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I should probably have started with this post, but here goes… I was wondering about how others are arranging their learning platforms and organizing the day-to-day virtual classroom set-up for their students. I would love to hear about other peoples’ tips and tricks in due course. Here is my basic set-up:
We are a Google school, so have been using Goolge Classroom for a few years which has made the transition to hybrid learning relatively straightforward. I like that many of the Apps are easily integrated and students can login using their school gmail accounts.
Beyond this, since we are working on a trimester, cohorted schedule, I see one set of students for 3 weeks at a time, 2-3 full days per week before swapping to a second cohort, for the next 3 weeks and so on. This means that we get through A LOT of content in a short period – I am currently half way through the 2 courses I teach this term (they will be completed by Winter Break). So, I have found a few simple things to be really helpful for students both in school and online:
- Posting a daily schedule so that students know what is coming up during each session of the day
- Numbering everything by day eg. Day 7 – we are currently up to Day 9 of 17
- Using a Google Sheet as a Group Tracker – each day, I randomly assign students to pairs, or 3s for note taking and other activities. This is posted in the Administration section on classroom so that we can find it easily
- Mostly, I allow students to make notes in shared docs in their pairs or 3s – this helps with accountability and collaboration during different learning phases. If they don’t understand something, they can quickly and discretely help each other out without having to call out on the mic, or in the chat box
- I created a Notes Website for each student using Google Sites. I own the site and they are editors, so that they build a virtual binder including copies of all their docs and assignments each day – each topic, I do a quick ‘tick and flick’ formative assessment to check that everything is complete and then provide feedback using this rubric. I add the relevant overall curriculum expectations to the K/U section for each unit as appropriate
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1id-3_eO5WUeFZJsp4010gZwm72cqZq4t7z4RFEzzDv8/edit?usp=sharing
The nice thing is that now all this is up and running, we all know the rhythm of the day and I can keep tabs on what students are doing whenever I want. This really helps with engagement because they know that I may do a random spot check during a quiet work period on any given day. Having just completed progress reports after knowing students for all of 3 weeks, it also helped me determine learning skills more accurately than I would have purely based on observation and formal assessment.
It would be great to hear what is working for other people so far too.
Thanks,
Laura