"How I made my peace with Zoom -- but not in the way my University's 'be great at digital' told me to." 1/10

"Use Padlet! Use Jamboard! Use Hypothesis! Use PollEverwhere! Do polls in Zoom (warning--buy a 6-pack first and keep it next to you if you try this last one)." Yes, I was seduced with tech possibilities! 2/10

I sent hours & hours learning & retooling. And because I wasn't thinking hard and felt a bit inadequate, I allowed bells and whistles-- glitzy solutions searching for problems -- to becloud pedagogic insights I've honed over 35 years in high school and college classrooms. 3/10

I confused my poor students to death. Every new bauble I added to my digital toy chest meant an added layer of complexity for them -- many of whom where struggling just to keep their heads above water. 4/10

Until I remembered--duh--that maintaining concentration when learning new and difficult subject matter is about an instructional rhythm that flows effortlessly between individual, pair, group, and whole group movements.

Wisdom, they say, is forgetting less often. 5/10

You want students to spend a few minutes reading a dense text and formulating a cogent response on zoom? Here's a low-tech zoom move: Say: Folks, take five minutes to read this text. But first, TURN OFF YOUR CAMERAS. 6/10

That's right. There's something creepy about being surveiled on zoom--that freakin' Big Brother camera making sure you are "in attendance." A tiny bit of privacy goes a long way in enhancing everyone's cognition. 7/10

When students have had a moment to think & formulate a thought, a lo-tech solution is one they know how to use: having them write a sentence in a Google doc. The thing about Google docs is you can see everyone writing simultaneously--hard to do in a classroom w/ f2f instruction.

Keep it flowing. Never the same activity for longer than 10-15 minutes. Have students think, write, respond, talk. Listening to a talking head on a screen for too long deadens the spirit. 9/10

I learned these lessons as a high school teacher in my early twenties. I'm chagrinned that I had to re-learn them as a college teacher in my 60s.

"The End" :-)