Thursday, February 27th, was the last time I saw my students. Hunched over my desk, it was around 7 pm as I waited for the copier to finish spitting out the final stack of current events. I had hoped to continue our inquiry into the ever changing societal climate around us, but it seemed fate had another idea. Undertones of worry and trepidation laced the air as I listened to Governor DeWine’s decree that schools would be shut down until further notice. Regardless of the initial fear and hesitation, I don’t think any of us truly knew what was in store for education.
Once it became apparent that none of us were going back to teaching as we once knew, it quickly became a challenging task of how much we already understood about technology and how much time we had to learn. Teachers who had never used Google Classroom before found themselves trying to pick it up as their teaching world rapidly changed around them. With the number of cases rising and August rapidly approaching, we must account for the possibility of returning to online learning this school year as well.
It quickly became a challenging task of how much we already understood about technology and how much time we had to learn.
The first thing I suggest to teachers navigating the realm of "quaranteaching" is to familiarize yourself with Google Classroom and its affiliated apps (Google Docs, PPT, Sites, etc). Having a Google Classroom will set you up for success regardless of whether we teach online or in-person. There are plenty of amazing tutorials on YouTube that show how to implement and utilize Google Classroom, but here is one of my favorites (see below). This beginners tutorial shows both the teacher view and the student view for increased clarity AND how it looks on mobile devices.
The next thing I suggest, regardless of your district's current action plan, is to adapt your curriculum so it can be completed ENTIRELY online. If you adapt your curriculum for online use now, then you have less to stress about later, if and when schools begin shutting down again for pandemic safety. As a quick tip, you should be able to use Google Forms to adapt your tests and quizzes easily enough- you can also use Google Forms for entrance and exit slips, attendance, and many other things. I use Google Forms for my conferencing (click here!) and students' independent reading book status checks as well. A bonus with using Forms specifically for your assessments is that the application can even grade them for you (exempting short answer questions)! There is even a setting in Google Classroom, when you assign quizzes, to lock your students' screens, while they take the assessment. This screen lock should keep most students from cheating, but, of course, there are few cheating fail safes online. Check out a Google Forms beginners tutorial below for some quick tips on using these applications!
If you already know you will need to teach online, at least a little bit, then you might want to consider holding virtual office hours. Last spring, I held office hours for my students through Google Hangouts* for two hours every day of the school week. I designated a one hour time slot to my advanced ELA students and the other for my general ELA classes. During my office hours, I would answer questions, provide supplemental work, conference with students, and generally check on their wellbeing.
Some tips for holding virtual office hours:
I present some sort of a "Welcome to my Office Hours" screen (see example below)
Remind students to mute themselves upon entering the "meet"
Inform students to use the "hand raise" option and/or direct message the chat before speaking
To ensure you accommodate everyone, ask them to take turns asking questions
Ask students to have the work that corresponds to their questions ready to go and to take notes throughout our virtual session
*You can also use Zoom or Microsoft Meets
These are just a few starter tips for "quaranteaching" in the age of the pandemic. I am writing an article specifically about how to create a Virtual Bitmoji Classroom, like the one pictured above, that will be published on Monday, August 3rd at 8:00 am EST. Also, check out these digital ELA resources that are perfect for online/distance learning (click here!). What has been the most challenging thing about distance learning so far for you and your students? I'd love to hear your thoughts below in the comments!
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