Why Distance Learning?

Seth Fleischauer (00:01.23)
Hello everyone and welcome to Why Distance Learning, the podcast that challenges misconceptions about live virtual education hosted by three seasoned distance learning professionals, myself, Tammy and Allison. Hello ladies. We bring you real stories, expert insights and research-backed strategies that uncover the true impact of distance learning in today's world. Today, we're spotlighting the kind of leadership that makes virtual schools work. Not always front and center, but absolutely essential.

Allyson (00:13.178)
Hi.

Seth Fleischauer (00:30.304)
What does it take to support over 125 virtual educators, helping them grow, connect, and stay inspired in a rapidly changing landscape? That's exactly what Desiree Mosser does. She's an instructional coach, author, speaker, and longtime virtual learning expert who's helped shape online learning in Florida and beyond. Whether she's onboarding new teachers, coaching season ones, or sharing strategies on stage at national conferences, Desiree is known for being passionate.

practical and by her own admission, slightly caffeinated. We'll also dig into a recurring theme on this podcast, which is the myth that distance learning isolates teachers or limits growth. What does it actually look like to build a thriving community of educators online? How do we support teachers who are burning out, struggling to connect with students or just trying to keep up? That's what Desiree is here for. Desiree, thank you for being here.

Desire' Mosser (01:24.972)
Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here with you guys today.

Seth Fleischauer (01:29.022)
And we are our typical level of excitement, which puts me at a five, Alison at a 10 and Tammy, what are you at right now?

Tami Moehring (01:36.952)
Well, I'm probably below the two of you because I don't have the energy that the two of you display. Mine's just bottled up on the inside like out of 15.

Allyson (01:39.204)
Hehehehehe

Seth Fleischauer (01:44.43)
That's on a scale of one to five, by the way. Tammy, could you please introduce our guest?

Allyson (01:45.712)
Yeah

Yeah.

Tami Moehring (01:54.36)
I'd be happy to introduce Desiree. Desiree is an experienced educator with over 25 years in the field. Most of them spend leading in virtual learning environments. She currently serves as the instructional coach at Pascoe School, where she supports more than 125 teachers through onboarding, coaching, and professional development. She's also vice president of BOLD, which is the Blended Online Learning Discovery of Florida.

and author of SOS Strategies for Online Survival, a book packed with honest insights, practical tools, and a healthy dose of humor. Desiree brings both heart and systems thinking of everything she does, sorry. Desiree brings both heart and systems, system thinking to everything she does, and we're so excited to have her on the podcast. I'll kick us off with the first question, which is you've been in this space for over two decades, well before most educators.

even considered teaching online, what first drew you to distance learning, and how has your perspective shifted as online education has matured?

Desire' Mosser (03:01.548)
Thank you for that amazing introduction. Now just to live up to that will be my goal for the following 20, 30 minutes. So I'll be really transparent with you. Initially, I was working in a brick and mortar school. was teaching science to eighth grade students face to face for solid eight years. I was also a cheerleading coach.

totally suckered into that because then I didn't have to float from room to room if I took that on and I'd never cheerleaded a day in my life. But then, you you want to start a family and when we had our first child, I didn't want to go back to the classroom. I wanted to stay home. So the draw to teaching online was really out of necessity. It wasn't because there was something about it that was like calling my name other than, hey,

You could stay at home and work. And then, you know, just the financial, not having to put a child into daycare and to also be at home with the child. So that was the thing that had me most interested. And then it happened and I learned, whoa, being at home with a toddler and trying to work a full-time job on mine is not as exciting as I once thought it would be.

Allyson (04:16.29)
Seth Fleischauer (04:16.462)
You

Tami Moehring (04:17.176)
You

Seth Fleischauer (04:22.158)
Yeah, you learned that lesson about 20 years earlier than everybody else.

Allyson (04:22.33)
You

Desire' Mosser (04:27.156)
and I've been trying to spread the word ever since. So when I initially got the position of teaching online too, it was with Florida Virtual School. So they were in their infancy. They had only been around for a couple of years and it was pretty new to everybody. And no one in my family understood what it meant. If I said I was gonna be an online teacher, they looked at me like I had three heads. Like, how is that even possible? You're at home teaching?

Seth Fleischauer (04:29.793)
You

Desire' Mosser (04:54.594)
kids, I don't get it. Nobody understood. So I just said I was a teacher. Anyone ask? I'm just a teacher because I didn't want to get into it. And, you know, way back then, it was just me sitting in front of a computer and talking on the phone. And it was just my students sitting in front of a computer and talking on the phone. But that's really evolved quite some bit. know, let's take that little piece out if you would.

that has evolved over 20 years. Now the students in our courses have options to go on field trips. They have lab days, they have social events, they get to attend prom, they have homecomings. So my initial perspective of what online teaching was going to be where I'm just sitting behind a computer and just grading papers, it's much different now. It allows for students to experience all facets of, you know, brick and mortar kind of experiences as well as

being at home and having the flexibility to take a course online. So I guess we've really kind of shifted and matured online teaching in itself. And my perspective of online teaching has, it's totally different now 20 years later, it truly is.

Tami Moehring (06:14.05)
Quick question, Desiree, are you still a cheerleading coach?

Desire' Mosser (06:17.784)
Now, listen, I did that for two years. I did not enjoy that experience because when we started throwing each other up in the air, that's when I was like tapping out, done. But I didn't have to float from room to room. So, you know, it was a fair trade, I guess, for, yeah.

Allyson (06:19.727)
You

Allyson (06:30.798)
Yeah.

Allyson (06:36.506)
Benefits, benefits. I like the science and cheerleading going together as well. Like that feels like celebration of life. I love it so much. I used to be a science, we have this big science festival or used to here in Philadelphia. It would be like a 10 day experience and everybody would buy it you'd have this big fair at the end. And I was in charge of running it and had to be like the cheerleader for the competition.

Desire' Mosser (06:45.932)
Yeah, yeah.

Allyson (07:02.246)
Here, get buttons, wear stickers. And everyone's like, what are you doing? So I totally feel the science cheerleader connection.

Desire' Mosser (07:09.144)
I love that. I'm always about cheering other people on, but don't start throwing people up in the air around me. don't enjoy that. Yeah, yes.

Allyson (07:12.783)
Yeah!

Allyson (07:16.378)
What's gonna happen?

Seth Fleischauer (07:18.904)
All the encouragement, none of the liability. I love it. Yeah. Yeah.

Allyson (07:21.005)
Yes!

Desire' Mosser (07:21.74)
That's what I'm saying. Yes. Yes.

Tami Moehring (07:23.338)
Nicely put Seth, nicely put.

Seth Fleischauer (07:26.03)
What I'm struck about with your story is this idea that you were brought into distance learning out of necessity, yet once you found yourself there, it's like you may as well make it as good as it can possibly be, right? And I think that that story kind of mirrors what a lot of people went through when they first found themselves doing this. Each one of us for different reasons found ourselves being like, well, the brick and mortar situation doesn't necessarily work in this particular case.

You know, wow, there's this new thing I can try. Let me see how this can work. And then you talk about maturing. And I think that, you know, one of the myths that we deal with is this idea that, that relationships have to suffer online, right? That like, you're not going to be able to develop that strong of a relationship with your students. And I think all of us have kind of found different ways of getting around the limitation of not sharing the same physical space with your students.

And there's some research out there that shows that distance learning can actually enhance rather than limit some of the teacher connection and growth. And, you know, one of the things that I love about your work is that you really focus just as much on the teacher experience as the student experience, right? There's that myth that we talked about, but you've got this community and coaching system that kind of proves otherwise that connection and growth doesn't need to suffer online.

I'd love for you to kind of unpack that for us a bit. how do you support so many educators in a virtual environment and still make it feel personal and human?

Desire' Mosser (09:05.4)
So I'll just start by saying it'd be really easy for me to sit here and be like, it's me. I do it. I'm the one. Like, I'm amazing. And I'm going to share all the ways how I am so amazing with you. But that would not be being truthful or honest in any way because I couldn't support 125 educators if I didn't have the team that I work with. So I have a small group of teachers. They're lead teachers.

Allyson (09:11.415)
Hahaha!

Tami Moehring (09:19.061)
you

Desire' Mosser (09:33.827)
There's about 12 of them and they are all assigned to different groups of teachers within our school. And so working with them, they come to me with questions, wanting guidance, things of that nature so that they can kind of filter out the big questions themselves. And then if there's something that they're still struggling with, they come to me. So it is absolutely 100 % a team effort in order for us to support.

a school of 125 educators. That is not Mosser alone. But thank you for thinking that. That's amazing. So I'm the welcoming committee at our school. It's right from day one that I'm the first person that they have probably the most interaction with. Any new teacher that comes my way or comes and works for Pasco eSchool comes through me first. So I don't want to be scary to them. We want them to stay.

And something that really drives me, it's the same thing that was a driver for me with students when I had students in my classroom, is I want to make every educator that comes my way feel seen, feel safe to ask questions, feel heard. You know, that's really, really important to me, just like it was with students in my classroom. So it's important that we're building relationships right from the start. You've heard that with virtual teaching, that's the main

That's the number one thing right from the beginning when a student gets dropped into your course, we want to start relationship building. And that holds true for adults as well. So I try to find out as much as I can, not like creepy style. My colleagues, you know, I want to know, I want to know about them too. And I don't need to know all the things, but I want to know enough.

Seth Fleischauer (11:13.324)
Hehehehehe

Desire' Mosser (11:24.214)
where it helps me to better support them. Because if I know that they have kids at home, I know I'm not gonna call at dinnertime because they need to focus on that. Or if I know that they have ill parents at home, I know I'm not gonna call during certain times because they're taking care of that. really having that personal connection with the folks that surround me is a huge driver for me. And I think that's what makes it feel so personal and human is because I know them as people.

I know them as humans and not just like a teacher that I work with. They become more of like a friend.

Allyson (12:03.356)
Well, that's such an amazing human centered approach too. And sometimes in the virtual, you don't always find that the idea that human interaction is like what's driving and being the meaningful purpose of what you're putting together the system, the team, or the implement implementing a program. So it's nice to think about how that idea of being human comes first. And it makes me think a lot about what you shared when you were like, I don't want to go back. I can have my baby here and this works right now and all of the ways that there's a benefit.

And I think in some cases, even in the digital pivot of 2020, if you will, there might be some that found, my gosh, this does work. This has these benefits. And then you're in the groove and you're like, my gosh, what's happening right now? I need to have this different routine. Especially if you find yourself in online teaching, because when you're with your students, whether it's at a distance, it's the same way as the classroom. You want to be focused. You want to be able to have that time, that dedication. And also that

requires a certain amount of motivation and commitment of yourself to be able to do that in your home space or whatever space you might be choosing to teach from. So I wonder with there being lots of research and studies, especially after 2020, talking about the challenges and hurdles that individuals face from mastering engagements to tools to thinking about curriculum redesign, you share that you were talking on the phone and using learning management systems.

at the very beginning and got to see this beautiful growth of the amazing field and the async and the sync and all the XR technologies. And I'm also fangirling and getting excited because I did read your book on the SOS strategies for online survival, which we'll link of course in the bio. And you have like a really honest approach and I shared with you that I felt like it gave me a lot of opportunity as a virtual teacher and just an educator in general about.

how to reflect and think a lot about my practice or when I am doing my own teaching. So I wonder with so many different people you support and of course the wonderful trends that technology brings and updates that happen overnight, what are some of the biggest challenges you feel teachers face when transitioning to the online teaching, both personally, professionally and what are some of those survival strategies?

Allyson (14:19.776)
that you feel would actually work. Not to give away your whole book because of course, like I said, we'll link, but some of your favorites.

Seth Fleischauer (14:24.846)
You

Desire' Mosser (14:26.424)
Thank you. you. so honestly, the thing that I, I see most after onboarding so many teachers over so many years is that we tend to choose the best of the best from the brick and mortar school to hire them to come on to teach virtual. So those educators are used to being the go to person, the one that everyone goes to with questions. They've, you know, they're, very well oiled machine in a brick and mortar classroom. And then

they come to a virtual and they find, my goodness, like this is much different in a lot of ways that I was not expecting. So they're no longer the go-to person in the virtual world. They're asking the questions. And that can be a very challenging shift to superstar teachers who are so used to having everything under control. And now they feel completely out of control.

That's a huge challenge that I see. So in dealing with teachers who come to us that have been teaching them brick and mortar, I try to constantly reassure them that it's normal to have a million questions. I tell them if they don't ask me questions, that's when I start to get worried. I also tell them that it's job security for me. So come on, like help me out. I try to add humor to that.

Allyson (15:44.156)
You

Seth Fleischauer (15:44.706)
Meh.

Desire' Mosser (15:49.187)
they're not nervous to reach out with questions. I don't want them to be again. It's that building of relationship right from day one. so that's probably one of the challenges is just the rockstar teachers coming in and thinking, I'm starting from day one. I feel like a brand new teacher again. And that's a harsh reality for a lot of folks to have to kind of relearn how they teach in this type of setting.

The other struggle, and I still struggle with this. Like as I share these things, I want it known that even after 20 years, there are areas that I still struggle with on a regular basis. One of which being family members who don't recognize that just because you work from home, you are working from home. There's actually work to be done. I still get

Seth Fleischauer (16:33.326)
Mm-hmm

Allyson (16:33.968)
Yes.

Desire' Mosser (16:42.616)
weekly calls, I'm not going mention any names, they'll know who they are. I get weekly phone calls from a certain individual in my family. And every single time this person calls me, they say, Hey, what are you doing? And every single time my answer is, I'm working. I don't know, after I, I have been a virtual teacher and working in the virtual space for 20 years and this person,

Allyson (17:02.063)
Yeah.

Desire' Mosser (17:12.566)
hat like we're related by blood. This isn't from when that I just met, right? So 20 years later, we're still having the same conversation. the, the other challenge that I find is that a lot of instructors are coming online with the same idea that I had. They're like, I have little ones at home. This is going to be great. and I'm glad I work virtually sometimes because I can turn my camera off when they say this to me because I'm

Allyson (17:15.27)
Yes.

Allyson (17:33.51)
Yeah.

Desire' Mosser (17:41.561)
secretly dying inside and not good at hiding facial expressions all the time. It's the idea that it's gonna be easy having your family at home with you and taking care of little ones while you're doing your job. You have things that you have to get done in a day and the children coming up and asking you if they can have something to eat or have a drink or.

Allyson (17:43.16)
Okay.

Allyson (17:58.619)
Yeah.

Desire' Mosser (18:11.128)
you know, you have a phone call coming in and then someone wants a cup of juice. And I'll never forget one time I was on the phone with a student and I looked over and it's a well-known fact that online teachers bribe their kids with snacks to make them quiet while they're on the phone. That's not anything that's unknown, but my child had shoved a goldfish cracker straight up his nose. And I only see the tail sticking out when I looked at him. So having children at home is a struggle. the way that I helped myself

Allyson (18:23.642)
Yeah

Desire' Mosser (18:40.024)
So I didn't have an aneurysm was I had a visual cue for my family. I would hide in a room and I would stick something on the door that, you know, mommy's busy, you know, meeting in progress, whatever it might be to let others know that this is, I'm in this space right now and I need it to be quiet and I can't get you goldfish and I can't get you a juice, but I'm sure there's someone out there that can do that for you. And training, training your family.

Allyson (18:42.587)
Yeah.

Seth Fleischauer (18:50.286)
Hmm.

Allyson (18:55.567)
Yes!

Desire' Mosser (19:08.994)
to recognize that it's like a group effort. Everyone has to have buy-in in a household. You don't go into virtual teaching without everybody being on board because that is gonna set you up for a lot of frustrations. So clear communication, share responsibilities at home, and then that visual cue is a big one, I would say is probably one of my favorites of that.

Allyson (19:34.14)
I love the visual cue. In 2020, my daughter was six years old. And so we did an activity over the weekend where we made signs. Like I asked her, like, what's the symbol gonna be for snacks? Like, what's the symbol gonna be for this activity? And to this, or like, you I love you. Like, you know, just like, you're great. Good job. Things that we could, excuse me, hold. And we would literally hold them off screen. Like I'd be in a meeting and she'd hold her message and I'd like hold her response.

Desire' Mosser (20:04.184)
Yeah.

Allyson (20:04.79)
I was like, and the bride was snacks. I was like, yes, these are special snacks for when mommy has a meeting. This is where you get this.

Desire' Mosser (20:10.336)
Yeah.

Seth Fleischauer (20:13.358)
Whereas I just put my kids to work. They were teachers with me, Because we work with students overseas. my daughter is a native speaker, even at six, that has some value. English is a foreign language classroom. So she's my little professor Vita. Shout out to Professor Vita.

Allyson (20:14.972)
Yes!

Yeah.

Allyson (20:23.334)
Yeah

Yeah.

Allyson (20:31.504)
Yay!

Tami Moehring (20:34.04)
So I was just gonna say Desiree, it's a good thing though one family member doesn't live with you that's been calling you for 20 years.

Desire' Mosser (20:40.338)
yeah, no, no, that can never happen. That can't happen.

Seth Fleischauer (20:41.772)
She didn't say they didn't live with her. Whatcha doin', Mom?

Tami Moehring (20:43.869)
I guess you haven't. They could be calling from the next room.

Allyson (20:47.932)
I'm seeing this visual cue. I'm wondering if that's real or can I take it off and come in?

Desire' Mosser (20:54.232)
My, yes, yes. Well, thankfully now my kids are 19 and 16. So, you they were infants and toddlers when I first started, but now they're old enough. I mean, every once in a while, I still have to do this off the screen over to the side, you know, underneath the camera so they can't, and no one can see in front of me. But they know that if they hear me talking to myself or what appears to myself, they don't interrupt because they know that it's on screen time.

Allyson (21:08.923)
Yeah.

Allyson (21:23.772)
Random question, with your children, if you don't mind, in 2020, did they feel so familiar with the online learning environment during that shift? just wonder since it's, like you said, it's an agreement. It's a part of the partnership that you develop in your household. So I just wonder, were they like, yeah, we know Zoom, come on everybody. This is how you mute it, like, or change your camera.

Desire' Mosser (21:37.826)
Yeah.

Allyson (21:50.886)
Did they have those types of familiarity?

Desire' Mosser (21:54.327)
Yeah, I think so. I think it was like a love hate thing because because I was so well versed in virtual teaching, they couldn't get past me with things with the I don't know how to log in. was like, well, scoot over. We're going to figure it out. Let's go. Well, you know, or my sound won't work or my camera's not coming on. let's get it figured out. Yeah. So there was never a way for them to dodge or tell me I she hasn't graded my stuff yet.

Allyson (22:07.172)
Yes!

Seth Fleischauer (22:07.758)
You

Allyson (22:22.172)
Yes!

Desire' Mosser (22:22.358)
really? Okay, let's check in here. Let's go around this way. So they thought they wanted to be homeschooled after the COVID years. And I said, okay, yeah, sure, sure. And three days in, my one son looked at me and he goes, Mom, I'm ready to go back to Northern school. He couldn't get away with anything with me there. I was like, let's go back to work. So yeah, it was not what they expected.

Seth Fleischauer (22:38.241)
Meh.

Tami Moehring (22:42.712)
I use it as a threat all the time.

Seth Fleischauer (22:50.732)
Sorry, Tammy, you were breaking up there. What'd say?

Tami Moehring (22:53.802)
I gonna say, I use that threat all the time. Do you really wanna be at home with me? And they're like, no, no, no, no. I'll go back to school. So I'm with Desiree on this.

Seth Fleischauer (23:03.822)
So these are some great tips for you know how to how to be an online educator how to like you know take care of some of these things at the edges of the experience I'm assuming that these are things that you help support your educators with sharing some of these stories You talked about leveraging personal relationships is one of your main approaches I'm wondering how you deal with like the inevitable kind of brick wall that comes for people

the, that, the, the burnout, the, the, the point where they feel like, you know, the, learning curve has, has, plateaued. They're not getting any better. they, they're, struggling. How do you leverage some of your relationships? some of the best practices that you've honed over the years. And, and I'm hoping to, you might be able to bring in some, like some of that systems thinking that was mentioned at the top. Like these are all.

things that seem very built in personal relationships, but I'm wondering how you take the things that you learn from the personal relationships and systematize them in a way that make it so that the people, great team that's working under you, you know that they're taking approaches that are sound, yet also flexible enough to accommodate the given needs of any given relationship.

Desire' Mosser (24:21.752)
Sure, sure. So that burnout piece, it's one of those things that are gonna happen at some point, right? We all feel the burn. And for us, a lot of times it's that stretch of time between the winter holidays and spring break, or right at the end of a semester where all the students are trying to finish up, you know, those procrastinators, those kids who like to wait till the last minute and have been training their whole lives for it.

Allyson (24:43.76)
lol

Desire' Mosser (24:47.768)
wait to the last moment at the semester to get their work turned in and we can feel the frustrations and the overwhelmed feelings. So what I like to do is try to be proactive with this approach when they're going through their onboarding process. So when I build those relationships with those new teachers coming in and I'm learning about them, that's also helping me in this training piece because one of the things that I ask them to do for me is they're going to create a schedule for themselves.

You know, if we go into virtual teaching without some type of schedule, it's going to be like playing whack-a-mole every day. There's going to be a million fires that you're trying to put out and you're all over the place. I could work a full 12 hours in a day, get to my 12th hour and look around and think, what have I done today? Because all I've done is scoot from one fire to another fire, you know, putting, putting issues out, answering questions, but with no

real focus. So what I find with our virtual teachers is if they don't have a schedule for themselves, they drive themselves nuts with this, this way of work that's not focused. So they schedule out the biggies for us. It's like student phone calls, answering your emails, responding to student work, you know, the things that really are going to take up big chunks of your day. I asked them to put that on a calendar Monday through Friday. When are you going to do

what on your calendar each day. And then I say, okay, so now I know that you like to go to scout meetings on Wednesday nights at six o'clock. So now we're going to schedule in all the things that we enjoy doing because guess what? Our family members are still living with us, right? And we want them to remember what our face looks like from time to time. So let's schedule in those things that mean something to us and that we want to continue doing because if it's not on my calendar, it's not happening.

Allyson (26:34.99)
Ha

Desire' Mosser (26:44.042)
I'll get sucked into the black hole of student feedback for hours on end. I have to schedule it. So they'll schedule going to the gym, know, picking their kids up from school, going to scout meetings, going to visit family. I make them physically put it on a calendar so that it blocks that time and it's protected. Because at the end of the day, nobody's going to call any of them and say, listen, Mosser.

You're working too many hours. We've been watching you. You need to log out and stop working right now. Nobody's going to do that. So proactively scheduling your calendar out so that you're making sure not to work 15 hour days, which will lead to that burnout mid-year or at the end of the year, because you're not doing the things that bring you joy in other areas of your life. Is how I'd like to think that I really help.

the teachers that I work with to make sure that that doesn't happen or happens less. I mean, nothing's ever perfect, but it's definitely a way to try to kind of head that off before it gets started. And then the other thing that I tell teachers to do is to create like a kudos file. This is in my book. I shared this because it's helped me. We all have bad days, but the good days usually outweigh the bad days, but the bad days just really feel like they last forever.

Allyson (28:11.044)
Yeah.

Desire' Mosser (28:12.884)
I get a positive email feedback from a parent or a teacher. I stick it in a kudos file and outlook. And then on those days where I'm like, I don't know why I'm doing any of this and I'm questioning all my life choices, I go to that kudos file and I read through some of those emails to remind myself like it's just a bad day or moment in time. There's lots of positives to what we're doing every day to kind of ground me.

And that can be helpful for new teachers who are just struggling to learn the ropes at the beginning. Did that answer your question?

Seth Fleischauer (28:45.23)
Hmm.

Allyson (28:47.104)
my gosh, kudos file. I love thinking of that. I'm like, it's an envelope of notes I keep from what I used to teach. I love it. my gosh. Yes, kudos file.

Desire' Mosser (28:53.505)
Yes!

Seth Fleischauer (28:58.222)
I imagine that you have a lot of stories that could answer this next question. We ask all of our guests about a golden moment, a time when distance learning just absolutely worked the way that they hoped it could. A moment of action and intention perfectly marrying to each other and bringing it to like a new height of experience. We've all been there. I'm wondering if you can pull out

one or two of yours, what's been a golden moment in distance learning for you?

Desire' Mosser (29:33.175)
You know, when I think about this question, I actually struggle with answering this to be honest with you because I think over the years I've taught myself or trained myself to recognize the small moments that are really big moments in the great scheme of things. So when I have a new teacher who comes to me and is just completely out of their comfort zone,

Allyson (29:38.666)
You

Desire' Mosser (30:03.172)
not feeling like they fit because and whether or not they've even made the right decision because there's a lot of that too. A couple weeks in they're like, my gosh, what have I done? I came from everything I knew and was great at and now I'm struggling every day. When they have small wins, when I can see that, okay, they're getting it, the pieces are fitting together. I guess it's like a lot like if you were a teacher in a brick and mortar classroom when the light bulb goes on.

Well, when my teacher light bulbs go on and I start to see little pieces kind of coming and connecting and they tell me, okay, now I get what you're saying with this. Those are the moments that really sticks to me and keep me going, honestly. And they're not always huge life altering moments. They can be very small.

but very meaningful because every time they have a small success, they feel like they're getting closer to that mastery or closer to feeling comfortable in this virtual world. And that really, really means a lot to me. Coming from someone who spent like the first two years of online teaching, hiding in her bathroom, crying multiple times. Yeah, it really is. It really is. Yeah, yeah.

Seth Fleischauer (31:18.39)
Hey, great acoustics in there, you know? Yeah.

Desire' Mosser (31:25.076)
So it's the little things. It truly is for me. It's the it's the day to day wins that I see teachers have that that bring me warm like warm fuzzies because I know that's going to trickle down to their students. Every time they have a win, students are going to have a win and that makes me happy.

Allyson (31:41.412)
the recognition too, that you're recognizing that in itself is the golden moments for you. That's not what a lot of leaders are often are doing in some situations. And in education, you hear certain stories where that's not always the recognition or the acknowledgement that teams can always receive. So if it's coming from the leader, you can see how that creates a really exciting culture to be able to thrive in.

and find how you can do more and more for success for yourself as well as for your students.

Desire' Mosser (32:15.736)
Absolutely.

Allyson (32:17.318)
And then we do have one last, sorry, go ahead, Seth.

Seth Fleischauer (32:20.363)
I was going to tee you up for that, so you just went there and I didn't even need to tee anything because you were on it, Allison.

Allyson (32:21.904)
Okay. I will just because we're having this chat. Tammy, did you want to do the really quick episode or Seth, did you want to do the episode 50 quote? Sorry, this will be edited out. Sorry.

Seth Fleischauer (32:39.246)
Yeah, yeah. I thought she kind of addressed... I don't know. Yeah, let's do it.

Allyson (32:43.398)
yeah, no, I just wanted to make sure I didn't see. I think she did too. I just didn't wanna skip over.

Tami Moehring (32:44.46)
Yeah, I was just.

Desire' Mosser (32:48.928)
And I do have a student story, sorry, because I didn't know if you wanted me to relate anything to a student and how.

Seth Fleischauer (32:54.028)
Yeah. Let's do it. Let's do it. Okay. So Tammy, can you, can you bring that part in?

Tami Moehring (32:59.938)
I'd happy to bring up a great past quote from one of our wonderful podcast guests that hopefully you can expand on Desiree for us. So in episode 50, Brianna Wall said, online learning doesn't erase the need for human connection, it amplifies it. One student might need me to check in with them privately after class, another might not want to be called out at all. The way we respond to them is what makes the difference. So how do you approach the human side of online learning?

online teaching and coaching, do you have a story that illustrates that connection, especially between a teacher and a student? We'd love to hear that.

Desire' Mosser (33:38.285)
I do. And I have to share you that I've shared this story with teachers that I've onboarded for years now because it was so impactful to me. I'll never forget, I was new to online teaching probably just a few years in. So, you know, that's still new in my book. takes some time to get used to this world. And I had a student in my class that was teaching Earthspace science, high school Earthspace science. And, you know,

starting from day one, trying to build that relationship. But I don't think that at that point in teaching online, I realized what a necessity relationship building was with virtual learners. So I was kind of surfacey, right? Like, do you have any pets? What's your favorite TV show? General questions like that. come to find out. Actually, not come to find out.

Allyson (34:22.277)
Yeah

Desire' Mosser (34:33.08)
About two months into the student being in my class. She drops off the face of the earth I stopped hearing from her and so immediately, you know, I'm like, oh well, there we go Like she's slacking off not doing what she needs to do And I called her and I said hey you haven't turned any work in to your online class You know and you're putting yourself in a position of being withdrawn from the course now That was my leading statement when she picked up the phone

There was no to, you how you doing? How's the weather? None of that. I just jumped right in and started slamming her with the, you're going to be withdrawn statements. Her response to me was, I'm sorry, my mom passed away this week and I'm grieving. And I still get goosebumps from that because I didn't even know how to respond to her at that moment. And I

man, I felt horrible. Like it was a stark reminder as to our students in our class are more than just a name on a roster. You know, they are humans. They have wives. There are things that are going on behind the scenes that we are not pervy to. We do not know what their situations are at home. And that reminded me why it was so important to not only build those strong relationships with students,

but to also dig deeper sometimes to find out, you know, why is the student not submitting work? It doesn't mean that there is slacker in your class. And I'll tell you from that point forward, I always, if it's a student who hasn't been working in my course, the very first thing that I say is, hey, is everything okay? Are you all right? I'm worried. You haven't submitted any work to me. What's going on? That is always my first.

statement when I call a student who has been missing in action because you just never know. So I tell all my teachers, you know, don't assume the worst, but go in with a heart, lead with your heart, you know, make sure that they're okay. And then, then you tell them where all the things that might happen. But lead with your heart and always remember that, you know, there's, there's more to them than just the name on a screen.

Allyson (36:43.203)
Yeah.

Seth Fleischauer (36:44.206)
Then you threaten them. Yeah.

Allyson (36:55.708)
Well, that's beautiful. I'm sorry, I was just reflecting there for a moment, because it's always great to learn. That's the point of teaching, right, is learning from all of your own interactions. So it's great that you can share that with your team too. And with us here, because it's just nice to always think about how do you address situations, from student to colleague to other teachers or administration.

Seth Fleischauer (36:58.19)
awesome.

Allyson (37:20.912)
We do like to always end the podcast with the name of our podcast, is because especially with you here today, you've devoted most of your career to online and blended education. So we like to always learn from our guests and ask the question, why distance learning?

Desire' Mosser (37:39.629)
because what started out as a necessity for me for reasons that are not the same reasons for me today, kind of over the years, I've learned that I can make virtual learning a safe place for my students, just like my teachers did for me in a brick and mortar classroom growing up. And that's all I want for them. I want the students and the teachers that I engage with to feel safe, to feel seen, to

to feel heard. And distance learning meets the needs of students who don't fit the traditional mold, whether it be illness, grief, social issues, whatever it is. So students need us. Virtual teaching gives us a way to truly reach every single student, meet them where they're at. Not everyone has to be on the same page at the same time. And we can also provide them with human connection in a virtual environment.

And that to me is why virtual teaching and learning.

Seth Fleischauer (38:43.342)
Beautiful. Well, that's all right, Masar. Thank you so much for being here today. Thank you to our listeners for listening. If you want to support us, sorry, let me start that over.

Desiree Mauser, thank you so much for being here today. If you want to know what it really takes to support teachers and students in the virtual space, Desiree is the type of teacher, my God. I'm good, here I go, I'm gonna try it again. All right, yeah, and I keep going with a soft S in your name for some reason, it's Desiree, right, not Desiree? And I keep saying it with an S, vacation, vacation brain, but here I come.

Allyson (39:10.511)
Hahaha!

You got it. It's gonna be great. Yay, you're gonna do so well.

Desire' Mosser (39:15.17)
You can do this.

Desire' Mosser (39:22.861)
Desiree.

Seth Fleischauer (39:28.526)
Desiree Bosser, thank you so much for being here. If you want to know what it really takes to support teachers and students in the virtual space, Desiree is the kind of leader you want to learn from. You are generous, you are grounded, and you are full of real strategies that work. A lot of those are in your book, which will be linked in the show notes, so please go and check those out as well as any other links that were mentioned here today. Thank you as always to our editor, Lucas Salazar. If you want to...

Allyson (39:53.404)
Thank you.

Seth Fleischauer (39:54.42)
Support the podcast. You can leave us a rating or review tell a friend Follow us all these things help the right algorithm pick things up for other educators to help them find these conversations and If you're curious about the realities behind the perceptions of distance learning stay tuned to the voices we highlight on this podcast These are the innovators and educators proving what's possible in live virtual learning challenging misconceptions and transforming education along the way why distance learning because it's evolving, impactful, and here to stay. See you next time.