GREENSBORO, N.C. — The struggle to get through remote learning can be felt by parents, teachers, students, and even day care providers.
Deloris Jackson, the owner of CJ's Childcare in Greensboro, has revamped her facility to help kids learn remotely while keeping them safe.
"Everybody’s on different schedules, different age groups, and it’s hard. I got my director helping the children go through the school work helping connect them," Jackson said.
The day care director's daily duties consist of taking temperatures and day-to-day operations of keeping the center up and running. Now, helping kids with their remote learning is piled on top of that.
"We're not really equipped for all this. We playing a teacher part at a day care," Jackson said.
Plexiglass dividers separate the students, ranging in age from preschool to kindergarten, and middle school.
"They have headsets to hear their teachers but when they talk to their teachers I have to send them in a different room because they’re disturbing everybody else," Jackson said.
Because the kids at the day care are all different ages and have to complete different assignments, Jackson says juggling different Zoom meeting times is also difficult.
"They have to log in at different times. I have some children that have to log in at 7:30. Some of them have to come back at 1, 2 o'clock. It’s really hard. A lot of children don’t understand," she said.
"The older ones are doing OK, but the ones that went from daycare to kindergarten, fifth grade to sixth grade, elementary to middle school and middle to high school, they’re having a hard time because they’re not used to all these different classes and changing up and different subjects."
Although Jackson said her daycare facility wasn't ready for this, they're doing the best they can.
The struggle continues for parents and teachers, too.
Thaitianna Price is a mother of six, and said remote learning has been a struggle.
"I would call it the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life trying to balance the four children in one classroom setting. It’s been extremely difficult," Price said.
She has four kids in elementary school, one in middle school, and another in high school.
"It’s just been hard trying to get everyone on the same page and we’re all in one room. So, that’s really been an issue," Price said.
"They all have to get on about 8:15 to 8:30 and it’s definitely all different assignments and it’s just been extremely hard because I’ll get one set up or two set up and I have to listen to all four screens," she said.
Guilford County Schools teacher Michellee Harris-Jefferson said she's been rolling with the challenges remote learning brings.
"I never taught a course 100 percent online," she said.
Harris-Jefferson also has a daughter of her own and said sometimes the two will be sitting right next to each other, laptops open, both trying to get their work done.
She said if you and your child are struggling with remote learning, the best thing you can do is reach out to the teacher.
"Don’t just sit there frustrated. E-mail the teachers. I have been talking to parents on the phone all week long at the school parents trying to figure out passwords," she said, "I want parents to know that we get it we understand that it is a struggle because we are not just teachers we’re parents too."