What's happening in 6th grade?
New NormalJust stopping in to give a quick update, or not. We will see where this goes! The world is - quite frankly - in a place we have never seen before. I'm riding out this craziness with my family in rural Lancaster, PA away from the craziness of city-living during a pandemic. I've been here for more than two weeks. While it has its ups and downs, there is no place I'd rather be. My apartment will be there when I get back to the city. Things are a bit surreal right now as an urban educator. I miss my kids. I get extremely excited when I get the occasional comment on Google Classroom or response on Flipgrid. Via social media, It has been tough to watch the dichotomy of the haves and have-nots. There have been concerns about equity and access to technology since the beginning of this situation, but we are now seeing the (bad) fruits of a societal issue. Our last "regular" school day was March 13, and there has been no new structured learning since. At first, the state mandated no instruction could occur unless all concerns related to equity in regard to access and special education could be met. (See here.) Recently, the state Secretary of Education has clarified this stance in order to continue remote education across the state. (See here.) It's a confusing time. Things are happening we would have never predicted, but there are issues which must be addressed once we get past this pandemic. So, what inspired this blog?I was listening to another great episode of Podcast PD in which teachers and other educators were sharing their experiences in teaching during this pandemic. Kasey Bell made a "cameo" appearance during the episode, and shared some of her thoughts about the situation. SO MUCH RESOUNDED WITH ME! It also re-grounded my thoughts and feelings related to this whole situation. (Full disclosure: These are not all original thoughts and thanks to Kasey for inspiring me to do better!) "This is not our time to shine."Or something to that effect. I'm going to be honest. Part of my frustration over the past weeks has been a result of selfishness. As someone who loves bringing new ideas into my own classroom and school building, especially in regard to technology, I felt my gifts and passions were being wasted. I felt left out. I was listening (on Voxer) and reading (on Twitter) the many "amazing" things teachers are doing around the world to stay connected with their students. I was feeling left out. Woah! Slow down, cowboy! Get out of your own head. Let's be real. This is a time of survival for many of us. Many have lost jobs and income to support their families. (Thankfully, this is not me.) This is not a time to do amazing things using technology. Not a time for innovation. ...Surely - it would have been relatively simple to transition my "self-paced classroom" onto a solely virtual setting, but that's not the point!! Families are experiencing changes in their routines and lives, not only because school is closed, but because of unemployment, sickness, and death. Yes - despite the relatively small numbers, people are still being impacted by death related to CoVid-19. How are those students and families being supported during this push for seamless transition to remote learning and teaching? Nevertheless, I'm trying to move past the selfishness, and thanks to Kasey, gaining a more empathetic perspective in all this. So, when is it "my time?"If there is ever going to be a time to use my gifts and talents, it will be after this crisis. When we return to schools, some will hopefully ask, "How will this inequity be addressed? Will it be addressed?" How can I be part of this communication?
Despite the relatively low amount of distance learning occurring in my situation, some teachers are finding it easier to connect in more powerful ways than others. I think of teachers around me who were continually hesitant to try Flipgrid, who are now trying to figure it all out. Flipgrid has been the best tool to remain connected to as many students as are able. Hopefully, when we get back, teachers will be more open to the possibilities that technology offers us to connect to students. But, now is not that time. Now is a time to be safe. Time to be with the ones that we love. Any positive growth in this time should be celebrated, but the priority must be on supporting those in our communities who are suffering, for any variety of reasons, and support those who are working in hospitals, grocery stores, and keeping us safe through law enforcement or firefighting. Not my time.
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In short, we are living in a time unlike any other. The country and world have succomb to COVID-19. All schools are out. Our nation is taking the necessary precautions in order to protect thousands of Americans at risk by shutting down "non-essential" businesses and schools across the nation. What better time to reflect?! How were things going?Before the craziness, there was a lot going on in Room 314! Remember? Earlier this year, we dove into self-paced learning in the classroom! Many good things have been happening! In this journey, many students have been empowered to learn at their own pace in the classroom! (No - students, when working independently through materials, are not parusing Youtube!) Through instructional videos and formative & summative assessments, students are showing mastery of the content. Students have shown great ownership as they are working through working their way through modules. I have stuck with with Google Classroom as our home base for self-paced instruction for a while, based on student feedback. Another important change is that I am now teaching BOTH fifth grade math classes in our school. I introduced self-paced learning to the other group as well soon after becoming their teacher experiencing similar successes. One continued concern I have is prioritizing... DEPTH OVER BREADTHMy students have been excelling in the assessments that are provided by the school-chosen curriculum. They have done well on benchmark assessments! They were making significant headway in being very prepared for the PSSA testing. (Not sure that is going to happen at this point!) Still, there is not as much depth of knowledge as I want! With the pressure to perform on benchmark assessments, and having covered the "scope and sequence" in order to be prepared for the benchmark assessments, there is is little time to really go in depth with any topic (despite knowing best practices). With an amazing group of learners this year, we are only "on target" with the scope and sequence. (This did not happen last year. There were many more diverse learners! We needed more time with some skills and concepts.) I get it... I get it... What's your point?One of my goals is to build in more opportunity for depth of knowledge throughout the year - especially for those who are self-paced. Spiraling concepts while learning new concepts provides depth (more than I realized last year), but I want to introduce authentic mathematical tasks or projects that challenge my students to use the mathematical concepts in the real-world throughout the year - not as an end-of-the-year enrichment. No - a real-world word problem is not enough. (I mean... word problems like, "Mr. Soper has 1/2 pot of soup left. He divides it among he and four friends. What fraction of the pot will each get?" get really old!!) My goal, most likely for the next year given the craziness of the end of this year, is to build in authentic tasks to build a depth (over breadth) of knowledge throughout the course of the year. Afterall... Depth over breadth. |
About MeLouie here! 5th Grade Teacher. Level 2 Google Educator. Love all things Google. 1:1 Chromebooks. Archives
June 2020
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