Distance Learning

Preparing for the New School Year During a Pandemic

Well, where do I even begin…I guess with how things went the last three months of school while I was teaching and the kids were learning at home. Over all, I felt I had a good system in place and a good turn-out in terms of students engaging and completing work. But, truthfully, it wasn’t perfect and I didn’t have 100% engagement. With that in mind, and no plan in place for our school district as of yet, I’m trying to prepare for all kinds of learning and teaching methods.

The Gist

  • Preparing for both online and in-class teaching since our district hasn’t announced a plan yet
  • Keeping the tech simple enough for parents and students to feel comfortable
  • Researching ways to get closer to 100% engagement of students
  • Realizing I need to be super flexible and not commit 100% to anything just yet
Read more “Preparing for the New School Year During a Pandemic” →
Distance Learning

How Distance Teaching Is Going So Far

We are finally on spring break this week, which gives me time to catch my breath a bit. For the past three weeks, we transitioned from the classroom to distance learning, or e-learning. Distance teaching at the elementary level is tricky and a bit of a struggle, but here’s how I’m making it work:

The Gist

  • I absolutely love Seesaw more than ever!
  • Task cards work great for a grammar and math warm-up.
  • Chunking learning activities works best for the students.
  • Sticking to a schedule Monday thru Thursday and having a flexible Friday is working.
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Emergency

How I Plan to Teach During the Coronavirus Closure

I wasn’t too worried about schools closing due to the Coronavirus until this week. The virus outbreak became too real as events were canceled, colleges went to teaching online, and the president finally looked presidential in his address to the nation. It also doesn’t help that our school’s rumor mill is predicting a closure date. UPDATE: We are closing Monday, March 16th. (I started writing this a couple of days ago.) With three weeks until spring break, I came up with a plan to continue teaching from the comfort of my house and hope my students engage in the lessons since this is our new reality.

The Gist

  • Sending a work packet and activities home that everyone can do to bridge the equity gap.
  • Using SeeSaw to fill in with additional lessons and activities, including videos to make it seem more like real teaching is occurring for my students.
  • Using Bloomz to stay connected with parents.
Read more “How I Plan to Teach During the Coronavirus Closure” →