A Shared Space -Kathy Risolvo

This is the space in my house that I call the office. I originally thought to set it up as a quiet space where I could do some serious writing. But the purpose of this space, just like almost everything else in the past 7 months, changed almost over night. I grabbed an old white board and repurposed an old desk lamp and it became a virtual classroom. This is a common story from the homes of educators across the country. But this “classroom” has a twist. Some days it was my classroom and some days it was my mom’s classroom. On days when I had to go into school and my ten year old son had classes from home, my mom came and set up in this space. Today when she left, it hit me...this was an amazing time that we all got to share. My mom and Giuseppe got to share lunches and recess together. I got to come home and swap stories of remote learning with her. And the puppy would run to greet her each morning. The past few months have been a roller coaster of emotions and I couldn’t be happier to have shared some incredible moments with my colleague and mom. Thanks, mom, you are the best!

Also, take some time to look at this picture and you will see what a day in the world of remote learning is... complete with a cucumber left from a fifth grade scavenger hunt. Not pictured are the bags that transferred each of our teaching supplies or the notes left for eachother or the Kahoot that Giuseppe made for us to play at the end of the day to learn more about one another.

Adapting to our new digital world-Theresa Coomer

 As I hear my phone alarm starting to fill the air with an annoying siren sound, I switch my focus to the Zoom application on the computer. I gently push the STOP on my phone. I still have five minutes until class starts. I navigate my computer browser to open up the cornucopia of pages I will need this afternoon. My school email pops up with three new messages, which I instinctively opened to see if there was something I could attend to right away. They all could wait. Next I pull up my google drive which I store all the worksheets for class. I move the mouse cursor over the many folders created to organize my vast array of digital resources. I open up the presentation folder and find the one for October 19, 2020. I now use my google slides how I used to use my whiteboard. I set the Zoom meeting to start, but I keep myself muted and the video off as I complete my class setup. I then set my phone to join the meeting so that I have quality video and audio to teach with. I plug in my headphones to the phone, which has a built in microphone. Last night I spent an hour browsing Amazon and Best Buy looking at lighting contraptions, wireless headsets that sit comfortable on my ears for long periods of time, and cameras that have tracking features so it will follow me if I walk around my “classroom”/library/nursery. I put things on a wishlist. Maybe next paycheck I can order something from my list. For now, my production equipment will have to do, but it does anchor me to a location, mostly sitting at the desk in front of the desktop computer. Soon I will be trained on the PBIS app and now would be the time to get that opened. My days are filled with a variety of virtual connections and this training will join that list. A few requests to be admitted into the Zoom meeting pop up and I turn on the video and audio to greet my students. I start the screen share on the desktop to have the slideshow presentation. Today I have four students who are learning remotely, which means repeating the instructions to start class a couple of times as students get logged in to the Zoom meeting. The majority of students are in the classroom with a proctor. I put the start of day question up in the slideshow to get the students engaged right away, and get the business procedures of class completed. Attendance is a new process. It is a combination of easily checking off the names of the remote learners and a guessing game of identifying students from a tiny screen with masks on. Fortunately there are only 15 kids, and they are cooperative. Now it is time for sharing our discussion question. Students line up so that they can speak into the microphone set up at the front of class and those at home click the hand raised button. There is word that the students are getting their own devices for class, I am hoping for chrome books, but will settle for iPads. Until this year, the school has shared a few class sets of devices that needed to be reserved weeks in advance. Once the new devices arrive, new procedures and protocols will accompany them. But that is a problem for another moment, for now, the art of making it work with what I have, a skill I have cultivated from years of teaching in limited time and resources situations, continues. The lesson is presented with changing slides and links to open documents. All the while students are lined up with questions for clarification. Before I know it my alarm is ringing to remind me to wrap things up. I need to remember to charge my Applewatch to get a less disruptive signal to wrap up class. I give my regular salutations to my class and end the Zoom session. I then do click the google classroom tab to upload the slideshow, adjust due dates and check in a few assignments. I follow up on the emails from earlier. Then I turn off my monitor and turn my attention to prepping dinner.

 

Teaching during a global pandemic has put the necessity of technology in the field of education in the forefront of every administrator and teacher’s mind. Since my induction into the profession of education, technology has been a well discussed topic as our world continues to develop into the digital landscape. However, tech can cost money and time to train on, which is in scarce supply. So, we tend to use the methods we have learned works and does not need a major shift in our teaching. But, as they say, necessity breeds innovation, so went the job of teaching in the spring of 2020.