What’s your internet situation? Like at home? Do you have a device you feel like you can connect
This is important even for my students who have technically chosen online learning. We have families who operate entirely off of hotspots instead of wifi or other stable internet connection. I did that for two weeks trying to teach with a hotspot, and it was exhausting. I can't imagine these students trying to work full days every day to complete school work without reliable internet.
And I really try to get that, like, you know, you know, how do you know, how do you see yourself as a learner? What kind of things should I know about you in order to help you be successful? And then mid-term, I usually have some kind of midterm evaluation, and kind of like, how’s it going, you know, what, what’s been working well for you? What’s maybe even a challenge
I do check-ins throughout the course. I like these question ideas as things to consider.
patient with ourselves and showing ourselves some grace
I practice this with students frequently; it's important to remember to practice it with myself also.
You know, here are some of the products that you might produce that would be ways to meet these and you know, if you have some ideas, of some other ways that you’d like to do it. You know, I’m all ears. And then that allows for some, some flexibility and maybe in focusing on areas of their interest. And over the years, I think I’ve seen some really great student works where maybe I opened the door for some of their choice
This is a good guidelines that has both structure and flexibility.
quizzes
There are lots of quizzes in our curriculum. I'm curious if I could offer some other choices to engage students that struggle with engagement in that form.
connect to some of the UDL principles that you’ve taught me about that. I think, you know, injecting choice into it
This is a good point - they could have choice from the beginning with how they view the syllabus. It doesn't have to wait until we get into the actual content.
syllabus
I like the idea of a syllabus, which I didn't really have this year, and there are so many great ideas - videos, infographics, interactive webpages.
So, you know, turning towards minimalism, you know, try to make sure that you’re focusing on what is essential about the course
Our administration has been encouraging this. I know I need more work on it.
I wanted so much to demonstrate that an online class would still have all the rigor and all of the, you know, everything that it had in a face to face delivery, that I really felt like the first semester I taught it, I pack way too much stuff in there
I struggle a bit with rigor because it seems like we can cover so much less in the online classroom than I could before. I try to remind myself that it's not about coverage, it's about depth and student mastery of skills.
also thinking about who am I as a, as a instructor? You know, am I really, well, what things do I like? So this is really important to me, or this is sacred to me, but also, am I good at this? Is this gonna really tax me on this end, so maybe I should be working hard to, you know, do make all these lecture materials here. So I’m not having to fiddle with them when when I’m working on over here, but just sort of knowing our own rhythms, like maybe I shouldn’t be teaching this at seven o’clock at night, because I can’t be on zoom, because I’m dead tired, right? You know, knowing ourselves. I didn’t even think about that. For the thinking about that in online, seems to be an important part too of this design process
I can see how these are important questions also.
And I think it’s okay to kind of feel that it’s a work in progress, and I’m continuing to try to make improvements and, I guess that’s the way that it should be at the minute
I've been working on becoming better at this. It seems true of teaching in general, not just online.
That a lot of that seems to have been, I was able to do in a more time efficient manner. Now that it’s fully online that’s grown from 20% to like 60% is those things, and it’s all it’s all great. It’s just the first time I’m experiencing that, I guess is what I’m saying that facilitation is so key in this whole thing
It's really exciting to have so much time to invest in relationships, even though it does look so much different.
And then as I’m teaching it the first time, I’m realizing I don’t quite have the fully built course I thought I fully had
This also resonates with my experience this year.
if you’re able to do a lot of that ahead of time, it does put you in a position where then you’re doing a lot of support a lot of facilitation, you’re connecting with students
I am excited to know now that I am online teaching next year for this reason. I can begin planning now rather than just staying afloat while planning just ahead of the class progress.
And a lot of face to face class is preparation for those kind of delivery. And, boy, you got to have all your delivery done ahead of time, because I’m finding that most of the time is in the facilitation of learning and the relationships
I'm curious about how a flipped classroom might look. That's kind of how this course is feeling so far - lectures, reading, and materials, followed by the meetings each week to discuss and answer questions. I like that it puts important emphasis on students actually doing the work and not just relying on me to tell them the content.
I think being flexible and be very student centered should be one of the areas we’re putting energy into.
Meaning that new tech tools, learning them, and the sheer number of them, should NOT be what I put my energy into - at least not the majority of my energy or in place of staying flexible and student-centered.
what is sacred about our teaching?
Another good question - I teach because students are my mission field. It's about so much more than just the skills in my class for one day; it's about their eternal souls. I have to care, know, and love students. How do I show them that online and show them well?
everything was super shiny. And then I would go through tool after tool like, this is so neat, I want to find out more about it, I go gung ho, and then realize, I have lost sight of my goals of what I wanted my students to do
This resonates very strongly with my experience online teaching this year.
why are you using it? What is it that you want to solve? Or, you know, what skills do you want your students to have? And what knowledge are they going to get
Tomorrow we will go over end of year student scores and high/low skill areas. I need to keep their skill needs FIRST and let tech tools support those needs.
solve a problem
This is an interesting approach. I've never thought of it that way.
the teaching and learning should be front and center
This is so hard sometimes when the large number of tech tools are continually presented. It is easy to get lost in the weeds.
Or how is this going to improve the course experience for my students or help them reach the outcome
Is the tech enriching or enhancing the learning experience, or is it just facilitating a computerized version of a lecture or worksheet?
TV show
I often fall asleep during TV shows!
And I’m exhausted by the end of that.
This is so true. Lecturing and trying to keep students interested during that is exhausting.
what makes you a different kind of learner
Interesting question - how would students answer if I asked them?
Whenever I have had questions, even questions, I was afraid to ask for fear of being thought, well, stupid. But Emory has made me feel like my questions were valid, and has helped me to improve my thinking every time
How can I make this the reality for students in my class? I want them to feel that any questions they have are valid and that they can improve their thinking by pursuing answers.