Week FOUR - The Flipped Classroom Experiment

    As many of you know I have decided to go back to school and get my second master's degree in Education Technology Leadership. I am learning a lot about what it means to be a digital leader, and the lessons are definitely relevant to teaching during these unprecedented times!  Last week's lesson centered around the flipped classroom. Watching the videos inspired me to try some flipped lessons, thinking that this would help my virtual learners as well as my f2f learners.   I think they went alright, and the students seemed engaged. However, there is definitely reoom for improvement.  Flipping the lessons not only allowed me to walk around and answer questions, but it also allowed time for me to check on my virtual learners to ensure that they wwere getting the attention they needed as well. I will definitely be flipping more lessons next week. 

    This week, our AVID tutors started coming. I will have virtual and face-to-face tutors, and I have been doing a lot of reading on what tutoring is going to look like. We played a great get-to-know-you came called Drawasaurus. It is basically a digital pictionary game. The tutors created private rooms for our students to join, and  I mixed up the f2f students with the virtual students. It was great! I jumped back and forth from room to room so I could monitor what was going on, and everyone was engaged! It was great to see the virtual kids and tutors getting to interact with the f2f students and tutors. This experience really inspired me to find more activities that will engage all of my learners and facilitate true collaboration. 

Week THREE - Settling in

     Teaching in the "classeteria" has been great so far. The students and I are getting into a routine, and I think they are really liking AVID! One of my goals this year is to connect more with my students, so I have committed to using Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) strategies in my lessons. The one I have started with as a bellringer is a question of the day. As the students come in, they get out their chromebooks and answer the question of the day. After roll, we then go over their answers, which has sparked some great conversation. This has provided me with opportunities to share my own answers with them. I am amazed at how much I have in common with my students! 

   With tutoring starting up this next week, I am making it mandatory for my virtual students to log into the Google Meet for their class period. I am hoping that I will be able to connect with more of my virtual students. It is one thing to read their responses and grade thier work. it is quite another thing to get to talk to them and see their faces. I am also hoping that by requiring my virtual students to log in, they will be able to make connections with my face-to-face students. 

    This pandemic has definitely changed the way I think about education and what I must do to reach my ALL of my students. I am working every day to come up with ways to engage them and bring them together. I would love to hear your ideas! What you doing to reach your virtual students and help them connect with their F2F classmates? I look forward to reading your comments below!