Just coming back from a walk. What you say? Shouldn’t I be in school teaching? Yes…yes I should. While on that walk I decided that I am going to use my blog to document what it was/is like to “teach” from home during the early days of the Coronavirus. Let’s start with what I did on my first full day at home. It was a mix of keeping families informed via the Remind app, posting content to my Google Classroom, reading emails, granting families access to Google docs I have created, reading over content that is being created at the district level that I will eventually post to my Google Classroom, responding to students who completed the first 2 assignments I posted in Google Classroom, and taking a virtual course for a platform my school district may have us move to in the event that this state wide school closure goes longer than expected.
The Remind app has been crucial. I’m using it to narrate for my families what is available, how to access it, and what is expected from their child.
I have created several assignments, in draft form, that are on Google Classroom. None of it is supposed to be graded at this time. I’ve tried to come up with experiences that reinforce what we’ve already been learning (for example...we’ve been learning about decimals in Math) and opportunities to learn a bit more about the virus that is keeping us home. It is my opinion that learning more about the virus will keep my students informed in a way that is vetted and age appropriate. The site I am using right now for Math is pbslearningmedia.org I decided on this site because of what I found on it. There are some really cool videos to share with my students from Khan Academy. The site I’m using for vetted and age appropriate reading is newsela.com This is an amazing site that I’ve leaned on for many years.
I’ve been reading way more email than I like to but these are extraordinarily times. Most of the emails are coming from families that need access to documents that I’ve created for them and their children. As soon as I get them...I respond and grant access.
Our district is in the process of creating learning opportunities for all students. One of the many things they’ve created is a grade focused learning plan. This plan consists of a matrix of activities for students to engage in organized on a daily basis. My students will have no problem at all navigating the plan as they’ve been using a similar template all year long. I have the learning plan already loaded in draft form, in my Google Classroom and am just waiting for the “green light” to make it “live” for my students.
One of the things I enjoyed most was responding to the students who completed the first two assignments I posted to Google Classroom. For those of you who don’t know, GC allows you to post private comments to your students. Under normal circumstances, I use it to let students know how they did on assignments they worked on in the classroom. I also use it to post grades. Most importantly, I use it to build relationships with my students through the personalized comments I write. Not being able to grade assignments as of yet from home, I used the private comments feature to thank each student for participating in what I have created for them. I used it to encourage them, to tell them I missed them, and to wish them well!
The thing that took up most of my time yesterday was taking a virtual course on the main platform my district uses to deliver content digitally, Canvas. It’s basically a more sophisticated version of Google Classroom so it wasn’t very difficult for me to wrap my head around it. Today I’ve spent time creating more content, posting 2 more assignments to Google Classroom, reading and responding to email, and reading and responding to the Remind app.
This is what “teaching” from home looks like right now.