Teacher: Okay class, before we get started on our electricity unit, I need you to go to page 73 and complete exercises…

Student: Exercises what? Wait a minute… what happened? Why is she just standing there? Mom! My teacher is frozen again!

Does your teacher keep freezing on the screen? Millions of students across the country are experiencing this phenomenon. Distance learning and slow internet speeds create frozen teachers and missed information. Not only do students miss important information, the flow to the class and your concentration are disrupted. To solve the problem, you might start tapping buttons, restarting the computer, or just shutting down altogether. None of these solutions actually help the problem, so what should you do?

When students are actually sitting in the classroom with other students, it is easy to get distracted; however, when information is missed, it’s also easy to ask the student next to you for help. Well, the same solution applies to the frozen teacher phenomenon. You may not have a student sitting next to you, but you should have a friend or two in the class who can help you with missed information. Put these students on speed dial. Rather than clicking away at the keyboard to no avail, call your friend. Your friend could then put the phone on “speaker” and you can hear what the teacher is saying. It may not be the perfect solution, but with distance learning, we are all experiencing new territory and new problems.

Another possible solution is to send a message to your teacher. Let your teacher know through the chat option that your screen is frozen and you’re missing information. You may not be the only one in the class experiencing a slow internet. The teacher can then ask students to turn off their video, which might solve the problem. You can also ask the teacher to record the class, so you can review it at a later time. Most likely, your teacher is recording the class for students who are absent, so although you need to make the time to watch it later, you won’t miss out on important information. If after viewing the class, you have questions, your teacher is just an email away. Or, if you’ve created a study group, you can ask your classmates to clarify the information.

The key to solving any problem is to have a plan. And, although school systems are trying to address the problems associated with distance learning, you must be proactive with your education and create solutions to the problems you encounter.  The frozen teacher phenomenon is probably here to stay, but now you have solutions that will help your learning continue to grow.