Meet Our Teachers
Jennifer Jolley
As the 2020 school year begins in Florida, a months-long pandemic continues, putting new demands on teachers. Jennifer Jolley has spent the summer rethinking her lesson plans so as to meet the challenge. Yet she admits to feeling like a first-timer.
She has dedicated 27 years to her profession, and was just named Resourceful and adaptable, she has taught social studies in a variety of school settings. She spent seven years as a middle school teacher, including three years overseas, before moving to high school social studies. Today she teaches government (honors and regular) and AP courses in both US and comparative government at Palm Bay Magnet High School in Melbourne.
She has never stopped learning both on and off the job. Awarded a Madison Foundation Fellowship to pursue a Master鈥檚 degree, she earned it in Ashland University鈥檚 . Later, , gaining insights into the functions of Congress. In the summer of 2019, she was named Summer Institute Coordinator for the Madison Foundation. Spending summers at the institute, she will renew her understanding of our Constitutional system while troubleshooting the logistical issues of new fellows.
Through these programs and other teacher institutes, she鈥檚 gained a network of colleagues with whom she constantly shares pedagogical ideas.
Still, this fall, Jolley and her colleagues must master an entirely new instructional model: a 鈥渉ybrid鈥 system in which in-person and online teaching occur synchronously.
The Challenge of Hybrid, Synchronous Learning
To accommodate students who feel returning to campus is unsafe, teachers will open 鈥渁 Google or Zoom meet during each class period, communicating with students at home while we teach those in front of us.鈥 At the same time, 聽鈥渨e鈥檙e switching to a block schedule, with 90-minute, instead of 45-minute, class periods. It does mean we鈥檒l have fewer students each day鈥濃攁 moderate safety measure during a pandemic. Jolley will now teach her semester-long courses in 9-week sessions. But with 300 students to teach this year, she鈥檒l still see 75 students daily. Meanwhile, two days鈥 lessons must fit into one, giving students less time to process new concepts. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 a major paradigm shift.鈥
As she revamped lesson plans for the doubled-up, hybrid format, Jolley decided 鈥渢o put everything online for all of my students. That way the students sitting in front of me will get the same instructions as those at home.鈥
The changes wrought by the pandemic will reshape Jolley鈥檚 lesson plans. 鈥淎ll the activities I鈥檝e developed over the years involve students working together or talking together. I like to schedule 鈥榗ivil conversations鈥欌攗sing a format recommended by the . This is also the format of the .鈥 Yet in a classroom of 25 students, it would be impossible to leave any space between desks if she arranged them in a conversational circle. Placing students together at work tables for shared projects and small group discussions is also unsafe.
鈥淚t killed me. I set up my room like I do for standardized testing. All the desks facing forward and spaced as far apart as possible鈥濃攈ardly two feet. 鈥淣ow they鈥檒l all be talking to me鈥濃攏ot to each other.
鈥淪o, I鈥檓 planning for collaboration online.鈥
Options for Online Collaboration
Over the summer, Jolley researched online strategies and participated in online seminars, familiarizing herself and others with new online tools. She was already a fan of the online games offered at the website. Another, newer set of resources Jolley likes is 鈥,鈥 a project of the Center for Representative Government at Indiana University. 鈥淚t鈥檚 an online game that uses primary sources鈥攎any of them images鈥攆rom the Library of Congress. This summer I helped promote and train teachers in the program in five different webinars. It teaches history, government, economics. My students absolutely love it. It鈥檚 an app, so students can install it onto their phones.鈥
She experimented with teaching software, some of which requires a paid subscription for full functionality. She likes 鈥,鈥 which 鈥渁llows you to combine questions with videos.鈥 When Jolley’s school district subscribed to 鈥,鈥 she became a certified educator for it, finding it particularly useful. Because the subscription was cancelled, Jolley looked for free programs that gave her the same options. Nearpod, along with 鈥溾 and 鈥溾 use live, interactive slides. Padlet, for example, helps students collaborate in building interactive maps, timelines, 鈥渨ord walls鈥 and other online visuals. These programs also allow for comment boards. 鈥淪ay I project a political cartoon. Students can post alongside an interpretation or a question about it. On my computer screen, I can see and screen their comments before allowing them to appear to the class as a whole.鈥
She found many online tools integrated easily with , the program used at her school. Already a Level 1 Google Certified Educator when the pandemic began, she helped teachers at her school master it. Colleagues she鈥檇 met through MAHG, the Madison Foundation, TAH weekend programs, and other institutes shared their ideas for online teaching with her, through Facebook groups and Twitter. 鈥淭he teachers I gravitate toward are always learning.鈥 At her own high school, a STEAM magnet school, teachers formed a professional learning network when the pandemic sent instruction online last March. 鈥淲e had a chat network, then met daily to talk through technical problems. It gave us a trusted environment for collaboration.鈥 Such collaboration strengthens teachers to ride out the pandemic. 鈥淚t boosts your mental state. It helps you embrace new things.鈥
Uncertainties Remain
Unfortunately, funding shortfalls at the district level may limit teachers鈥 options. Synchronous in-person and online teaching 鈥渞equires more technology,” Jolley says. “In my classroom, my school laptop connects to a bigger monitor viewed by students in the classroom. But that monitor lacks a microphone. If I鈥檓 on a Zoom call, I’d have to unplug the monitor from the laptop鈥攖urning it off鈥攕o that students working from home can hear me.鈥 To get around the problem, Jolley bought her own webcam.
Palm Bay Magnet has 鈥渙ne-to-one鈥 technology due to a grant that, five years ago, bought laptop carts for each classroom. The laptops are now old, and, a week before school began, many were missing. They had been loaned out to students鈥 families when online instruction began last March.
Good Teachers Adapt
Hence Jolley鈥檚 uncertainty as she planned for hybrid instruction. It鈥檚 not the first time she鈥檚 had to reinvent her methods. In 2014, she transitioned to her current job so as to be near her parents, retirees in Sebastien, Florida. Unlike those at her former school, located in an affluent white suburb of Boca Raton, her new students feel economically insecure. They lack confidence that education leads to success. When she began at Palm Bay, her students鈥 behavioral and academic issues caused her to wonder, 鈥溾榃hat鈥檚 wrong with me? I鈥檓 a good classroom manager!鈥欌
She realized that she鈥檇 have to work harder to develop a rapport with her new students. She鈥檇 grown up in a comfortable blue-collar home. After earning her undergraduate degree, she worked three jobs while taking further courses to earn accreditation to teach in Florida. She’d always worked hard at her calling. Yet in her students鈥 eyes, she was a person of privilege.
The influence of socio-economic background became clearer to her when her former school, Marjory Stoneman Douglass, suffered a horrific shooting in 2018. 鈥淚 was not a bit surprised that those students responded to the tragedy with the March for Our Lives movement,鈥 Jolley said. 鈥淭hey were already politically active when I was there. They came to me to ask if they could host a political forum with invited elected officials.鈥 Their aspirations inspired Jolley 鈥渢o work harder鈥; yet teaching them AP US Government was, comparatively speaking, 鈥渁 breeze. I had almost the whole year to prepare students for the AP exam. I gave students primary documents and we had good conversations about them.鈥
Learning, Like Political Change, Takes Time
At Palm Bay Magnet High, students鈥 hesitancy about education inspires Jolley to work harder. Working through a single primary document may require two days, a large chunk of the new block schedule. Asked to read overnight, many students will not, being put off by its length and complexity. The next day鈥檚 lesson will entail 鈥渁 Socratic discussion while I walk them through important paragraphs.鈥 The following day, as she checks students’ recall of what they learned, 鈥渢hey鈥檒l have questions.鈥 Yet this will signal success. Students’ questions show they are 鈥渢rying to process the reading and figure out how to explain it themselves.鈥
Jolley noted that whenever she teaches , she uses a tool designed by fellow MAHG graduate 鈥攁 visual organizer that traces Madison鈥檚 complex logic. When she took the course on The Federalist with he shared Cook鈥檚 graphic with the whole class. 鈥淭his is gold!鈥 teachers said. TAH seminars aim to give teachers content knowledge, not teaching advice. Yet participants share teaching advice while they learn content.
Just as she works to overcome students鈥 skepticism of education, Jolley combats their cynicism about American politics. 鈥淎s Madison said, of government,鈥 she reminds students. Elections may not bring thoughtful leadership. 鈥淏ut even without voting, people can exert power. Women did, prior to getting the 聽vote a century ago. They picketed, protested, and changed legislators鈥 votes. Think of the Civil Rights Movement, which brought the and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. It just 聽takes time for protesters to gain respect.鈥