Covid Distance Learning... we are all Year 1 teachers.

So... I know people look down on social media as simply a place for influencers to post selfies...but it is an amazing resource of information.   Found another teacher who shared this graphic:

https://www.iddblog.org/videoconferencing-alternatives-how-low-bandwidth-teaching-will-save-us-all/

In any situation, when you suddenly face a crisis you likely react in one of two ways:  If you are prepared and have anticipated it... you know what to do even if it is the seemingly more difficult "choice": you do not engage intellectually, you simply trust your training and ride it out.   Rip currents are an extremely dangerous situation where experienced swimmers know to simply let the rip current pull you out to sea where it will lose power and then swim perpendicular to the flow.   Inexperienced swimmers will swim into the current because instinctually getting back to shore is the safest place... many die as they become exhausted.

Covid has exposed everyone .. As educators, we panicked and did what was familiar and safe:  we immediately attempted to recreate our classroom experience using Zoom:  We jumped into Quadrant I / Red box.  I can say that my personal experience with this was a complete disaster.  I know that there are complex reasons why it failed...several major factors that were outside of my control... but even if every student had a properly setup laptop and high speed internet connection... it would have still gone poorly.  I quickly realized that this was NOT a good idea and began shifting to Quadrant III (green) and Quadrant IV (blue).  More and more students engaged as I made those changes.  The few times I attempted lessons in Quadrant I / (red) later in the year, I kept it free form and created opportunities for students to actively discuss/debate ideas instead of trying direct instruction.  

My goal this year is to develop Quadrant II (yellow) in order to engage all kinds of lessons and use Quadrant I for what it is best at and not attempt to shoehorn my 9 years of teaching experience into a Zoom session.  This might be the paradigm that I use for framing my strategy for differentiation...

I still have a few weeks to mull things over...

Summer of 2020

I have to say that Covid-19 quarantine for my family kickstarted "summer" for my family in March.   With both boys home all day and no set schedule other than a few Zoom meetings/classes for my wife (who is also a high school teacher), we settled into what my family enters in the summer: vague timelines and responsibilities... important things to do but no strict schedule to follow.  As a parent, the lack of routine has been quite the challenge for everyone including my 2 year old.  The main difference being...well, anxiety induced by the global pandemic and being stuck inside all the time.

100 days later and... I'm now entering "actual" summer.   It typically takes me a few days to transition but after the longest period of "time is meaningless" I have had in decades... I'm fully prepared to get to work.   I've been blessed with an incredible grant that will support my work for my AP Environmental Class and radically expand my professional goals for next year:

Project 1:  Neponset River Watershed Fieldguide.   I started studying the Neponset River Watershed which I had grand plans for this year,  but like any pilot program, it fell apart for Reasons.   This time, I have a vastly better model that I am going to use from the EL Education website and will be piloting some of the data collection (studying water quality and aquaticinvertebrates) with my stellar math colleague and a rockstar Codman Academy alumnus. Depending on what happens next year, we will create virtual labs and have data that my students will analyze remotely or if possible...actually collect data with them in small groups. 

Project 2: Utila Coral Restoration Research Internship.  Utila, Honduras is on lockdown to prevent Covid-19 from reaching this remote island and so my original plans to Utila Coral Restoration are on hold this summer.  I originally thought all was lost BUT we are going to start the internship remotely via Zoom sessions for the theory classes and then complete the actual internship Summer of 2021.  Even more exciting is that because of Covid-19, we need to really think about what becomes possible instead of only considering how Covid-19 prevents us from accomplishing.  To that end, I will be inviting the Director of UCR to lead lectures via Zoom in my classroom next year on various topics.  I am especially excited to have my heritage Spanish speakers interacting with UCR.  And this gets to my final project for the summer...

Project 3: Anti-racism Lens.   Ibram Kendi has basically rocked my world and completely changed the framing around "racist vs not racist" dichotomy into a new paradigm: "racist + 'not racist' vs 'anti-racist'" dichotomy.  I have continually evolved as a teacher over the past 9 years and... I have the wisdom of experience to know that things have to change as scary as that might because I have become quite comfortable in how I do things.  I have to look closely at my classroom practices and policies with an anti-racist lens.  The answers will likely be really hard to hear but one my first steps is reaching out to my former students and asking them directly: What practices and policies in my classroom were racist?

Year 9 in the books.

I am finishing up Year 9 as a science teacher and I haven't journaled in years... It is a _really_ crazy time right now in terms of a global pandemic happening at the same time as a national BLM movement.   

Auto Shop Class

Watched two of my students J. and T. working in their shop class. Great to see my students in a different environment. Especially J, who is clearly frustrated by our biology class. Mr. C is the main teacher from what I could tell and he clearly loves working with these kids and teaching them about chemistry, physics, and engineering. Must be so much fun letting the kids get their hands dirty, guiding them through new problems, and PRANKING them constantly. They absolutely love and respect him return (unlike this other guy Mr. R who is clearly not the nicest person.) One kid was especially into the work where he was repairing a windshield wiper motor. It must feel so great to be a father figure for all of these kids. Terrible sense of responsibility as well.

Anywhoo. Going to make the effort to see all of my students outside the biology classroom.

Learning students names

Every morning, this teacher demands complete silence from kids in homeroom to do roll call. She then proceeds to call out names (pronouncing many incorrectly). Inevitably, kids start chatting which piss her off and she calls them out about it. Usually in a confrontational style that ends up getting kids defensive. She then tells them to leave the room and/or threaten to not mark them present if they give her attitude.

One particular girl started talking back and asked why this painful process has to happen everyday. Why can't she learn their names?

And the student is totally right. This teacher doesn't even bother to look up when doing roll call to match the name with a face... Instead of spending 15 minutes to learn their names and quickly taking attendance on her own, she has DAILY battles with her students. It boggles the mind... she could at least learn how to pronounce their names correctly. She fails on both accounts. Makes me wonder what kind of teacher she is in her own classroom.

Day 1 Thoughts

We welcomed each student as they walked in, shook their hand, introduced ourselves, and then welcomed them to their seat. I don't have data, but I think it was important to do this because of the message it sends to our students: I care about you as an individual and want to spend a few moments to get to know you. I think school can become a "clock in/clock out" experience and so want to avoid that as much as possible. We'll be working together for an entire year and it's very natural to greet anyone we meet for the first time this way. I know that establishing strong relationships with each student is important and this is just a good way to start off the year. Or so I think...

Our first day of class began with a yellow folder filled with handouts for the first week of school. Given all the "chaos" involved with the first few days of classes...especially without any established routines, this was a huge time saver in the classroom. All handouts are there, nicely organized, and the students have a special place to store their important classroom items. This takes care of any students who are still working on organizational skills and/or have not purchased a binder yet. It also saves time in terms of handing out all the important first class documents. It even gives students something to do/read/think about while class is getting together. I really believe that classroom routines are critical to a smoothly run class... but day 1 has none of that kind of infrastructure. This takes care of a week's worth of handouts. Love love love this and would definitely implement this in my own classroom.

I would like to spend about 1/2 the class on an activity that is science related. I know that it is important to go over classroom routines, academic expectations, and other administrative items, but...I think that developing community and making it clear that this is a SCIENCE class should be established as well. L.N. and I are developing a Day 1 science activity. Nothing special (modified "ID what's in the mystery box" but the hidden purpose will be to go over the scientific method, observation vs inference, and definition of hypothesis...while being a bit of fun for all involved.

Water Lily

Water Lily, Canon 50D, Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L IS, 1/125 f/8, ISO 200, handheld, Chiang Mai,Thailand.