Last Updated on July 1, 2022 by Brie
Last week on the blog I did a post entitled, Horror Stories for the Working Mom who’s Teaching Online! It is part one so If you have not had the chance to check out that post you should. I have recorded many of our experiences here on the blog on dealing with the pandemic. As a result of the pandemic, I bridged over into the online teaching industry as a single mom. It is an industry that has been thriving since shortly after the computers and internet began. However, it has become more interesting, and an entire sector is geared towards students between the ages of 4 to 12, which is where I have been camped out for the last few months.
Horror Stories From a Single Mom Teaching Online
I have taught over 100 students online so far as a single mom, and I have had some great students.
However, it is not the great students that you remember. Sure, they make your classtime much more pleasant, and it leads to a great start to the day. But these students are soon forgotten in the shuffle that is online teaching.
Nonetheless, the ones you remember are the online teaching horror stories, which I have now wracked up quite a few. While I can mostly laugh at them, I have to say this is not an industry for those who cannot handle the weird or the critique. Let’s face it. Kids can be cruel, particularly if they don’t want to participate.
Resources to prepare a Single Mom for Teaching Online
Do you need some great resources that will help guide the way for teaching online?
Well brilliant online instructors, who are far more successful than me have created very inspiring books to help you out. You can get these books right on your kindle, or kindle app to read in your spare time. It is a great way to prepare for launching an online teaching business as a single mom.
Meaningful Online Learning
Meaningful Online Learning is a powerful book that has all the ins and outs of creating successful online courses that engage your students. Whether you want to tackle an online zoom session, or create a course and never touch it again you need this book. It provides a great framework, activities, and how to create a syllabus.
The Gamification of Learning and Instruction Fieldbook
The Gamification of Learning and Instructional Fieldbook provides a bevy of great resources if you are looking to make your online courses game-based. It has many, many ideas within the pages. Game-based learning is all the rage with younger children—especially on the Kidpass and Outschool platforms.
Without further ado, here are the horror stories from teaching my first 100 students online (part 2):
Encountering Sibling Fights During Online Classes as a Single Mom:
I have seen several full-on sibling wars on camera before. I want to think that I could control the classroom a little better than this, but when the kids are ranging from between the ages of 4-7, and there is no parental supervision, and they are given wrapping paper rolls, they start walking each other with them. I have found this to be true when the kids do not want to be in class.
However, I had one incident where the student was in an extracurricular class, so you would think they would want to be there, who screamed at their sibling multiple times throughout the session. I think I have had an estimated four sibling fights within my classes.
Encountering Parent Fights While Teaching Online
This is where the kid starts screaming or hitting the parent, which happens more frequently in the younger age online classes than one would think. You would think that the suspense of being placed in front of a camera before strangers would make kids’ minds; however, the news of this situation has worn off, and many kids have gotten comfortable with it. As a result, I have had multiple little kids who have screamed at their parents while on camera. It is usually due to the parents trying to assist them with something or make them stay in their seats. Parent fights have probably occurred with 10/100 students I have taught.
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Encountering Students Eating in class in the Online Classroom
This is a funny story, and I can see why the teacher comedians make jokes about kids eating in class. When I started online teaching, I signed up for two different teaching companies. I had already taught two or three courses with the first one, and everything had gone well. However, with the second company, my very first class had an eater in it. The student eating issue was the very first issue I encountered as an online teacher. This kid was, I kid you not, eating a full-on taco bell buffet in front of him the entire 25-minute class. He had the sauce to put on his tacos, frequently got up to get drinks, etc. But I have to say. He was a charming kid.
Since then, I have had kids who have eaten a variety of things on camera. From chicken strips on a stick to candy to milkshakes. I had one child who was an annoying eater. Let’s face it. There is no other way to put it. He was eating fries and every single time he ate one, he turned his head up like a baby bird close to the camera and would drop them into his mouth. This, unfortunately, lasted the entire class. One student shoved a whole chick strip into his mouth on camera.
I do get why some parents bring food to class. I honestly do. It keeps kids in their seats. However, as I have seen, the eating issue is probably 15-20/100 students.
Kids Remote in from the Strangest Places when you Teach Online
These are not so much horror stories as more noteworthy locations. I have had kids take online classes from some fascinating locations. Whether it is an effort on the parent’s part to keep them entertained or not deviate their schedules too much, I will never know. But I have taught kids who were:
- In airports
- In hospitals
- In greenhouse gardens
- In someplace really really hot because their camera would fog up
- Outside on the back porch.
- Kids who move from room to room in their house
- The mall or other stores
It is really essential to have a good headset to be able to hear the children when they are in odd places. It can be distracting and a bit noisy. With a headset, it helps channel their voices to your ears.
Brie
As a writer on Mommy Daughter Love, I enjoy discovering things to do, children’s activities, digital classroom ideas, online homeschool fun for moms with daughters. If you love any or all of these things, too, and you can relate to this post let’s continue the conversation on Pinterest or in the comments below.
More Resources:
- To find more content and books by Brie, check out her Amazon author page.
- For easy peasy homeschool resources check The Story Based Teacher Store.
- Snag a self care journal to help you with being a single mother from amazon.
- Start a blog today with the help of a bluehost hosting servous.
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