Read on Twitter
Four weeks of #DistanceTeaching (while parenting) under my belt as of today. Here& #39;s what I think I think, so far. None of this is genius; just a reflection of the moment. (Thread).
My students strengths and weakness are all magnified by this situation. Responsibility, timeliness, independence, work completion, skill mastery? You name it, it& #39;s more noticeable, for good or for bad.
Communication with kids and parents is so important. I am constantly texting, emailing, and calling parents. Often it feels like I& #39;m shouting into the void, but when something lands, I know it& #39;s worth it.
Having a great planning team to collaborate with is key. I am blessed by two amazing colleagues who are smart, thoughtful, responsive, creative, helpful and kind. I love bouncing ideas off them. @yoadrienne14
Having a stellar homeroom partner is a saving grace. @borne3000 and I have been partners for 9 years and we& #39;re usually on the exact same page. We actually have time to commiserate and strategize now, which is so, so helpful, as we try to navigate this new landscape.
My students& #39; parents ALL care deeply about their kids& #39; schooling, but their involvement is all over the place. A few are actively monitoring their kids; most aren& #39;t. Some are on the front lines. Some are working from home. Some are still going to work. Some have been sick.
I feel like student success (on the home side) is a matrix with parent involvement and student& #39;s independence / motivation on the two axes. Most of them will be fine; I worry about the ones whose parents aren& #39;t involved and who are aren& #39;t academically motivated and/or independent
I am spending most of my time lesson planning/preparing and communicating with / chasing down kids, parents and colleagues. Not enough of my day is teaching (we& #39;re asynchronous teaching, with supplemental videoconferencing).
So many of the little things that would have been just a look, or a 30 second in-person conversation, take so much more time now, and it& #39;s so much less clear if the message is getting through.
An aside - I am gonna be wicked rusty at management when I get back to the classroom, whenever that is. Managing a kid at a time is not the same.
I think I& #39;m finally settling into a lesson plan format that works - allows me to explain things, but puts at least some thinking on kids, allows me to check for understanding, isn& #39;t too unwieldy for kids, doesn& #39;t take them too long, and oh yeah, leads to learning.
That being said, it& #39;s taken these 4 weeks to figure this out, and it& #39;s been on the fly, and the wheels might come off at any moment. Oh, and it takes for-freaking-ever. Never a good feeling.
And Adam Schlesinger died and I& #39;m sad.
Another thing that has my brain spinning? The number of systems and technology that I have used, created, adopted and abandoned in the past 4 weeks. Zoom, Classroom, Meet, and Screencastify are only a few.
I keep refining and trying to new things to make me more efficient in managing my time, and my students& #39; time, so we can get the learning done in this difficult format.
I just hope some of it sticks....