The traditional school day of an elementary school within the United States of America begins with the early drop off of students, by parents who must work; teachers attend and are oversight caretakers for the students who show up an hour or two early for their school day, due to the parent's workplace timeline expectations. The elementary school day begins at approximately 8:00 a.m., wherein students have a home classroom, their primary classroom, in which they spend most of the day, but also move between different classrooms for physical education, artistic classes, music classes, time in the library, as well as movement between classes for another traditional subject such as mathematics or science courses. The students always return to their home classroom for restroom breaks and lunchtime. Many schools traditionally have after-school programs, wherein the children have caretakers until the parents can pick up the students after the workday. During the shift to remote teaching and learning, the school day was disrupted; the student's normal daily schedule was disrupted, also causing difficulty in the student's regular day's events.
Published in Chapter:
eLearning Environments as Engaging Invitations to Elementary Age Learners: Parental Experiences and Understandings
Copyright: © 2021
|Pages: 23
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-6956-6.ch004
Abstract
This discussion shares one working parent's experiences, as a parent aiding her daughter in an eLearning environment. In March 2019, the daughter's elementary school shut down due to COVID-19. Soon after, the schools began using Zoom and Schoology to help maintain a semblance of normalcy and a semblance of attempts towards continuing the learning process within a challenging cultural and sociological situation. What is shared is the parent's journey through which the parent struggled to sustain levels of normalcy in the home and the community. The focus of the discussion revolved around the school week, the school day, and school-based relationships, while also emphasizing the parent's voice through her perspective.