It's OK That You Don't Feel OK #EdChat

Right now, there are many teachers out there that are not feeling OK with the way things are right now and I want you to know that I am with you and it is OK to not feel OK right now.

Teachers do not want to be at home looking at their students through a computer all day. We want to interact. We want them to socialize. We want to see their smiles in person and laugh when the class needs a good laugh.

Do not let these moments fade from your memory. Life will take time to get back to a better place where we can be in class with students. We need to let ourselves be ok with not being ok right now if we want to get better. Acceptance of the situation is not easy, but we need to accept where we are, how much we have to give, and the quality that is going to be given.

Be OK with trying and failing as you explore education through a new medium. Take your time and embrace where you are with all of this. Practice self care whenever you can and make time to connect with others as much as possible. I have only been able to make it through this nightmare because of my connections with my friends.

We will persevere and come out on the other end ready to connect, teacher, and make a difference lije we did before. It's OK to not feel OK. We will get better.  

Sorry @zbyronwolf, @PlayCraftLean is an Educational Tool #MakerEd

I was reading an article on CNN today that was about schools and their role in "opening the economy" today. There was a part of the piece, that is overall well written, that annoyed me.

Zachary B. Wolf wrote,

"Education Week has maintained an interactive map of school closures since the beginning of this thing, and that map suggests that nearly every American school kid is not currently in school. It charts around 124,000 school closings affecting more than 55 million American kids.
What are all those kids doing? They're supposedly distance-learning or homeschooling, taking screen lessons or self-teaching. (Let's get real. A lot of them are playing Minecraft or making TikToks.) (Emphasis mine) Just like the American education system on any given day, the coronavirus closure is a massive patchwork." 

What this shows is a basic misunderstanding of what Minecraft is and can be for students and for teachers. There are problems with these type of flippant remarks. 

1. On a very large platform, it invalidates the value of Minecraft Education Edition. People can look at that and have it inform their opinion on the tool. If it was a critique of the tool, then it would be fair, but that is not what it was. It lumped Minecraft in with TikTok which has a reputation of being a waste of time by older generations. 

2. It makes the job harder for teachers to introduce these tools in the classroom to administrators and teachers because it has a reputation and not being productive and this line adds to that misunderstanding. 

3. To put it bluntly, it's ignorant. Mr. Wolf clearly does not have an understanding of the value of Minecraft in the classroom and was looking for a pithy statement.

On top of it all, it takes away from the hard work students are doing in their homes every day thanks to teachers and parents working hard to provide some semblance of learning in this tough time. I have students that show up to class and are designing and making amazing things. They are teaching themselves or learning from their parents on how to create things they design. It is amazing. Not every students in engaged at the level everyone would hope, but that is problem schools face in person, not just online. 

I hope Mr. Wolf will take the time to either remove that line from the article or take some time to actually talk to teachers engaged in remote learning and that are using a wide variety of tools to support instruction. I'm happy to connect if Mr. Wolf is. 

To all of you teachers out there using Minecraft Education Edition, please share with @zbyronwolf the many different ways you are using it to support our students. Keep being awesome out there and reach out if you have any questions. 

Socially Distant Hugs and High Fives. 

Day One Remote Learning Expectations #EdChat #covidEDU

Tomorrow University Liggett School will start our Remote Learning Adventure. I spent my Spring Break with our Admin team to create a system that will allow teachers and students to connect in synchronous and asynchronous ways. It was a very busy couple of weeks, but I feel we have a solid system to connect students and teachers using Zoom, GAFE, and SeeSaw. We are an Independent School that is BYOD, so all students have devices and we are very lucky to have all of our students have access to wifi at home.

There has been lots of digital talk about the expectations of teachers, parents, and students for learning at home. I have broken down the expectations I am going to have more my classes and think that other teachers/parents should consider if they are involved in Remote Learning.


1. Wellness

The first and most important thing for me to do is to check in with my students and see that they are doing well. Mental wellness CANNOT be overlooked by teachers during this time. Do not spend every class period you have with kids focused on racing to the finish line to complete your curriculum. Spend some time talking to the students and seeing how everything is at home. Talk about whatever the students want. Let them know they are more than just a small video screen to you.

2. Engagement Over Busy

One of the things that I am going to focus on is engaging my students in thought and work for my class. Project Based Learning is perfect for the current remote learning setup because students will be the ones that drive their engagement by creating artifacts to demonstrate their understanding of various topics they choose. It might be 3D design, playing in AR, coding, drawing, sculpting, or anything else they have access to at home. I am not worried about trying to accomplish everything I had set up to do this trimester. I want kids to be engaged and learn.

3. Feedback = Assessment

One of the things that does not worry me about the move to remote learning is the worry over tests. Some people are frantic over how they are going to give students tests. Huge eye roll from me over those concepts. You cannot expect to recreate the classroom digitally. Grades are not important right now. That is easy for me to say because I was running a gradeless class, but it is still fundamentally true right now. If you do not think students will do your classwork without grades, that should tell you something about the work, not the students. Students in my class will submit their projects and I will provide detailed feedback through SeeSaw and 1:1 Zoom meetings. The feedback is more important than any letter grade or number I could enter into a gradebook. Kids smile a whole bunch more when they hear how much you loved something as opposed to seeing a letter grade in a box on a grade sheet.

4. Compassion

Kids have so many things going on at home that we do not know about when they sit in our rooms every day. Now, those students are trapped in their home. School was sometimes their only escape from the anxiety of a complex home life. Imagine those students being home, managing that anxiety, and then trying to engage in remote learning. Some kids are not going to be able to step up as we might hope, but that is why wellness is so important. If you have a strong idea of how your students are doing, you will have an easier time showing compassion if students are a little behind or are struggling. Be compassionate all of the time, but now more than ever.

5. Have Fun

Have some fun with your students. Surprise them with an amazing Tik Tok dance or wear a funny hat and act like nothing is different. Just be a little goofier and sillier than normal to lighten the mood. The kids need reasons to laugh and have fun like they would in the classroom. Don't take your video class meetings too seriously. Release your inner dork and have fun. My kids might just see some hardcore karaoke to TSwift in the near future.

I do believe that school is going to be like this for the rest of the year. You might be in a state where that decision has already been made. If that is the case, these 5 things can make the rest of the year a little bit easier for you, parents, and most importantly they students.

If you have tips or suggestions, please feel free to comment them here or shoot me a message on Twitter.

Virtual Hugs and High Fives,

NP

Interactive Fiction Webinar - Python Coding in ELA #EngChat

Thanks to everyone that made it to the webinar yesterday. I was able to take the recording and add it to YouTube. You can watch it below. Feel free to share it with your students and with others around the internet. Here are the links to the resources used.

Trinket.io

Raspberry Pi Tutorial

My game with advanced elements

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out and we can connect.

Virtual Hugs and High Fives,

NP