All The Things

An awful lot of you are Livin La Vida Loca called “Simultaneous Teaching” or sometimes “Hybrid Teaching” An

On behalf of all humans everywhere, not a dang one of us who have personally cured Covid-19 by now, I apologize for putting you in this position -- where no teacher should be. 

I am seeing my veteran master teachers feel like first year teachers and I am seeing my first year teachers ... feel even less “together” than they would during a normal year. I am seeing you all work even longer hours than usual (I didn’t know that was possible. Get some sleep, y’all!)

This is so hard, you guys!  

Whoever said to just “do the same thing with both groups” has obviously not been in a simultaneous class, especially in a school where Face-to-Face kids aren’t allowed to bring technology into the classroom (or don’t have any to bring, which is killing me!)

I facilitated PD last night where I mostly asked questions and listened to our colleagues talk about their Simultaneous Teaching problems and victories. 

Here’s what I learned. I’m like Robin Hood today, stealing (with permission) the great ideas from our colleagues to give to those who need great ideas. I hope at least one will make your simultaneous teaching life easier. 

 Here are the Top Ten Things I have learned (from our colleagues!) to make Simultaneous Teaching easier on Teachers (and kids, too)

1. Plan for the Virtual Part First: I am hearing that it is easier/faster to adapt the digital activities to face to face (play the video whole-class, make the discussion verbal and not a chat, print the reading) rather than the other way around. This is especially true if you are using district-created resources and not making/finding all your own stuff.

2. Establish Bellwork/Beginning procedures: There are plenty of ways to start class, and starting class smoothly has always set the tone for the rest of the class. That hasn’t changed, but maybe the logistics have. Some teachers have the face-to-face kids (F2F) start on bellwork by looking at the board and writing in their notebooks while the teacher gets the Online kids started on their digital bellwork. Some teachers have all kids (F2F & Online) do their bellwork the same way -- all in a physical notebook or all in Canvas. But all teachers who feel like they “have this down” have the kids do some sort of bellwork while the teacher takes attendance. 

3. Build Relationships with Online Kids Differently (but intentionally): Remember, some of the online kids don’t see another human all day. And some of them have their whole families breathing down their necks. They have a lot of emotional needs and they really need to bond with you and with each other. (please don’t forget this! Please be intentional in building classroom culture with them!) Some great ideas to help with building relationships included:

1. Asking kids (at their choice and discretion and comfort level) to turn on their cameras for a few minutes at least once a week so you-the-teacher can get to know their faces.

2. Asking kids to turn on their mics for an extended culture-building bellwork once a week where everyone shares their answers out loud. Something like “Thankful Thursdays” or “Good news Mondays” would be great for this!  

3. Having each kid create a Bitmoji to use in your physical & digital classroom, even as their “signature” on a Class Agreement or classroom Social Contract. 

4. Have Online kids respond with emojis and F2F kids respond by drawing emojis on whiteboards (they can be cleaned at the end of each period).

5. Let Online kids be “seen” and known by having “bring your pet to Online Class day” or use that as an incentive for Online kids (like dress-down day for F2F kids)

4. Manage Canvas Confusion: Kids are confused in Canvas. To manage this, our colleagues suggested the following:

1. Put a due date (of that day, if possible) on everything so it shows up under today’s “to do” list and not under a future “to do” list. 

2. Hide everything kids don't need to see. Hide the apps on the left that they aren’t going to use.Hide future lessons and future tasks. Less clutter is less confusion!

3. Make tasks “prerequisites” to each other. Meaning that they can’t go on to Task B if they haven’t completed or looked at Task A. 

5. Doing Too Many Things At Once (and None Well): Use rotations to give some special, focused time to each group -- your Online kids and your Face to Face (F2F) kids. Depending on your numbers, this might just be two groups, say 15 minutes of direct instruction with your Online kids while your F2F kids do some independent work (maybe a reading task or map activity). Then, switch! Ask your Online kids to do the reading while you do some direct instruction with your F2F kids. 

*Bonus -- this can help with the bonding/relationship building that you’re doing with your kids (that’s harder with those Online kids AND can possibly decrease your stress level one notch [we can’t work miracles here] while you only work with only one group at a time). If your class numbers are uneven (maybe one of those two groups are larger than the other) you can split it into two and have a rotation of three groups (for example, two F2F groups and one Online group) or if you have One Giant Class, you can have four rotations. You can split those rotations over two days if necessary. 

6. Using Channels: Do you have an ESE teacher who needs to meet with ESE students for pull outs -- online? Use a Teams Channel! Do you want to have your online kids discuss things in small groups? Use a Teams Channel! Do you want kids to work in groups? Use a Teams Channel *One caveat! Kids can get up to mischief if they are unsupervised in a physical room OR a virtual room. Please make sure to be really good about popping into the Teams Channel(s) to make sure kids are being supervised and not up to mischief.

7. Nearpod:  Nearpod is great for lots of things -- including the checks for understanding and kids collaborating and giving feedback. This gives them a voice -- which THEY need right now because the world is crazy and YOU need because you’re reinventing your teaching. 

8. Thumbs Up: Have kids use “thumbs up” and “thumbs down” both in F2F and (when cameras are on) with Online kids. It’s an easy way to see if kids are okay, and if they’re with you, and if they’re understanding coursework. 

9. Online Kids Can Check Out and Come Back: If your audio won’t work or the simultaneous content won’t work ... ahem .. ..simultaneously, have the Online kids go watch the video on their own and come back to Live Class at such-and-such time. It’s not skipping class. It’s doing their classwork! 

10. Having Patience: In a normal year, by the third week of school, half the kids still don’t know where to turn in work. Or how to put a heading on their paper. They have seven (or eight) different teachers with seven (or eight) different expectations. Now amplify that with in-person and/or virtual expectations. OF COURSE they don’t remember how to do all of the new things! That is also changing as we all work through things. Add the stress of a pandemic and the learning curves of new technology (for us AND for the kids) and the economic stresses hitting a lot of our families and they’re all a hot mess. (so are many of us, to be honest) Not turning in work. Ghosting class. Not answering questions. Not turning on mics. Acting like fools.  Just having patience with ourselves and with our kids when we/they mess up can make all the difference. 

I know that this is ALL different and weird and crazy. Do you? Do your colleagues? Do your kids? Do their parents? 

This is your weekly reminder that this is a GLOBAL PANDEMIC (yes, I’m yelling) and NOBODY HAS EVER DONE THIS SIMULTANEOUS TEACHING BEFORE (because why the heck would they?). 

It’s ok that it isn’t great yet. Don’t forget to be patient with yourself and your kids. It takes small, incremental fixes to go from terrible to okay to good to great. Start small. 

And let us know how we can help. 

-Tracy

 

With Grace

Tales of the first week of school. Here are some things I saw and heard of from the first week of school 

• Hand sanitizer everywhere

• Kids (in-person) forgetting how to be around other kids

• Teachers adapting

• Kids who literally don’t see another live human being all day

• Kids not getting “let in” to a class all period. *Bonus craziness if it was during block schedule. 

• Some kids and teachers glad to be home and safe.

• Some teachers crying. 

• Some technology failing. 

• Great cleanliness processes 

• Younger kids melting down and having nightmares.

• Older kids being weirdly sweet and nice to their families. 

• Classrooms shut down due to Covid. 

• Schools not letting children bring school-issued computers to class (yes, really!)

• Plexiglass.

• Super-cute face masks.

• Teachers ghosting their jobs. 

• Canvas confusion

• A lot of Tech-Help tickets

• Creative teacher geniusness 

• Kids glad to see other kids 

• Everyone trying to figure out the “new normal” so we can get into routine. 

This “Home Learning Dome” below is a joke. It’s, sadly, not a real thing, otherwise, I would have put two on my credit card. But I wish it was real...

Y’all.Y’ALL!

I know we had to do a hard shift in the spring. And this is a whole ’nother giant adjustment. 

So this week, all I can ask you for is this. 

Grace. 

I ask that you give yourself and others around you grace. 

By grace, I mean goodwill, understanding, and kindness. 

This is not a normal year. So don’t treat it as one. Not at this point, anyway.

• Sure you normally start giving homework -- and grading it -- the second week of school. Show a little grace. Maybe wait another week. Or extend the due dates. 

• Sure, you normally have a certain set of expectations . It’s not “lowering expectations”. It’s giving a little grace when it takes the kids a little longer to learn those expectations. 

• I know you are a perfectionist and you expect yourself to have amazing lessons. But Canvas is new and it's hard to tell what’s going on behind the kids’ masks. And you have to sleep sometimes... Give YOURSELF a little grace. Let it go. Not every lesson can be an A+. It’s okay if this one is only a B. 

• Your administrator set up this wild schedule and it’s not what you wanted. It’s messy and hard to pull off. Show a little grace. They’re doing the best they can, too. 

• The parents are emailing you all the time, even sticking their faces into the screen to see what’s going on. Of course it makes you anxious. It’s so weird! They’re anxious, too. They’re worried if they made the right choice (about online or face to face learning). They’re worried about their kid. They’re trying to be involved (which they know they’re supposed to do). Give the parents a little grace.

• The kids at home have their cameras off.  It’s so hard to teach to a set of initials instead of to a face. But there are a million reasons why you can’t see those beautiful faces, starting with lack of cameras, moving to adolescent embarrassment about peers, and ending with home lives they don’t want others to see. Show grace and allow cameras to be off (although you might do a one-on-one conference with cameras on in the coming weeks and let the kid use a fun background, just so you can get to know their face).

• Your awesome lesson bombed because of technical difficulties. You worked so hard and the internet went down or the computer froze or Canvas acted up. You deserve grace too. S--- happens and you are still a wonderful teacher even when technology doesn’t cooperate. Take a breath. It’ll be okay. 

The only people you do not have to show grace to are the ones who use their anxiety to attack you in some way. If their anxiety turns into blame, bullying, unsafe behavior, or manipulation, then you do not have to show grace in that moment. You can walk away. But you can show grace. It feels good.  

But generally, we are all trying our best right now. Parents, students, staff, administrators, and teachers. We all want what’s best for our kids, with what we have to work with. 

Give yourself and others grace. Assume good intentions. Show understanding and give kindness. 

We will get through these first few weeks and we will figure out how to do this. It will get easier. And someday we will look back and tell people “I taught during the pandemic” and they will say “Holy crap! How did you do that?”

And you will say “We did it with grace” 

Have a better week than last week. 

Let me/us know how we can help. 

-Tracy

Pop Tart Habits

 

What were your bad habits during our long quarantine time? 

I had a late-night impulse buy of Pop Tarts once in April or May that I could not take back. Once Pop-Tarts entered our house, they became part of the family and we loved them and adopted them. 

I know they’re crap for nutrition. But tasty, tasty crap. Mmmmmm... 

So, two days into Weird Pandemic Teaching already? It’s definitely getting better, but still messy, I think, huh? 

Before you go any further into this school year, do yourself and your kids and families a favor. 

Ask them how it’s going. NOW. Before you get into any bad habits. Or before the kids get into bad habits. Or before things just... happen... in an unintentional way...

I know it’s harder than ever before to gauge how things are going. Some kids are at home. Some of THOSE kids have cameras on and some don’t. Some of your kids are in your classroom. Those kids have masks on, making it harder to read their faces than usual. 

Plus it doesn’t help that we are spending half our days troubleshooting our tech and not spending as much time really bonding with our students as usual. 

So, do yourself and your kids and families a favor. 

Ask them how it’s going. 

And then, read their answers and adapt your class if and in ways that you can. 

Now, quick -- before you pick up a ridiculous Pop-Tart habit (or worse, a weird new teaching/learning/management habit) that you don’t want to have to unlearn.  (Poptarts, I dread quitting you!)

I made you some survey questions you can ask. You can put them in Canvas or in Teams or on the board or in a Word Doc. Have kids answer in Forms or in Canvas or on a notecard. I know there’s so much variation with how you’re doing all this. 

But here’s one template you can use in Canvas. (you can also search in Canvas for “Newman” and “survey”). You can copy it into your course (it’s an assignment) and then you can see how this is going for your kids. 

I get it. It’s hard to see how kids are through a computer, with some cameras on and some off while you’re teaching live with masks on to make face-reading harder, too. It’s a lot. So, instead of guessing or waiting for eight million questions -- ask the kids right up front. It might help! 

Don’t wait for bad habits to form. Nip those bad habits in the bud and find out what’s happening now.  Before your whole family (I mean class) is addicted to pop tarts) Full survey link  https://lor.instructure.com/resources/59d61d3e45944bef8fa12296313f3cd1?shared  

And as always, let me know how it’s going. I want to hear. The good, the bad, and the crazy. Let me know! 

-Tracy

Welcome Back and Adjust Expectations

 

 Welcome Back, my friends and colleagues, 

I HAVE MISSED YOU ALL SO, SO MUCH!!!!

I am so glad that you are back, whether you are back to traditional classrooms, virtual classrooms, some of each, or blended classes. 

Welcome to what is going to be the weirdest year on record! It “otter” be a wild year!

This is my 20th year in teaching. I was in teaching during 9/11, Hurricane Irma, the year of the 5 hurricanes, the year our school got a new building, the year of the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas shootings, the year we didn’t know the results of the presidential election for weeks, and even the year Swine Flu (or was it SARS?) taught my middle schoolers to fling hand sanitizer on each other and snap the elastic of masks at each other.

Nothing could have prepared us for this. 

Whether you are at peace with the school year now, whether you are not that worried, or whether you are crying into your adult beverage nightly, here we are. 

The world has changed so much since you left your classroom. 

There are 4 major events that have occurred. They may not all have been major to you. But be aware that it’s pretty likely that at least one has been major to the kids in your class and the colleagues in your building -- and different events have hit differently to different people. 

1. Coronavirus -- of course, the ‘Rona is the most obvious event. The global pandemic is a big deal. 17,000 Pinellas County residents have tested positive. 500 have died. Hundreds have been hospitalized. This has been big and scary and traumatic for us and for the kids. You and they likely know someone who has had the virus, maybe someone who has been really sick or someone who has died. 

2. Economy -- As of this week, in Pinellas County, nearly 150,000 (16% of the population) is identified as “food insecure”, meaning they don’t know where their next meal is coming from. Families that have never needed food banks or financial help before may need it now. Maybe that’s your family or your neighbors. It’s definitely some of our students. Small businesses & folks in hospitality have been hit especially hard. This happened fast and it hit families hard. 

3. Loneliness -- A lot of us or our kids have quarantined and limited our interactions a lot. We have not gone to Disney or to bars (us) or to camps (them) or travelled or to many other places. We have been lonely. This has affected people differently, but know that people (kids and adults) are fragile. Things we could have handled with ease last year will be tough this year. Some kids literally haven’t seen another kid in 6 months.Others have been to day camps or have spent plenty of time with friends. There’s so much variety, but virtual interactions are not the same as in-person and it shows. 

4. Racial Reckoning -- With the violent death of George Floyd seen by all of us, America’s anti racism movement went mainstream. Kids who, before, felt that nobody heard their cries of racism -- suddenly felt that a lot of somebodies heard, and felt empowered. Americans of all races, ages, and socioeconomic groups took (and are still taking) to the streets in mostly peaceful protests.... And then there are students coming from households that are pushing against this movement, households where racism is still acceptable (or where it is an invisible topic and thus racism is still acceptable that way)

Whew, friends! That’s a lot to work through. 

Things are going to be different. 

So, so different. 

Today, I’d like you to let them. 

Let them be different. Adjust your expectations.

The only way to a) be safe and b) keep your sanity is to NOT expect things to look like normal. We’re going to have to adjust our expectations. 

• Your classroom can’t look like it usually does

• Your teaching style can’t look like it usually does

• Your supply requests can’t look like it usually does

• The kids are deeply affected by some (all?) of the above Big 4 events. They won’t act like they usually do. 

• You can’t see each others’ faces like you usually do. 

• You can’t do the same classroom culture building you usually do. 

• You can’t pass out supplies and handouts like you usually do.

• Kids can’t even walk down the halls like they usually do.

EVERYTHING. WILL. BE. DIFFERENT. 

(or at least everything is “on the table” for being different). 

Our wedding anniversary was last week. LAST YEAR for our wedding anniversary, my husband and I went to the Bahamas. So, uhhh... we had to have different expectations this year. The pandemic changes everything. Instead, our kids (both in elementary school) threw us an “anniversary party” (for just the 4 of us) with some decorations we picked up from the order-and-drive-up at Target, some art they made, and some Thai food take-out. They even used streamers across the dining room and made us have a ribbon cutting ceremony. 

I will never forget this anniversary. It cost next-to-nothing, had no travel, no date night, and not even a babysitter to get away from the kids. But it was meaningful and lovely and sweet.

In a pandemic, we have to adjust our expectations. And out of new expectations can come different beautiful things. 

We humans can adapt to anything. You, my colleagues, showed us this in the spring, showed us all how amazingly adaptable you are. I was constantly amazed and awed by you all. 

So here are my two pieces of advice for you as we start this school year. Maybe they’re my wishes for you, like little blessings. 

1. I wish for you to be adaptable and flexible. Put away your expectations of certain types of

2. collaboration and specific notebooks you like and favorite classroom procedures that won’t work in the new normal. Try something new. And if that doesn’t work, try something else. And if that doesn't work, try something else. Don’t stick to your Old Ways because they’re habits. It’s time to form some new habits. Adjust your expectations. 

3. Take extra-good care of yourself. The best parenting advice I ever got holds just as true for the classroom. As every airline safety video says, put your own oxygen mask on before that of your children. You have to be so, so aware of your own mental health this year, now, more than ever. Be aware of your signs of stress and signs of being overwhelmed. And step back and care for yourself. You can’t care for your kids if you aren’t caring for yourself.

I know you all. You will teach through a freaking pandemic and be rockstars. You will find safe ways of making meaningful connections with kids through masks and through computers and through plexiglass and through all the chaos to come. 

But we have to adjust our expectations before we can create new ways of doing things. 

I wish you flexibility and self-care. Those tools will serve you well in this wild year. Don’t forget we are all in this together. 

I hope to see you all (virtually) at DWT or elsewhere soon! Stay safe! 

-Tracy