovery curriculum”. 

In fact because of the systems that we used, we were able to pinpoint with great accuracy where all of the gaps in learning were and to target them with focussed intervention.  Remarkably we found the students were on average above where their equivalent students were at the same time the year before!

Maintaining strong connections with students is key

In this second school closure the consensus has been that being available synchronously, teaching “live,” is preferable.  This time my message to my staff was all about connections.  It was and is our aim to keep relationships strong, to be able to say to the students, I’m still here, I’m still your teacher and I’m still here to look out for you and make sure you are supported through this. 

The feedback that we receive from students and their families is that they feel very much reassured, even if it is just to hear our voices and see a PowerPoint presentation!  We’ve figured out ways to do most of what we do in the classroom, including checking engagement and receiving and giving quick accurate feedback.

I discuss this in a recent Gorilla Physics video: “how I set distance learning - keeping the connection with students learning at home”, you can watch it below or find it on my YouTube channel.

It is always a strong connection when you can say; your weakness is this, this is your misunderstanding.  Ed-tech allows us to do this with pinpoint accuracy. 

Our next aim is to convince the students that they are not losing time, and that they are still learning.  We know they are still making progress, and we need them to feel confident in that too.

Remote learning is not perfect.  In my specific context as a science teacher the biggest drawback is that we can’t do the experiments, which are the things that most science teachers love, the real science.  But this pandemic will not stop us teaching and it will not stop our students learning!

I want to facilitate our students to do a bit of metacognition; to take stock of the things that are positive about distance learning.  I want to help them recognise that all is not lost, that there are things that are easier to learn at home!  Sure, it is harder for me to teach application, analysis and evaluation skills, (the AO2 and AO3 skills in science.)  But there is plenty of opportunity for the students to widen and deepen their knowledge and understanding of science at this time, and there will be plenty of time to hone these higher order skills when we are back in school!  (No matter when that is.)

Looking ahead...

The future, the brave new world, evaluating these tools for the next generation, is my next aim as an educator.  Our watch words have been be adventurous, be creative, be evaluative.  For me, as someone who has been engaged in blended learning for so long, and who has been making online learning resources, it is heartening to see my profession take up the challenge with confidence and with determination.    

I am convinced that accuracy of assessment is the chief benefit of education technology.  Truly personalised and engaging feedback is the next step which it can get right.

Now, with the entire profession working on these digital education platforms and evaluating these tools, we are learning and improving at a very high rate.  Even in the few weeks since making this video I’ve developed my thinking further into what makes a great online teaching session, so stay tuned to GorillaPhysics for that!

Kit Betts-Masters
@gorillaphysics on Twitter