I may be a glutton for punishment, but when a team of great teachers on my staff invited me to teach a Kickstart program designed to familiarize grade 8 students who were going to begin grade 9 at my school, I was excited at the prospect. I also don’t have my own class during the school year; sure I get to co-plan and co-teach classes and I do teach the Extended Essay workshops, but to have my very own class??? Eeek!
That excitement soon turned to dread. It dawned on my that I was successful teaching students when remote learning began, because we had begun the school year knowing each other. We had several months of relationship building. I would not know a single student. My students know I am kind of strange but they let it go because they know I am caring and kind. How could I demonstrate all that without being with them in person?
Bitmoji ‘s rule in remote learning
I know they’ve been around a long time, but Bitmojis really are awesome. One of the first activities I did with my students was to teach them how to create an email signature, and then, asked them after the first day to send me an email sharing what they found interesting, confusing, and how I could help support them. I responded individually to each email and used a fun Bitmoji every time (using the Bitmoji extension). I would often walk around the Library giving out gold stickers. Kids always beamed. My friendly Good Job or Yes! Bitmojis seemed to have a similar effect and their responses told me they appreciated it. I use them in my hyperdocs, I use them to gauge a response, and I use them for feedback. (Trick: my friend Jennifer Hall offered this awesome session on personalizing your Bitmoji in Google Draw because sometimes her expression isn’t exactly school-appropriate).
Students hate being on video
I was so excited to offer a Flipgrid response as their first assessment. It was very open-ended. I was teaching them how to “read” our website and all they had to do was share an interesting finding and reply to one other person. I jumped in, eager to get to know them better by their video responses, and I was shocked that most of them hacked the by recording a black screen, their voice and text. They admitted they don’t like being on video. This is true for our Google Meets as well. I tried really hard not to say, “It is really hard to establish a connection if I can’t see you!!” If we are teaching remotely in September, I will not ask my students to be on video right away. Being on video takes a level of comfort that we need to work toward. On a related note, they also need explicit practice replying to one another:
Agree with
-I agree with the point you made ….
-In my experience you are right about…
-I really liked it when you said…because…
Build on
-I would like to build on when you said….with an example…
-I liked it when you said, and I think that also….
Respectfully disagree
-I can see why you would say….but I look at it differently. I think…
-I respectfully disagree with the point you made. In my opinion…
-I agree with when you said…but what I don’t agree with is…
Songs provide a wonderful way to establish a connection with students.
My friend Noa Daniel had me on her P3 Podcast which is celebrating its third anniversary! (She also shared a TedTalk about the power of using the personal playlist formula with students). Basically, you share an identity song, a nostalgic song, and a pick-me up song and reflect on why you made these selections. I have wanted to try this with a class for a long time and so with our theme for the week being Identity, students were asked to share a song they felt represented their identity. I shared with them the song I shared on Noa’s podcast to model the activity. I invited students to edit a Google Slide presentation by embedding the video (a new skill for some students), pulling out two verses that connected with them and then invited them to share their song choices. Their nervousness was definitely evident, but it was so good and I finally felt a connection.
Click here to read about some of my other synchronous vs asynchronous observations from my online teaching experiences.
It has only been a week and a half, and I am sure I will have many more flops and hopefully more successes as well. Will keep you posted.
Also, many students have shared that they are enjoying our Friday Boggle games–a great way to pass the time while we are waiting for all the students to arrive–and great for vocabulary building as well.
Have a great week!
