UNLEASH

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Tag: coronavirus

  • Lockdown Learning – List of Resources

    Last week I posted that I would make a list of resources, apps, software, and programs that would assist you in providing remote learning.

    I regret mentioning it. Because I have decided that this is counter-productive for two reasons.

    Firstly, others have already started doing the same thing. Most notably, the Ministry of Education.

    Secondly, due to reflecting on this over the last week or so, I’ve determined that actually, the saturation of these apps and free trials of products is overwhelming and unproductive for many teachers, and actually, Teachers will be better to stick with what we know. It will not only help us to keep our remote learning plans programme manageable (and therefore sustainable) for us, but also will be familiar and accessible to our students who are learning from home and don’t really need to be learning how to use software at the same time. If we know they can already use it because we used it when we were at school together, then we’re more confident that they’ll be able to complete the tasks we’re asking of them.

    So, in short, this is us saying we’re not going to be adding a list of notable software, products that have been made free, or recommended apps for different tasks.

    Use what you’re familiar with. Use what you know works for you and what works for your students.

    If you’d like a list of software, apps, and ideas that can be used to assist you in delivering your remote learning plans, please visit these two sites:

    Learning from Home – learningfromhome.govt.nz

    Teach from Home – teachfromhome.google

  • COVID-19 Lockdown

    Hi all,

    As I’m sure you can appreciate, I’ve been flat out busy focusing on my class and getting remote learning up and running. I’ve been trialing different things and trying to set up a system for learning that works for the students, and works for me as their teacher.

    Because of this, I’ve been somewhat negligent of updating and posting to Unleash Education. I apologise.

    Over the next few weeks I am planning on collating a wide range of resources that might help teachers with remote learning while the country is in lock down.

    Do remember, that we all have different skill levels, especially when it comes to technology and ICT. The expectation is for teachers to do all that is practicable to continue teaching remotely. For some, that might be engaging with all the bells and whistles, video conferencing with students, recording online lessons and opening interactive whiteboards and creating presentations. For others, practicable might just be sending out a weekly plan of some activities students could do at home this week.

    The important thing to remember is to look after yourself.

    Don’t fret if you’re not up with the play and doing all these awesome things technology allows us to do in this day and age. Do what works for you, personally. Don’t compare yourself to others or put yourself down because you feel like you’re doing less than what your colleagues are doing. And if you’re feeling like you’re doing too much and possibly creating unreasonable expectations of yourself, then feel free to scale it back. The chances are if you’re feeling overwhelmed by doing everything, then your students will be feeling the pressure to do everything too, which might be overwhelming for them in this uncertain time.

    So, over the next two weeks during the ‘school holidays’, take some time out for yourself. Get yourself into a routine at home. Figure out how this lock down works for you and your family. Focus on getting that right. Then towards the end of these holidays, just before Easter, begin to work out what remote learning is going to look like for you and your class. Check back here at Unleash Education for ideas or resources. Check out a few of the other key sites about online learning, especially those put out by the Ministry of Education here in New Zealand, such as Learning from Home.

    Stay safe. Stay home. And look after yourself.

  • Remote Learning – What I’m doing as a Teacher

    So the time has come where COVID-19 has forced us into the inevidable lockdown, and everyone is now required to work from home. As a teacher, the expectation is that we continue to provide an education for students, largely with online based materials for those who have access from home.

    I may be exceeding expectations here, but none of us have done this before, and I’m going to do what I can do to be the best teacher for my students, especially now in such an uncertain time.

    Advance Organiser

    Tomorrow morning my advance organiser will be sent out via Google Classroom to my students. This is just a Google Doc with an outline for the day, similar to what I run through with them at the start of a ‘normal’ school day.

    The outline for the day will keep much of the same routine that they would have at school. Many of the activities we do in class they can do at home. This will hopefully provide some kind of normality to the uncertainty that is happening right now.

    I’ve set a lot of these documents up as templates, so that I can copy and paste them each day, with minor adjustments. This makes it easier for myself as the teacher to replicate each day and not get bogged down by continually having to create things. I can just copy and paste over what is relevant each day.

    Bookmark Bar

    To those ends, I’ve temporarily created a folder in my Bookmarks Bar to keep every online service and teacher dashboard, document template and Google Classroom resource that I’ll be using in one place.

    Google Classroom

    Today I spent the morning getting the students to sign up to Google Classroom. Usually this is something I’d already done by now, but for some reason this task had gotten lost in the beginnings of the year activities.

    However, for tomorrow I have added in scheduled posts to be released at the relevant points in the day. This keeps kids from rushing ahead into the tasks, and spreads the work out throughout the day. This will also help keep the routine. All I had to do to create the scheduled posts is work through the Advance Organiser document I’d created for the day and posted an Assignment or Material with documents or links and scheduled them for specific times.

    In Conclusion

    At the end of the day – this might be over the top… but I’ve made it to be as sustainable for myself most of all, so that I can maintain this throughout the foreseeable future. I’m not sure how many (if any) of my students will log in and join in with the programme. But even if just one student logs in and wants to follow the learning activities at home, then as far as I’m concerned, it’s worth it.

    Stay safe out there everyone.