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Computer remote learning

Teachers from K-12 Adapt Well to Remote Learning

Paul Downey '92, Assistant Director of Marketing & Communications
Teachers throughout Ensworth’s K-12 continuum learned much from their students and about themselves during remote learning this spring. We caught up with a few select teachers to see how they seized the opportunity and remained nimble during this unique and experimental period.
Ensworth is fortunate to have leaders in independent school education in the earliest grades. The Journal for Social and Emotional Learning interviewed Ensworth’s 17-year veteran Kindergarten teacher Megan Florentine over spring break when online learning had yet to roll out. Ms. Florentine and several other Red Gables Campus teachers have taken a leadership role at Ensworth for the Responsive Classroom approach. 

The journal highlighted how she and other teachers were going to work together during the pandemic lockdowns. “We get along; we’re friends outside, and we’ve specifically learned to share ideas. It’s always served us well, but now it’s crucial.”

While grade-level teachers in the Lower School kept up with their students using a hybrid of live meetings and asynchronous lessons, the Lower School specials teachers—Spanish, Chinese, art, music, PE, library, and science—banded together early to provide engaging, fun content for students. 

Kathryn Swords, Lower School art teacher, observed, “As Bruce and David said, teachers were to think of this remote learning phase as a marathon and to pace ourselves. It became a process of how to find and learn the tools needed to invent the wheel and then see if that wheel would roll.” Swords and her colleague, Evie Coates, decided to use one tool they both already used: Instagram.

Miss Coates used her @artclasswithmisscoates account to go live each day from 2-2:30 p.m. for a fun, relaxed art lesson on drawing and watercolor. “We knew that art experiences during remote learning needed to be a time and place where children could relax and get lost in the creative process,” Evie explained, “which we believe can be such a healer in challenging times. We also imagined that a lot of students would rather go outside and play in the creek or kick a soccer ball, and so making the offerings lighthearted and optional was a major consideration.”

“The tigers who took advantage of my daily lessons would usually share their artwork with me,” she recalls. “And then I could share it with everyone! Even though it wasn't a face-to-face encounter, sharing artwork virtually was a fun way to connect and interact.” Although young artists joined her live, Miss Coates’ lessons are archived on YouTube for anyone to work through on-demand. 

Ms. Swords also offered a step-by-step approach to her art lessons with Instagram but asynchronously at @ensworthartswords, using multiple steps on her posts.

Beginning in late April, the specials teachers created a schedule of “office hours” where all K-5 students could join each teacher on an open-ended Zoom call. During one session, for example, Grade 1 students were matching wits with Grade 5 students in a Chinese flashcard game on Kahoot.

World Language Week is a highlight of many Lower School students’ year. The special teachers’ collaborative ingenuity helped bring the fun cultural event online. With a theme for each day, Chinese teacher Caitlin Harris and Spanish teacher Edmiary Morales released daily videos with many educational crafts, games, movies, books, music, ethnic restaurant recommendations, and even recipes.

Middle School teachers are already well-known for their ability to blend creative, interactive projects with technology, so this spring’s remote learning challenged them to adapt to the unique Middle School mind. 


Best known for his Trojan Horse Shark Tank design contest and a faculty-judged Caesareans vs. Republicans debate, Middle School Latin teacher Trey House never skipped a beat transitioning to remote learning. For classroom discussion, he introduced Flipgrid by Microsoft where a grid of student video submissions acts as a virtual sharing around the room. For homework involving translating a Latin passage, students each read their translations along with any questions or problems they had. And to cut down on the increasing amount of text-based instructions now inundating Middle Schoolers, Mr. House greeted his students through recorded video using Loom. 

Mia Anderson, Chinese teacher and World Languages colleague of Mr. House, also used Flipgrid for classwork. “Before the break, eighth graders were just beginning to learn how to describe their daily routine,” she explained in April. “When we started remote learning, one of their projects was to create a video of their new daily routine at home. It was fun to get to see their faces and what they were up to as they adjusted to this new normal.”

Middle School science teacher, Becky Smith, also observed how the students learned in more visual ways during remote learning. She was impressed by how they started “showing their creative sides by turning in work in the form of videos, drawings, and the like.”


Leadership at the High School likewise implemented a sensible, organized approach to remote learning after Spring Break. “The Ensworth administration was thoughtful and helpful in advance of our remote learning experience,” history teacher David Chanaca explains. His colleague Tim Love agrees. “The faculty training the week before was a big help,” he recalls. “This included some great ways to use Tigernet, as well as some information about recording lessons to flip the classroom.”

Mr. Chanaca believes that in-person learning using the Harkness method can never be replaced. “It is more important now than ever to teach civil discourse and personal interaction in a positive and knowledge-based approach,” he asserts. “Nothing can replace watching facial expressions, referencing a previous student comment in person, and using human connection to make verbal interaction honest yet supportive.” He acknowledges, however, that “Ensworth kept its learning relevant, even innovative, while we waited for some sort of normalcy to begin again.”

Math teacher Sharon Glenn found it particularly challenging to teach her subject which requires multiple forms of demonstration. She began to implement Zoom and Screencast-O-Matic to switch back and forth between documents, a calculator, Desmos, and iPad with Apple Pencil. 

For the Ensworth Core Skill of collaboration, she found Zoom to be indispensable. Whenever she had a task for her class, she had “the ‘Zoom wizard’ divide the students into groups and send them to work,” she describes. “I could randomly pop into their breakout rooms and it felt just like when I would walk around to approach their desks in the classroom.”

As a mom, Mrs. Glenn shared other parents’ difficult experiences of working from home with children also at home learning remotely. Her husband installed color-coded light bulbs outside of her room that would indicate to her children whether or not she was recording her demonstrations.

Seminar teacher Kristin Paine found that the asynchronous pacing of online learning held many benefits. She notes that reading aloud from a book using an Elmo camera mimics very closely how she would read and teach in class. “But,” she says, “it might be even better because the students can pause the video and go at their own pace and they can see my book the entire time.”

Arts at the high school level, while ideally taught in person with the benefit of hearing fellow performers’ voices or fellow dancers work on a routine, used technology to the fullest to make remote learning as immersive as possible.

Photography students created animations and cinemagraphs. The Rock Band each performed a remotely synchronized version of “One of These Nights” by the Eagles. Encore, the contemporary a cappella group, assembled a rendition of H.E.R.’s “Fate.” And dancers of all ages danced in a heart-rending compilation to Janet Jackson’s “Together Again” from their own lawns, kitchens, and bedrooms.


Academically, the arts classes benefited from the pandemic because even master teachers were stuck inside. Dancing classes received a virtual visit and real-time discussion with Michael Schwandt, a successful choreographer turned director, who currently serves as Creative Director for NBC's “The Masked Singer.” Stephani Kammer, dancer for Janet Jackson, Jay-Z, Gwen Stefani, and Lauren Gaul, a 10-year member of the Rockettes, also met virtually with dancers. And Acting classes received similar visits from actor Garrett Hedlund and linguist Dr. David Crystal and his son, actor Ben Crystal on what Shakespeare’s plays would have sounded like to their original audiences.

To view videos of these arts groups making the best of their remote learning experience, follow @ensworthartshs on Instagram, and visit the blog on ensworth.com for more divisional highlights from remote learning this spring.


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Red Gables Campus (K–8)

Nashville, TN 37205
(615) 383-0661

Frist Campus (9–12)

Nashville, TN 37221
(615) 301-5400
Ensworth is a coeducational, kindergarten through twelfth grade, independent day school.