Nico Bolton models his cool spider hat project.
Teacher Shandel Oderman (on the right) and student teacher Briana Lewellen drop off a weekly learning packet for Timber Engstrom, including a special treat and an invitation to the class Zoom Pajama Party.
With Zoom meetings and other digital classroom experiences now being commonplace, making online school accessible for younger students can be a challenge. First grade teacher Shandel Oderman is one of the many educators at Union Ridge Elementary School in Ridgefield working to make remote learning fun for students.
Oderman’s Zoom classroom is bright and engaging with large tissue paper flowers and colorful posters. Her “WOW Wall” is filled with students' work and a Student of the Week celebration banner hangs nearby. However, instead of a school classroom, Oderman teaches from her home office. All of the room decorations make online learning feel like any other first grade classroom, full of fun and excitement and shows students and parents that school is still happening, just in a different place.
Oderman works to make virtual learning as enjoyable as possible for the first-graders. Each lesson has an opportunity for her students to interact with each other and with things around them. For one lesson, students became “volume detectives” and searched for and photographed things in their home that could change volume from soft to loud. A “Teacher vs. Students” game gets groups of students talking about discussion prompts and sharing ideas with Oderman. If the students win, they get a prize.
While most of their class time is spent on Zoom, the students do get to see their teacher in person from time to time, according to a news release. Oderman hands out learning packets with weekly drive-through pickups or porch deliveries. Even behind a mask, you can feel her broad smile when she sees her students. The kids are always excited to see what is in their learning packets.
One of the weekly learning kits included cotton balls in Ziploc bags. The cotton balls were scented with essential oils and became part of a lesson on the sense of smell. “The kids could try smelling them and responding about their olfactory memories,” Oderman said.
Other first grade teachers, including Jennifer Ingham, Danielle McTighe and Fredia Thompson, partner with Oderman to create engaging lesson plans and activities for remote learning, allowing their classes to work together on all kinds of projects. The teachers created a pumpkin growing contest and pitted the classrooms against each other in a friendly battle. The four classes also enjoy video debates, where students take a side on an issue, create a video with their opinion, then watch and respond to other students’ videos. “It has been great to work as a team,” Oderman said. “I couldn’t do it without them.”
Not everything the students do is a class project however, students still enjoy class events like Zoom pajama parties and a Virtual Valentine’s Day party. “They were so excited for our Valentine’s party after picking up their Valentine’s bags that they asked me to come on Zoom anyway. Fourteen kids showed up to celebrate. It totally warmed my heart,” Oderman said.
