All posts filed under: teaching

How I Plan to Structure my classroom in a hybrid model

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Our district, like many across the country, is going to a hybrid model for middle and high school students. Half the school will go to class Mondays and Wednesdays, with online learning Tuesdays and Thursdays, and the other half will go to school Tuesdays and Thursdays, with online learning Mondays and Wednesdays. Everyone will be home for synchronous distance learning Fridays. Because I will physically see my students (each set) two days a week for 45 minutes, that will change a lot of how I deliver curriculum and support students. At first I wanted to bury my head in the sand and not think about it at all until late August, when we go back, but I feel it will cause a lot of stress later if I don’t even think and start to put some things in place now. I also know that so many things are up in the air right now and the district’s plan will most likely be changed as a result. My new motto this year is flexibility and grace. …

Teacher Self-Care

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Week 6. Can I be honest and say this is hard? I put on a brave face and a smile, but inside, I am anything but. My anxiety, which I have tried so hard to maintain and keep at bay these past few years, has decided to come out of the woodworks. I am stress eating. I am not sleeping well. I am worried. It is not just my own two children I think about, but all 180 students under my care. Am I assigning meaningful work for them? Is it too much? Too little? When I comment on their work, exactly what should I write since I can’t say it in person, and I know words can be taken the wrong way? When students aren’t engaged, what is going on in their world that is causing them not to complete the work? (And there are so many reasons for this beyond they don’t care, which I don’t believe.) How am I connecting with students when I can’t see them in person? How do I …

Teaching Grammar Online

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Nothing like being sheltered in place to force one to try new online tools! In my classroom, the technology and online tools I use are Google Classroom, Kahoot, Quizlet, and Padlet. So far in the past two weeks I have used Flipgrid and Quill.org (both new to me). Before moving online, I was very aware of how much time students spent in front of a screen. My middle school students travel to seven different classes a day, and if each of those classes had 20-30 minutes on their Chromebook, that would be 140-210 minutes of screen time just in the school day. That doesn’t factor in their cell phone use or homework later in the evening that might require a computer. Our school’s history, math, and science textbooks have now all gone digital. So I was old-school, having students bring novels and paper to school. (Yes, students could read an ebook or follow along in an audiobook when we had independent reading time, and all essays were typed, but I really thought about how much …

First Week of Distance Learning

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Last week was supposed to be students’ first week with the novel The Pearl, finishing the novella this week. But last week was the first week with distance learning, and there was no way I was going to be able to teach the class novel remotely, even if I did get access to the book. So my teaching partner and I planned to have students create a video of their favorite independent reading book they read this year and upload it to Flipgrid. (You can find the assignment here if you’d like to try it.) Since last week and this week assignments are optional, I had about half of my students make videos and submit. It was so good to see their faces and talk about their favorite books. My teacher heart was happy. (You can see my original plan in pencil and my new plan in pen.) There were a lot of ups and downs last week, and next week we go to “distance learning for all,” which means assignments count, it’s not optional. …

More Distance Learning Teaching Ideas

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We are back in school this week. Distance learning style. This is a whole new ball game for so many of us and all I can do is hang on for the ride. Since I don’t know how long this on-line learning will last, I am taking it a week at a time. Right now, this online model is supposed to end April 28th, so that is as long as I can think ahead. If I figure students will spend about 30 minutes on English work daily, then what sort of assignments can I create that gives both my students and myself breathing room? Assignments where they are still learning and I am able to check in on their progress and answer questions? I thought of project-based assignments rather than daily-type assignments. The learning that students are doing is enrichment (optional, not required), so you will notice that there are different standards presented and different ideas. Also, because it is enrichment, there is no scoring rubric, but I will be giving feedback to students who …