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It is ironic that it takes a pandemic and stay at home orders to get students and teachers to stay home both when they are not and they are feeling well. How many of us have uttered this phrase or something like it "I would rather go to work sick than write sub-plans". Yes the bane of most teachers existence the all mighty sub-plans.
Yes I am guilty of it myself of going to work on days I should have stayed home rather than write sub-plans or because I know the kids won't do what is needed because there is a sub. On the flip side, as a parent, I have also committed the sin of sending my kids to school so I and my wife could go to work when they are sick. Another off shoot of this dilemma is those families who take their kids out of school at odd times to "take a trip of a lifetime" or to take advantage of off season travel deals. Even as a teacher who knows better I have done this at least once. That all being said I believe the pedagogical shift we are all having to face now is the answer to some of those problems.Instead of seeing online teaching as a necessary evil in these rough times. I believe it is something we should embrace as a new normal. When planning lessons It is important to look at it form the face to face perspective and from the online perspective. How cool would it be to be able to stay home and teach your class remotely when you are feeling just be little under the weather or if your kids could stay home when sick and still do the activities/lessons for the day. Yes it might be a little more work but I have found through the flipped model of teaching, once you get into and used to the in's and out's it is quite easy. Yes it takes some more tools and possibly equipment but often times you can get what you need as a free or freeium extension on a chormebook or plugin. I am not foolish to think that there are not other challenges to this over planning. Yes I understand that the biggest one is that of access to the internet and/or equipment. However as most if not all of the county is being forced to do online learning they are also having to face those challenges as well. I have heard talk at least in Washington State the broadband access should be considered a utility like phone service, sewer & water, etc. Also more and more districts are starting to explore and adopt some form of 1:1 model to provide instructional technology access to students. The time is ripe for all of us to start to adapt our current lessons and instruction to one that can be done both online and face to face.
For those that are ready to start to explore this shift here is how I go about making my learning accessible both fact to face and online. I start out by building a relationship with my students and letting them know a little bit about me and my story, just like any good teacher. I also talk about and model the importance of taking notes during a presentation (I try not to call it a lecture due to the negative connotation & because outside of school no one lectures). I then start shifting my presentations to both an in-person and online format by recording them and posting them on youtube. The format I use for taking notes while watching a video is broken into 3 parts:
1. Watch video/presentation all the way through to get the big picture. I like my students to know where they are going before they get there. They have to 2 guiding questions: What is the final product and What are the expectations (although I use the term specs). I also have them write down questions they may have.
2. Watch the video/presentation again taking notes on the procedure, details, instructions, hints, etc.
3. Watch the video a final time looking for answers to questions they wrote down in previous viewings and writing down questions that are not answered or that you may have regarding how to complete the activity.
During each viewing I encourage them to pause and play the presentation. I also encourage students to use CC (closed captioning) to be able to see what I am saying. This is also a helpful tool for our English Language Learners to be able have CC in their native language (if they can read it). I also encourage them to write down questions during each phase to encourage active listening. Once they are finished watching the presentation they are able to either start the activity/project/lesson and send me questions. Students are able to send me questions in several different ways. They can ask in person or via email or via google form I created (to mimic the use of trouble tickets). From there the work is in the students hands and I wait for them to turn it and/or ask questions or for feedback.
The tools one will need to do this do come at some cost to you and/or your district (a webcam & mic, and laptop or computer). Although that being said there are some free to low cost options out there depending on how detailed you want to go. Most computers/laptops come with a built in webcam and mic. I chose to go with an external webcam and mic so I can record on my desktop at home and have better quality but they are certainly not needed. You can also find screencasting extensions, plugins, apps for free that will do the trick some I have used and recomend are Screencastify and Nimbus both do a good job on the free version but also offer freeium options. I chose to go with a video editing suite Movavi as it allows me to both record and edit video a little more professionally with effects and the like. Another option is to use the record meeting feature on your video conferencing app. You can do this by setting up a meeting with yourself and record it then save it and post it with your lesson.
After I have a recording of my presentation I post it along with the lesson in my google classroom page for the class to view along with all the the other digital materials needed for the lesson. This does pose a challenge of what if there are physical materials needed and I have students who don't have access. I am certainly in this boat with my robotics class. I have looked for virtual options such as CoderZ to provide a virtual option. This is where I defer to my experience with online learning and am looking into ways to provide those materials to kids via traditional mail. I don't have an answer as of yet but hope to soon.
So to close out this post I hope you are able to see the silver lining as I have described it and hope you at least start to think about how you can modify your lessons so they can be done both online and in the classroom. For those of you that have already done this or are doing this I look forward to your thoughts and suggestions in the comments.
As always "Go Forth and Do Great Things!"
Link to podcast
https://www.buzzsprout.com/662542/3325930
Music license podcast:
Fearless First by Kevin MacLeod
Link:
https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3742-fearless-first
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