I haven't really blogged in probably 7 years, but as we are embarking on a time when we are all teaching in a completely different manner, I thought, when better then to start now. Today was the first day in my house of remote learning. What that means for my family is we have 4 different schedules, from 4 different schools, 2 who are teachers (I teach elementary art, and my husband teaches AP Physics) and 2 students (one who is at a gifted center in kindergarten, and another who is at a language academy in 2nd). We learned that it was probably our most stressful day of "teaching" and we felt less productive. So from today I put together some tips that I have been told were helpful. If after day 2 I come up with other solutions, I will share them as well.
For today I will let you know I work in Chicago, we are only cleared to use the google classroom suite. So all these tips are geared towards those. If you use other formats, they may still be helpful.
After decompressing at dinner with the 3 teachers in the family, I was told I should really begin writing down these tips I thought would make things go smoothly. I wasn't the only one because my son's teacher, sent out a revised email while I was writing this. I am passing along my tips, you may read them, ignore them, or if you find them helpful pass them on.
Some thoughts I have about google classroom meets from the parent perspective.
1) Full class meetings are difficult. Unless you know how to use settings so that the teacher is in control of who is muted, it is uncontrollable chaos. It may be better to schedule some groups of kids by level meeting with them once a week. This way kids are able to engage with kids at their level. And you could plan an activity for those kids to discuss. My son's teacher realized this after the meets and posted groupings on her website. It would be easy to group the kids and decide what you want for them.
Example:
Monday - Harold & the Purple Crayon - Judy, Ben, Gianna, Grace, Anthony, Jaime
Tuesday - Chapter 1 - My Father's Dragon - Veronica, Toby, Ashley, Alex, Michael
2) If you wanted to put a list on the google classroom of "suggested assignments" you can post them all at the beginning of the week in PDF and most would be happy to print them. Or you post a topic so parents can find the videos that go along. Example
Monday Math - Patterns using shapes (Pearson Realize Lesson 1-5, worksheets)
Monday Language Arts - Fix the sentence, 1 bookflix, and a summary worksheet
Monday Social Studies - Scholastic.com - 2 activities
If you list them all the beginning of the week, parents can go on and prepare their own packets so that we don't have to think as hard during the week. Our brains are shot after dealing with meetings or trying to work from home and teach from home and put out all the fires within our family.
Some teachers do a live read aloud, but this could easily be done as a video on your phone and then posted in the classroom. I have a "how to make a video on your phone" that I created for my art teacher friends that check out if you want, it is more for projects but it can be helpful if you want to show your kids how to do an activity or craft.
3) A simple way to engage the class each day is to pose a question in google classroom. It is different than an assignment, art teachers have been using it as a good way "take attendance." You can create a simple text or comparison question each day to post into the classroom. The key to organizing is to use "topics" on the assignments. Each one is a separate assignment where students can upload a photo or create a google doc (a little advance) but I created the topic for my student teacher (yeah I am doing that too, what a year). I can post some videos if that would be helpful.
This is so you can group each of your assignments together easily in the classwork area. The questions are exactly like they are on google forms, but a quick check. Students can all read the same story or watch a bookflix, and then you can create a short answer question. This meets the criteria for each student to be "engaged in a live event" part of the Chicago Public School requirements, because students are actively engaged with the class each day. It also will group them all and you could share them with students this way.
Okay those are all my Day One Digital Teaching Tips
As we all know simple is the best. I think every parent and every teacher and every student were incredibly overwhelmed today. The number of memes I have come across, as well as text from fellow teachers I have received today has been amusing. Hopefully I will learn a better format for blogging so I can include some images, but I am limiting my learning to one digital platform a day.
Good Luck, and may tomorrow be better than today.
Good Luck, and may tomorrow be better than today.
