Virtual Learning & Teaching
Below you will find a few clips from my work with virtual learning. There are three types of videos--family facing, student facing, and teacher facing..
Family Facing: When the COVID lockdown began there were many students, families, and teachers who were under prepared for virtual learning. Immediately, I knew that families would need crash courses in Google Classroom if they were going to ensure their child's success in virtual class. So I began hosting free Google Classroom 101 classes for families. I shared Meet links with my school and on social media so anyone could join. They were very successful and families who attended felt more secure about their children's online learning. Because it worked so well for the families in my school, Martin Luther School (Gemma Services) contracted me to do the same for their families. In the Spring and Summer of 2020, I hosted over 50 sessions with families to ensure they were prepared as we went into a year and a half of virtual learning.
Student Facing : In order to help my students, I began making videos addressing specific questions they had. Students would ask me specific questions in virtual class about using Google or I would post a poll on my teacher Instagram account asking for what skills they needed me to go over.
Teacher Facing: Many of my coworkers barley used Google Classroom before the lockdown started and so they were thrown right into the deep end when the school district told us we would be teaching virtually. I would get an email asked about a Google tool and make a quick video to help the teacher. This was much easier for me to make and for the teacher to watch than reading a long email explaining everything. For them, I created these videos that are short and specific--bite size PD for teachers who were feeling super overwhelmed with teaching from home.
Family Facing: When the COVID lockdown began there were many students, families, and teachers who were under prepared for virtual learning. Immediately, I knew that families would need crash courses in Google Classroom if they were going to ensure their child's success in virtual class. So I began hosting free Google Classroom 101 classes for families. I shared Meet links with my school and on social media so anyone could join. They were very successful and families who attended felt more secure about their children's online learning. Because it worked so well for the families in my school, Martin Luther School (Gemma Services) contracted me to do the same for their families. In the Spring and Summer of 2020, I hosted over 50 sessions with families to ensure they were prepared as we went into a year and a half of virtual learning.
Student Facing : In order to help my students, I began making videos addressing specific questions they had. Students would ask me specific questions in virtual class about using Google or I would post a poll on my teacher Instagram account asking for what skills they needed me to go over.
Teacher Facing: Many of my coworkers barley used Google Classroom before the lockdown started and so they were thrown right into the deep end when the school district told us we would be teaching virtually. I would get an email asked about a Google tool and make a quick video to help the teacher. This was much easier for me to make and for the teacher to watch than reading a long email explaining everything. For them, I created these videos that are short and specific--bite size PD for teachers who were feeling super overwhelmed with teaching from home.
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Modeling Contextualization
I believe it is vital to center primary sources in a history classroom. I want students to do the work of historians--analyzing and interpreting primary sources to develop their own view on the events of history. One important skill in this process is contextualization where students learn to add comments and make connections to other historical events. In this video, I model how I would contextualize a primary source about the Trail of Tears.
Student Freeze- Gilded Age
Freezes are a fun way to have student interaction and student focus learning without having to do a typical skit. In a freeze, a group of students acts out the vocab word but are frozen in place (as if someone hit pause on a movie) and a narrator describes the situation and why it’s a good example of the vocab word. Students can do a direct representation of the word or an analogy to the word. I gave out vocab words (horizontal trusts, vertical trusts, monopolies, Sherman Antitrust Act, labor unions, and laissez faire economic) and students were put in groups and asked to use the textbook and their phones to come up with a 3-5 sentences ID for their assigned vocab word and a freeze. Day 1 was a mini-teach, and preparation for the freeze and Day 2 the groups presented.
This was a relatively unscaffolded lesson, and I think in the future I will scaffold it more to make sure every group produces the same type of work. This video is only shows a few of the groups so I will quickly fill in the details about the other groups. There was a range of depth from the narrators. One group gave great background, definition, and application. Another group portrayed laissez faire economics as a classroom where the teacher is reading the newspaper and letting kids do whatever they want. While these groups were outstanding, they were not the norm-- the norm was a half fleshed out answer that required me to ask probing questions to make sure everyone understood the full meaning. When I probed students, they knew the answers and so I think a little more scaffolding to make sure all groups hit all the important points (in this case: background, definition, application).
This lesson showed me the level of community this class has built. Once each group was finished and I began asking questions, students were quick to call out answers but they were also extremely respectful of each other and worked out who would speak when by themselves-- I was very impressed.
Not only have students built a great classroom culture, but their conversations have become more substantive. In Teaching to Change the World, (2013) Oakes, Lipton, Anderson, and Stillman describe a study done by Fred Newman that says discussion in the classroom is one of the most powerful tools in a teacher’s arsenal. Oakes, Lipton, Anderson, and Stillman write, “By that, they [Newmann and colleagues] meant times when “students engage in extended conversational exchanges with the teacher and/or their peers about subject matter in a way that builds an improved or shared understanding of ideas or topics.” (179) This group of students has risen to this challenge and are continuing to grow in their ability to discuss and debate. They are hungry for discussion and so I am going to continue to up the amount of discuss we have in this class.
With a few well placed tweaks, I think this lesson can be used again and not only for this unit but for others as well.
Bibliography:
Oakes, Jeannie, Martin Lipton, Lauren Anderson, and Jamy Stillman. Teaching to Change the World. 4th ed.
Boulder, CO: Paradigm Pubishers, 2013.
This was a relatively unscaffolded lesson, and I think in the future I will scaffold it more to make sure every group produces the same type of work. This video is only shows a few of the groups so I will quickly fill in the details about the other groups. There was a range of depth from the narrators. One group gave great background, definition, and application. Another group portrayed laissez faire economics as a classroom where the teacher is reading the newspaper and letting kids do whatever they want. While these groups were outstanding, they were not the norm-- the norm was a half fleshed out answer that required me to ask probing questions to make sure everyone understood the full meaning. When I probed students, they knew the answers and so I think a little more scaffolding to make sure all groups hit all the important points (in this case: background, definition, application).
This lesson showed me the level of community this class has built. Once each group was finished and I began asking questions, students were quick to call out answers but they were also extremely respectful of each other and worked out who would speak when by themselves-- I was very impressed.
Not only have students built a great classroom culture, but their conversations have become more substantive. In Teaching to Change the World, (2013) Oakes, Lipton, Anderson, and Stillman describe a study done by Fred Newman that says discussion in the classroom is one of the most powerful tools in a teacher’s arsenal. Oakes, Lipton, Anderson, and Stillman write, “By that, they [Newmann and colleagues] meant times when “students engage in extended conversational exchanges with the teacher and/or their peers about subject matter in a way that builds an improved or shared understanding of ideas or topics.” (179) This group of students has risen to this challenge and are continuing to grow in their ability to discuss and debate. They are hungry for discussion and so I am going to continue to up the amount of discuss we have in this class.
With a few well placed tweaks, I think this lesson can be used again and not only for this unit but for others as well.
Bibliography:
Oakes, Jeannie, Martin Lipton, Lauren Anderson, and Jamy Stillman. Teaching to Change the World. 4th ed.
Boulder, CO: Paradigm Pubishers, 2013.