This spring more than any other, PWR instructors had to be nimble, flexible, and quick on their (virtual) feet. In the shift to online teaching, we stretched ourselves to innovate our pedagogy, mixing synchronous and asynchronous modes of delivery, practicing extra compassion and empathy in our work with students, and trying to be as responsive as possible to all the various shifts during the quarter -- from students moving between households, to tech outages, changing grade policies, and unfolding world events.
PWR instructors heroically adapted. They carved out spaces to teaching amid the bustle of their busy homes (whether that be in a study, a bedroom, or even in a bathroom); they managed their own tech challenges, teaching from phones when their laptops crashed and connecting to the internet through personal hotspots when wifi routers went on the blink; they combatted the seeming isolation of online learning by creating vibrant class communities for their students through effective team-building activities, weekly icebreakers, class gameplay, and by creating open and welcoming online spaces.
As might be expected, not everything went as planned. We asked our instructors to share some of their most unexpected moments -- what we might call the Zoom Bloopers (or Zoompers) -- in celebration of the end of this very unusual quarter. Here are some of their responses:
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From sunsets to seals, teaching on a boat can be okay, until the wildlife decides to join you. A bird flew into the boat during office hours and my partner dashed through the background of my zoom screen in a bit of a panic. We frantically squabbled about who was going to chase the bird out as we ducked its path while my student kindly offered to postpone our discussion until we were bird-free. We eventually got the bird out from the main cabin to the top deck and office hours continued without any further unexpected visitors. –JJ
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Okay, the most hilarious Zoom blooper this week: I let a student in from my Zoom office hours waiting room, and she was sitting profile to her camera with her sound muted so could not hear me trying to get her attention. I sent a Chat message, email, and started bouncing around in my chair and changing my virtual background in rapid succession so that maybe the lighting shifts would draw her eye. Three minutes later, I sat there not knowing what else to do, and suddenly she turned. LOL. –Kathleen Tarr
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There have been some funny student Zoom backgrounds left over from the weekend — one was a zoomed in picture of a friend’s face (they had put it up to celebrate their birthday) and the other was a picture of dinosaur chicken nuggets. I also managed to spill tea all over my desk and lap while conferencing one day. I tried to play it cool and keep the conference going while I was frantically mopping up tea from my keyboard with tissues!
Maybe the funniest (or most absurd) was a short workshop that I did for one of the HumBio classes. My partner also had a meeting during the time, and so I figured I would get the girls set up with something on Netflix, and then sneak outside for the 20 minutes I needed to do the class visit. I thought that would be the quietest option, with the least likelihood of getting interrupted. Well, that happened to be the first week that gardeners were back working, and I spent the whole workshop yelling over the lawn mower and leaf blower in the neighbor’s yard 10 feet away. I ended up cupping my hands around my earbuds to try to shield the microphone from the noise. I’m sure I looked absolutely crazy, and I think I spent more time apologizing for the noise than actually giving the writing workshop! –Jenne Stonaker
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I had a memorable Zoom moment this past week. I teach from my bedroom and normally lock the room when teaching live sessions. But this week I forgot to lock it and my son burst into the room. I was so nervous that I immediately muted myself, stopped my video feed, and told my son that I was working and asked him to be with his mom. But he was so curious about what I was doing and wanted to stay. He said he was sleepy and wanted to take a nap on my bed. After his excuses didn't work, he finally left the room.
When I returned to teaching, I first explained what happened and went ahead with the course content. What I did not realize was several of them had sent messages in the chat asking me to show them my kids. By the time, I saw their messages, it was too late and we were wrapping up the class. In retrospect, my students handled the situation far better than me. I should not have panicked when he burst in. I could have easily turned it into a moment of laughter. But I was really touched by their messages. I promised them that I would show them my kids next week.
I'm not sure if this would count as a funny story. But my students' kind gesture definitely moved me. –Mutallip Anwar
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I accidentally left my meeting instead of just leaving the breakout room and then, because there was a waiting room enabled and I couldn't admit myself, I couldn't get back in. By the time I figured it out my students were all dying laughing – Tara Diener
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Because my laptop doesn't have the videographics horsepower to use virtual backgrounds, I opted to re-decorate the white wall behind me with images based on my course theme: that is, robots, cyborgs, and mutants. At the end of week three, when the theme was Star Wars robots, I realized that I had spent the whole week with images of robots shooting me in the head from each side. Oh well. - Shay Brawn
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Due to the small size of our home and our wildly unpredictable wifi, I’m often migrating around the house during different Zoom sessions to find the best spot to get online at that moment. Unfortunately, that usually lands me in trafficked areas of the house, with different members of my household walking back and forth behind me during the Zoom session. During the hottest days, since we have no air conditioning and minimal insulation, that often meant that -- unless I was really quick to turn off the video -- meeting participants would get a glimpse of either my husband or son traipsing around without a shirt on (pro-tip: that’s not exactly a good way to improve your ethos in a meeting). The most memorable moment of this sort, however, occurred during a meeting that Marvin and Michelle attended (among others) where it took me a full 5 minutes to realize that I had my back to my son’s doorway, where he had affixed a pull-up bar -- which he was using actively during the meeting. I think he got to 10 before I realized what was going on. The meeting was so large that I wasn’t seeing my own video, so it took Michelle’s expression of barely contained amusement for me to eventually figure it out. [There was also the time the cat threw up while I was teaching ... but I'll leave that one to your imagination.] - Christine Alfano
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So my son had a pretty bad injury and got stitches a few weeks ago. When my students heard of it, they wanted to meet Rohan. Rohan said "are they going to ask me questions?" I said no...and he came to "visit" with my students at the end of class and played haxball with them!
What can I say---it was pretty cute! –Sangeeta Mediratta
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It was really hard for me to adapt at first to not hearing my students' laughter during class. I kept telling my jokes and expecting to hear some real guffawing and was sad to keep hearing nothing. Finally at the end of my first week, I asked students to please unmute themselves for just a minute so I could hear their reaction to a funny joke I wanted to share. I very enthusiastically shared my joke, and was greeted by 15 faces staring back at me deadpan. Totally silent. Not so much as a smile on one face. I realized then that it was not Zoom that was making these moments awkward, it was actually the fact that my students genuinely didn't find me funny. I never asked them to unmute themselves again! -- Emily Polk
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... I really love the awkward humor of saying BYE on zoom and then you're still..... there.... STILL there..... saying bye.... STILL.... there
It's hilarious
And keeps happening –Kim Salveson
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Have your own Zoompers that you’d like to share? Send them to pwrnewsletter@gmail.com and we’ll include them in the next issue! We're also interested in collecting "Zoomspirations" -- moments of pedagogical inspiration from your teaching this spring. Send those along as well!
