Rebbeim return to the classroom with new tools honed by lockdown

As told to Sandy Eller

RABBI YEHUDA DEUTSCH

“I’ll never take the sound of learning for granted again”

WHAT MY COVID CLASSROOM LOOKED LIKE

When we first shut down in March, we started with teleconferenced classes, but there’s a limit to how long anyone can expect to capture the interest of eight-year-old boys on the phone, without the usual back and forth that keeps students engaged. The one saving grace in the early days of the outbreak was that we were learning Hilchos Pesach and were up to birchos Yaakov in Chumash -- both are subjects that worked in a monologue format.

But when it became clear that we were in this for the long haul, the yeshivah made the leap to video conferencing, distributing tablets to every student. As both a father and a rebbi, I had certain reservations about putting students on tablets, but playing around with them gave me confidence that they could be used for their intended purpose and nothing more. Virtual learning provided more of a classroom experience and we were able to bring Maseches Brachos to life by showing PowerPoint presentations and videos of how sandwich cookies are made and why Pringles require a different brachah than other potato chips.

MY BIGGEST CHALLENGE

Teaching on Zoom is vastly different than being in a classroom with students. Usually, the kid tapping his pencil is disturbing only the boys around him, but with virtual learning, it can affect the entire class -- and that look that a rebbi gives a kid to get him to stay in line just doesn’t work on Zoom. Something as innocuous as a kid walking around his bedroom creates a problem for the entire class, and while you could in theory send a message to just that one student asking him to stop, it is extremely difficult to do that mid-lesson without breaking your stride. Classroom management was definitely the biggest struggle. One colleague told me that while teaching is supposed to be energizing, this was just draining.

WHAT I GAINED FROM MY COVID CLASSROOM

Perhaps the most important lesson I learned is that the job of a rebbi and a teacher is so fluid that it could take on any role, shape or form at any given moment, and we need to step up and rise to that challenge. A really good rebbi has to have adaptability and versatility as part of his core fabric - you can’t just rely on what you always did until now. When it became clear that schools weren’t reopening after Pesach, I realized that everything I knew about how to run a classroom was going to be totally different -- almost like teaching on a different planet. How things are done on Earth aren’t the same as how they’re done on the moon, and after having to rethink everything last year, we’re going to have to do it all over again as the upcoming school year unfolds.

WHAT THE STUDENTS GAINED FROM THEIR VIRTUAL COVID CLASS

As much as schools focus on filling children’s minds with knowledge, there are other types of growth going on in school. Social interactions are an important part of that experience and the boys thrived when they had a chance to interact with each other in Zoom breakout rooms. Equally important is the rebbi-student connection, and I invested significant amounts of time into making personal visits to the boys’ homes. It was rewarding to see how much they appreciated those visits, and I look forward to finding opportunities for similar interactions during the upcoming school year.

LOOKING AHEAD TO THE 2020-2021 SCHOOL YEAR

While we all knew that not every student was going to take well to virtual learning, it came as a big surprise to see how certain boys were able to bloom as they home-schooled because there was less social pressure. I hope to be able to recreate that experience for students next year by figuring out what makes each one tick and giving them that extra degree of confidence that will give them the ability to soar above their social insecurities.

On a personal level, so much of my own chiyus as a rebbi comes from being able to circulate around the class and bring the learning to each student. It’s hard to predict how to make that happen when we still don’t know yet exactly how the classroom will look because of social distancing, but with Hashem’s help, I’ll find a path to build those connections in whatever way I can.

A LESSON LEARNED

I know it sounds cliché, but I realized how much I missed my students during the pandemic. I missed hearing how davening sounds in the classroom and hearing them repeat a pasuk of Chumash after me. That sound is priceless, and as we go back to school, I hope never to take it for granted again.”

Rabbi Yehuda Deutsch is a 3^rd grade rebbi at Yeshiva Darchei Torah in Far Rockaway, New York.