First Week of Virtual School!

Well, I just wrapped up week one of virtual school. It wasn't perfect, but it wasn't horrible. I tried some new things and some things went really well.

The BEST decision I made was to have a two week Unit 0 where we practice using the tech and the tools. This was so smart. Here are our learning goals for Unit 0 and my plan. (This is student facing...and coded and linked)

I am SO glad I did this. Some things that I tried that went well.

Digital Four Fours (From Week of Inspirational Math)

We did this on the first day and I loved the chance students had to collaborate digitally.

Virtual Emoji Graphs (also from Week of Inspirational Math)

We explored these after watching the math is visual videos from YouCubed and Jo's Emoji Graph. We brainstormed some ideas for visual graphs like this with no numbers. I gave students the option to create one digitally OR on paper. Love the idea of a Google Doc for a quick digital brainstorm. The brainstorm is like my check for understanding to make sure everyone has an idea and can get started because you can't really monitor when you release them for work time when the work isn't digital.

All of the things, I used from Steve Wyborney (Esti-mysterys, Splat, Cube Conversations):

These adapt SO well to digital teaching and are easy to download and ready to go. They are in my cycle of 5 things I am rotating through for warm ups (These 3 plus slow reveal graphs AND 3-Act Tasks) .

Virtual 3-Act Tasks

Check out resources from Dan Meyer and Graham Fletcher to plan these.

Desmos:

This get to know you activity from Desmos is SO GOOD. I especially love the first slide and the question about people's names. I have learned SO MUCH about people's families and cultures from this slide.

Introduction Flip Grid:

One of the simplest things I did was have students do a Flip Grid introducing themselves for homework on the first day of classes. Because not all of them are turning on video during calls this was for some of them the ONLY way I get to see their faces. Of course, you still have students who will do this in their flipgrid to avoid being on camera....but I'll take what I can get.

I didn't link to actual resources here so please comment or reach out via twitter @MsHereth if you want some. I am happy to share =)

Comments

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