School Reopening Community: Learning Beyond COVID-19

Some decided to be virtual or enroll in our cyber program, but the majority are in person. I teach math at the high school.

probably through the first semester at least.

I connect my laptop to my interactive white board so that whatever I put on the board for my in-person students can be seen by my online students and vice versa. I am thankful for the technology when it works properly. One challenge in lesson design is definitely labs. I try to do short demonstrations and then have the students do a virtual lab to explore, but it is not always possible to find a quality virtual lab that covers the exact skill that you are trying to deliver. If anyone has free or low cost quality virtual lab solutions, please share! I already use Phet Simulations.

I am so amazed at some of my students who have stepped up with thier learning activity. I have online Zoom meetings with these students and just like at school, when we would warm up and take brain-breaks , it is the same. It started slow but it has just grown. I could not have done this without the awesome support of parents. Thank you for helping. I miss a lot of my students and have been sending text messages, emails and shout-out through others students and bus-drivers. <br>I have grown too during this new and different time. I am seeing students having fun with Math too.

The district worked to get every student a Chromebook and, if requested, MiFi. IT and schools pushed instruction on various ways to deliver instruction: Google Classroom, eLearning, and apps such as Padlet, Thinglink, Jamboard, and PearDeck. The weekly schedule was changed to include 4 days of Zoom instruction and 1 async day. <br><br>The issue of safety was paramount. It has paid off in that our district has one of the lowest infection rates of any similarly sized city in the nation. That said, it has been a challenge both for educators and for students. Some students have stated that they prefer the distance learning model and take on the responsibility of attending Zoom class and submitting work regularly. Others wish to return to school, both for social and academic reasons. Tech problems have included poor internet connections, quick expenditure of the limited monthly gigabytes of MiFi, and broken Chromebooks. Students who lack organizational and self-monitoring skills are floundering. Teachers report that they are doing more work than ever before to adjust curriculum and lessons to the more limited minutes, add digital enrichment, and contact with students who either do not respond while in class or fail to sign on at all.<br><br>This week, after a district-wide survey of comfort levels in which 81% of teachers stated that they did not feel comfortable returning to schools in November, our district declared that distance learning would continue, at least until January. The one exception is self-contained Special Education classes. Starting January 4, these SPED classes will resume 4 days weekly, retaining the async day. If some parents opt to keep their children home, this will create the need to adapt to a new hybrid teaching model. Logistics are still being worked out. While it would be a great advantage to be able to work in-person with these students, I am concerned for the safety of our 2 SPED classes that would return. Our school is undergoing major renovation that limits space and affects heating and ventilation. Many of the children and some of the educators have health problems that, in spite of adherence to a protocol of masks and appropriate cleaning, could be exacerbated by poor ventilation or by increased risk of exposure to the COVID-19 virus.

Wednesday is a remote PD day for all teachers, allowing time for building, district, and department collaboration.

I'd love to present our work at the PSE for over 4,000 Teachers in Training, particularly how we help Teachers in Training develop lessons for diversity and inclusion for grades 5-12 with American literature topics dealing with African-American literature, Latin American literature, Hispanic-American literature, Asian-American literature and Native American literature. The lessons deal with autobiographic memoirs dealing with intercultural clashes to help build intercultural skills, knowledge and attitudes.<br><br>Does anyone know how to submit a webinar/presentation proposal for this amazing March conference? Really looking forward to meeting everyone, as the PSE is new to Share My Lesson. <br><br>Best wishes,<br>Rich Powers<br>richard.powers@ilw.uni-stuttgart.de<br> <br>Visit our site: https://www.pse-stuttgart-ludwigsburg.de/ueber-uns/fachgruppen/fachgrup… to our "Teaching Black Lives Matters with Kimberly Taylor from Chicago" and "Aloha Sunrise End of the Fall School Year Storytelling & Relaxation" webinars on December 21 and 23, respectively:<br><br>https://www.eventbrite.de/x/133227544171/<br><br>https://www.eventbrite…

I love technology, but I never thought that I would be teaching pre-k students in this virtual environment. Your day definitely have to be structured as much as you can make it. We started out using a lot of video's and we have learned pretty quick that the students really got nothing out it. So we have had to drop off bag of supplies and materials that they can use for virtual learning. Safe distance of course. So now we are working more hands on than before and less videos.

Of course we have been forced to learn new ways of doing everything! But I believe students and parents have been challenged as well. we are working together it seems more closely and more passionately for the benefit of the students.