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.
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!
RSS Feed
