School Reopening Community: Learning Beyond COVID-19

I love technology, but I never thought that I would be teaching pre-k students in this virtual environment. Your day definitely have to be structured as much as you can make it. We started out using a lot of video's and we have learned pretty quick that the students really got nothing out it. So we have had to drop off bag of supplies and materials that they can use for virtual learning. Safe distance of course. So now we are working more hands on than before and less videos.

Special populations were attending school labs, but that has ended for now.

I am an Autism Case Manager. I have personally seen phenomenal and exponential growth in each and every student. Platfoms like Nearpod, Lalilo, Learning Farm, and Freckle have made a major impact on each child. I sincerely believe that the platform learning addresses the individual needs of the students and it also caters to each of the learning styles.

Now, we are hybrid teaching. It has been an interesting ride with trying to teach, engage, and motivate students through online learning. Somedays I think things are going well, and other days I think I am not getting through to them. I have changed a few concepts this quarter by taking notes of each student and making sure I contact students, parents, and/or guardians to keep on top up of students doing well in class. One caveat is that I do not have to worry about disciplinary issues, but I do have to worry about "check out" issues. I am trying to do the best I can to keep my students interested by using games such as Kahoot, Vocabulary.com, and other online choice boards. I am also trying to help with their levels of stress by using mindfulness strategies such as soft belly breathing and music. I am getting daily headaches lately. I am not sure if it is from computer/ screen use or something else. I find that soft belly breathing helps to ease some of the pain.

https://sharemylesson.com/collections/free-online-resources-educators-p…

We are person-to-person.

I am seeing students who attend all classes and those who do not turn work in. It is running the gamut but I think I am seeing virtual fatigue in my high school classes. We thought we might do hybrid but numbers are skyrocketing and it looks like virtal until ? I am worried becuase I teach AP and there is no way to cover all the material doing half time classes

I usually have several grade levels, as well as reading levels, in my room. Once you add the mental health and behavior issues, simple, meaningful lessons and assignments, would be welcomed.

To address this important year-end milestone, a cadre of preK-12 AFT members from across the nation has jointly designed standards-based, integrated content, offering capstone project ideas that are grade-level and developmentally appropriate. These projects will enable students to demonstrate learning in a variety of ways, such as writing a story or song, scrapbooking and counting objects in the home. These capstone projects can be utilized to wrap up the school year, be used to complete a voluntary summer learning program, or even serve as a re-entry into the next school year—whenever that happens. Teachers can adapt and modify the capstone project ideas, making them unique for their classrooms. All of the necessary resources have been provided (e.g., hyperlinks, activity sheets, question prompts, etc.) to make them easy to use. Most of all, we want students to feel good about all they know!<br><br>Find Capstones here: https://sharemylesson.com/aft <br><br>Grade-Band Themes:<br><br>Grades K-2: All About Me<br>Grades 3-5: We Are All Connected<br>Grades 6-8: The Power of Story in a Changing World<br>Grades 9-12: Overcoming Challenges Through the Lens of Social Justice<br><br>Download the capstone projects on Share My Lesson (https://sharemylesson.com/aft), and join us next week for a webinar to learn more: K-12 Culminating Capstones: End-of-Year Projects for Distance Learning Success, May 21 at 6 p.m. EDT. https://sharemylesson.com/teaching-resource/k-12-culminating-capstones-…

It is emotionally exhausting, professionally isolating and systemically infuriating. In the spring we taught remotely out of an abundance of precaution and then this summer administration changed a virtual consultation model to an in person teaching model. 3 teachers had the entire state. Now I am teaching in person, but we need to be prepared to teach virtually at any moment. My biggest frustration is the expectation that I have to be professionally flexible and understanding, but administrative expectations remain rigid and unfeeling.