Going Slow

Our first day of virtual learning in the 2020-2021 school year went very well today. There weren't too many technical troubles and my kids showed up when I needed them too. I didn't have a ton of downtime in between classes. When I made my schedule, I built it so there are little bits here and there for kids to work on things (to make sure they actually work on their stuff) bookended by minilessons. That also gives me a chance to meet one on one with students if needed. That's what I did during those breaks today. 

The 5-6th graders and I are done with class at noon. They still have math with Mr. E at 12:30, but their school day ends at 1:30. I still have class with the 7-8th graders from 12:30-1:30, so pretty much everyone's school day ends at 1:30. Nice. Then, even if I have things to wrap up or get ready for the next day after school, I can still get my tasks accomplished and leave school at a decent time! It's great! 

Class with the 7-8th graders was a little slow going today. Some of them couldn't figure out how to raise their hands via Teams, then no one muted themselves and they talked over everyone else. I joined the call with two computers so I could share my screen and see them at the same time (that was a brilliant idea!), but when I muted everyone, it muted both my computers too. So it took me a while to figure out which computer I wanted to unmute/get to that button on the screen. Meanwhile, all of this is being recorded because one of the 7th graders wanted to be able to rewatch it just in case he missed filling something out on the worksheet. Sigh. 

There were quite a few times I wanted to pull my hair out trying to get all the 7-8th graders on the same page with the worksheet. We're doing Punnett Squares, which at first seems complicated. Each question had a bunch of steps that I wanted to be done in order so they would get used to doing it, so it was important that everyone follow along. Eventually everyone was where they needed to be and we made it through all but two of the problems. I assigned one as homework and we'll do the last one together in class Friday. Whew! 

Now I'm off to help Pastor figure out how to share his chapel video...