Have you ever been interrupted… while doing something important…
You know when you have a plan… and things happen…. that’s 2020 in a nutshell…
2019-2020 started with a hurricane and abruptly ended with COVID quarantine— interruption
Starting the 2020-2021 year, still in COVID restrictions… We made it a week!! .. Hurricane Laura… 3 weeks of evacuation/clean-up… Back to school… a couple days- didn’t stop school for Beta … a couple more weeks.. virtual for Delta and hunker down for another hurricane… at this point we are on day 25… Did I mention interruptions?
Pauses, to stop or hinder by breaking in, to break the uniformity or continuity…. our students’ lives have been interrupted so many times in the last 2 school years and the effects we will see may not show up right now, but I am worried what will come in the future.
Hopefully, our students will learn to adapt and overcome. To learn that it’s okay to “go with the flow”, because after all we can plan things but we can’t make them happen in that way.
One of my favorite tools in the classroom is Kahoot! It is a great way to use the competitive spirit if your students and quiz them. It works well for reviews or as quizzes. However, since the quarantine they have added a new feature and it allows you to send out a Kahoot! and for your kids to complete at their own time!! Woohoo! This is great for districts like mine that are rural areas or internet isn’t always reliable because of trees and weather or there aren’t lines out that far or your students are sharing devices with other family members. It still gives them the feeling of competing but with the flexibleness of finishing when your time and device are both available. I was able to create quizzes for classes and send them out on our LMS system Microsoft Teams. Another thing I have loved adding to our tools when we aren’t in the building is Flipgrid. I give my students the option of showing their face or just talking to answer the questions. Some have become rather ingenious and added music and captions. But mainly it allows for students to be in a safe place and answer questions. Some of my shyest students will answer on Flipgrid and give some of the best explanations because they don’t feel the pressure of “performing” in the classroom.
It seems like these past 2 school years are all about learning to change on the fly… building that airplane as we are learning to fly it (as someone else said). It may feel like you are missing a motor and one of the wings is gone, but we are still in the air flying…
Teaching Re-Imagined 