DEED Spotlight on Tim Shumway, Petersburg Borough School District

Tim Shumway has been teaching remotely long before the COVID-19 pandemic suddenly closed school buildings to students. Mr. Shumway began his journey into distance delivered education during the 2014-2015 school year while he was teaching at Kenny Lake School in the Copper River School District. He spent three years teaching remotely from Anchorage to all three schools in the Copper River School District, as well as students in the Chugach School District through a district partnership. He had as many as six sites connected during a single class period for courses in English Language Arts (ELA) and Social Studies!

Mr. Shumway has since moved to the Petersburg Borough School District, where he teaches middle school and high school ELA. This spring he was able to share distance learning strategies with his Petersburg colleagues by doing an in-service session and creating instructional screencasts on digital delivery tools. He was also given the opportunity to provide training in distance learning tools for secondary teachers in the Delta/Greely School District.

Check out this video on distance learning from Mr. Shumway’s time  in the Copper River School District. While the video is a few years old, it remains incredibly relevant as we move into the 2020-2021 school year!

“I think that we have an incredible opportunity right now,” says Mr. Shumway. “While it is natural for teachers to fear that teaching remotely may lead to the loss of human connection, in my experience I have found that if we are really deliberate about maintaining our personal relationships with students and choosing tools that foster interaction and timely, personal feedback, we can really engage students regardless of our physical separation - something that will make us even better when this crisis passes.”

Thank you, Mr. Shumway, for being a leader in distance education!