Mr. Coon Navigates Distance Learning

By: Haley Michelson

Mr. Coon’s Agriculture class here at Redwood has been completely different this year compared to others due to the full-distance learning schedule that has been enacted since last semester and a good chunk of this semester.

Zoom lessons are hard as it is for many teachers this year with students who are learning online. Coon’s biggest thing to go by is, “in the world of agriculture in general, we pride ourselves on whatever is thrown our way and being able to overcome it.” He says both he and his students use this motto quite often as he believes this will be one of the hardest lessons he’s taught this year. “The lesson of personal fortitude and to keep on believing in what we’re doing,” Coon says.

This year especially, Coon says, “We’ve been handed lemons and we’re trying to make lemonade.” Needing to be in person for more hands-on lessons that this class revolves around, it is tough to try and keep up with showing students how to do things and giving them hands-on material in order to teach them. Though, Coon stays positive throughout this time and so do his students.

Without being in-person it challenges many to try and keep positive with how they think and go on with their day. Coon has found ways to teach his students online in many ways, saying, “If you’re looking for a silver lining in this…maybe it’s the fact that we’ve been exploring… new avenues.”

Coon says, “This year we’ve done the safety, [and the] theory. We’ve looked at videos online of the very best in the industry and we’ve done some career exploration down that way…” All of the things that needed to be changed this year in order to productively teach students to help with more lessons and teaching with more time not having been busy with more hands-on lessons. Coon says, “We have explored avenues for their [the students] future in agriculture that we might not have got to if we were busy all of the time.”

In more ways than none, it is seen that somehow this past year when having full distance learning, there have been some benefits for teachers and students.

One of the main aspects of this class is being able to see and learn more about the environment and livestock and ways to improve those conditions if necessary as well as how to assess these things. Coon says, “We look to a future where agriculture can become the leader of cleaning up the environment…” Having a main goal helps focus on what is important for students to learn and hear.

As many see this year as being hard in teaching aspects, many roles play in the factor of finding difficulties with online classes and teaching. A lot of people have a harder time believing in themselves and having more of a positive outlook on things. Coon goes on to say, “My challenge this year really hasn’t lied in the field of agriculture, it has lied more in the ability in keeping these kids believing that tomorrow is a brand new day.” Keeping this mentality through teaching this year has helped him relate to his students more and making them feel like it is okay to have rough days as there is always a chance to have a better one.

Coon says, “Maybe it’s just the year, maybe it’s the fact that everywhere we turn there seems to be some sort of turmoil.” This past year has proved to be challenging in many ways for different reasons.

Coon believes one of the things he did not expect from online school would be the number of black screens he has seen throughout his classes. He says, in most cases, “People are sort of shutting down and going, ‘I don’t even want to show you who I really am.’” It’s a hard point in the year, as this has become more of a normal thing for people to do.

Coon’s hope for when it comes time for students to come back in-person is to be more open with who you are and how this can affect others to do this same at some point. He goes on to say, “I want people to understand that it’s okay to open up and show others who you really are and for others to sort of appreciate that.”