It seems like everyone and his brother is using Zoom lately. For awhile, at least, we can use it for classes, until they reimpose limits on time and number of people in a meeting.
Starting April 13th, after our Spring Break, we're supposed to be presenting new material. My fellow math teachers and I have been coordinating what topics we're going to cut (after having missed 3 weeks of instructional time) in the rest of the semester, and how we might best deliver instruction, etc. Will we use Zoom or something else? How will we be trained? It's all being done on the fly. In the last couple school years I'd be ranting and raving about what a clustergaggle this is, how there's no real leadership from my district, how we teachers will have to pick up the ball and run with it after our district fumbles--and it would all be true. This year I just accept that it's true and am making plans to pick up the ball and run. It's a lot easier on my psyche that way! As I say, "The problem isn't usually the problem, the problem is how you react to the problem." This year I've not been reacting so negatively, and I'm in a much better place because of it.
I've long since graded all the tests and quizzes I brought home over a week ago, and today my vice principal and I came up with a way to get them returned to the students. I brought home the materials I'd need to work from home for 3 weeks, which was the time we were told when we shut down; now that we're probably working from home for much longer than that, I need to go in and get some more equipment (electronic and otherwise). I'll leave the papers on the desk closest to my classroom door; when the administrators go to work all day on April 1st (yes, I know!) they'll pick up the papers and distribute them to any students who come in for them. Later this week I'll notify students about that April 1st pickup date.
In the meantime I continue to assign (voluntary) review videos from Khan Academy that cover topics from the couple weeks prior to the school's shutdown. I honestly wonder how many students are watching them. I hope I'd be pleasantly surprised!
If you use Bitly to create shortened URLs for the videos and get those newly shortened links to your students, you will be able to track the total number of clicks on the links.
ReplyDeleteIs there any statewide guidance on whether the work the kids are "assigned" is being graded?
ReplyDeleteMy kid's principal said it would not be graded, but he isn't a terribly reliable source.
I'm not in your district, but I am in your state.
I don't know about statewide guidance. Probably a district by district thing.
ReplyDeleteMy district isn't allowing any graded work until at least April 13th. By then they should have plans in place for delivering education to everyone via distance learning.