Ideas for prepping for fall

Last time I talked about my thoughts on what needs to happen for a successful start post COVID-19. Today I want to get more into the nitty gritty of the classroom. What things can teachers be doing over the summer to get their classrooms, curriculum, management systems, etc. ready for whatever the fall may bring us. As with most of you out there I am waiting with baited breath to see what guidance our state is going to give districts on opening up schools next fall. However being the planner that I am, it is hard for me to sit and wait so I have already started planning what things will look like in my classroom post COVID. A lot of the ideas I talk about below are based on years of teaching in a tech classroom as well as from what I have learned worked and didn't work this year. I hope you find some these ideas/thoughts useful and would love to hear your ideas on how you are preparing to a post COVID classroom.

To start off with I am going to rework my classroom procedures so that kids know how to do things digitally in my classroom. I am going to spend a lot of time showing students how to use email, Google classroom, and hangouts as a communications tool. This was a big hurdle in my online teaching this spring is that kids were not familiar with:

• How to communicate with me digitally and I with them
• My goals/plan
• Teach them how to use email
• Teach them to how use Google classroom comments
• Show them how and when to use hangouts
• I also plan on opening up a class Instagram
• Shorten instructional videos to 5 to 6 minute clips
• How to submit work digitally in classroom
• My goals/plan
• Teach how to read an assignment description
• Show how to attach various type of work to google classroom
• Use private comments as a feedback tool
• Put together a cheat sheet/webpage for families
• My goals/plan
• Put together instructions for families on communication
• Show them the connection between our google classroom and Skyward (IMS)
• Question to ask their child to check for work/understanding of assignment
• Key things to look for when students say they are finished with work
• Create a flowchart
• How assignments or done in my class from when I assign to turn in
• How communication works in my class with students

The hope/goal is for kids and families to be ready if/when we have switch to digital/distance learning next year. 

Along those lines I am going to have more digital options of assignments in my back pocket ready to go. This spring I went with one curriculum for my each of my classes. However I heard loud and clear that students were either really excited about the work or not very interested in the work I chose. I know that some of you may not be able or want to run multiple curriculums/projects in your class. So my suggestion to you is to have digital versions of your curriculum ready to go. This may be a bit of extra work but it is good to have them in your back pocket ready to go. Also you may find that digitizing your work may make it more engaging for students. Especially your presentations. I have found that recording my presentations (what some may call lectures) opens me up for working more with kids 1:1 or in small groups. Also by recording your presentations if we do go to more digital/distance learning you can throw a lifeline to parents and families. One thing I have heard consistently is that parents are frustrated with not knowing how to do some or all of the work kids were assigned. I know I can speak personally about that. However when I chatted with some folks in my neighborhood almost all agreed that it would a little easier to help their child watch a video and take notes. This makes sense as most people have experience watching video, tv, etc. and recalling the key or important concepts.  

As for classroom management a lot of that is going to be centered on the classroom procedures I mentioned earlier. Teaching and reinforcing the process getting and submitting work. However I also want to teach my students what it means to be present in a digital world. I know that I went into digital/distance learning thinking this is going to be simple for kids. They have their chromebooks and other digital devices and they already knew a lot about apps, websites, etc. No I wasn't naive in thinking there wouldn't be challenges like lack of connection, distractions at home (games, siblings, toys, etc.), lack of familiar support, social emotional challenges, and others. What I wasn't prepared for was how kids didn't know how to be present in an online world. Watching my kids doing digital learning gave me great insight. To them being present online means 2 different things on is social and one is academic. The two are very different from what I expected. Academically they would get online look at the work and try to figure it out then wait for someone to check on them it was one of passive engagement. They were expecting either the teacher or me to prompt them or check in with them before moving on. There was no active engagement unless we pushed them to engage with their teacher. However watching them engage online in a social context was more what I was expecting. They was active listening with questions about things they didn't understand, synthesizing information shared to accomplish a task and giving feedback and support to encourage others, and even calling out others when behavior is not appropriate. My goal is to help my students transfer their social online skills to a more academic setting.  To do this they need to know what office hours are and how to use them. They also need to know how to get into an online classroom whether that be a zoom or google hangouts, or other platform.

These are just some of the thoughts and ideas I have and hope you find them helpful. If you need help applying them your classroom and/or situation please reach out out to me in the comments or via email listed below. I would love to hear from you and help out if I can.

As always Go Forth and Do Great Things!

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