Here We Are, Remote Learning.

At the time of writing this post, some schools have already finished the academic school year. I teach in a NYC Public School and we are not finished until the end of June. When Remote or “Distant” Learning slowly became the new norm, I started out enthusiastic about this new experience. I immediately began creating tools that would help me organize this new system that I knew would quickly become both challenging and exhausting. Since we, as in instructors and students, are now learning from a distance, the most important piece of information I knew I needed to record on a daily basis was evidence of my communication with both students and families. Yes, lesson delivery, student work and completion are also important, but I knew that staying in touch with families were the utmost important. So I created a remote learning communication tracker. I later reformed it to include communication with students and any important updates worth recording. Finally, I added a tab for adding links to resources and assignment completion.

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I have four trackers I created during this remote learning process. So far they’ve been life savers for myself and my team. Some of you have been asking about them so I finally got them uploaded. I hope they are helpful for you as well!

A post shared by LaShay Mamuya (@allthingsteachrm321) on Mar 24, 2020 at 12:54pm PDT

Prior to creating the tracker, I needed to organize the work students would complete at home, in a simple, easy-on-the-eyes, way. So I put together a Student Remote Learning Plan, and shared it with my internet family right away to support any teachers navigating this new reality. You can download this file for free!

In this plan, I outlined all the work students needed to complete each day, and how much it was worth in terms of their grades. Students could also hold themselves accountable by initially when they finished their assignment for the day. Once remote learning actually took effect, I found that students had less questions and found the organizer very useful. I also realized I was giving too much work, so I slowed it down and made changes to the document that lived in their Google Classroom.

There is so much unpredictability about what the future holds in this new realm of COVID-19 and what education will look like. Some schools may start in the Fall of 20-21 still remote, and others have found a safe system for their buildings. In any event, one underlying experience that will never change, are the multiple ways we can teach our students, and hold them accountable.

During this time, I have used an application called ShowMe that allows you to voice record a lesson and upload it to students. The application also allows you to upload the recordings via Google Classroom. I love that kids can pause the videos and they can come back to the videos as often as necessary. I also love that it is me on the video, it is my voice, not a Khan Academy or YouTube Instructor. The methods and ways of learning I have taught, still have value because I am delivering the content, and it is accessible anytime, even though we are all physically remote. Providing access to resources like Khan academy, I strongly felt, would be pushing away my students from they way I have taught them and at the same time, slowly diminish the relationship and rapport I built with my student throughout the year. ShowMe was more than just giving the kids instruction, it was also the glue holding my relationships together.

We are all awaiting what the future holds. Until then, we will continue to do what we do best. Adapt, teach, and keep adapting! Updates to this tracker, and any of my trackers are free! Stay updated.