(H-F High is closed to students and visitors, but the Chronicle was invited in to see how teachers are teaching from their classrooms. Other faculty are teaching from home.)

Homewood-Flossmoor High math teacher Dana Noble greets the 21 students in his pre-calculus honors section as they pop up on his screen to start the 9 a.m. class.
He can talk directly to a few, and they chat about the weather and being outdoors. But after five students sign on, the computer goes to mute – the group is too big for open mic. 

Noble has chosen to teach from the H-F building. He sits at his desk using two computer screens — one to see the students and a second to register the attendance. He reminds students he put assignments in the classwork section of the Google program H-F is using.

Once class starts, Noble will switch that second screen to display the Smart Board, a electronic blackboard where he will show computations. That will enable students to follow along as he reviews math problems.

With everyone registered, Noble steps away from his desk to the front of the classroom where a third laptop is on a cart. That is the computer he uses to directly interact with students. To avoid reverberations, the volume is turned down, so Noble raises his voice so the computer on his desk can pick up his presentation. 

Over the next hour, Noble will review math problems in preparation for the quarterly exam he’ll administer the next day, Oct. 16. Last year he gave the test on paper and collected the exams at the end of the period.  This year, the test was administered via computer. Even when students return to H-F, Noble suspects tests will be taken on computer to avoid spreading germs from paper others have handled. 

As with all classes, there are students who willingly volunteer an answer and others that watch what’s happening. Noble finds student involvement through remote learning isn’t much different. What he misses is the direct interaction with students. In a classroom he could look directly at 21 individuals, but with remote learning he can’t always catch expressions on their faces.

To communicate, students send questions and answers through the Google Meets chat room. Noble and all the students can see the conversation. Noble will monitor the chats and address the student concerns. Students can also unmute their microphone to ask a question.

Noble gets class participation sometimes by coaxing (“A couple answers in the chat so far. Let’s get a few more for comparison.”), sometimes by calling on a student (“17,000. That’s a little low, Randall.”) 

What the teacher must remember is the internet pause — the delay in internet service that causes a slowdown between his question and getting it relayed to a student. It may be just a few seconds, but it forces him to stop and wait. There are also times when internet service will knock a student off the system, forcing them to start over and log back in to the class.

This class is using calculators. In a classroom setting, Noble said all students have their calculators, but in remote he can’t walk around to check their work so he puts his calculator up to the laptop camera to share solutions with students.

A teacher’s instructional flexibility may be limited, but Noble is an example of how teachers in Homewood and Flossmoor have learned to adjust — not only to technology but their approach to teaching. 
Nine weeks in, Noble believes “remote learning is going very well.” He finds students “are engaged, participating and completing assignments at a very high rate.”

H-F administration and staff spent weeks in summer working to improve upon the educational plan they were forced to implement in spring when schools first shut down.

“The plan that we have implemented maximizes the continuity of instruction while providing students opportunities for autonomy and support,” he said.