New Term – Here I Come!

Prep for this term has been intense.

It has involved 2+ months of reading, training and exploration. MOOCs, webinars and meetings about Blended Learning, Remote Learning, Flipped Classroom Model, Effective Assessment etc. Getting ready for an unknown and ever evolving term has been exhausting to say the least. This is really not for the faint of heart. However, having all the info. now, it’s time to focus. I have a new bunch of kiddies coming to me and I wan tto be ready for them. So: what am I putting in place for this term in particular? What is my 3 month plan?

Here are my top 5 things!

1. Build Community

My goodness I miss my kiddies! I miss them. I miss the hugs, kisses, high-fives and the thousands of random stories. The community I created in my classroom made every work day worth it – we were a little family. The good thing about having to transition to Emergency Remote Learning in March was that the community was already built. Now starting with this new group, building community is going to be more important than ever. This is a pandemic and we are all experiencing this differently, some with more trauma than others. The children are no exceptions. During the first 6 weeks – yes, I said 6 – I will focus on building my class community.

What exactly does this mean? It means creating and implementing routines and rules. When my children join our face to face session, I have my playlist going to welcome them. They see my smiling face welcoming them. As soon as they start signing in, I start engaging them. How are you? Do you have anything new to share with me? How are things going at home? My questions are similar but still different depending on the child I’m engaging with. This is all before the session starts. Once we do start, we have our morning greeting. I greet you (officially) and you greet me. What is your learning mood today? We know how it is to have a bad day. Remember our children have bad days too. Don’t expect them to be in a wonderful mood every single day and don’t punish them for having one either!

During the session – build in some breaks. Water and bathroom breaks, movement breaks, stretch breaks. This is not easy on our minds or bodies. Focus is affected by your physical state too. And of course, at the end you want to implement a wrap up routine. How do you say good bye? How do you close off till next time?

Of course, building community is also about the worksheets that we will do – to find out info about each other. It is setting up office hours to allow parents (and children) to drop in and chat with me informally.

The possibilities are endless to build community – you will know your peeps. However you’ll note I listed this as my first priority. The children will not learn without feeling a sense of security and belonging and the parents will not trust me to do what I need to do if they are not comfortable. Community first!

2. Refocus and Shift Ideas about Lesson Planning 

Last term the planning was kinda haphazard to say the least. Don’t get me wrong, we got into a groove and we delivered, however, it was EXHAUSTING! This term my goal is to do some purposeful planning. This holiday, I learned more about and fell in love with the Flipped Classroom Model. I had heard about it before, of course, we’ve been hearing about the Flipped model for years and sometimes, it takes an opportunity like this, to really dive into something you’ve been skirting around. Well, dive, I did. 😂 😂 So the planning this term will be focussed on expanding my own ideas of an effective lesson plan for remote learning. It is not only what we do in our synchronous sessions but also the asynchronous sessions as well it is the ongoing learning experience offered about any one topic. How do the introductory activities tie into our live sessions and assessment? How do all of these activities make the learning meaningful? How do we make it stick? I like to think of education like a cycle that I have to ensure makes the full revolution and continues turning. My beautifully designed and laid out lesson plan do not ensure learning is taking place and if learning isn’t taking place then I’m wasting my time!

3. Perfect Google Classroom and a Google Products

I think we all suffering from resource overload. 😲 Lord knows I am! So for this term, I’ve refined my list and will focus on those apps only. My school is using the Google Suite so that’s what I need to focus on. So much so, I’m hoping to do the certification.🙌 Believe me I know that it is not easy. Everybody who knows you’re a teacher, as well as other teachers, shares every single article, website, app, book, software, hardware etc education-related with you and it can become overwhelming very, very quickly! Don’t feel bad to say thanks, but no thanks or simply ignore the suggestions. Focus on a few effective products and perfect those. Then incorporate more as you need to or not.

4. Focus on Meaningful Assessment- Formative and Summative 

I don’t know what others have experienced but finding ways to asses my 7 year olds during Emergency Remote Learning was kind of challenge that had me thoroughly stumped. Could we trust the results? Were they cheating? Were they receiving extra help? In an excellent session I went to last week we were advised that we need to ‘let it go’ and trust the process. So this term, I’m bumping up my methods, starting with an ‘Assessment Agreement’ for my parents and students. Yes, it also includes me. We each have our part to play. I must assess what I teach, trusting that my parents will play their role and the students will do their best as well. We are like an assessment teepee, each of us has to lean on the other 2 parts and if any one stake moves our teepee will crumble.

One thing that worked for a number of subjects was using a multiple choice system. Each student had their letters – A, B, C, D, E -which they used to answer questions when they were presented. Oh boy, they loved it. I was immediately able to see those who didn’t get it and address any misconceptions or misunderstandings. We also had a lot of fun with the picture and video assignments. What I will say here is that we will spend more time with the parents going through how to do and upload assignments. What should they expect from the students when they are completing their work? How much help they should offer and that kind of thing. Some of the children will be able to get the hang of this in a few months themselves but we cannot take for granted that the parents themselves know how to get the assignments done and how to get them to us.

5. Take Care of Myself

Screen fatigue is REAL. Exhaustion is REAL. Teacher burn out is REAL. And the numbers of people with failing health and marriages worldwide are increasing figures that I never want to be a part of. You may be wondering why I left this one for last. I actually think it’s what I need to go through last so that it STICKS! In this, my last week of preparation before school starts, I worked myself to the point of getting sick and it’s only when I was sick and looked back on my hellish week that I realised what I had done to my body. WHAT the WHAT? No no, Ma’am. That will not do! Let’s not talk about the trouble I got into with my husband.

So my first order of business is to make and write out – and post somewhere VISIBLE- my daily schedule – including exercise, lunch, beginning and ending times. I also have a couple days to finish up my work space. You see, I was really hoping to be back in school by now so I really was still working on temporary ideas of a work space. However now that this situation is in place for at least 3 more months, there needs to be some serious adjustment on my part. My husband is a priority. My health is a priority. My sanity is a priority. And I need to behave like they are and put things in place to back those words up.

So once the work schedule and work space are organised, next is the space for working out – including placing my clothes in an easily accessible place to cut down on my opportunities for excuses… I know myself!🤦‍♀️ The final most scary step, is then sharing all this with my husband so he can hold me accountable.

These are my steps. This is not by any means an exhaustive list. There are 579 other things to do as a teacher BUT, not prioritising only affects the quality of the product I’m able to offer my particular group of students and parents and I’m not willing to do that.

If I can offer my final thoughts to you: Please take it one day at a time. Do not look at anyone else’s steps and try to adopt them as your own. Their steps may not work for you. Look at your circumstances, look at your family, look at your students and their families and make the decisions that are best for you.

❤ Lots of luck and love to you.

TeeJay 🌺