Covid19

We had a couple weeks notice that it looked like we were going to close school. It became evident that we were following trends overseas and many countries had closed schools. Although our own Ministry seemed very unprepared and indeed only gave us less than two hours that we were going to be closing.

We use a blended learning environment so our staff and students use many online tools proficiently already.

2 weeks out:
I started thinking about helping our staff be prepared. My colleague and I, who look after IT at school, met to hatch a plan for our staff. We put together a staff meeting and presentation where we could start having discussions around what it might look like if we were teaching from home.

1 week out:
This was camp week for our team at school. I had Monday and Tuesday in class to prepare the students by making sure they know the tools we would be using. As we'd been using them regularly there was just a bit of making sure everyone knew how to use them. I also developed discussions around what to do if they needed support - we practiced sending me an email.  We talked about keeping ourselves healthy and had science lessons to show how germs are spread.
Camp went ahead and only one activity, swimming, was cancelled. I am grateful that our camp went ahead as the students had a great time.

3 days out:
When I returned from camp my colleague who I share IT responsibilities with had continued to develop our protocols for teaching from home. A key learning here is that it is always better to share responsibilities, as I was on camp and had limited time to get prepared she could carry on and I could just help refine when I returned.  We used practise from colleagues already teaching online overseas and our PLD provider also chipped in to help develop our protocols.

1 day out:
Our protocols were shared with staff. We turned on extra tools, mainly for our Year 5/6 students, but with some for younger students too. We gave lessons to Year 5/6 students showing how to use Google @Chat, Hangouts and Meet. My teaching team also met after school to check-in and discuss plans.

1h45mins out: 
So either our Ministry is being kept in the dark by the Government or they are incompetent. Yes, it is extraordinary times but we could all see it coming, why couldn't they (mini rant). I was in teaching the class next door how to use Google tools when the Principal announces to my class that we're going to close at 3pm.

We hurriedly got books, pencil cases and any other items we need for home in our bags. Our teacher aides did a great job at getting bags of levelled readers so students all had a kit to take home. I gave a brief lesson on Google @chat and Meet and then we say a prayer and we're off home. There are many things I would like to have had the time to discuss with my students but there simply wasn't time.

There were a number of students absent on this day so I couldn't talk with them before school was closed. Throughout the first three days on learning from home every students checked in and participated in some way,  I did have to call a few parents to help their child get started.

Day 1 of teaching from home:
We met as a staff to go over the protocols we had developed and to check we were all set up for teaching from home. Last minute thoughts are, "What resources do I need to take home?" I grabbed a few extra laptops just in case someone needs one, some robots to teach myself some more, a maths problem book and a few other minor bits and pieces. I spend the afternoon checking my own family are ready to go.

Helping staff get ready for teaching from home. 

Day 2 of teaching from home:

We're into it, the students are online before me. I mad a video to show parents and students around our online platforms, mainly for parents. I spotted the infographic below a while ago and decided that while we'd have daily @chat and a Google video meeting the main teaching and learning would be asynchronous (whenever it suited the learner).

I developed a grid of learning tasks for the first 3 days and then the school holidays would begin. Other learning opportunities I initiated are, recording our class novel and posting on our class learning site, Banqer (online banking system we use, MathsWhizz, online maths tutor and Lexia and reading online tool. 

Day 3 of teaching from home:

We've had entertaining class video catch-ups via Google Meet, the students have spent far too much time in @Chat and they have been working on the tasks I set them for the week. Over 20 studnets hand in the tasks via Google Classroom and the engagement from both students and parents has been great. I am looking forward to planning more personalised learning for after the holidays.  

One of our Online video chats.