[Hank 91]

Thanks for all this. It's interesting to see the similarities. We were notified at 10:30am on Friday that we'd be closed until April 20th, so there was essentially zero time to prepare. I wasn't even able to talk to my first period class about it, for example. Even though it was abrupt, it obviously wasn't a surprise, so I've been thinking for a couple weeks about what this would look like.

The good news is that my seventh grade students have done a lot of digital and on-line work with me, all stuff to supplement what we do in the classroom. So at least we're all used to the different platforms. I use Google Classroom, which has become fairly standard, but my favorite addition this year -- and I'm so grateful that I added it -- is FlipGrid. It's a platform that allows me to post videos, five minutes or shorter, for my classes to watch and then respond to with their own videos. So I can give them mini-lessons to explain curriculum, and they can still see my face and hear my voice. 

The big problem in our district, however, is that not all of our students have the same advantages that mine do. There are families on the other side of town who don't have wifi, for example. There was even concern that some parents would still send their kids to school this morning because word hadn't gotten to them about the closure. For most of us that's hard to believe or understand, but some families are truly that isolated.

To combat this, there are plans to have students or parents come to the schools to pick up work and turn it in later, but right now we still haven't gotten any concrete plans about this. We're trying to flatten this curve, our learning curve, as well.

Finally, if anyone here has a middle school student and you think I can answer any questions or help you with any curriculum, please message me. I'd be happy to help. Oh, and later this week I'm going to post a Hiatus Reading List. I'll post a link here for anyone interested.

[Hank 91]

Thanks for all this. It's interesting to see the similarities. We were notified at 10:30am on Friday that we'd be closed until April 20th, so there was essentially zero time to prepare. I wasn't even able to talk to my first period class about it, for example. Even though it was abrupt, it obviously wasn't a surprise, so I've been thinking for a couple weeks about what this would look like.

The good news is that my seventh grade students have done a lot of digital and on-line work with me, all stuff to supplement what we do in the classroom. So at least we're all used to the different platforms. I use Google Classroom, which has become fairly standard, but my favorite addition this year -- and I'm so grateful that I added it -- is FlipGrid. It's a platform that allows me to post videos, five minutes or shorter, for my classes to watch and then respond to with their own videos. So I can give them mini-lessons to explain curriculum, and they can still see my face and hear my voice. 

The big problem in our district, however, is that not all of our students have the same advantages that mine do. There are families on the other side of town who don't have wifi, for example. There was even concern that some parents would still send their kids to school this morning because word hadn't gotten to them about the closure. For most of us that's hard to believe or understand, but some families are truly that isolated.

To combat this, there are plans to have students or parents come to the schools to pick up work and turn it in later, but right now we still haven't gotten any concrete plans about this. We're trying to flatten this curve, our learning curve, as well.

Finally, if anyone here has a middle school student and you think I can answer any questions or help you with any curriculum, please message me. I'd be happy to help. Oh, and later this week I'm going to post a Hiatus Reading List. I'll post a link here for anyone interested.