In my last post I refer to the writing I did March through June while “teaching” from home. I very proud of that writing. I think it does a good job of capturing what it was like to be present during that historic moment in my teaching career. 

That “moment” has been extended into this, the 2020-2021 school year. I want to capture what it was like to start school remotely with my class. It is my plan to capture my thinking in a “stream of consciousness format;” allowing me to write about whatever comes to my mind. Here’s a glimpse of the first 4 days.

Day One: 20 out of 24 students were present “off site”...hello fourth grade I'm Dr. Iannone! Expectations...free writing…pointing at the text…getting the wiggles out…a little bit of yoga…some math problems…to be more specific Four 4’s…learning how to drop off of zoom calls and come back on.

Day Two: More thinking about expectations... rehearsing how to talk and write to each other by THINKing first... helping people get on to Zoom and Canvas... more free writing... growth vs fixed mindset via drawings… lots of brain breaks... building community... how do we use the Inbox... lots of email triage ...done by 4!

Day Three: Two students joined the group today…up to 22 out of 24…lots of tech issues that families are dealing with…I cannot even imagine what it must be like to be doing this with children in the house…we tried a pretty heavy duty assignment this morning…analyzing “The Writer”…a poem about a girl with a lot on her mind…two students actually got what “cargo” and “heavy” meant…very impressive…Pico, Fermi, Bagels…math game…kids liked it…more free writing and sharing…community is being built!

Day Four: Anxious about scheduling…confused with Literacy curriculum…it was just thrown at us…no training…yes…I do have a PhD in Urban Literacy…that doesn’t make me immune to poor management above me…I know I’ll figure it out…I just need the time to figure it out…tech problems during Math lesson…we got through it though…I tried small groups in the morning and afternoon…that went well.