Ramsey Resident - 1984 - November

Home

Ramsey Resident - November, 1984 - Page 4 ---~;..--;;;--- - Unique Teleteaching Program irnproves instruction for students ;. When junior. and senior high school students are ill or injured for extended periods of time, they can keep up with . their school work by simply picking up the telephone and dialing in for their "classes." The new TeleTeaching pro- gram instituted last year, the only one of its kind in the state, replaces the traditional Homebound/Hospital pro- gram' for students wh'o are medically unable to attend school. ' Under the old 'homebound program, students were visited at home or in the hospital by a homebound teacher for a maximum of one hour per day. In that hour, the teacher would give the stu- . dent his or her assignments, answer questions, and try to help students with work they didn't understand. Although all the homebound teachers were certified, for the most part, they had. only one or two areas' of expertise. This meant, for example, that' an English teacher might be call- ed on to help a student with math problems. "Each year we would take a look at our Homebound- /Hospital program and discuss its inability to meet the needs of students," said Orlin Bonstrom, special epucation director. "We figured there had to be a bet- ter way." , ; , I 1 - I ~ I. l Bonstrom heard about the TeleTeaching concept used in several areas' and ,decided to visit and observe programs in both San Francisco and Tucson. He was impressed with what he saw, so he made recommendations to pilot a TeleT.eaching program in Anoka-Hennepin School District No. 11 last year, tak- ing tt:le ideas from Tucson and San Francisco and improving upon them. . The program works like this. When the special edu- cation/special services department is notified that a student will be out of school for an extended period, usual- ly a month or more, Verna Renslow, the secretary in the department, contacts a TeleTeaching teacher. That teacher in turn contacts the student's school to arrange to get assignments from teachers. One of the TeleTeaching teachers makes an initial visit 'to the student's home or hospital and then sets up a TeleTeaching class schedule for the student. A class periOd is scheduled for each class pn the student's regular schedule. For example, a stu- dent might have geometry at 8:30 a.m., home economics at 10:15 a.m., physics at 11:45 a.m., art at 12:35 p.m" business at 1:45 p.m. and English at 2:55 p.m, The stu- Bus article cant. from page 3 I ; , I It , , , It's really hectic for the first three weeks or so at the start of the school year," said Bratt. "Sometimes transporta- tion calls actually jam the switchboard for awhile." Many Of the callers are polite, but others are really angry. She recalled a case the first week of school when Spauld- ing had to hold the telephone receiver away from her ear and then ask the caller to please not swear at her. /" A lot of calls comer from parents simply wanting to know when and where their child should catch the bus, but there ar.e also many from P?rents ,<<ho are u'pset about the routes or the location of the bus stop. "Some com- plain that there is a mean dog at the bus stop, for example, so they ask if the stop can be moved. Some want the bus to stop right at the end of their driveway, but we just can't do that all the time and run an ef- ficient system," said Miller. Under ,school district guidelines, students can walk up to half a mile to a bus stop. "We try to reduce that as much as possible, especially in the morning," said Mc. Closkey. "The average. distance a student must walk is. about two and a quarter blocks. " Both Miller and McCloskey , carefully consider every com- plaint or suggestion they get. "We understand the parents' concern for their children's,. J I , r I I . t , i . . ..; . -~ .:>. safety. We are both parents and we know what it's like," said McCloskey, "so we try to take the attitude of 'let's do everything we can within reason! We always try to be fair and safety is always our first concern." Often they will go out to observe a bus stop or route before ,they decide whether or not they need to make a change. "I don't think the public understands the amount of time and effort and genuine concern that all the people in the Transportation Depart- ment put into the job of get- ting children to school," said Superintendent F.inch. "The number of complaints they do get is really small when you consider the large number of students they transport each day. They real- ly deserve a lot of gratitude from parents." , Once in awhile, in the midst of complaints, they do get a call from a parent than1<ing them for taking a look at a special situation or making a request to change. And sometirpes, a parent goes out of his or her way to thank them for the job they do. The s-econd week of school, for example, a woman brought the Transportation Depart- ment a cake she had baked especially to thank them for handling her concerns. "It's nice to know that we are ap- preciated sometimes," saic Bratt, -, , dent is given a special phone number to dial far his or her classes at the 'sched'uled time. When he_calls:he will be linked up with the TeleTeaching teacher for that specific subject and also with other students calling in for the same subject. The teacher conducts the class over the telephone, giving instruc- tions, answering questions, and carrying on class discus- sion with all students at once. The teacher and all students in the class can hear all par- ticipants. "It's basically like setting up a business con- ference call," said teacher Pam Gunderson. The teacher has the added advantage, uni- que to Anoka-Hennepin's pro- gram, of being able to deter- mine which student is speak- ing by watchin'g a computer screen where a light indicates the speaker. A maximum of 15 students can participate in a single class, but for the most part, teachers have had no more than three or four students in a 'class at, a time. - "The big strength of this system is that the students get much more instruction per day," said. Bonstrom. "Each student will have four to six 30-minute classes per day, compared with oniy one hour per day maximum under' the old system. The other strength of course is that the student is taught by a teacher who is a specialist in each area-math teachers are teaching math, English teachers are teaching English." / Students, teachers, and parents for the'most part have responded very positively to this system. "According to the comments we have heard, even parents who didn't believe their child could learn over the telephone have end- ed up likinQ ths system," said Renslow. . . "At first I had negative feel- ings about TeleTeaching, but after my daughter started the program, it went well. We had I home tutoring earlier this year and I believe she received bet- ter teaching through Te.leTeaching," wrote one parent on the program evalua- tion form. Another parent wrote that the program "of- fers independence and makes students take responsibility for their schooling." . Some students said they thought. the TeleTeaching teachers were a "little harder on us" than their regular teachers. "Students have to do their homework and be prepared, because I can tell immediately with so few students on line at one time, when someone isn't par: ticipating in a discussion," said Gunderson. .J?1."i ~j ;~ Gunderson, an English teacher, said she much prefers TeleTeaching to the old homebound instruction. "The system is superior," she said. "With this, I only have to teach English, which 'is what I am prepared for." She also en- joys it because the work is so varied, although it does take longer to prepare for classes. "I can be teaching anything from seventh grade remedial reading to Shakespeare at one time, so I often have several different classes to prepare for," she said. "If a student is reading a novel, I wouldn't make an attempt to teach it without reading it, so it really does irlVolve a lot of preparation time." The TeleTeaching program will continue and possibly ex- / pand this year. "We are con- sidering extending it to serve special education students as well," said Bonstrom. "Last year those sfudents were on the regular homebound in- struction program." Although' the program was not instituted to save money, Bonstrom said it is Cost effec- tive because of the ability to group students and a saving's in teacher travel time. Pam GU!lderson conducts a class via the Teleteaching System. BUY AN ORIGINAL --11~ ~-- (.~~~ 1- rl~~::~~ -~_ . rw r'~--~'~\~1 ~ ~ ~-f Eagle Wagon ~ Jeep Grand Wagoneer tong before there were 4x4's from Audi, Subaru and Toyota in America, there were 4x4's from Jeep. Only Jeep and AMC offer you a complete 'family of 4x4's. Jeep and AMC provide two differ- ent 2WD/4WD systems...Selec Trac'" and Command Trac,'" And only Jeep and AMC can give you the triple.award- winning "1984 4x4 Of The Year" Jeep Cherokee. And the "Official Vehicle of the National Ski Patrol," the 2WD/4WD American Eagle, . Sales, Parts, Service, Body Shop 421-4950 '-'eep.1 ".. American Motors qeeenleeg4 6415 Hwy. 10 NW Ra"!.sey, MN.