As you return to your classrooms this fall semester/academic year, what are your concerns with regard to curriculum delivery in your particular discipline? What do you consider to be your greatest responsibility with regard to curriculum and student instruction during this Coronavirus/distance learning period of time? How have you restructured your teaching style and/or your curriculum as you return to the classroom to face online instruction yet again?
Philosophical Thoughts
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My biggest concern with curriculum delivery has to do with technology. As a math teacher, ideally I want to be able to model and provide guided practice to my students when introducing and practicing new skills. Not being able to provide instruction in person creates many challenges. I will be using a Surface Pro and it's tablet feature to mimic a whiteboard. Additionally, all classes will be held via Zoom so I will have to monitor students remotely as well as engage them in the lesson. I think my biggest responsibility in the early weeks of the school year to create and build a relationship with my students. Being remote for the first month and with the likelihood that we will not all be in person at the same time until maybe the spring is daunting. I think my teaching style is going to appear to my former students as "laid back" this year. I think there are going to be challenges for our students that we have not anticipated and our focus will be less on curriculum but more on their overall well-being. - Kathleen
ReplyDeleteWhile I may only be observing and student teaching these next two semesters, I feel that I am able to answer these questions.
ReplyDeleteMy concern with curriculum delivery this academic year is the fact that teaching certain subjects online will be difficult in comparison to teaching them in person. For example, math, which usually requires the use of manipulatives and examples on the white board, is going to be more difficult to teach via google meet. For those teachers who are live streaming their lessons from the classroom, instructing the students is a lot easier than those teachers who do not have that option. It is also difficult to teach english language arts over the computer. It becomes more challenging to give students specific critiques on their writing assignments if everything is done virtually. During this time of remote instruction I feel that my main responsibility is to make learning as fun and simple as possible for the students. I believe that students are going to struggle when it comes to adjusting to learning remotely at first, and will need help in becoming comfortable with completing assignments and showing up to class virtually. Being that I am attending a school with a hybrid schedule for my observations, they have to do a little bit of extra adjusting for assignments and curriculum distribution. For those students who are coming in to the school, they are able to complete their assignments in person and receive feedback right away. For those students who chose to learn completely remotely, it will take longer for them to receive feedback on their work, being that a lot of the teachers are instructing their students to bring their work to the school at the end of the school week to be graded. Teachers are going to be more lenient with how assignments are turned in and how they are graded because things are constantly changing right now due to the pandemic. This academic year is definitely going to be a learning curve for many, if not all, teachers.
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ReplyDeleteOverall my hope is to return to the classroom, but we will not be. Some of my concerns in regards to curriculum is that I hope we can dissect the curriculum and break it down to a slower pace for our students to retain and understand the information; as opposed to breezing through it for the sake of catching up and getting through curriculum to stay on track. Nothing about this year is/should be about staying on track. We need to be flexible and understanding and breakdown the curriculum to the simplest form for the time being. I feel that stripping the curriculum to the bare bones will also give teachers a chance to really take a look and see where we can change or take away what is not needed. While also updating it to the 21st century while also adding the flair needed to be taught virtually for the time being. I feel that my greatest responsibility is to keep up with technology while also keeping it interesting for my students. Because of this, I have definitely restructured my teaching style in a way to involve more technology and using apps that are able to perform formative and summative assessment. As using paper is out of the question. And although I am grateful for the extended time to be able to communicate it is not the same as being Face to Face with the students/administrators.
ReplyDeleteMy biggest concern is technology as well. Through technology instruction and relationships are hard to develop. It is hard to be able to address the individual needs of each student. I believe my biggest responsibility is making the students feel comfortable with the technology we are using and myself. The students this year will not have ever meet me, the first time will be over zoom. This can be challenging and uncomfortable for some. In regards to curriculum, the students need to know what is due and when, they also need to know where to find the material they need to complete the assignment. While teaching online there is more then one place to find assignments which can get overwhelming. My teaching style is going to be more relaxed then last year. Everyone is dealing with something no one has ever been through so it is important for me not to be so hard on myself or the students.
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DeleteAs a Health & Physical Education instructor the delivery of my discipline brings up a few different concerns. None greater than my ability to monitor the effort of my students during physical activity. I do not grade students on their skill in completing a task as I understand that student will have varying degrees of talent and skill. However, as I instruct the class on doing physical activities, it will be difficult to look on the monitor and evaluate the effort of students completing the task assigned.
ReplyDeleteMy greatest responsibility will be to introduce (or reintroduce) students to some activities and benefits of leading an active lifestyle after being quarantined for such a long period of time.
Since adopting the remote learning model, I have had to transition my teaching style from one that functioned as an authoritative lecturer (at the beginning of quarantine) to now having to transition back to a demonstrator/facilitator. I'm looking forward to the new challenge!