Distance Learning: How I Am Managing.....SO FAR

Now that we are on Week 3 of this new normal of distance learning, I thought I would share what is working for me, just in case it might work for you too.

To be 100% honest, I am NO expert at this.  I am probably the farthest from an expert there is.   I have had my fair share of meltdowns and setbacks.  But what I have done this past week really helped me to reign in that feeling of disorder and chaos that was haunting me.  

To begin the week, I was working at my dining room table.  The same one as my own three children.  The same one where so much other chaos was going on.  I did my very first lesson on Zoom and it was just a nightmare for me.  I was looking around for things, standing up and sitting down to get to my wall to write on the chart paper I had put there, showing books in my makeshift doc camera....it was a literal mess.  I was a mess.  Everything was a mess.  I left that first meeting feeling like I would NEVER EVER teach anyone anything because it was just a mess.

So I regrouped that night.  I remembered that I had an easel, intended for my niece, that I never returned from Christmas.  I put it together, set up a small space in my living room and created a complete space that was just mine to teach from. 

This was a GAME CHANGER.

Once I had my own space, I felt like I could breathe.  I felt like I had more control.  I felt like less of a mess.

I then decided to break my Zoom lessons up.  I dedicated TWO 30 minute blocks a day to the tech.  One for language arts and one for math.  Each block I had set up on my Google Classroom with the code for the kids to access.  I put the codes up at the top of the Classwork tab with a heading so the kids always know where to access them. 

During my lessons, I have been doing short, to the point teaching.  This week, I focused on cause and effect and polygons.  We had a short lesson, I assigned them something to do (either in their book or on a template I made for something) and they were off.    Doing lessons this way has made both the kids and I feel productive.  I am actually teaching something and they are actually learning something.  It isn't as indepth as we might find in the classroom, but it honestly isn't that far off.  The lessons are just more focused, sharp, and to the point.  No fluff.  No filler.  Just content.

Some things I have done during language arts:

Paragraph of the Week (you can get a free week here.  This is different than the free ones here!)

Read on Epic (they are offering free access for teachers and students now)

Read Aloud

Work on Cause and Effect (I will blog about that next so you can get those digital files if you need them)

Some things I have done during math:

Spiral math review (you can pick up some free digital weeks for 3rd, 4th, and 5th)

Go over math pages in our book

Angle Search (I will blog about that soon)

Create a Polygon Person (I will blog about that soon too)

Breaking up the language arts and the math has been so so so good for me too.  Again, things are short and to the point.  Nothing drags out.  I get to see the kids twice and they really are coming back for both lessons.  They use the time in between to work on things and take breaks.  It seemingly has made this distance school seem more like real school for them.  

After each lesson, I write down what we did and who was missing, just to keep track of it all.  Here is the form I am using for now.  I'm sure it will change over time, but it is working for me.  

Then, throughout the day, I check in on them working.  I have stopped checking to see if it is done though.  That was driving me crazy.  The lack of control I have over whether they actual do it was maddening.  So I have learned to let that go and just help them with what they do have.  I give feedback where they are and have stopped expecting immediate completeness.  The work is getting done.  Not necessarily on MY timeline, but it is getting finished on some sort of timeline.  The assignments are basically the same daily, so that has helped us all keep organized too.  

OK.  So that is what is working for me RIGHT NOW.  This will probably change as distance learning evolves.  But for now, I am a million times less stressed than I was earlier in this process.

How are things going for you?  What is working for you right now?