Well first of all I've learned that weekly blogging is probably unreasonable for me right now. So maybe monthly? That seems to be how it's shaking out anyway so let's call it that. One thing that I'm realizing about teaching virtually is that things that are working well here seem to be things that are just good teaching generally. I think I knew this going in, but it's a whole other thing to be experiencing it. Here's some good stuff that's working well for us! 👇 Getting regular feedback from students about the class. They've helped me figure out better strategies to keep the class interesting, such as taking breaks where we play quick games like skribbl.io (it's Pictionary). This seemed counterintuitive to me; I was thinking the whole point of a break was to get away from the zoom call. But the kids are telling me that what they want is a break from the work but one in which they still get to connect in some way. So we'll be working on so...
What went well: Gots and Needs! On the first day at the end of each class I pushed out a link to a Google Form with two Qs: What is one thing you got from today's meeting? What is one thing you think we'll need to work on? Then I chose some responses and stuck them in a slide and made that the first slide for the next day. This allowed the kids to see that not only was I going to ask them for feedback frequently, but also that I was listening to it! 😄 What needs work: I need to remember to build in talk time for them early in a lesson. I did this in one class but not the other and the difference was clear. They seemed to disengage after like 10 min and it was hard to get them back after that. So I need to remember: they'll need interaction opportunities early and often! General Notes: Tried the "here's the objective, now go and do it" structure in EDD (seniors) and it worked pretty well. Students were still able to rejoin the meeting if they needed me. ...
