I don't know about you, but when I first heard we would be teaching virtually, I have to admit- I was frozen. I had no idea where to begin and what I needed to do first. My mind was racing trying to figure out how I was going to continue teaching my littles online. We went home for spring break and never came back. I am thankful that we had already been through most of the year together. We had built our relationships and taught most of the concepts for Kindergarten, so that was a relief. I was AMAZED by all the educators and education online programs that came together to support each other and how we faced the challenge and learned so much in the process!! So many companies offered services and websites for free to help us through it. I will say that I did feel so many emotions during this - wanting more for the kids, sad they missed all the fun end of the year activities, worried for the families knowing it was hard on them. Just so many thoughts and big feelings throughout- not even counting the stress and exhaustion we all felt.
BUT through it all, we conquered it and overcame our obstacles. I was so proud of my littles and their families, and we all worked together! I can honestly say it was a success!
Now, the uncertainty remains. We do not know how we will begin the year. Will it be in person, virtual, or the start date moved to after Labor Day? So many questions.
I am doing my best to plan for anything. I am such a planner by nature, so the unknown is not my favorite!
We were told we were starting our year with virtual learning, and we have to be ready to plan for both most likely. Once we can return to school, parents will have a choice if they want their children to learn virtually or in person. They will be able to change their decision at the end of each quarter. I am not sure yet how I will manage teaching online and in person, but that is a work in progress!
My Top 10 for Distance Learning: What Worked for Me
I think it is important to reflect on what worked the last months of school and decide what made this time successful. It was definitely a learning process and still is!
1. SEESAW: I had seen this platform before but really didn't know much about it before we started distance learning. Over spring break, I learned as much as I could about it and LOVED it!! First off, their training is amazing. They offer free training called PD in your PJs. There is so much on this for beginners to more experienced users. I knew I wanted to continue using this in my classroom when we return to school. Here are some reasons I love Seesaw...
*It's user friendly for the kids and parents
*I could differentiate easily with my students - different books and activities can be assigned to certain students.
*The kids had choices in how to respond or complete the activities. They could add text, upload a photo to show their work, make a video, and speak with the microphone to explain their answers. They LOVED doing this. I had several of my quieter students really enjoy using the microphone or video!
*It's easy to add links to videos or upload pdfs or google docs
*With the premium or school version, you can schedule assignments which is wonderful!
*SEESAW BLOG- amazing way to connect and give them the sense of community! They missed each other so much. I did choose the option to not see everyone's work in this situation, but they added to the blog to share their writing or record a morning meeting video. I asked them a question 3 days a week and they could respond by video. In the blog, they can look at their friends' posts and comment by text or voice. I HIGHLY recommend using Seesaw for distance learning or in the classroom!
2. READ ALOUDS: This is one of my favorite times of the day in school! They loved listening to books each day, and I did not want to give that up. I started recording videos of myself reading aloud and posted them to youtube as private. On private, only the people who have the link can see it. Sometimes they would respond if I asked questions about the book, and sometimes it was just for fun. I highly encourage you to continue reading to them. They love it!
I used my phone, and I bought a ring light tripod stand on amazon for better lighting and to hold my phone steady. This is the one I purchased on Amazon. Here is the link if interested.
3. RAZ-PLUS: This was a life saver!! I already had Reading A to Z, so this was a free add on during distance learning. There are SO many great readers on this site!! I was able to continue with their leveled readers and assign them each week, and many were moved up to the next level after talking with parents and students. There is an option for the book to be read to them, but I decided to record myself reading their leveled books, so they could follow along with my voice. They could also turn down my voice and read on their own. There are comprehension assessments as well they can take after reading the book. I absolutely love this website!
Epic was another fun site my kids loved!! There are so many books on there to enjoy!
4. SCREENCASTIFY: I know there are several apps for this, but I used Screenscastify a lot to record my screen. There are so many great options to use as well. It was so easy to use for recording and then upload directly to youtube. I got the upgrade so that I could edit my videos as needed. This is what I used to record reading their leveled books.
5. BRAIN BREAKS: These were so fun to assignm and the kids loved them. I usually chose 2 each week, and they could watch it any time. My favorites were Cosmic Kids Yoga and Jack Hartmann or GoNoodle. I usually chose one based on our theme for that week. For example, if we were reading a pirate book, then I chose pirate songs. These were a hit! I even had some parents jumping in the videos with their kids on Go Noodle! They even recorded themselves doing it, and we uploaded them to our blog. Of course, the kids were thrilled!
6. WORD PROBLEM OF THE DAY: I really tried to keep everything consistent and close to our usual routine. We have a word problem of the day every day in school, so I continued this with distance learning. For the word problems, they work on so many skills! They were addition and subtraction using a lot of our sight words, and they wrote the addition or subtraction sentence to solve it. This is available in my TpT store if interested. It is a digital resource that can be uploaded in Seesaw.
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| Link to this resource on TpT |
7. DOCUMENT CAMERA & LOOM (for Writing and Math): The document camera is a must have!! I used this for recording a lot for math lessons and writing mini lessons. I could add the direct link to their assignment in Seesaw.
For writing, I would choose a mini lesson to work on each week. For example, I wanted them to work more on adding detail. I recorded myself writing a story and modeling adding detail to the pictures I drew and my writing. Then, they had the week to practice and work on adding detail in their writing. They also shared their writing during the week by posting a photo of it or reading it aloud in a video. We like to share our writing in the Author's Chair in school, so they were able to continue this through the blog. The other students could comment on each other's posts.
8. MATH ONLINE TOOLS: There are so many math tools through this web app to use when recording lessons or even teaching on Zoom by sharing the screen. It was SO helpful! We were learning time, so I did several activities using this site to record my screen showing different times on the clock. I would pause when asking them to tell the time on the clock so they could try to figure it out before I showed them the answer (this felt a little strange like Dora asking questions but it worked), Go to Math apps and click HERE to see all the online tools. They have number lines, ten frames, geoboard, pattern shapes, clocks, money, etc. You can do so much with this!
This is an example of how I used the clock. I used Screencastify to record as I moved the hands of the clock. You can choose geared hands or free moving hands. I would write the times and then move the hands to show the time on the clock. After working on this, I added pages from this resource to their Seesaw for more practice.
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| Link here to this resource if interested |
9. PRINTABLE PDFs: My students LOVE making crafts to go along with the books we read, and there are many sight word and handwriting activities parents wanted them doing with a pencil and not having all work online. Most of my parents had a printer and were able to print the work. For those that didn't, I uploaded the activities in Seesaw, and they could complete the work there. Some chose to write it in a spiral or paper at home which works well, too. I didn't always want to send ALL the pages in a document, so I found this easy trick to save certain pages to a folder to send home.
*Click print
*Select the pages you want to send
*Click Microsoft Print to PDF
*Choose a folder to save the PDF
I had a folder for their weekly plan, sight word work, and crafts and titled it with the date of the week I was sending it. This made it so easy to send everything in the folder each week!
10. WEEKLY LESSON PLAN (for parents/ families): I sent home a plan for the week every Sunday. I tried to keep it very simple, but it was very helpful for the parents to know what to expect. I created mine in google slides and saved it as a pdf to send to them. I did not add a lot of detail, but I wanted them to have a home learning plan to show what we would be covering that week. This is an example of my plan. If you would like a copy of the google doc, here is the link. You will need to make a copy to edit as needed.
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Utvbp4p3m0HjLWYAtlGZNJY84rh6SvbnoIshDzLEBns/copy
I hope all of this was helpful!! Please let me know what has worked for you. I would love to hear about it! As of now, we are going back virtually until Labor Day, but that could change as we get closer to September.
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