When schools closed to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus, Michigan State University students and instructors also suddenly stopped teaching and learning in K-12 classrooms.
But most of them have stayed connected, continuing to partner with full-time teachers who are open to assistance as they shift to distance teaching. Some Spartans have helped deliver meals to children and gone to even greater lengths to serve families. Here are a few of their stories.
Finding families through Facebook
Meghan Dziedzic spent the day lead teaching at Buchanan Elementary School in Grand Rapids on March 11, 2020. That night, like all MSU teaching interns, she found out she wouldn’t be returning for a few days.
They could not have known the pandemic would take away their chance to say goodbye in-person to the students they had been with all year. Michigan closed all K-12 school buildings on April 1.
“I felt a little helpless,” said Dziedzic. “I thought: ‘How can I be of use to other students, even if I couldn’t help my own students?'”
She created a Facebook page intended to provide Educational Resources for Parents and Students. She also reached out to other young teachers to find collaborators. Fellow Spartan Nicole Lelo volunteered.
“I wanted to keep up with my practice, and make a difference for students,” said Lelo, who had been interning at Hiawatha Elementary School in Okemos.
Their team also includes Philip Abdoo, a middle school teacher in Detroit, and Maggie Goebel and McKenzie Meldrum, both student teachers at Grand Valley State University. With each specializing in different subjects and grade levels, they created a plan to provide engaging videos for parents and students covering key content.
The posts were first intended to fill the gap faced by families looking for learning activities for their children at home, before school districts had time to provide in-depth resources.
Now with schools closed through the year and teachers offering more structured plans, the team is focused on offering extra fun and engaging activities and responding to specific needs posed by parents through an ongoing survey. They post about five video lessons each week.
Lelo and Dziedzic are managing other responsibilities like their MSU coursework, which shifted completely online, and the job search, but they plan to continue the Facebook page for as long as possible.
“We are just really passionate about teaching, and want to do whatever we can,” Lelo said.
When kids take charge, a YouTube library is born
“My heart was really breaking for my students and my own kids,” said Allie Whitford, a doctoral student in the College of Education who was teaching senior- and intern-level teacher education courses when the school shutdown hit.
Her 9-year-old son, Will, heard his mom’s worries, and he had one in particular: How were kids going to get new books?
So he came up with the idea to record himself reading the books he has, and invited his brother Levi, 8, to join him. They got very excited.
Since then, the brothers have recorded and posted a read-aloud for every day the schools and libraries have been closed–now over 30 videos. “Will and Levi’s Reading Channel for Kids” on YouTube has more than 2,000 views, and was featured on the local news.
“Their goal really is just to share the books they love and hopefully brighten people’s day,” said Whitford, a former teacher who lives with her family in Vermontville, Mich.
The boys take it seriously, filming five to 10 takes for each book before sharing. But what is most exciting, says Whitford, is seeing what can happen when kids take ownership for their own learning. And in this case, for other kids’ learning too.
Whitford’s own network of pre-service teachers, and fellow parents, has benefited from sharing the channel. As part of the Curriculum, Instruction and Teacher Education (CITE) Ph.D. program, her studies focus on the intersections between literacy and social studies.
“One of the connections we are seeing during this pandemic, is that there are so many ways that kiddos can learn in a more community minded way,” she said.
How are you helping?
If you have a story to share about College of Education students, staff, faculty or alumni who are making a difference in their communities during the novel coronavirus pandemic, let us know. Send an email to coemedia@msu.edu or use the #MSUed and #MSUkin hashtags.