Perspective | Teaching during unprecedented times
This year, fall seems so different. The ‘Back to School’ time of the year isn’t the same as last year. With the pandemic in the picture, virtual classrooms & online interactions have entirely replaced the usual hullabaloo of a new semester. So, what do teachers feel about this unusual remote setting? We were curious to find out so we reached out to a couple of teachers.
We first spoke to Rachelle Dene Poth, a Spanish & STEAM Emerging Technologies Teacher, an ISTE Certified Educator and also the Author of the following books: In Other Words, Unconventional, The Future is Now, Chart A New Course. Here’s what she had to say in response to our questions:
“It has definitely been an interesting start to the new school year, teaching fully online requires a lot of intentional planning so that you can engage students and make sure that you are also providing a good balance in terms of types of activities that don’t require the technology too.
It can be hard to find the right balance between what we are doing if in a in person versus hybrid versus distance learning teaching environment. I know that as the week progressed, I was able to set up a workflow and troubleshoot some of the issues that students were having with technology or anything else that they were experiencing.
In this week I’ve been teaching for a portion of each class and then asking students to interact either using the chat or raising their hand or just talking.
I use a lot of different tools and methods in my language and STEAM classes, this week I’ve done some activities by recording using a podcast tool and having students listen to what I’m saying and then write the responses to it. I’ve used some of the different game-based learning tools and also Nearpod to start each class as students log in.
Definitely making an effort to mix up each day’s class so that it gives students a chance to interact with me, to interact with each other, but also to have time where they can work on something that doesn’t require them to look at the screen and work independently. As the year progresses, I will use A lot of different tools and also some messes like project-based learning, genius hour, choice for it, and Hyper Docs. Also using some different tools like Google forms or Flipgrid to have students check in or ask questions or just get to know each other. I also have used Buncee to do introductions for students and for them to share with me too.”
After Rachelle’s detailed & wonderful response, we reached out to Bill Black, a STEM & Level II Certified Artificial Intelligence Instructor at Montour Middle School.
- How has your experience been with making the transition to remote teaching this year? (Challenges, learnings, or fun stories. We’d love to hear it all!)
“This year has been pretty much seamless. When we went to remote last Spring, here at Montour we were in a good place based on what technologies we already had in place. Montour is a one to one school with Chromebooks and we really didn’t have any technical issues, fortunately. The biggest challenge was getting the students to actually log on at home when you are not there to make sure they were logged in.”
- What are some of the things that you’re doing as a teacher to keep your sessions interactive or fun?
“As much as I can… My class of STEM is already pretty successful and doesn’t take much to excite kids when you are talking about AI. The best thing for us right now is that the Calypso program went online with the simulation mode. My kids at home are doing the exact lesson that my in-person students are doing.”
Teachers are clearly making every effort to keep virtual classrooms engaging during these unique times & we are nothing but proud of them. Are you an educator with a similar story to tell? Write to us at info@readyai.org & we will be happy to share your story!
