Bishop Union High School teacher and football coach Arnie Palu‘s thoughts on the hybrid/DL model

Arnie Palu, having taken online college courses, has had some prior experience that has helped prepare him for the challenges of the hybrid/DL model this year.

“I’ve taken several courses remotely and so that prepared me quite a bit to be able to see the students’ perspective of basically having to do independent work and then having a teacher check in on you and expect that to be done,” Arnie Palu said.

He chose zoom over google meet because he liked what it had to offer at the time more and had experience with it from using it for football practice over the summer. He thinks that some aspects of the hybrid/DL model will last beyond their original purpose because of the convenience they offer.

“Even if this model doesn’t continue there are certain aspects of what we’ve had to do with zoom meetings that we’ll keep moving forward. That are just more convenient. Coaches’ meetings, staff meetings, instead of forcing everyone to come together you can meet quickly from your home and be efficient with it that way so I think there are certain aspects that we’ll keep that are good even if we don’t have this model,” Palu said.

He acknowledged how the school year has been academically challenging for everybody and thinks that teacher/parent/guardian communication is extra important during the hybrid/DL model to keep students from falling behind.

“For students who are struggling, there has to be a partnership between the teachers and the parents or the guardians or whoever can be that voice at home to remind a student to get their work done, to get their assignments in, because at this point the kids who are struggling just aren’t responding to teachers,” Palu said.

Some classes were harder to transfer to zoom than others. Media being a lot more hands on than other classes proved challenging. PE also is difficult to teach online.

“PE is just a struggle,” Palu said.

Mr. Palu has tried to bring the kind of social environment of a normal classroom online by making small talk. Students not having their cameras on and only seeing them a few times a week has made it hard but he feels it has been at least partially successful.

“I try to have some conversations at the beginning of class or if students are there early, talk about how their day went or what they have coming up just to try to get some insight into their lives and what they have going on. Ask them about their sports or how their practices are going. Just to build those relationships,” Palu said.