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One of the most precious gifts we can give to others is the gift of time. Our influence is even greater when we invest in our students & colleagues in a kind & caring way that supports their success. When they do better we will feel better.
I think this encapsulates how we should be thinking as we venture into teaching online for the first time. Instead of worrying about test scores and how far we can go into the curriculum we should think about giving students an opportunity to explore and use what they have learned to make the world around them a better place. So to hopefully live up to Mr. Casas's quote I want to lay out my journey and hopefully give you some suggestions to use as we give our students the gift of time.
To start I plan on keeping it simple by just checking in with my kids and asking some basic questions like:
- How are you doing?
- What have you been doing?
- What were you working on before we left?
- What would you like to work on?
The hope is to give them an opportunity to record a message (however they choose video via flipgrid, email, google doc, voice recording, google hangout, etc.) to reconnect with them. I also will be sharing how I am doing and what I have been doing. That will take us into spring break where I plan on encouraging them to get outside and get some fresh air, play a game, run around, basically be a kid. For a lot of my kids I imagine some of them have been taking care of siblings or helping out around the home. I want to try and give them permission to be a kid and play. I say this because as I have learned play is one of the best ways young kids can learn social skills.
After spring break we will be working on 2 things review of the engineering/design process and figuring out what we want to do next. For our review I plan on having them focus on telling me about the parts of the engineering process and then have them apply that to a simple problem in their lives. Things like making a schedule, food delivery, making a meal, connecting with another person online, helping a teacher connect with/use online tools like zoom, google hangout, etc. My goal is to show them that they do have some control over what is going on and they also have something to offer.
Once we have reviewed to Engineering/design process we will go into talking about what they want to work on which is where the gift of time comes in. I am going to treat it sort of like my 20% time project where they get to focus on a problem that is of importance to them. For some it may be focusing on school work, for others it may be actually tackling the problem to talked about in their review, for some it may be something else. My goal is to help them work on something that allows them to apply what they have learned and us that to dig deeper into their understanding. I imagine the 2 big thing will be to work on finding a cure and figuring out a way for life to return to normal. The other big topic I expect to come up is that of not wanting to take advantage of the time given and just be. I know some of my colleagues this is a concern and if life was normal and this was normal online learning I would be too, however this isn't normal. For some having time to not do work or just be is more important. That in and of itself is solving a problem as well, taking care of themselves and their family. Anyways that is my plan which may change at some point as I see how thing go and get more direction for the state and my district as to what I need to be doing.
Some thoughts on what you could do based on the subjects that are out there:
- PE
- Have kids develop an personalized exercise routine
- Explore ways to do team games with virtual fans
- Invent new backyard sports/activities (Thank you KING5 sports for the idea)
- Have them teach and/or organize outdoor games/sports/activities with family
- Math
- Look for how products are design using geometric shapes and explain why they are that shape
- Develop a daily schedule using date and time
- Measure out their home and figure out the square footage of the home and rooms
- Design and outfit their dream home (thank you to my Math department for that idea) with a budget
- ELA
- Write a letter to nursing homes describing things they see around them and questions they may have
- Write up shopping lists for groceries and help plan out meals
- Develop a comic strip to hare with others
- Record children's stories to post online
- Social Studies
- Use maps and research to plan a post quarantine trip
- Keep a historical journal of their daily activities for future civilizations
- Create a Google Lit trip of places they have heard about or studied in class
- Create a map of their home as if it was an ancient ruin
- Science
- Have them explore how the world is changing with the lack of human travel
- Track chemical reactions when mixing common household items
- Do a sleep study to see how different sleep habits affect mood, productivity
- Track data of activities around the home and see what patterns they notice
- Foreign Language
- Learn a new language
- Practice writing letters to people/pen pals in other countries
- Offer to do translations of important documents/materials/news casts
- Art
- Design a paint scheme for their room
- Explore different artistic styles
- Delve deeper into the relationship between colors, color and mood, etc.
- Create original works
- Explore what Creative commons and copyright are
- Music/band
- Explore music theory
- Explore what IP is and how it relates to music
- Perform an online concert
- Produce a digital concert
- Improve soloist skills
This list doesn't hit every subject and certainly is not exhaustive but hopefully it is a start or at least inspires some ideas of your own. I would love to hear about what you think and any ideas you come up with to give your students the gift of time.
As always "Go Forth and Do Great Things!"
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