Digital Student Teaching Week #5

Interactive Lessons and Feedback

Vlog Week #5: https://youtu.be/Kkr6ORnjOT0

As we reflected upon the week, we found that two themes emerged: Interactive Lessons and Feedback.  This week we focused-on finding the best ways to create interactive lessons during remote learning. In our Vlog, we shared about how we used Nearpod.  We created self-paced Nearpod lessons.  We embedded different voice recordings to provide students with the recorded instructions.  Also, we were able to use interactive tools like DrawIt, Polls, Open Ended Responses, etc. It is easy to embed FlipGrids and YouTube videos within Nearpod. Since students do not have materials at home it can be difficult for students to take part in science experiments that require resources. So Miss McDaniel created YouTube Videos with the different experiments. Then she gave students the option to share their experiments at home via FlipGrid. This past week we used Learning A-Z, specifically Reading A-Z or RAZ, to provide students with leveled texts. The students were able to record their own reading. I love listening to my students reading. Then I can record my own feedback. I even pressed our Staple's "That was easy" button that we use in our classroom to celebrate excellent reading. Kahoot is a great tool to use with students too. The students answered questions in a trivia format at the end of our science unit.  This is a fun way to gather information about what students' know. I created a grid to provide students with feedback during remote learning. If students completed an assignment then I provided students with a digital sticker. If students missed an assignment then I provided students with feedback in the box about what they missed. Here is a copy of the grid if you would like to use it with your students: https://bit.ly/remotelearninggrid 

Please reach out to use if you have any questions or ideas for us for our upcoming Vlog about Digital Student Teaching. 

Digital Student Teaching Week #4

Strengthening Communication 

Vlog: https://youtu.be/UI-7TNkrFgk

During Remote Learning Week #4, my student teacher Miss McDaniel @miss_tmcdaniel and I explored different ways to strengthen our communication.  As teachers we need to differentiate our communication based-on the different family circumstances.  Some parents are working in the medical field or different emergency capacities. We need to find a way to help these families so students can be more independent online as parents work long hours. We provide a one-stop schedule with the different embedded hyperlinks in a Google Template every week. We organize our schedule in the Schoology Calendar.  At the beginning of every week, we provide a recording with an overview of the different assignments. Also,  we provide two options for directions. We provide a visual description, and we provide a recording that we create using Screencastify. I love using the grading features that Schoology has in place on the ipad. I am able to write on the students documents to provide direct feedback. We do not want to ask students to complete assignments without providing feedback.  We are continuing to recognize the work of our students. We give shout-outs through the week on Schoology, and we recognize students during our weekly Google Meets. If you have additional ideas about how we can further strengthen communication then please reach out to us. If you have questions about different tools that we are using then please connect with us too. We are stronger to together. Our purpose for sharing our vlog is share our story in case it helps others. 

Bring a Spark of Creativity and Fun to Remote Learning

Check-out Our Vlog: https://youtu.be/uuSsPgczGbg 

My student teacher and I shared our digital student teaching vlog #3. This is a vlog that will help all teachers who are looking for ways to bring a spark of creativity and fun to remote learning. We know that these are tough times so we wanted to share some of the things that we found that engage our students. Specifically, we focused-on how to use digital breakouts, VR writing prompts, and Flip-hunts. Please reach out to us if we can support in any ways. We are all in this together. 

Digital Student Teaching Week #2

Customizing and Adapting

Click here to watch our Vlog Post #2: https://youtu.be/TtC9_Fm39hg

We have completed one week of remote learning. My student teacher and I shared in our Vlog Post about the lessons that we learned.  We found that everything we learned fits under the umbrella of customizing and adapting our instruction. 

This week we spent a lot of time working with different families to help them get logged-in to everything at home. We decided to keep things simple.  We did not introduce new tech tools this week. Rather, we used the tech tools that the students were already familiar with using in the classroom. Also, we staggered different activities each day.  We created video tutorials to walk families through different issues. Overall, we thought things went smoothly. 

We remained flexible, and we made it our purpose to connect and listen to the feedback from students and families.  We tried a shared Google Sheet to have the students describe their feelings, but it worked differently remotely. In the classroom, the students go the slide that matches their student number. However, remotely it didn't work out yet.  So we transitioned over to a Google Survey. It was awesome! 

The highlight of the week came from our collaborative planning time. If we saw individual feedback that we needed to address then we could reach out to those families individually.  Next we analyzed the overall feedback of the class to gauge how everyone was feeling.  When we used the feedback to customize our instruction then it felt like a sigh of relief. It seemed like everyone felt more comfortable and connected. 

We spent a lot of time making daily videos, but when we tracked the analytics then we realized that the majority of the class was not using these materials.  We took a poll in Schoology, and we realized the families were looking for live interactions. We connected with our students using a Google Meet, and it was a success. 

Also, we have been interacting and watching the different FlipGrid posts of the students. We noticed that the kids in this class loved making blanket forts. We decided to create our own class blanket fort competition. The kids will design a blanket fort, and they will share it with the class using FlipGrid.  At the beginning of the week, I didn't imagine us having a blanket fort competition, but it is important to tap into the interest of the students. 

This week we focused on adapting and customizing online instruction based-on the feedback of the students and families.