We have done the unthinkable; almost a whole term of connected learning with the end still not in sight. As I look back on a term like no other, this is what I remember…
When lockdown and connected learning started we were more prepared and were able to jump straight back into it without as much anxiety or stress. The chaos of the beginning of the 2020 lockdown/connected learning saw us scrambling to put activities together to send out to families. This time we had activities banked, we had tested and tried timetables to suit the needs of our students and we got straight back into it.
However, we ensured that we were continuing to communicate with our families to receive feedback and make updates to suit the needs of our students.
One thing new for the SOF this term has been daily class zooms. These started off as 20 min check ins with one focus of learning. As the term progressed, and after receiving feedback, we extended these to 45 mins with more of a focus on an aspect of learning for the day. I’m not going to lie, I was hesitant and a little nervous when this was first announced. I already felt like a circus performer trying every trick in the book to keep these 6/7 year olds engaged for 20 mins so when I was told I would have to do the same for more than double the time it had me go back to the drawing board. What I realised was that I was already doing a lot of great stuff, I could just give myself the time to do them well and to not rush the kids through wellbeing activities or learning tasks. Currently my class zooms look something like this:
- Song and welcome with a slide showcasing great student work
2. Zoom Expectations & The roll
3. Feeling check ins
4. Something I introduced last week to help with focus/engagement was a special codeword. When they hear the codeword they have to unmute themselves and say the response and it can happen at any time…
5. Sometimes we go through a smaller activity like the spelling rule or we talk about a work sample from the previous lesson. So we have what you could call a “minor” learning focus
6. Then we have a stretch break! This is just a short 1 or 2 minute clip that gives students a chance to stand and stretch – just like their very own mini brain break
7. Then it’s time for the main learning focus of the day. As a stage we choose one activity to teach each day, this is usually an English or Maths focus. I usually do some teaching around the core topic, go through their corresponding seesaw activity and then have a bit of group practice.
8. Then it’s break out room time! – This has looked different across the week and kids have really loved talking in small groups with some of their classmates. I have let them choose a friend or two and then I have created groups but I am also trialling letting zoom “automatically” sort them to see how that goes too. A learning for me with breakout rooms was that I forgot to reintroduce social skills to the students at the start and we had some issues with students not feeling heard as they all started talking over each other at once. So I introduced breakout expectations which we read before every breakout room today. In the breakout rooms we have done things like news days and discussion topics. Last week I introduced some challenges, the up close photos “What could this be?” has been my favourite so far. Some of their creative answers have been great!
9. I then finish with some time at the end for anyone to stay back and ask questions or if it’s a tricky task I will offer an extra explanation/teaching of the focus task for the day.
So that’s my recipe of zoom. There are so many other elements of our work that I could have spoken to but this has been one of the bigger learning curves for me this term.
Stay tuned for my changing recipe as we undoubtedly are all in this together for a little while longer…