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.