To ensure that I keep things neat and clear, Google Classroom will be the starting point, the “HUB”. I want this because it is a technology that they are already familiar with. Then the question is how to structure my classroom so that there is a flow from activity to activity. I believe that having too many “Topics” can disrupt this flow because it makes it difficult to view things in chronological order. An exception may be to have topics set up by quarter so that students know which assignments belong to which quarter. One other option may be to have topics that are “Can Do” and “Must Do”. In that scenario, the “Must Do”s would still be listed in chronological order. My preferred method is to have no topics and just list your assignments in the order you want them completed. Materials and Questions (anything that doesn’t get a grade) should be grouped into topics since these are things that wouldn’t be listed in PowerSchool anyway. If you list your assignments with no topics, they’ll show up the same way in PowerSchool that they do in Classroom (on the Classwork page anyway).
Then there are two types of assignments students will be asked to complete from there.
A “content based” activity (these can include Activities, Problems, and Projects).
Example: “Activity 213 - Hold it Together!”. This activity would consist of a single Google Doc with links to any other necessary materials included in it. Students get their own copy of the doc, follow the instructions to complete the activity, and then submit the same doc once they have included their responses to any prompts (written responses, screenshots, pictures, etc).
These activities live on Classroom only, there is no other place for students to go. The Google doc is the thing that keeps the flow of the activity simple.
A “time based” activity that includes choices for what to learn and how to submit evidence.
Example: “Week 1 Skills Activity”. This activity consists of a link to a Google Site where the choices are listed for the student to choose from. The flow of the activity is controlled by the Padlet embedded in the site. Students are prompted to peruse the choices and find one they are interested in completing. Then the activity has its own flow control depending on the topic (video, doc, slides, etc).
These activities are completed “off Classroom” but are submitted to Classroom the same as the other ones. Even though they are “time based”, late work could still be submitted. Also, this could account for student strengths and weaknesses by allowing students to choose activities that match their strengths.
Something I think I’ve done well is to provide timely feedback. However, I need to work on collaboration with students AND getting students to collaborate with each other. This will involve having the tools set up to do the job well. We will have a weekly meeting with breakout rooms available for S to S discussion. But I also want to show trust in the students by giving them some freedom to choose the collaboration tools that are right for them. If a group wants to use HouseParty or Discord or TikTok (somehow) I should be open to this. Maybe just make sure to have some sort of way to tell if what they’re doing is working.
As described in number 1, I plan to have choices built into my weekly assignments. This way a student can play to their strengths when choosing which tasks to take on and how to show what they’ve learned. One thing that I hadn’t considered yet is that I’ll also have the ability in a system like this to include purposeful task choices based on what I learn about my students as the year goes on. For example, I had a student this year who was really into film - a CAMALS kid. I could easily make one of the weekly task options something that is film-ish, like a 3D modeling exercise where you build a camera slider or a flash attachment for a camera.
I think this one is a combination of things we need to work on as a school and as individual teachers. I definitely plan to have a few sessions where we establish norms like how to raise your hand in a live session and appropriate ways to respond to feedback during asynchronous activities. But I also think that as a school, we should have some consistency in these norms so that students aren’t hearing conflicting messages from one class to the next.
I think we all strive to follow this one already, but it is still important to keep in mind as we consider the needs of students who are going through a crisis (which is all of them right now). I have been flexible in terms of due dates and also methods for submitting. Several students told me they weren’t able to do the screencasts so I accepted a written response instead. If we are digital for a longer period of time, I’d like to follow up more with these students so that they are able to do the screencasts because I think they are a great tool for assessment, but also for connection! Many students told me that they felt more connected to the class from watching my videos and then doing similar work. I think part of this connection was the process of making a video in response. Like a digital conversation we were having, or video pen pals. I also need to follow up more with students who are consistently late or not turning things in, to figure out if they are just taking longer or if there is something going on that is preventing them from getting it done.
This one is really about good teaching for learning in general. But what it made me think about in terms of distance learning is that I want to make sure that we are still journaling regularly. In class, this would mean blocking off a set amount of time for writing a reflection of the activity we did that day, or on a related prompt that I would provide. I don’t know if it will be worth the (smaller amount of) screen time I’ll have with students to use it for this purpose, so I may need to think of other ways to get them to keep up with it. Active learning is going to pose a challenge as well because I’ll need a way to check in with individuals and small groups. Right now, I am thinking this means I’ll do smaller class sessions. Like I’ll meet with 4-5 kids 4-5 times per “class” day. If we move to a plan in which we only have three classes to manage at a time, this would be easily doable. I could probably meet with them several times a week, and then have room to schedule extra meetings in between. If we stick to the normal 6 classes, I can still make it work, but it may mean only meeting with a group/team once per week. “Collaborative, goal-directed, and authentic” are pieces that I believe are built into my curriculum already and I’ll just need to maintain them. The collaborative part will be the hardest, but as I saw this year, students are pretty good at connecting with each other if we let them. I think the tricky part may again be how to make sure they are doing it (but isn’t that always the tricky part?).
I believe that some form of a breakout room is a necessity to meet this one. Of course, I want students working with their teams throughout the whole project, but I also want them to interact with other students in the class as well as with me. I think that a full featured breakout room system is the only way to really make this happen. If Google doesn’t produce a working system by August, I will need to get a Zoom subscription.
I have two thoughts on this one. First, I would love to have an extra support teacher in my class anytime we are doing a synchronous session. I realize the logistics of this make it almost impossible, but I’d like to try to make it happen. Maybe we could just do a trial run early in the fall and see how it goes then talk about spreading it to more teachers. The problem always seems to be how to pay for it, but it may be possible to pay for it with time only (like using part of your planning time to assist another teacher). We do this sort of thing all the time in normal school (observations, etc). The other thing is the wellness checks. I plan to have these built into my synchronous sessions, but I like the idea suggested here that we do some sort of wellness office hours. I think it could even be fun if we make it have a theme. Like “today’s wellness check will focus on physical fitness, we’ll be talking about how exercise can improve your mental well being as well as keep you in good shape”.
I think I kind of already addressed this one, but it is really important! The best thing I did with students in the spring was the design project where they were required to find a problem to solve around their house or neighborhood. Then they used the engineering design process to define the problem, design a solution, and test it out. This was an authentic project because students were working on actual problems that they had prior knowledge of. Another really cool part of the project was that I asked them to form a team in whatever way possible. For some students, this meant teaming up with classmates and holding zoom calls, for others this meant getting their parents involved in the project in some way. In both cases, it was a way to create a connection between the project and other people for the students and I think they really benefited from that. As for assessing their progress, I used a reflection sheet that asked them to provide a picture of what they had been working on as well as a written description. Since the skill I was assessing was the use of the design process, I could tell from their writing whether they understood or not. And the pictures gave me good insight into what they thought were the important aspects of the project.
This is the one that seems simple at first glance, but I think is going to be one of the most difficult to get right and to maintain over time. The reason is the technology required to be successful in my class is not as simple as “get them a Chromebook”. Since we’ll be using Fusion 360 heavily, each student will need access to either a Mac or a PC. In my ideal world, each kid would have a Chromebook (or phone/tablet) to use for video calls in addition to a PC to use for Fusion. Then they could work as we talk and even show me what they’re working on if needed. I know this may not be feasible, but what I need to be careful of is assuming that because a few students can have this setup that they ALL do. I need to plan and implement the class structure assuming that everyone has the same setup, whatever the minimum setup we decide is feasible turns out to be. I also need to make sure that I contact EVERY STUDENT and their family to ensure that they have this minimum setup and that it’s functionality is maintained throughout the course. That will be a big task, but actually it could be a good excuse to do more regular check-ins, like we’ll do a technology check-in but really we could talk about whatever we need to.
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