Due to the Covid 19 Lockdown we have spent the past 2 weeks teaching online from home. To begin with it was much more difficult that I thought it would be. This was mainly because although I had been using my Class Site with my class for over a year, I realised that I rely a lot of being able to talk to the site when instructing the students on what to do.
I had some feedback from parents that they and their child were feeling a little bit our of their depth with all of the linking, sharing and storing documents. I took this feed back on board and started to use a lot more screen castify videos. Previously I had been going through my class site during my class hangout but my doing it through a video it allows me to add more detail and more importantly students and their whanau can rewind and watch the instructions in their own time. I am able to explain other things as they come up with whanau as well using screen castify. Initially, I felt very self conscious about making videos but in these circumstances it is necessary and now I dont worry about it. I can tell that it is working as well as I am getting much fewer questions and confusion.
I find the process really simple and it is something that I will definitely continue using it even when school returns to normal.
The challenging thing I am finding is creating tasks that are simple to follow but that will cater to the wide range of learning needs and levels with in my class. I have started to introduce a few more leveled tasks this week and I try to add extension tasks where I can as well.
I have been really impressed with how well our class has connected through Google Hangouts/meet and it is great to chat with the class via chat. It is interesting how some students feel more confident communicating in this way compared to face to face. Some of my relationships with students are improving by working this way.
I still find it challenging to meet the diverse needs of all of our whanau but communication is key and this experience has definitely has a positive impact on my communication lines with families (something I always find challenging). I think the biggest positive outcome from this experience will be that parents have a better understanding of school expectations and how and what their children are learning. It would be great if this experience lead to some accelerated progress from some students.
