Module 1 Discussion Forum:

[Ian]

Based on my reflections after reading Tucker’s blog posts and the extract from “Teaching to Empower”, I would like to improve the level of differentiation I provide during online learning. More frequent delivery of choice will provide students with more agency in their approach to learning and their demonstration of it. I’d also like to provide more small group break-out sessions as well as continuing with one-on-one support when necessary. If we are still teaching and learning online next semester, I will purposefully plan more opportunities for student choice, and operate small group break-out sessions.

[Tara]

Hi Ian,

I too have similar reflections in regards to online learning, differentiation, and engagement. As educators it is always something to think about and continually adjust. Seeking feedback from students and collecting some data might help.

I can share more resources, or perhaps you have some to share with participants?

These might be good goals to add to your workbook too 🙂

Tara

[Ian]

Hi Tara,

One aspect that was successful for us as an ELA team was gathering feedback through student reflections. We added this as a core component in student book clubs, and it helped us get weekly information/feedback from individual students so that we could help support individuals as best possible from a distance.

We built our book clubs around this series of blog posts (with a few tweaks):

https://www.collaborativeclassroom.org/blog/

Agenda/objectives > mentor text reading and activity > independent reading with notebook organizer / guiding Qs > small group discussions > independent & group reflections.

On reflection, the units built around this cycle were quite successful and boosted engagement.

Always room for more agency, though. As a department, we are working to build in more book clubs and independent reading workshop style units (in theory, should improve differentiation and engagement if executed well).

[Tara]

Your spot on Ian!

Ongoing reflection is key with students. Adjusting them for engagement requires feedback. I would also get students to peer feedback. Love the blog!

T

[Kevin]

I feel that while this time of virtual learning has been difficult on teachers, parents, and students. It has given me the opportunity to grow as a teacher, use new educational apps, and engage in professional development. (In fact, with two small kids at home, the prospect of being able to go to Greece for this training was small)

One of the tools that I have found very useful for virtual is Parlay. It allows for Socrative/Harkness discussions and meaningful peer feedback. The posts are anonymous (to other students) so it allows for introverted students to also engage.

[Laurence]

Kevin,

You are correct in terms of the silver lining of the COVID situation. I feel almost inundated now with the wealth of PD and/or webinars available as the world scrambles to keep itself relevant in a new situation. At ASD we are currently discussing the “what stays” and “what goes” converstion vis-a-vis online learning. Certainly many teachers have now recognized the opportunities that online learning and/or collaboration platforms have to offer apart from the Google doc which is common place. I don’t know Parlay but it has been recommended to me by a colleague at UNIS (Hanoi) who uses it extensively. The tricky piece, of course, is what components of this will make sense once we’re all back to face-to-face, assuming that happens soon enough.

[Tara]

Hi Kevin,

Love Parlay as a tool for collaboration and peer feedback- it also collects data to see how students interact 🙂

Tara

[Katherine]

I also give a double thumbs up for Parlay as an exceptional online platform for collaboration and discussion.

[Tara]

Hi everyone,

Clearly this question also relates to facilitators 😉 Sincere apologies for the technical difficulties during module 1 today! Even with a practice run, the challenges of online learning can be frustrating, and entertaining!

You will all be happy to know I edited ALL 10 of the future zoom meeting settings so you can join well ahead of me- the waiting room has been removed (just know I will start the meeting on-time and enter before usually 5-10 mins before).

The recording will be uploaded to the module, if you want to go back and watch- feel free. It will be located in the place of the countdown.

Do you want me to send the link to tomorrow’s meetings or are you happy to access via the schedule? I don’t want to overload you all with mail..sometimes two locations works..

I will not attempt to play video in the next presentation to avoid this sound cut off again. Instead the video link will be added to resources.

You will also be happy to know my sound is back with a re-start of the computer 😉

Humbly yours,

Tara

[Kelly]

Hi all,

Although I am not actively teaching online, my kids have been ‘learning’ online which has given me lots of food for thought on best ways of moving forward in the unpredictable future. I have been doing some research into social and emotional learning and its importance for now and the future of children. Between the impact of Covid and BLM, I think SE learning has never been more prevalent. My children have not had difficulties adapting to a new platform, or to working online – what the challenges have been are their relational skills, their lack of a social context – which is of ultimate importance in learning, especially for younger people. I also believe that as service learning deals with authentic issues stemming from the world outside of school, and student response to these issues, whether emotionally or psychologically, cannot be ignored. SE learning must be in our toolbox for now and the future.

.

[Laurence]

Kelly,

Thanks for your thoughts. I wholeheartedly agree that social-emotional learning is more important now than ever, particularly as the social contexts are changing. Your note about service learning being extremely important and I agree completely. Having said that I also believe there is a fight to recognize – but the uninterested or ininvolved – that service learning isn’t really something different from “normal” teaching at all but actually just really good teaching in an authentic context. There are better or not-so-good service learning experience much like non-SL but our task often is challenged by the assumption that service learning belongs in the “miscellaneous” category of learning rather than the center of it, where I believe it should be.

[Katherine]

Well said Kelly. I presented some work I had done with the MYP Service Learning Outcomes to my school administration recently (basically a scaffolded model of how I wanted to present it to the teachers and students) and the admin came back saying they wanted it mapped alongside the SE competencies that our school is also currently mapping by grade level. I think this is something everyone should consider doing, especially if you are just getting started with SL and have a blank slate..

[Katherine]

I really enjoyed the Teach to Empower excerpt. It serves as a good reminder of the ways in which education has and will continue to change over time. Some key takeaways from the read that I will work to apply in order to empower students are;

• Continue to educate myself on the historical backgrounds of the diverse cultures/student groups that I work with.
• Explicitly teach skills related to building personal/social awareness, empathy, and social responsibility.
• Build safe spaces and personal relationships with students to that they feel comfortable to share openly, take risks, and engage in tough discussions.

[Laurence]

Katherine,

These are soooo important. I always look at learning as a ‘outside-to-inside’ or ‘inside-to-outside’ perspective (my words… not brilliant minds behind this). The outside-to-inside is often what adults (especialy older ones) think about when they think of schooling. The kids are there to be taught information, skills and dispositions that need to be channeled from the wider world into the child. Service learning, for me, is an opportunity to support that but also focus on what it is that the child can bring to the world: inside-to-outside. In my mind you have to balance these two. Ensuring that children have the capacity to receive and support their growth is no more or less important than children having the capacity to make change in their community, as long as there is an authentic, synergistic, relationship and learning.

[Rebecca]

Discuss how to plan for future learning now tools/strategies will you use?

Did I miss something in the first video session about the focus here on online learning? Yes, I understand that most likely we will continue to see a hybrid of in-brick-and-mortar buildings and distant learning, but my concentration is back on planning meaningful engagement “Beyond the Walls” with an emphasis on science content with a social impact lens.

I taught 21 Grade 4 students online for 4 hours a day synchronously for 12 weeks. I enjoyed it tremendously and felt that I and my students were thriving. Why? Because we no longer had the restrictions of following a strict standards-based curriculum while holding hands with our grade level counterpart, or having to enter grades based on pencil-and-paper assessments. Instead we could dream big, and for those of us that have a subversive agenda to get rid of timetables, this was our time to shine!

I whole-heartedly agree with the Larry Ferlazzo article and the importance of putting autonomy, competence, relatedness and relevance at the forefront of our learning designs. I was absolutely amazed at how motivated my students were when they were presented with Choice Boards. And we all know that motivation naturally leads to engagement.

I feel having 1:1 laptop use for upper elementary will have an increased role when we return to our school buildings. We were already utilizing them pre-CoVid (thankfully, as that made the overnight transition to online learning that much easier). Furthermore, I no longer heard excuses for missing or late work, because the students saw the relevance in the learning because it was their choice.

On a personal note, when I was talking to my husband when I was developing my Choice Boards, he inquired, “But aren’t you worried that students will pick “How to Make Jello” or “How to Make Money Playing Minecraft” instead of energy transformation or the affects of the American Revolution, etc?” I can’t explain why, but I was never worried about that. I knew my students well enough, and helped develop their love of learning in the past two years, that I had faith they would apply intradisciplinary skills to whatever projects they chose. And interestingly enough, one inquiry would lead to another, and the depth of content kept getting richer.

[Tara]

Hi Rebecca,

Sounds like you have amazing relationships with your students, you know them, and how to support them. This is soooooo important with service learning to be able to support and guide them. Your instincts helped guide the choices. I’m wondering if students could come up with the choices too..

[Ereeny]

Hi Tara,

I guess answering your question now ( after COVID-19) will differ from before. In fact, there are many online tools that I hope we can continue to use even after we go back to face-to-face one day.

I used to take students to an orphan close to our school so they can meet the manager and discuss possible collaboration. I am imagining that we now can use Zoom or other virtual meeting platforms.

Thank you for your efforts.

[Tara]

Hi Ereeny,

Your right, it is is great to consider pre/post covid learning, what works and what does not. There is so much that could be better, we need great leaders to be brave and take some risks to improve learning, engagement, agency, global competencies, conceptual inquiry, schedules, support, resources, ownership, moral purpose..sorry I might be going on, but I’m so excited for meaningful change for ALL learners. I believe Service Learning and sustainability are important now more than ever!!!

[Jeremiah]

I might also have missed something and the internet connection is just killing me. I am attempting as best as possible to keep up with the sessions and chat but I will try to my inference skills as well.

We started online learning since February. We explored quite a few platforms such as Zoom, XY Link (a Chinese tool), Moodle and BlueButton. There was even an option hosted by ManageBac that works in a similar way to Facebook. However, the biggest hurdle we faced was training the teachers, students and parents. And like what I am facing now, internet connectivity was also a problem. Hence, we settled on ManageBac as it was something everyone was familiar with and had little issues related to connectivity. Quizlet was something that we have previously used so we were able to tap into that again during this online learning period.

As we were hit by this really quickly, it became more of a reactive approach adopted by my school. Upon reflection, these tools/strategies weren’t very interactive and we have to add in more of a human element into online learning as well as make preparations should we have to go do online learning again.

[Tara]

Hi Jeremiah,

You are spot on with everyone needing to know the online learning platform. With covid happening so quickly in China, you had not much time to plan and prepare. Glad you all settled on Managebac, it was our HS platform at AISJ. Interactive is challenging, I found parents happy with Seesaw- this is also a great platform and can be used K-12.