Dawning
Robins voraciously sing outside my living room window. The blinding spring sun plays hide-and-seek behind the fluffiest of white clouds. Daffodils yawn from a long sleep as a row of pink hyacinths peeks for assurance that it is indeed time to bloom.
It is in fact the dawning of spring, and it is truly the dawning of an inevitable twist in learning that most K-12 educators have yet to experience. It is a digital dawning.
My alerts overflowed this week with articles offering free resources, tools, and subscriptions for remote learning: Storylineonline, Khan Academy, PBS Kids, Rosetta Stone, Scholastic, Duolingo, Discovery K-12, Readworks, to name just a few. School districts in different spots across the country were featured in writings to not only prepare the public with their instructional plans but to also inform of the uncertainty of what we as teachers and students will all face in the upcoming weeks as we navigate distance learning.
I have been using Schoology as my classroom platform for two years. I am incredibly comfortable with moving forward to teach my seventh grade ELA students online if I am given that directive. My online graduate studies, especially my current CALL course, have prepared me beyond measure for this unprecedented event. However, it is my students that concern me.
Multiple articles discussed a lack of access to both technology and the Internet. Comcast has stepped up to offer two months of free Internet access to those who qualify. Districts are scrambling to collect data from home surveys regarding technology and Internet access. Teachers and cafeteria workers are joining bus drivers to simultaneously deliver lunches, home devices, and hot spots to individual students.
And then there is the EL. Considering the lack of English support at home, designing learning for the remainder of the year will be both challenging and fun. The challenging part exists in covering the remaining standards and curricular requirements. The fun lives in knowing that we as educators can finally put into practice all that we have been training for in our courses and professional development sessions. We can fully implement our ingenuity to personalize learning, to incorporate MALL, to include multi-modal platforms and Web 2.0 tools, to create authentic learning experiences, and to make learning as engaging and enjoyable in this very precarious and frightening time.
Learning will not be perfect, and it will involve constant relearning and modifying. Rolling with uncertainty with communal compassion is our current mantra. As we progress toward teaching through technology, our efforts will only be successful with a balance of understanding, creativity, and flexibility. I am more than excited to embark on this uncharted journey with my students.
It is in fact the dawning of spring, and it is truly the dawning of an inevitable twist in learning that most K-12 educators have yet to experience. It is a digital dawning.
My alerts overflowed this week with articles offering free resources, tools, and subscriptions for remote learning: Storylineonline, Khan Academy, PBS Kids, Rosetta Stone, Scholastic, Duolingo, Discovery K-12, Readworks, to name just a few. School districts in different spots across the country were featured in writings to not only prepare the public with their instructional plans but to also inform of the uncertainty of what we as teachers and students will all face in the upcoming weeks as we navigate distance learning.
I have been using Schoology as my classroom platform for two years. I am incredibly comfortable with moving forward to teach my seventh grade ELA students online if I am given that directive. My online graduate studies, especially my current CALL course, have prepared me beyond measure for this unprecedented event. However, it is my students that concern me.
Multiple articles discussed a lack of access to both technology and the Internet. Comcast has stepped up to offer two months of free Internet access to those who qualify. Districts are scrambling to collect data from home surveys regarding technology and Internet access. Teachers and cafeteria workers are joining bus drivers to simultaneously deliver lunches, home devices, and hot spots to individual students.
And then there is the EL. Considering the lack of English support at home, designing learning for the remainder of the year will be both challenging and fun. The challenging part exists in covering the remaining standards and curricular requirements. The fun lives in knowing that we as educators can finally put into practice all that we have been training for in our courses and professional development sessions. We can fully implement our ingenuity to personalize learning, to incorporate MALL, to include multi-modal platforms and Web 2.0 tools, to create authentic learning experiences, and to make learning as engaging and enjoyable in this very precarious and frightening time.
Learning will not be perfect, and it will involve constant relearning and modifying. Rolling with uncertainty with communal compassion is our current mantra. As we progress toward teaching through technology, our efforts will only be successful with a balance of understanding, creativity, and flexibility. I am more than excited to embark on this uncharted journey with my students.
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