Michelle Fenn 21st Century Learning, Advocacy for change, Celebrating Success, Constant Learning, Curriculum Planning, Distance learning, Diverse Learning Needs, e-learning, Engaging students with online learning, Inspiring Teachers, Integration, Modern Learning, Teacher Appreciation, teacher efficacy, Teacher Wellness, Teacher Working Conditions, Teaching online, Technology, Use of Technology, Using technology well

“Techie People”

As someone who is passionate and truly geeky about the power of technology in education, I often hear from my fellow teachers, “I’m not really a techie person.”  Now, I get where they are coming from because technology can be intimidating.  Many times I’ve said, “I’m not really a math person.”  I can “do” math and I can “learn” math but it doesn’t get me fired up quite like tech does.  However, over the last few months educators who weren’t really “techie people” didn’t have much of a choice other than to use tech in order to do their job.  I cannot imagine what that must have felt like for some educators.  For some educators, it must have been terrifying.  For me, it would have been like my Principal saying that I was now the new math consultant for the intermediate grades.  It would have caused me serious panic and anxiety. I probably would have considered resigning but I would have dug in and done the best I could with the tools available to me and I would have reached out to fellow colleagues and leaned on their expertise. THAT is what teachers all over the province of Ontario were doing after the March Break, teaching and learning by the seat of their pants.

As an innovations consultant what I witnessed during the weeks of distance learning was fellow educators doing what they do best; rolling up their sleeves, getting in there and figuring the tech stuff out.  As I (along with some fantastic  and enthusiastic educators in my board) provided webinar workshops on technological tools for teachers, I saw teachers who were self proclaimed Luddites attending and showing appreciation for what we were doing.  The resiliency of educators during this time has been absolutely amazing. The necessity of teaching through technology broke through an invisible barrier that has existed for those teachers who thought that you had to be a “techie person” in order to use tech in education.  Teachers were no longer afraid to try a new technological tool, to make mistakes and ask questions. Teachers are discovering the power educational technology and they’ve been bit by the tech bug.  Educators will always continue to seek out new and innovative ways to deliver curriculum to students and learn as they go-no matter how steep the learning curve.  Some teachers who would have quickly proclaimed, “I’m not a techie person” before March Break are now excited about the possibilities of using technology even in their face-to-face classrooms.  The Educational Technology Geek Community is over-the-moon excited about increasing it’s membership!  We are a friendly bunch, inclusive, sharing and passionate and we’re happy to help.

Michelle Fenn 21st Century Learning, Constant Learning, Design, Distance learning, Engaging students with online learning, Inspiring Students, Inspiring Teachers, Making a Difference Through Education, Modern Learning, Professional Judgement, Professional Learning and Growth, Teaching online, The Arts, Use of Technology, Using technology well

Bitmoji Education

Love it or hate it, the app of Bitmoji has worked it’s way into education and particularly into distance learning.  From “digital” stickers for feedback to entire Google Slide Classrooms with doors to other rooms, Bitmoji is everywhere.  Bitmojis are dancing, pointing and fainting all over educational platforms.  Confession time?  I’m on the love it team and I’ll tell you why.

Bitmoji allows for a personal and creative touch to things that we share with others.  When I create short Google Slide presentations for students they are surprised to see my Bitmoji in the corners of my presentation.  Some think it is truly “geeky” but many students appreciate the effort at making the presentation a little more fun. Not having to put my real profile photo on something and being able to add a Bitmoji instead provides a small layer of privacy.  I began to make virtual, interactive classrooms on Google Slides and soon realized design and creating something so personal was a throw back to the many hours I spent playing with Barbies as a kid.  It was like planning to remodel my kitchen but without any cost what so ever.  It doesn’t feel like work.  It feels like play.  115,000 members on the “Bitmoji Craze for Educators” Facebook page all agree that it is a type of escapism and the membership grows daily.

Colleague Deanna Palmer and I created a webinar workshop for our fellow teachers about how to use Bitmoji to add some Pop to distance learning.  In the webinar we included a step-by-step slide show for educators to take away.  Find it here: Using Bitmoji to Make Virtual Learning Pop

Like with any popular craze or fad there are those who don’t or won’t buy in.  Some teachers are reluctant because they are conscious of their digital footprint-especially since in order to create the animated virtual reality Bitmojis you need to have a Snap Chat Account.  Some teachers don’t think that their students will want to see their teacher’s cartoon face all over everything in their classroom.  I can appreciate that it isn’t for everyone.  I am well aware that making learning “fun” or “cute” doesn’t make it deep or engaging.  However, if a picture can be worth a thousand words and Bitmoji can express precisely what we are feeling.  Using a Bitmoji might resonate with a colleague or student and just might make them smile. If that is what my little Bitmoji avatar does, then it was worth it.

 

Kelly.McLaughlin 21st Century Learning, Celebrating Success, Constant Learning, Differentiated Instruction, Distance learning, Engaging students with online learning, Flexible Classroom, Inquiry, Integration, Modern Learning, Professional Learning and Growth, self reflection, Technology, Use of Technology, Using technology well

Looking on the bright-side during this dark time.

During this time at home, we are all probably having positive and negative learning moments. From seeing students thrive for the first time to having zero assignments turned in, the highs and lows have been a rollercoaster over the past few months. However, during this time for my sanity, I need to focus on the positive ones. I would love to share a few from my experience teaching grade eight online.

  1. Removing student anxiety: Many of my students have had a hard time in the classroom this year due to certain factors that make them extremely anxious. Attendance issues have made it hard for some of them to learn this year and that has always been something I have struggled with, how to reach the students who do not attend. Even the students who do attend have anxiety issues related to noise in the room, other students bothering them or starting the day in a terrible mood. My class is super respectful so I always had a hard time understanding what the exact factors were, but I came to realize it was just a feeling they carried with them and could not be easily fixed. With online learning, these students have submitted work daily and have been involved on our online teams meetings. They have been thriving in this environment and for the first time, I am learning so much about how intelligent they are and how much they have to share. The online platform has given them a voice and a chance to accomplish things.
  2. Reaching all learners: Now that the school day exists at all times, I can answer all questions at once without there being a physical line up or a limit on the amount of students I can help. When someone online needs help, I can help them right away as the odds that another student needs help at that exact moment is slim. Although my students are working at all hours of the day, I had informed them that I would be available (virtually) from 9-3 everyday. They keep their questions for the most part within these hours and I love that I can respond to them right away. Also, I am able to help students via platforms that work for them and I am so thankful that my students have downloaded all of the new apps that have been made available to us.
  3. Continued differentiation in a new and unique way: With the help of google classroom, I can assign specific work to every student at the click of a button. I can modify every assignment and make special ones for my students that go directly to their google drive. When creating an assignment or learning material, I can tailor the assignment to how they want to learn, what they want to learn and give it directly to them. I was already doing this in the classroom but I am happy I can continue to do it online. I was nervous about assigning work online and how I could make it specific to students so with google classroom I was happy to see it was an easy process. Then, once my students finish an assignment, I can assign them more work at their own pace. Right now I have students completing work at 25 different rates and I need to be able to keep track of what they have/have not done. Google classroom allows me to look at what they have handed in and then direct them to the next assignment.
  4. Small groups style learning: My favourite thing about teaching online is creating small groups live meetings. We have been using the apps “Teams” by Microsoft and it was has been an amazing way to teach in small and medium sized groups. Every Tuesday, I have a live math/literacy class with my students. I invite all of them but usually I only get half the class. From there, I create smaller groups to teach them the topics that they still need help with or to move them ahead in the unit. I also have a meeting on Wednesdays with my ESL students where we read a book and answer questions together. We also work on math topics and play simple word games. On Thursdays, all of the other grade eights meet together to play games and reminisce about the year. This Thursday, they will be sharing their favourite writing piece from the year and will be sharing to their classmates their strengths as a writer. Small groups is something I had done in the classroom but online now more than ever I have implemented small groups in a way that really reaches all learners. I really hope to bring that into the classroom at a new level more successful than ever before. That is my favourite success from the online learning environment.

Although there are days when I feel like I may be posting to no one, I know that there must be students who are benefiting from it. The online meetings have been such a blessing during this time as hearing their voices always remind me of how special this profession is and how lucky we are to have technology to help us through this time. I am desperately looking forward to the day where we can teach in the classroom again but for now, I am happy to have these successes to think on and to reflect about how they will make me a better educator. I hope everyone else has some moments that they can look at and reflect positively on.

Deb Weston Engaging students with online learning, Teaching online

Strategies to Engage Students in Online Learning

ETFO’s position on in-person learning remains unchanged. The union firmly believes that the daily, in-person model of instruction and support best meets the educational, developmental and social needs of students, provides the best experience for support, and is the most equitable learning model for all students. ETFO’s expectation is that elementary virtual learning in any capacity, including through hybrid models of instruction, will end once the pandemic ends.

This is a personal reflection on how I have improved my skills as an online teacher of students with learning disabilities. It is my hope that this reflection will support teachers with their own online learning journey.

  1. Teachers need to know the technology and how to support students with this technology

As teachers we are expected to lead by example. In the transition to online learning, teachers were tasked to provide our students with an online learning platform in a short time frame. Many teachers had never used any of the platforms provided and had to stumble through the first weeks following a very steep learning curve.

This meant that I had to investigate many applications that I thought would work with my students. I quickly learned every week what format and applications kept the students’ interest and what did not.

Teachers do not have to be experts all the time and it is perfectly acceptable not to know how to use every application and platform immediately. With time and support from others, teachers can build enough efficacy to support their students in learning how to use the technology.

As a teacher, I have also been supporting parents on how to support their children with on line learning as parents are now acting as adhoc teaching assistants.

A caveat: Even with my 2 years of teaching teachers online, this still did not prepare me for the colossal task of trying to keep my students working on schoolwork and engaged in their learning.

  1. Give students the opportunity to add to their own learning.

Getting my students to help develop our online content was not as challenging as I thought as my students already ask to investigate things that matter to them. This meant getting and using suggestions made by students to post as online class assignments. An example of this was our class’s “Message of Hope” where students were ask to create a message that I could Tweet out through our school’s community.

In our weekly meeting, the students decided that they wanted to visit different parts of the world using Google Earth. This created a chance to talk about many things we saw in our visits. Further, the students also decided that each student should take a turn to run our Friday meeting.

In building an opportunity for students to learn what they find interesting, intrinsic motivation can be maintained as their love of learning new things and new technology will likely promote further engagement in student’s learning online.

  1. Provide a time for sharing to build community

During our weekly online meetings, students share how they are feeling (similar to the daily community check-ins). When I ran this activity, my questions were often met with short answers. Now that students are running the meeting, they ask questions such as “What did you do yesterday?” which are apparently far more engaging than “How are you feeling today?” As a regular part of our meeting, we usually end up telling stories about happenings in our lives. This is also a powerful way to connect students with their peers as they ask questions and add on to these stories.

In order to keep students connected to their school community, I invite surprise guests to visit our weekly online meeting. To date, the VP, the office manager, and the kindergarten teachers/ECEs have visited our meeting. I think our VP had more fun that the students did with her visit!

  1. Updating online learning content every week

I found out very quickly that I needed to keep my Google Classroom fresh with new content. This meant that I had to delete content that students did not engage in or gave poor reviews on such as “I didn’t like that site/activity , I think we should do something more interesting”. With this feedback, I try and keep the content engaging which included writing a journal on Slime in Space. I also included quizzes on learning styles and future careers which turned out to be a big hit!

In keeping content engaging, I need to get feedback from students as I am not 10 years old anymore and my students are the experts about what they find interesting.

  1. Get students to help other students

Some of my students are very solid users of technology and some are not. As I would in my classroom, I ask students to support other students in helping them learn certain applications as they have already had the lesson from me. This strategy is very effective as students who need support get it and this gives an opportunity for other students to develop leadership skills. It is interesting when the support flips and the student who usually provides supports needs it from a student who usually gives support.

  1. Making sure work gets done

Keeping students accountable during the time of online school is a challenge. Students are not accustomed to learning online and prefer the more social face to face learning in classrooms.

The Ontario Ministry of Education has been very clear about not assessing students and only providing feedback for work completed online. This also means that students do not have to complete work as there is no source of extrinsic motivation. Instead, teachers must rely on students’ intrinsic motivation demonstrated through their love of learning online.

Further, parents must be onside. Parents, mostly mothers, have been put in a place where they are acting as their child’s teaching assistant. This means that parents must monitor and encourage their child to complete the 5 hours of assigned work per week without the teacher in place to support schoolwork. As a teacher, I do everything I can to support parents in getting their child to turn in their work. I am now meeting with each student online to go over their assignments and support them as needed. Some parents are having a very challenging time getting their child to do any work. This is a reality of online learning as some students cannot sustain their engagement in learning without a teacher’s support.

In addition, some parents are overtaxed with supporting their child’s learning at home. During the , parents have been working from home and caring for their children. For some parents, it is so overwhelming that they cannot support their child with their schoolwork.

Even during the pre-lockdown school days, I could not help my son with his homework which he rarely completed. It was not worth battling with my child to get his work finished. I am glad he is an adult now, responsible for his own work.

The bottom line is that since I am accountable to tracking and reporting on work completion, I must continue doing this as I am my students’ teacher.

Overall, this challenge of solely teaching and learning online has not been something I want to maintain. I plan to keep some aspects of our Google Classroom as it is a good way to track work and grow students learning of new technology and applications.

With our current online learning reality, what I miss most is working directly with students seeing their faces and reactions to learning new things. In being able to read students’ level of comprehension, I can make the work harder or easier so we are in the sweet spot of Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development. If work is too easy, students learn very little. If work is too hard, students give up.

In using visual cues, I can be highly effective in teaching my students more. Without being physically present while watching my students work, I am teaching blind.

Wishing you health and wellness,

Collaboratively Yours,

Deb Weston