Episode 22 - It’s Not a ‘Mute’ Point: Why Cameras are Needed in the Remote Learning Environment with Ms. Lauri Pendred

SHOW TOPIC
It’s Not a ‘Mute’ Point: Why Cameras are Needed in the Remote Learning Environment

SPECIAL GUEST
Ms. Lauri Pendred, Evans City Elementary School Principal

Lauri Pendred has been an elementary school administrator for Seneca Valley for the past 17 years with a teaching background in the primary grades. She has degrees in psychology, elementary education and school leadership. Being a facilitator of adult learning has been a passion for her over the last 25 years with experience in team building for various organizations. She has also provided professional development for teachers and training for principals through the Pennsylvania Inspired Leadership Induction (PIL) Program and National Institute for School Leadership (NISL).

IN THIS EPISODE, WE WILL REVIEW
• What the mental health benefits are for students if they keep their cameras on during remote instruction.
• What the academic benefits are to keeping the camera on during remote instruction.
• How to describe remote learning to parents who may view it differently than a classroom.
• How to address student privacy, confidentiality and equity in a remote environment.

USEFUL INFORMATION
www.svsd.net

Transcript

FULL TRANSCRIPT (with timecode)

File Name: Voices E22 Lauri Pendred.mp3

File Length: 00:16:36

00:00:02:23 - 00:00:07:25

Intro: Welcome to Voices, a Podcast brought to you by the Seneca Valley School District. 

00:00:10:22 - 00:00:20:02

Jeff Krakoff: I'm Jeff Krakoff, today I'm with Mrs. Lauri Pended, who is principal at Evans City Elementary at the Seneca Valley School District. Thanks for being with us today. 

00:00:21:00 - 00:00:23:06

Lauri Pendred: Well, thank you for having me. I'm glad to be here. 

00:00:23:26 - 00:00:24:12

Jeff Krakoff: All right. 

00:00:24:14 - 00:00:30:13

Jeff Krakoff: Well, you know, again, the topic that's been on everybody's minds for a long time is, is the pandemic. 

00:00:30:15 - 00:00:46:02

Jeff Krakoff: Right? The whole idea of schools going in and out of traditional versus remote learning, what are you seeing and hearing from teachers and parents? What are the big differences between those two modes of instruction? 

00:00:46:29 - 00:01:29:25

Lauri Pendred: Well, I mean, obviously, we we want kids in school and we want them here. I mean, that's that's the we believe the best way of learning. Right. So we have that interaction with students when they are able to be in the traditional classroom. So I think our goal with remote learning and we've learned a lot from the spring experience to now is to kind of provide that continuity of education and to be able to engage the kids in a similar way as they would experience in school as possible. What we've now been able to offer this fall is live streaming where we can kind of follow that daily schedule as much as possible and mirror that school day while we're being mindful of the screen time for all of our kids. 

00:01:29:27 - 00:01:34:04

Lauri Pendred: And that can be very different in an elementary setting for a kindergartener versus a fourth grader. 

00:01:34:06 - 00:01:34:21

Jeff Krakoff: Right. 

00:01:34:27 - 00:01:57:12

Lauri Pendred: Their level of independence, how long we want them on a screen, what kind of distractions might pull them away from their learning and really try to manage that. So it's a whole new way of managing your classroom, if you will, as the teacher, right? You still have your kids. You still can see them with cameras. But you you want to keep them engaged. And that's always our goal is to be able to do that. 

00:01:57:28 - 00:02:04:23

Jeff Krakoff: So what are the biggest challenges that you're seeing at the elementary level in this new world of remote learning? 

00:02:05:17 - 00:02:45:14

Lauri Pendred: Well, I think keeping all students engaged can be a challenge. They you know, they want to be here and it's easier when you're in a classroom. So when you don't have a camera on, how do you know a child is engaged? If they log in and you see their initials on the screen, but you're not sure if they're there the whole time and depending on where they are when they're learning, an elementary student isn't independent. So are they at home? Are they in a daycare? And what are some of those distractions and when can they really engage with the learning? So for some, that daily schedule is really helpful because if you're a parent working at home, that's great. 

00:02:45:16 - 00:03:16:00

Lauri Pendred: You know, when they're on, you can get your work done while the child's engaged with school. But if they're in a daycare setting, that's a lot different. The parents at work and they daycare might have a lot of things going on that could distract the learner. And they're trying their best to keep kids engaged. So our teachers are seeing a lot of different environments that kids might be in. Then they're trying to engage them all and keep them focused on the learning while also maintaining that connection that you have with kids. We always look at the whole child and educating the whole child. 

00:03:16:06 - 00:03:25:19

Lauri Pendred: And so we're as mindful of the social, emotional aspects that connection with our teacher is so important in the younger grades. 

00:03:25:29 - 00:03:43:29

Lauri Pendred: So those are some of the challenges, along with assessing, assessing kids and they're learning. You you can't watch them write on that paper right in front of you. You can't always see their reaction to the learning and to tell whether they are 

00:03:45:15 - 00:03:46:08

Lauri Pendred: really getting it. 

00:03:46:10 - 00:04:15:08

Lauri Pendred: And that is the things that our teachers do in the moment. While they're instructing, they can adjust their instruction based on those little faces. And do they look confused? And is it one person or is it half the class? If it's half the class? And I've got to do something different right now, if it's one child, then I know I need to meet with that child a little bit later and make sure they get it and do it in different ways. And so, so much of that nonverbal communication are clues to whether kids are getting the learning or not. And the way that we assess them. 

00:04:15:18 - 00:04:45:21

Jeff Krakoff: Right. So that goes to the importance of students having their cameras on during the day, the whole idea of having that feedback, seeing the nonverbal cues. So I know that there are both mental health and academic benefits for the students of having their cameras on. And some people, like adults, are resistant to having cameras on during meetings at times. Let's focus on the mental health benefits. What what are they for for the elementary kids? 

00:04:46:09 - 00:05:19:12

Lauri Pendred: Well, I think seeing one another in our face when you're in schools right now, we're seeing a masked face. And although it's good, we're all learning to focus more on the eyes than any other part of the face. I think our our eyes are naturally gravitating. There's times I even find myself not even noticing if someone has a mask on or not. Right. But your whole face tells more of the story. And so it is very nice to see someone's whole face. And that connection, you know, albeit virtual, is still really valuable to see people's facial expressions. 

00:05:20:25 - 00:05:57:22

Lauri Pendred: We know that nonverbal communication is like 67% of the communication. So your words and your tone of voice make up the rest, so that nonverbal and facial expressions are a huge part of that. So even if we can only see the face, it's better than seeing nothing. So it is such a huge part of our own mental health, and especially for kids, they need that connection. They miss their teachers, they miss their classmates. So they need to see them. Obviously, it's a little different because we are all looking at ourselves as part of this Zoome team's experience. 

00:05:57:24 - 00:06:31:16

Lauri Pendred: We're in a classroom. You don't see yourself as much, right? You're looking at your whole class. So that might be uncomfortable for some kids. But we can work with kids individually to connect with them in a way that they're comfortable. But that takes knowing and seeing what's comfortable and what isn't. And we can do that in a variety of ways, whether it's the whole group in the whole class. And they feel connected that way, or in a small group with a small group instruction with kids that maybe are working at a similar level to you or individually with our school counselor, with their teacher, with paraprofessionals and interventionists. 

00:06:31:23 - 00:06:36:15

Lauri Pendred: They're getting those different interactions just like they would in the school day. 

00:06:37:18 - 00:06:47:28

Lauri Pendred: We physically move from room to room while they're physically moving from meeting to meeting or virtually moving from meeting to meeting to meet with all of these people that they would typically see in a school day. 

00:06:48:05 - 00:07:25:27

Lauri Pendred: And I think that gives them normalcy for our kids. It gives them connection. So all of that is what we're trying to duplicate the school experience in a virtual way, while also, as I said, maintaining screen time and balancing that. I mean, seven and a half hours in school, you're moving around. You're getting you know, we don't want kids seven and a half hours in front of a screen. So we kind of talked with our teachers about being gatekeepers of the screen time and helping parents to prioritize what are the most important meetings that they need to so that they can help to make those decisions with the parents. 

00:07:26:15 - 00:08:00:20

Lauri Pendred: Parents kind of need permission to be like, OK, if we have to give up something because we're concerned this is the thing. And so those conversations are happening between teachers and parents because every parent wants to know, are they going to get credit or are they going to be penalized if they don't do this, that or the other thing. And we're really concerned about the engagement, the whole child. And that's a partnership. And I think in an elementary school, the teachers really make those connections. They have twenty five or less kids generally then secondary so they can manage that, really get to know their kids, know the environment. 

00:08:00:28 - 00:08:21:23

Lauri Pendred: That's what we've been trying to do. Where are they when they learn and how do we help? And every parent, every teacher that is reaching out is reaching out in the way of how can we help not why aren't you doing X, Y or Z parent, kid, whatever that may be, the students or the parents, is just how do we support you in whatever your situation is?

00:08:21:25 - 00:08:23:24

Jeff Krakoff: Ok how about academically? 

00:08:23:26 - 00:08:29:25

Jeff Krakoff: How important is that connection? Via the camera, via the screen for both student and teacher. 

00:08:30:14 - 00:09:03:22

Lauri Pendred: Right. I mean, we we had a faculty meeting this morning talking about how do we assess kids and parents want to be helpful, but sometimes they do the work for them so that that camera is really important to see. Are they understanding? You know, we're not as concerned about the perfect paper as we are about the understanding of learning because we can't if we just see perfect papers that were, you know, maybe got a little help, then we don't know whether they actually got it right. We need to know, are they learning it? We're we're working on standards and mastery of those standards. 

00:09:04:04 - 00:09:45:17

Lauri Pendred: So we're moving away from it. Being about the grade and an A, it's about our what is the learning? And if we don't know if you actually learn that, then we can't help you. So that is the tricky part. And it's really important with the camera because you can check for understanding. You can see if a child looks confused, you can see if what's on their paper matches what they really know. And it's OK for kids to struggle and not get something right. That's how we know what to teach. So that assessment is such an important part of our instruction that tells us what we know, what the kids and what students know and what how we teach them better, whether it's virtual or in the classroom. 

00:09:45:19 - 00:10:02:09

Lauri Pendred: But we just have a little less access to seeing in a virtual environment. If they're learning, as we do when we're observing kids all day long to assess, are they getting it? You know, so that is really the critical part of the camera because we're losing so much of that with not having them in person. 

00:10:02:19 - 00:10:17:08

Jeff Krakoff: So we introduce a camera. You're in a room. Sometimes you can't control everything. I know adults are in a Zoom meeting or a TEAM's atmosphere and a pet or somebody makes an unwanted appearance. What do you tell students and 

00:10:18:29 - 00:10:25:26

Jeff Krakoff: their students about just not worrying about that kind of thing? Obviously, kids don't want to be embarrassed, but. 

00:10:27:10 - 00:10:44:28

Lauri Pendred: Yeah, I think at the earlier grades, we see less of that because we see all kinds of things and they're not very aware of what their camera is pointing at. So we get dizzy watching some of them as they walk around, you know, with their camera through their house or they want to take you on a tour of their house or show you different things. 

00:10:45:22 - 00:11:16:17

Lauri Pendred: But in general, we try to guide them just like we would. This is a classroom management tool that our teachers have access to. So you would manage your classroom right in person. And we're trying to equate that. One of the examples we've just talked about, a faculty meeting, is we have these different backgrounds that we can change on TEAMS. Right. But that can be distracting to all the other kids because it's constantly changing their background. So what is that child trying to do with that? They're trying to get attention and change how it looks. 

00:11:17:07 - 00:11:40:18

Lauri Pendred: So what we could say is a teacher is, well, when you're when you're in class with me, you don't get up out of class and go change your clothes and come back because you want to look different. So we're not going to do that maybe in the remote environment because it distracts other kids. So we're always teaching about how our behaviors affect others, even if they're not bad behaviors. They're just you know, it's what kids do. They're exploring a new environment. 

00:11:40:21 - 00:11:41:06

Jeff Krakoff: Right. 

00:11:41:08 - 00:11:53:03

Lauri Pendred: And so they don't know the rules because we haven't taught them all the rules for this or in rules in the way of how does what you do, your actions affect other people is what I like to refer to as rules. 

00:11:53:22 - 00:12:28:09

Lauri Pendred: We want to keep the teachers teaching and the kids learning. And that same applies in a virtual setting. And that's kind of the two things that I tell kids. That's my job. Make sure teachers are teaching and students are learning. So we don't want to do anything to get in the way of that. So you have to follow your teacher's instructions whether they say you need to turn your camera off. So if a teacher sees something maybe inappropriate going on in the background. One of my suggestions to teachers was just tell the class at any time. I might ask you to turn your camera off and you need to know that I'm making the best decisions for you and for our class. 

00:12:28:18 - 00:13:01:15

Lauri Pendred: And so then it's a normal thing and it's not like you did something wrong. But you need to listen when I say that, because, you know, we can see all kinds of things in the background that maybe parents aren't aware that kids seeing or the kids aren't aware of someone walking behind. And not that it's malicious or bad or anything is just part of life. So a teacher can easily, quickly react to that to save a child from embarrassment, to save a family from embarrassment or to help children. And if they're seeking attention, we give them that attention in a different way. 

00:13:02:27 - 00:13:17:04

Jeff Krakoff: So you mentioned rules, right? Tell me a little bit about the rules and the kinds of things you think about as a principal in terms of student privacy, confidentiality, equity in the classroom, virtually. 

00:13:18:03 - 00:13:48:25

Lauri Pendred: Yeah, I think equity is is a big part of what we want to be aware of, because everyone's homes can be different and we don't want anyone judging our students or one another based on that. So knowing, as I said, our teachers can get to know their students and the environment they're in and then help individual families and kids make good decisions. And we want to support people. So we could take for granted that you can have a space that's a quiet spot in your home. But not everyone may have that. 

00:13:49:03 - 00:14:20:22

Lauri Pendred: How many people are in your home? How many people are trying to work and do school at the same time? Do you have your own bedroom or whatever it is that, That's not realistic for everyone. So being aware of that and then kind of gauging it on an individual basis, a case by case, is what we might do. But we're always being mindful of student privacy. We have FERPA laws that we want to follow. So we're not recording students and people keeping their screens off, but yet you're still trying to maintain that connection. 

00:14:20:24 - 00:14:48:29

Lauri Pendred: So if you have all cameras off, no one gets to see each other for confidentiality, then you're losing that connection. So we have to try to balance those things with guidance. For our teachers, there's drawbacks and benefits to everything. Do I record a lesson? Well, you could record a lesson, but then you're at risk of recording other students so we don't record lessons with student cameras on and things like that, or we just record the teacher and all of those kinds of things we're very 

00:14:50:15 - 00:15:07:26

Lauri Pendred: cognizant of to maintain that confidentiality and privacy. And we're open to feedback from parents on things. So we're not going to be perfect at this. We're learning it, too. So we want people to communicate with their teachers and communicate what's working and maybe what isn't. 

00:15:08:19 - 00:15:16:15

Jeff Krakoff: OK. So before I let you go, if I'm a teacher or excuse me, if I'm a parent of an elementary student, 

00:15:18:00 - 00:15:22:03

Jeff Krakoff: what's one of the main takeaways that that I should take from all of this? 

00:15:23:05 - 00:15:49:21

Lauri Pendred: I think the importance of teachers seeing the students and maintaining that connection is really important and whatever that looks like, that communication between the teacher and the parent is important to really understand the child and and how that benefits them and can help them. I spoke to a parent whose child is really shy, but sometimes we need people to get out of their comfort zone. 

00:15:49:23 - 00:16:12:06

Lauri Pendred: And maybe that happens in a one on one camera on situation with the teacher until the child is comfortable with it being on. And maybe they're never comfortable with the whole class, but making sure there's that connection in some form. We don't want any teacher to never see the child in a remote setting. I think I said a double negative there. But you'll forgive me that 

00:16:13:21 - 00:16:19:19

Lauri Pendred: that's really what I think I would take away, is to maintain that connection with teachers and students in their class. 

00:16:19:29 - 00:16:23:21

Jeff Krakoff: All right. So, Mrs. Lauri Pendred, thank you so much for joining us today. 

00:16:24:01 - 00:16:24:28

Lauri Pendred: Thank you for having me. 

00:16:25:03 - 00:16:26:15

Jeff Krakoff: All right. Have a great rest of your day. 

00:16:26:19 - 00:16:27:03

Lauri Pendred: Thanks.