A New Adventure: Distance Learning

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Today was our first day back after Spring Break. It was supposed to be our first day back with students, but a few days before break, it was adjusted to be a Teacher Inservice Day, with students to come back tomorrow.

Things have been changing constantly and as it turns out: today is now our last day. And who knows when students will come back.

Props to my school for pulling everything together so quickly. They got us set up with several Zoom appointments today, each one focusing on a different topic to help us get ready to deliver distance learning to our students.

  • 8:00 am - Welcome Back

  • 9:00 am - Distance Learning: Introduction to Delivering Instruction Online

  • 10:00 am - Small Group Asynchronous Virtual Sessions

    • Advanced Google Classroom: Tips and Tricks

    • Getting Started Creating Instructional Videos: Tips, Best Practices, Tools (Quicktime, Zoom)

    • How to Screen Record on a Laptop and Share in Google Classroom

    • How to Video Conference in Zoom

    • Engagement tool: EdPuzzle

    • Engagement Tool: Flipgrid

    • Engagement Tool: Book Creator

    • How to Create a Google Site

  • 11:00 am - Google Classroom

All that before noon.

The first session was great. As my fellow teachers trickled into our Zoom room it was the typical, “How was your break? Did you go anywhere?” Only this time most responses were, “We were supposed to go ________, but it was canceled.” #COVID-19

We got started and things were rolling as expected. A few Ts had trouble logging in and getting their cams to work. Audio issues. Not being able to find the chat. Toggling between Zoom and their web browser. To be fair, it was the first time 93% of us had Zoomed.

Before today I had not put much thought or worry into moving toward distance learning. I was confident that being a digital native was going to carry me through and if that wasn’t enough, I was a millennial. How hard could it be?

As the morning progressed through our subsequent sessions, though, my anxiety started to rise. I was slowly realizing that my habit of figuring things out on the fly and trial and error was not going to be good enough for my students who have been out of school for a week. For my students who have had their athletic seasons put on hold and field trips canceled. Whose concerts and performances shifted to live streams. Who don’t even know if or when they can come back to school students.

Their first experience back with me should be intentional and I should be prepared. And if that interaction is going to take place through Zoom, then I need to figure out what all the buttons do on my end. And theirs.

I can’t give them all the answers about when campus is going to reopen. Or if their parents will be able to come to their spring band concert. Or if we are able to reschedule our field trip.

But I will be able to tell them what the buttons on the Zoom window will do.