Remote Learning Day

This week has been pretty wonky. It started with a day off for the MLK Jr. holiday. Tuesday saw a Teacher Workday due to ice accumulation from a snow storm over the previous weekend. Then came Wednesday; a 2 hour delay for school for the same reason students had the day off the day before. Thursday was a "regular" day but just as this "regular" day was ending, the weather started getting bad again. My school district decided to make Friday a Remote Learning Day. Due to the testing fatigue my students were experiencing I decided to make this remote learning day as fun as possible.

For Literacy, I created a writing activity that allowed them to pick a book they wanted to read and share things they learned, liked, found interesting, and were curious about. They wrote this information in a Google Doc and shared it with me as they finished. This class really loves to write and they did a fantastic job with this assignment. During my lunch break I read each entry and wrote them a personal note sharing what I liked about their efforts. It was fun getting replies back from them as I structured the notes I wrote in a way that led them to understand I was trying to have a conversation with them.

For Math I created a Jeopardy game that we started together then finished in small groups so each person would have a turn. When they weren't synchronous with me they were working asynchronously.

At the end of the day we reflected on things; specifically what they liked. The Math game was mentioned often. A general sense of fun was communicated as well. Not having to take another test also snuck in there. I wanted the students to remember this day because it was fun; mission accomplished!!