Here we sit usually setting up our classroom for the coming year. If you are like us, you might be in limbo with what is to come this year. Today's episode seeks to discuss things we can do NOW even though we are approaching the unkNOWn. We are both in two different places with our plan to return to school. I am beginning with a soft start to ease the students into the protocols of the new world. I will then be providing instruction for all in-person learners. About a third of my normal amount of students will be learning virtually under the instruction of a virtual-only teacher. Luke is in a hybrid situation where he plans and provides virtual instruction and sees the kids once a week in person in a block like schedule. He is instructing students who are in that hybrid and those who have chosen all virtual learning. Regardless of our approach we are entering a world not like the spring. Our instruction, rather than being an emergency, will be more like the experience we would provide in every other year. As we often do, the focus will be on social emotional needs first and curriculum second. No matter what model you are flowing in and out of, we discuss somethings that you can do now. Health First Curriculum has to be secondary in classroom. Health and wellness and student relationship is really number one. To tackle the biggest issue we suggest blue light glasses or, even better, a blue light filter extension. This is not new science but it one of those things that is easy to say that it is not that big of a deal. I've attended so many professional development sessions that mention the detrimental effects of screen time on the eyes and thus the brain. The effects of blue light research is relatively new. In my research to understand this phenomenon I learned quite a bit about it. It, like other colors in the visible spectrum, is good for you. However much like fluorescent bulbs digital screens emit more of the blue light portion of the spectrum. (Harvard article) In our hybrid or all digital world we naturally will be using an inordinate amount of screen time. We are limiting the distribution of paper and will likely be communicating with our students (and them with each other) on a screen. We need to be conscience of potentially limiting our screen use and also lessening the exposure to blue light. Blue light glasses or a blue light filter extension on your computer could be the solution. Blue light glasses might be the answer. You might also use an extension on Google Chrome. (see suggestions here) Social Emotional Needs We need to be sure that the "getting to know you" part of the school year is not lost in the virtual start. I begin the year with a written dialogue with my students. Inside their name tent there is an opportunity to converse with me over the first three days (see template here). This has been invaluable and I would fear losing this. This personal dialogue can be easily replicated over the computer. Flipgrid is perfect for this opportunity and should be at the top of your list. Padlet, too, could be a forum to have students get to know one another when taking turns on a Zoom just would be too chaotic. Not lost as well would be an activity from TwoTeachersPodcast Episode 1: Teacher 2.0. This could be easily replicated in the digital world. Again, Padlet would be a great place for this. An additional step I took this year was to create a word cloud with the things the students want in a teacher. Give it a listen, you won't be disappointed. Remote learning 101 has all of your answers too. Matt Miller from Ditch that Textbook created this free online course for teachers. You can find that here. And much like everything produced by Matt Miller, this course is teaching gold. Digitize your Classroom This could be a bitmoji classroom but Luke and I enjoy a digital syllabus. What we don't want lost is replicating the classroom experience and a hub for resources.
