Today I went to school for a staff meeting to square away how we will deliver education to our students online. Yesterday Governor Walz said that by Wednesday all schools in Minnesota will close for 8 days to figure out how to have online school. Luckily in our case it isn't that hard. Our students already have personal Chromebooks, and all the teachers have online classrooms that we use everyday anyway. It will be a cinch to go online for us. I really feel sorry for first grade teachers. I don't know how they are going to do it.
It was surreal to get things ready. Last week the kids were complaining about our poetry unit. Even while they were complaining they were writing and finding some excellent poems. We made black-out poems last week too and they were very excited to have them displayed in the hall to show off to the rest of the student body. I hung those poems up today so they can see them tomorrow when they come by to pick up computers and supplies.
I think the kids are probably pretty scared and I worry about them isolating. I'm a full-grown adult and I'm going a little stir crazy and panicky with all the pandemic news so I think my focus for the kids will be to try to keep things as normal as possible, and also to keep them connected with school and with each other. During this planning period where we are not required to hold online school I am going to have a question of the day for them to respond to on our online classroom. Today's question was, "How are you spending your time while social d i s t a n c i n g ?" The funniest response so far was, "I'm sewing a giant carrot." As one does.
Tomorrow the kids will come in to get their computers and books. I posted this picture on Facebook:
The pink sign at the top says "If-you-get-bored assignments" and the bottom pink sign gives directions for kids to record which copy of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde they take. A former student who is a friend on Facebook said, "If you get bored! Right! Just kidding, I would be the one to take those." And she would. Nerd.
I am going to make the kids keep a pandemic-isolation diary for writing practice, and also because they are living through historic times. I am going to do that as well and write on this blog every day.
Mitch and I are currently watching the news and experts are saying that restaurants and gyms and other places should be closed for the next 8 weeks, and people should not gather in groups larger than 10 people. Things are getting crazy.
It was surreal to get things ready. Last week the kids were complaining about our poetry unit. Even while they were complaining they were writing and finding some excellent poems. We made black-out poems last week too and they were very excited to have them displayed in the hall to show off to the rest of the student body. I hung those poems up today so they can see them tomorrow when they come by to pick up computers and supplies.
I think the kids are probably pretty scared and I worry about them isolating. I'm a full-grown adult and I'm going a little stir crazy and panicky with all the pandemic news so I think my focus for the kids will be to try to keep things as normal as possible, and also to keep them connected with school and with each other. During this planning period where we are not required to hold online school I am going to have a question of the day for them to respond to on our online classroom. Today's question was, "How are you spending your time while social d i s t a n c i n g ?" The funniest response so far was, "I'm sewing a giant carrot." As one does.
Tomorrow the kids will come in to get their computers and books. I posted this picture on Facebook:
The pink sign at the top says "If-you-get-bored assignments" and the bottom pink sign gives directions for kids to record which copy of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde they take. A former student who is a friend on Facebook said, "If you get bored! Right! Just kidding, I would be the one to take those." And she would. Nerd.
I am going to make the kids keep a pandemic-isolation diary for writing practice, and also because they are living through historic times. I am going to do that as well and write on this blog every day.
Mitch and I are currently watching the news and experts are saying that restaurants and gyms and other places should be closed for the next 8 weeks, and people should not gather in groups larger than 10 people. Things are getting crazy.
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