My Plan: Week 3 & 4

Survival

I am going on the 4th week of distance learning.  And I want to rename it "distance surviving." 

I am preparing week by week which is the complete opposite of what I normally do. I have each unit planned out in advance and just make adjustments here and there.  But not now.  This is so uncomfortable. 

I have such a short amount of time each week to do so many different things. And even at this point, not all students have access to technology. (This is going to really throw a wrench into things. How do I deal with the first month of school when they were absent? Worry about it when I need to.)

I feel like I am riding a rollercoaster in the dark.  (I don't like rollercoasters nor do I like the dark.)

Week 3

Last week started out rough after some feedback from kids sharing not having basic computer skills (organizing files in folders, taking screenshots, saving images in different formats, etc.).  So had to change plans quickly.  The first day was spent on how to create a folder, subfolder and use the "Snip & Sketch" tool. I had kids watch videos helping them learn at their own pace. (In retrospect, instead of giving them time, I should have just played the videos.) I gave kids time to start to take screenshots of all the past assignments just in case they needed help.  I went slow, paused, repeated, answered kids' questions.  I then had them start their "E-Portfolio."  All was going well. (Or so I thought.)

The second day was spent on what I needed to see in the portfolio.  I was specific, repeated, had kids repeat in the chat, took questions from the kids and again, thought all was going well. We then did break out rooms so that kids would be more comfortable talking and supporting each other.  I popped into as many rooms as I could.  I think I missed a couple in my 4th.  I have to remember to write down what rooms I have visited and need to visit. By 6th, I was getting tired, and I am sure that I missed several. Wednesdays and Fridays are where I have 3 classes (evens) and it's really draining on me.  Asked kids how it was going, most used their audio.  Tried to get them to screenshare, but lost that battle. Didn't think it was going as well as the 1st day, but not too bad.

And then started grading their 1st draft Saturday morning. And then continued to grade each class despite what I saw, or should I say what I didn't see. Then reality hit.  

All was not going well.  

Roughly half had only the 1st couple of slides done. And a handful had random stuff thrown in.  I am sure they thought that I wasn't going to look at it. Quite a few just put a small selection of screenshots out of the assignments we had done despite going over specifically what was needed.  I am so grateful for the feedback feature in Desmos as I used it a lot.

I graded it regardless and put it in the grade book. (Portfolio is worth 60% and practice stuff is 40%.) And their grades came tumbling down. I wasn't expecting the amount of students that didn't turn it in or did the bare minimum. I was expecting 20 to 25%, but not this many.  So was completely disheartened and disappointed.  I did my best to slowly acclimate them to coming back to school; maybe that was where I went wrong.

Sunday I started by setting up my Canvas some more, created the Deltamath assignments for all three of my preps and started calling whoever I could get through to.  I stopped at the 4th call.  It was going to take me several hours to get through to a fraction of those kids who didn't turn it in.  Time to revise my plan.

Instead, I texted the kids through Remind that they better be revising their portfolio right then and there and grades were updated.  That woke up some, not a lot.  Then a little more time passed and I have a feeling kids starting contacting each other and the barrage of emails and texts started coming through with questions of all sorts; many they already had answers too. Panic had set in - good. Taking this route was clearly more effective.

But then came the hard part, how do I proceed? 

Week 4

I was planning on doing some more community building and start teaching the standards this coming week. (A couple of my Tweeps shared some stuff that would have fit perfectly. That will need to get pushed to next week.) 

If I continued on my original path of starting the unit, I doubt many kids would take the time to revise and get help on their own; which meant that this 1st grading period would end on a low note. And I would have a difficult time motivating kids to work hard to bring it up. I know my population of students.  I had to get them to start with success so they could build on it for the remainder of the school year.

At 12:10, most of my kids call it an end to the workday (not much different than the normal school year). So my plan is to release the kids who are at an A or B and keep the kids who are at a C or lower for both days. I don't know if this is good or bad.  But I don't know what effect anything I am doing will have, so what's to lose?

The kids who I release can work on a Desmos activity (yet to be determined) and the weekly Deltamath assignment asynchronously. I need to set up something where they will check in with me at the end of the period.  I think that will probably be the Desmos activity where I pace it for 2 days, or I can find 2 short ones to do. Again, yet to be determined.

I will do break out rooms but will bring them back frequently to check to see what is going on as well as visiting rooms.  I will have them chat with me privately what they did, just to keep them accountable when I bring them back. I have a feeling that too many kids are interpreting break out rooms as a break. I plan on bring them back at least twice during the 30 to 40 minutes. The other thing I am going to try that I learned from a webinar and another Tweep is to create an extra room. That way I can put kids in that room, go have a chat with them and then put them back. And if that doesn't work, on my naughty list and call home.

My plan is to give about 15 to 20 minutes to work on the "E-Portfolio" and the remaining time to work on the weekly Deltamath assignment. They will need to screenshare and use audio in order to remain in class.   

I think 3 weeks was a good amount of time to get them to transition and adapt. At this point, if they wouldn't and/or couldn't, then I need to be more strict. 

Teaching isn't all about roses.

My Plan: Week 2

Reflect

Deep breath.  

The 1st full week of distance learning done.  I would say it was successful and a big part of that was taking it slow. A lesson that took me a couple of weeks to learn during the summer. But a lesson that I learned.

My objective as a teacher was to facilitate connections between my students.  I tried to do that by having kids come up with what they think collaboration looks like. The first block day I put students in break out rooms and they wrote and shared ideas in their notebook. I popped in and out frequently to eavesdrop and check in with kids.  

The last time I popped in, I had kids put their video on and put their notes in front of their faces. Kids thought I was checking their notes, but I really had an ulterior motive. I wanted to start to get them to use their video just a little bit. There were only a small handful that chose not to.  And I wasn't going to push them.

The second block day was to take that and put those thoughts into a shared "Google Slide Deck."  I was shocked when I surveyed kids before we started at how few had done this.  And I fully admit, this is the first time I have done this in math.  But rest assured, won't be the last!  So I went through some guidelines and demonstrated a bit. But not a lot.  I am a big believer in the best way to learn something is to dive right in and play with it. And it worked! Kids did great.  Just a handful that were a bit confused.  This brought to light that I need to find a way to check for understanding without looking at body language or calling on particular kids.

The next step is to do a virtual gallery walk with what they did to narrow down what collaboration looks like.  This will be next week.  This week I need to work on getting some things set up and more building relationships.  My Twitter colleagues have been great at giving me so many ideas! 

My objective for kids was for them to become independent learners.  Over 80% of the student population is highly dependent. And mostly because of all the hand holding that goes on from when they are little.  Just because kids are from a vulnerable and disadvantaged area, does not mean they cannot.  But that is the mindset that so many educators have.  If kids are given the opportunity and have scaffolding in place, success will happen.  

I help students become more independent when in the classroom, but I am really struggling with it virtually. Especially since when I call home, I am only getting through to a small percentage.

Thankfully, I am extremely obstinate.  I won't give up on my kids.

Revise

If I had to go back in time, I would start with more of what I am doing this week; which is playing games and doing some math art. And then do the "Collaboration" lessons.  I also would take more advantage of the "private chat" feature with students.  

One thing that is hard is that I have about an hour total with them each week.  This is because I am taking 80-minute block and breaking into 2 groups where I meet with them for 30 minutes.  I will have to rethink this in a week when I need to get into the curriculum. But for now, I think it's working.  Kids are able to stay engaged for the entire time.  Or as far as I can tell.

Day 6

• "Attendance" question
• Create Deltamath account
• Ultimate Tic-Tac-Toe - pair up kids in break out rooms

Day 7

• 10 to 15 minutes to work on the Deltamath assignment
• #mathartchallenge by @anniek_p: "Looping Colors" (get kids to put video on and share their work when completed)
• "Attendance" question - ask kids to rank how this week went on a 1 to 5 scale

So this week will hopefully build more connections.  But I wanted to slow down for me, kids and families to give some room to transition.  I spoke to many parents and caregivers over the last week who are overwhelmed and are dealing with a lot of hardships. I also need some time to deal with the increase mental strain distance learning is having on me.  It's just so hard to teach without seeing the kids facial expressions and body language. I need time for my brain to accept and adapt.

This is going to be a tough year all around. I will be so happy to see the end.

My Plan: Week 1

First three days of distance learning are done.  

I have to say that it went well as far as logistics. I think it's because of two reasons.  One is that I taught summer school.  So that really helped me try out different ideas and get immediate feedback from kids.  The second is all the self-learning I did over the last four months.  Listening carefully to what others were doing when schools closed down mid-March, webinars and lots of conversations with the incredibly talented teachers on the #MtBoS.

I used the "less is more" to help guide my planning especially with all the tech issues and kids not knowing how to join. Another glitch was that admin assumed everyone would be using Canvas to start off with. I wasn't going to knowing that the platform had a bit of a learning curve and distance learning was already a huge curve being thrown at the kids.  

I wanted to start with something familiar; just like I do when teaching. Most kids are familiar with Google Classroom, so I am using that for a few weeks until I can build a decent connection and community with my kids.  Then we will ease into Canvas.  I am 100% certain that if I were to have started with Canvas, that would have been the focus; not the kids.  And I am so happy I made this decision.

One thing that really helped with time management was keeping kids in the waiting room and having them start on the "Attendance Question." I am definitely keeping this practice. 

The only way of communicating with families is email or individual phone calls. That made it extremely challenging and frustrating that our automated phone system wasn't set up so we can at least call en mass.  (By the way, it's still not set up and it has been 5 working days.) I have been calling home, but it's a slow go.  I can get through about 5 each day before I have to stop. Most take a lot of time because I am fluent in only one language - the one I am currently writing in. And the district doesn't have a department solely dedicated to helping teachers translating which is very strange considering how many of our families are more comfortable speaking a variety of other languages.

How many teenagers do you know that check their email regularly? I wager to say little to none. So that's a new habit.  That's why it was so important to get students signed up for Remind so we can text back and forth - a medium they are most comfortable in. 

My next task is to get parents and caregivers signed up for Talking Points. I have already sent out an email to parents and caregivers, but only 3 have signed up so far. So that's going to take some work.

One thing that I knew in my gut but pushed aside with all the insanity was how disconnected students felt from not being in school face to face.  The "Intro & Reflect" videos they turned in last Friday using Loom simply reinforced my intuition.

So that gave me the impetus for the upcoming week. But a quick reflect on last week.

 Day 1, August 5th:

• Welcome each student
• Use "Poll" feature in Zoom to check in with how they are doing
• Ask: "How are you?"✔
• Fundamental norms to follow on Zoom
• Put distractions away✔
• Active listening✔
• Respectful & kindness✔
• Use "Chat" only when instructed to do so✔
• Students will sign up for Remind & Google Classroom, if they haven't done so already
• Share code and get kids to sign up right then and there✔
• Share screen showing who's signed up
• Give students a few minutes to take "Attendance" question in Google Classroom✔
• Use images from @MrsJohnsonCA's blog post
• Students will create a Desmos account
• Play "Collecting Numbers" by Kurt Salisbury, a modified version to fit my time frame
• Set pacing to slide 1 & 2✔

Day 2, August 6th:

• Welcome each student
• Use "Poll" feature in Zoom to check in with how they are doing
• Have students find something that represents how they feel and have them hold up and have them share why in the chat
• Continue to practice online norms✔
• Any students who haven't signed up for Remind & Google Classroom will do so✔
• Give students a few minutes to take "Attendance" question in Google Classroom✔
• Remind students to complete the survey with their caregivers as soon as possible
• #mathartchallenge by @anniek_p: "Looping Colors"

Day 3, August 7th:

• Welcome each student
• Use "Poll" feature in Zoom to check in with how they are doing (period 6 only)
• Ask: "How are you?"✔
• Give students a few minutes to take "Attendance" question in Google Classroom✔
• Ask any student if they want to share their #mathartchallenge from yesterday or take some time to finish
• Continue to practice online norms✔
• Give any students time who need to sign up for Remind, Google Classroom
• Review schedule for next week & make sure students are signed up for Remind & Google Classroom✔
• Let students know that their small group assignments during the 80 minute block will be posted in Google Classroom in the Stream and will be emailed Saturday morning✔ (This is still in the works.)
• 3 20 minute blocks
• Average size of each small group will be about 12 
• Small group will then be broken up into smaller pods of 3 to 4
• Have students create a Loom video doing a quick intro and giving feedback to the 1st 3 days & turn into Google Classroom as first assignment✔

Now onto week 1!  After doing more listening and learning, I am changing gears a little bit. The goal is to move from me getting to know the kids to the kids getting to know each other.  From the videos that I have seen so far, the kids miss seeing their friends a lot. The question becomes then how do I build a sense of community online? Well, I really don't have a definitive answer. But I do know from teaching summer school, small groups is the key.

So this week forward, I will take the 80 minute block we have and break apart the class into small groups. But I think I will start with the whole class first and then the class will split.

Day 4: Learning Goals

• Give 10 to 15 minutes to answer the "Attendance" question.
• Assign students into one of 2 groups.
• Each group's task will be to discuss and answer the following (20 to 25 mins):
• What does working and learning together look like online?
• What does working and learning together not look like online?
• Students will jot down ideas in a notebook as they discuss recording who said what

Day 5: Learning Goals

• Give 10 to 15 minutes to answer the "Attendance" question.
• Students will be in same groups.
• Each group's task will be to:
• One person to create a Google Slide and share with other team members
• Each person will contribute typing into slide based on what was shared last class
• Add audio/video note from each person reading using "Record to Slides" Chrome app (not sure of this, might just have my Math 2H test it out for me)

The homework for the week will be to do the Desmos "Getting to Know you."

My Plan: Week 0

I have probably changed my mind on what I am going to do at least a couple of dozen times just within a week.  Most of those are because I am not jotting things down. So I will circle back to the same ideas over and over again. So I thought, why not use my blog as my planner? I can record what I am going to do and that way I have a record to go back to reflect, revise, and repeat.

So here it goes.  

Here's my course assignment for 2020-21:

I sent out an email Saturday (August 1st) morning with a video created by Loom introducing myself. It also included a link to a survey to collect information.  I was pleasantly surprised at how many responses and views I got within 48 hours. And still coming in.

I then sent out another email early this afternoon (August 3rd).  In this one there was another video, but this time it was a recording of myself and a dear former student who helped me translate into Spanish. (Thank you Valerie!) I also included information on how to join Remind and Google Classroom.  Again, pleasantly surprised.  Not at the same rate, but I will take it.

It's been really tough communicating with students, parents and caregivers because the only method is email.  Our automated phone school system (School Messenger) hasn't been set up and who knows when it will be. So I feel very fortunate at the connections I am making so far.

In fact, a parent and two students have emailed me back with concerns and questions. So all in all, not too bad. This is going to take a week or two to get everybody to get back into a routine of checking emails and texts. But for parents & caregivers, I am going to send weekly contacts every Saturday morning at the same time. I think that will make it easy and predictable for them - I hope.

Here's the "Bell" Schedule we've been given for August 5th through 7th.

Day 1, August 5th:

• Welcome each student
• Use "Poll" feature in Zoom to check in with how they are doing
• Ask: "How are you?"
• Fundamental norms to follow on Zoom
• Put distractions away
• Active listening
• Respectful & kindness
• Use "Chat" only when instructed to do so
• Students will sign up for Remind & Google Classroom, if they haven't done so already
• Share code and get kids to sign up right then and there
• Share screen showing who's signed up
• Give students a few minutes to take "Attendance" question in Google Classroom
• Use images from @MrsJohnsonCA's blog post
• Students will create a Desmos account
• Play "Collecting Numbers" by Kurt Salisbury, a modified version to fit my time frame
• Set pacing to slide 1 & 2

Day 2, August 6th:

• Welcome each student
• Use "Poll" feature in Zoom to check in with how they are doing
• Have students find something that represents how they feel and have them hold up and have them share why in the chat
• Continue to practice online norms
• Any students who haven't signed up for Remind & Google Classroom will do so
• Give students a few minutes to take "Attendance" question in Google Classroom
• Remind students to complete the survey with their caregivers as soon as possible
• #mathartchallenge by @anniek_p: "Looping Colors"

Day 3, August 7th:

• Welcome each student
• Use "Poll" feature in Zoom to check in with how they are doing
• Ask: "How are you?"
• Give students a few minutes to take "Attendance" question in Google Classroom
• Ask any student if they want to share their #mathartchallenge from yesterday or take some time to finish
• Continue to practice online norms
• Give any students time who need to sign up for Remind, Google Classroom
• Review schedule for next week & make sure students are signed up for Remind & Google Classroom
• Let students know that their small group assignments during the 80 minute block will be posted in Google Classroom in the Stream and will be emailed Saturday morning
• 3 20 minute blocks
• Average size of each small group will be about 12 
• Small group will then be broken up into smaller pods of 3 to 4
• Have students create a Loom video doing a quick intro and giving feedback to the 1st 3 days & turn into Google Classroom as first assignment

I am crossing my fingers that this plan will work.  But after Wednesday, I will have a better idea.