Unprecedented Times

Current Situation:

During this week people are encountering an unprecedented time where social distancing is a continued safety measure. Since this is occurring all schools within B.C. have closed.

                                       Questions:

https://pixabay.com/illustrations/question-mark-pile-questions-symbol-2492009/

The question then begs, what will teaching look like when teachers return to school? Will it be a question of working from home or working within the classroom? Are we going to be mandated to use a particular online learning service such as MyBluePrint or Google Classroom? All districts and provinces will be different in their approaches. Seeing as I am on Spring Break now, which doesn’t have a normal Spring Break calmness, I am unsure of what will be expected of me when I return to work. I also wonder how long we will be required to teach online everyday? Will it be the 6 hours of normal schools time? If it is, I for see many many issues that will occur.

Options and Considerations for Online Curriculum:

Given that my district has focused and implemented MyBluePrint as their online learning space I am going to be using that to provide online learning tools. On MyBluePrint, you are able to assign lessons or activities. For example, I would record myself doing a read aloud, asking questions and ask the students to submit a typed response on their MyBluePrint to answer the questions I have asked about the book. I could even have them pose questions themselves about the book. In doing this, we can then have discussions about the questions or connections that we have made during the reading. Following this, students could be asked to submit a written reflection about a topic that I assigned to them that involved the book. Another thought I had around using MyBluePrint, is that I could send out a picture of a Story Workshop I have created and have the students write a story using that they see in the picture.

For math, I could utilize platforms that my students are familiar with such as Math Playground or Greg Tang Math websites. This will allow students to focus on specific concepts while playing games just like we would in the classroom. Furthermore, using the MyBluePrint platform I could pose open ended math questions to which students would respond with explaining their thinking and problem solving. They could provide a video or picture as well to demonstrate how they solved the problem or what questions they encountered. Students could be sent home a copy of math games and asked to play with them their parents or a sibling. How this would occur if students didn’t have a printer would be another question to consider. It is one I don’t necessarily have the answer to just yet.

Other considerations could be sending out YouTube videos, National Geographic links or using  the Digital Resources Page that would allow students to watch videos based on science or social studies curriculum. Given that I had already planned to incorporate a science specific inquiry project. Students could be given directions and resource links in order to complete this project at home. They would be required to send in weekly updates on their research, questions they have, a visual plan of how to create their project, a video of their completed project and explanation and finally a reflection. All of these pieces could be submitted on MyBluePrint.

https://pixabay.com/photos/learn-student-laptop-internet-3653430/

Overall Thoughts and Feelings:

Of course this is a stressful time for everyone but given that I have been doing my masters which specifically focuses on technology I feel that I am prepared enough to have a starting point. I will absolutely encounter hurdle after hurdle but I believe I have some necessary tools at my disposal in order to provide students with basic education. I believe it is essential for teachers to open their minds and share, share, share their knowledge so support one another during this time.