Remote learning? What is that?  Today is a weird day for me.  I am a tech nerd.  I have played with tech for years, taught tech at the graduate level, and set up a studio in my office for the next few weeks of remote learning.  I like to try new things and always am looking to improve my craft.  For almost ten years, I blogged a few times a week, but that ended a few years back.  I was tired.  

I had tried many new ideas in the classroom and need a break from writing about it.  I have had kids blogging since 2009, writing their own textbook, building VR, websites, smore, sutoris, slideshow, music videos, RSA animations, interviewing experts around the world, KidTalks (Like TEDtalks) and so much more. Not to mention that I team taught over distance (130 miles) each day via the web/meets with another middle school in Ohio for four years.   ​

 However, this week is new.  Going online.  Not seeing my kids, not talking to them in the halls, not hearing the latest gossip, not solving all their problems. In fact, not feeling normal at all.  Worried about my family and my friends, my students and their families.  That is what we need to do at this point and we need to take a step back.  I am not focused on "Teaching" kids, but providing them with educational opportunities to learn.  So this week, I used a lot of tools to present my weeks worth of work, but the work is review--No new content and is not overwhelming to my students.  So, what did I do. Well see for yourself--  The slide show says it all (youtube one slide two is live however, I have disabled some of the links for you).  

In the end, people matter most!  Stay safe and keep learning... Cheers, Garth 

Many schools are google schools.  For that reason, I would go with google meet.  Zoom is "nicer" in many ways, but requires a download to run correctly for students.  If possible, I want to keep downloads and extra steps to a minimum.  Every new step is a chance for students to mix up the directions and makes your job and theirs harder.  AND google added three new extensions yesterday to make it "closer" to Zoom.  I would like to focus on that for this post.  

​1.  Grid view: 
       a.  Allows you to see many more people on your screen at once.  Nice if you are trying to do a Face to face meet with students.  Zoom had this option already, now google has it.  
         b.  When your screen share, on grid you see a small screen share and anyone can click it to make it full screen or just see is small in the grid.  

2.  https://tactiq.io/ Homepage  and then Extension 
         a.  To be honest, we did not use this one, so I am unable to really talk about how it works or if it works well.  However, you can check it out if you want a workspace for everyone in the meet, links to calendar invite and more (seems like a google doc sort of, but we will see).  

3.  NOD This is the game changer. It is the one Zoom had that google meets did not. 
       a.  Lets student raise their hand!! (ONLY THE MEETING ORGANIZER CAN SEE THIS) 
       b.  lets students show understanding, confused, like, etc..  Everyone can see these!  

Zoom is an awesome product.  I have used it many times, but for the world of remote learning these extensions have changed the game in favor of google hangouts (especially google schools).  The real issue for me is will your school district "push" out the extensions for students (GRID AND NOD), if not, then I am not sure the game has changed.   Let me know your thoughts.  Garth

This project is made on tour creator.  This student made podcasts to accompany her 360 VR tour as she went on 10 stops of a religious pilgrimage during the middle ages.   She is role playing a peasant.  This is best viewed in VR, but it works on the computer.  

Tutorials I used to help them get started are found here.  Students were told to start watching at 8:57 as they already have used Google Earth Projects and the tutorial compares the two.  

This students parents gave me permission to post her work here.  Enjoy.... 

When faced with the reality of teaching remotely exactly two weeks ago, many thoughts started flying around in my head as far as my classes are concerned.  They were mostly about content I have yet to cover and cool techy things that I still wanted to share with my students.  I basically had one day to prepare my students for the possibility of me teaching them from my house, which is almost 50 miles away.  My chat with them was about how not much would change in our Social Studies class and we would try to progress as best as we could given the circumstances.  The only thing that I "taught" them to prepare for this was the ins and outs of Google Meet.  How to access, how to screenshare and the like.   I asked them to be patient and flexible and made it clear that our ultimate goal was to keep learning, but their safety and well-being come first.

After a few 50 mile trips, and a Friday chat with my students (the day after the Governor announced that we would be shutting down) I gave up on trying anything new and focused on lessons that would be clear and as simple as possible to follow.  (Now, I still may try some new tech tools with students that are interested and we can do so by using Google Meet and different screencasting tools.)  If you have followed this blog or seen some of our presentations, you know that we are big on student choice and students owning their work.  One of our presentations is about HyperQuests and Autonomous Mastery Learning, which is ironic, because every teacher in the state is going to have to use this method for the foreseeable future.  My simple and clearly instructed activities has led me to build a HyperQuest using Google Slides.  One slide for every day of the week and a few activities on each day.  Each date is a link to Screencastify with me explaining what to do on video that accompanies the written directions.  In these slides resides activities that we have done all year, again, nothing new.  If teachers are having concerns on how to teach, imagine the concerns students are having on how they are going to learn.  Again, the example below is my attempt to keep everything as simple and as clear as possible.

Not only am I concerned about how my students are going to progress in their learning of the Social Studies curriculum but also their well-being and state of mind through this terrible pandemic.  That's also why I am trying to connect with them frequently on lighter terms, even though we are not required to. Here is where I am digging into my tech toolbag and pulling out a few tricks.  Silly tricks also, but I like to have fun in my class so why stop now even if we can't see each other face to face.  I created a "Pet Padlet" (see below) for them to post pictures of them with their pets.  Not every student has a pet and I asked them to be creative if they didn't have one.  Some have posted pictures of stuffed animals and even siblings! Another way to stay in touch is FlipGrid, which I will be posting to often and probably too often!   More to come later!  I know this may be challenging for many, but hang in there, and as best as you can...Enjoy the Experience! ​

This post is by Anna Love, who is student teaching in my room.  This was to be presented at a conference, that was canceled, so here it is.

​Badges are a creative way students can show evidence of their learning separate from the grade-obsessed culture our school system has found itself so attached to. There is a plethora of research as to why grades are an inadequate and harmful way to measure student learning. Grades create risk-adverse behavior, demoralization, and tell us little about a students actual capabilities. Most tragically, grades create an end goal of learning. According to our current system of measuring progress, once a student has accomplished an "A" or specific grade, they have conquered and mastered the topic. However, we know that learning is never-ending. It is a quest. It is a life long journey. There is no "end goal" in learning, except perhaps growth and development.  (Check out this article to delve deeper into this topic.) 

Badges are a way to remove this "end goal" on learning. They are a way to encourage students to pursue their own learning, at their own level, and to never stop progressing. They celebrate students for what they can do, not for what they cannot do. Badges are awarded based on level (apprentice, developer, trailblazer), soft-skills (such as empathy, collaboration, leadership), or content knowledge. They show progress, accomplishments, successes, and personal development. They encourage risk-taking, creativity, positive personal characteristics, and construction of personal knowledge. They can be shown off to fellow students, families, and teachers and linked to the work that earned them their badge. Most importantly, badges are a way to differentiate learning for students of all abilities. 

To read more about badges, and gamification of learning, check out these articles;

• 7 Strategies to Create Learning Badges
• 12 Examples of Gamification in the Classroom

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