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This is a bonus episode that features the Kappa Delta Pi Teaching During the Age of COVID Webinar featuring panelists:
Frederick Yeakey, Vice President, Providence Cristo Rey High School (Twitter: @FredYeakey)
Chrystal Struben, President & CEO of AYS (At Your School) (Web: www.ayskids.org)
Dr. Samantha Fecich, Assistant Professor; Instructional Technologist, Grove City College (Twitter: @SFecich)
Brittney Alexis Caldwell, Teacher, Cedar Grove High School (Instagram: @talkteachtravel).
KDP shares, "You're being asked to teach in all-new ways during this global pandemic. Although no one has all the answers to this unprecedented situation, we can learn from the mistakes and successes during the spring and strategize best practices for teaching this fall. "Listen to best practices, strategies, and techniques to help you during the fall.
Frederick Yeakey the Vice President of Providence Cristo Rey High School
Information
Federal, State, Local
Safety
Grades versus Grace
Virtual Learning
On-the-job training
Contingency Plans
Training for educators
Supports for families
Community
When your Lesson Plan fails, then you teach to the Lesson
Chrystal Struben the President & CEO at AYS
Space design for operating in COVID-19
Static grouping/social distancing
1:15 ratio for K–6 (1:12 with 4-year-olds)
6 ft per student space
Breakout space for those groups
Isolation Area
Students/Staff only in program space
Frequent handwashing
Individual program supplies
High SEL focus
Maintain clear protocols
Who owns cleaning—what and when?
Appropriate cleaning materials for staff
Surfaces should be wiped down after each use
Including doorknobs and bathrooms
Deep clean daily
All students and staff are required to wear face coverings
Indiana has varied face-covering requirements
Daily Wellness Checks
Monitoring temperatures at the start of each session
Intentional screening
Asking the COVID questions for adults and children
Immediate action
Keep staff informed as changes occur
Manage expectations by providing parent tips
what to expect from us
what we expect from you
Keep the community informed
Dr. Samantha Fecich Assistant Professor of Education at Grove City College
Asynchronous— happens on your schedule. It is flexible and self-guided.
Synchronous—Learning happens at the same time. Everyone meets at a particular time/ date/ place (virtual or face to face).
Collaboration—Working together to achieve a common goal. This is a 21st-century goal that our students need to do due to education.
Jazz up your content with Slides mania, Slide Carnival, Canva, Microsoft Sway, Buncee Edu, Adobe Spark
Tools for engaging students: PearDeck and Nearpod
Additional collaboration tools: Google and Microsoft suite, Microsoft whiteboard app, One Note, & Padlet
Whether you are teaching online, face to face, or hybrid, you are an educator of excellence. - @SFecich
Brittney Caldwell, MAT at Cedar Grove High School, SPED & Social Studies
How Do I Adapt my In-Person Lesson Plans into Virtual Plans?
Assess what course materials you already have. Ask yourself: Can this be easily formatted and redesigned for online use? What materials will I need to remake from scratch?
Decide how you will be running your online classroom. Mostly synchronous? Blended? Mostly asynchronous? Categorize the assignments and activities that you use in the classroom.
Chunk your learning objectives, standards, and units into useful bits that allow students to achieve in a virtual setting. Large chunks of your existing lessons may need to be “chopped up” into bite-sized content and linked through various navigation features. “Online Modules” can be created based on standards within significant units.
Utilize apps and resources that mirror your teaching style. Just as you test your equipment, prepare your classroom, and organize your materials for instructor-led training, plan and test your virtual training.
Restructure your formal/informal assessments to match your online classroom. Restructure Assessments to match online formats and include questions that cannot easily be “Googled,” such as open-ended questions, surveys, essays, and projects.
How Do I Increase Student Engagement During Virtual Learning?
Build a Community: Students feel more engaged when they have a ”family” sense of the class and no personal connection to one another. Message boards, a typical social media hashtag, and accountability partners are ways to build a community amongst students. This also increases accountability.
Shorten Content: Keep lectures between 5-10 minutes and supplement content acquisition with multimedia presentations, asynchronous assignments, or short readings. Students will skim readings that are too lengthy and begin to tune out lectures that are too long.
Encourage face-to-face interaction: Video record your lectures if possible so that students can rewatch and become familiar with your face and voice as the course continues. Encourage (but do not require) face-to-face small group sessions on Zoom/Meet.
Require Them to “Do”: Use Bloom’s Taxonomy to create assignments encouraging students to produce, facilitate, create, etc. Avoid monotonous assignments that can easily be “Googled.”
Provide Opportunities for Collaboration: Fight student isolation by assigning partner, group, and class projects. This keeps them honest as well. No one wants to let their partner down.
We hope that these tips help you to prepare for this fall semester.