HERE COMES CHANGE
[ready or not]
In the midst of all this [sudden] digital teaching, a friend reached out to me looking for help navigating this new terrain.
**background... Before retiring 2 years ago, I taught at a 1:1 school and virtually all of my assignments were digital.**
I asked her what platform she used.
“Zoom?” She questioned, unsure.
“Zoom is a platform to meet with your students and have a live discussion but it’s not a platform for assigning and collecting student work,” I added.
In essence, the small private school she works at does not have such a platform. She had been improvising and using Dropbox to collect work. Great problem-solving! Since she had already stated that, I wouldn’t suggest changing to Google Classroom. Had I had the conversation earlier, I would have. Google Classroom is your friend :) Or even setting up a blog... any way to interact and provide hyperlinks and attachments can do.
I’m sure NOT having a digital platform/whiteboard is the majority of cases. Most schools are NOT digital. My public school district, however, uses Canvas. And when I say that, I mean it’s available but few teachers actually use it as it is intended. Side note: I literally got a text from a former colleague asking for help and I just couldn’t. It had been too long to walk someone through it without having it right in front of me.
Back to Private School Teacher-Friend. She told me she was sending home questions for the kids to answer about the book they left off reading before this COVID-19 break and the kids are sending back a photo of their answers.
I said, “Why not send a link from Survey Monkey? You can make your questions, literally on the phone app, and send the survey link to your class (parents). The kids can type the answers on ANY device!”
A few minutes later she had her first “test survey” done, sent it to me, I answered and she got an immediate response.
BOOM!
No. More. Worksheets.
I’ll keep you posted on how it impacts her teaching and student interaction!
Post your questions in the comments or to the story on my FB Page. Try out a survey I quickly made!
Digitally yours,
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