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| "Bruschetta alla caprese" flickr photo by erik forsberg https://www.flickr.com/photos/hepp/5922705584/ shared under a Creative Commons (CC BY 2.0) license |
(See my previous post for some background if this is the first entry you're reading in this series.)
The Core Questions
1. What did you do today?
I taught in the morning today (again, fully online, from home). I spent about the first hour of class after attendance introducing the students to Classcraft, organizing them into teams, and trying to get each team to come up with a team name and decide on Classcraft roles (guardian, mage, healer) for each member. During their first "asynchronous" time, the students had an assignment to start on the history of the periodic table and various scientists who contributed to its development. When they came back, we did some notes on nuclear structure (including what radioisotopes are and why neutrons are important) as well as on calculations of the average atomic mass for an element given the masses and abundances of its naturally-occurring isotopes. They have practice questions to do for homework based on those calculations; they also have a diagnostic quiz coming up on Friday to study for, and part 1 of their ISU on ideal gases is due Monday. (I've connected that ISU to a Quest in Classcraft to reward them with story text for getting through each stage, so hopefully at least some of them will enjoy that.)
After the second live portion of class, I made sure I took care of some work stuff right away -- answering some emails, scanning the day's handwritten notes, and preparing an after-class LMS post for the students -- and then I made sure I walked away from work stuff for a while, making sandwiches for the kids and grabbing some away-from-home food for myself (partly because I wanted the drive). I even took a much-needed nap.
Newly refreshed, I made myself sit down and check off who has and hasn't done items that were "due" on Monday, giving feedback and asking for clarification as needed. I haven't fully processed the results of a loooong survey I gave them, but did take care of a chunk of it, and I've taken care of the other due items for all of those who handed it in. As I mentioned in the last post, I am trying to very intentionally schedule a marking time for each item as I assign it (or rather, I set for myself the scheduled due date and marking date before I even mention the assignment to the students). My reading of Atomic Habits by James Clear and my discussions with others are leading me to try out "intention statements" as a way of much more firmly committing to action on things I know I should be doing even though my avoidant tendencies make me want to put them off (leading to massive problems later). I also meticulously compared the parent/guardian email addresses against the school's official contact list and any associated parent/guardians with the students' Google Classroom listings, then emailed (as a group, Bcc'd) all the parents not already connected to our Classroom to see if they wanted an invite -- the kind of tedious task I absolutely hate, but I'm really starting to think investing effort in those irritating things up front does pay off by reducing the potential for bigger and harder problems later on. I've already heard positive responses back from a few of them and sent Classroom invites their way.
My husband is off this evening at the rehearsal of a wedding he'll be doing the A.V. for (and live streaming!), and I ordered dinner in for the kids and I from an Italian bistro my father-in-law used to like.
2. What did you enjoy?
The quinoa and black bean wrap I got for lunch really hit the spot, as did the bruschetta and Tuscan salad I got myself for dinner (those mushrooms though -- mm!).
3. What did you find difficult?
Getting up was difficult, and I ended up getting up later than I'd originally planned (I had wanted to get more done before school than I did -- it worked out fine but it could have been time better used). Maybe I shouldn't have blogged so late last night, heh :).
I didn't enjoy having to remind one group of students to talk more appropriately in one of the breakout rooms. I did learn that I had to mute myself in the main room because students in another breakout room reported that through me they could hear the students in the breakout room I had to address.
I didn't have a very successful first run with the technical side of the breakout rooms extension I was trying for Google Meet, though I was able to work around the issues I had. I think I know what I did wrong and will try again, as even today I saw someone in a Facebook group mention loving this extension.
4. What has changed?
Some of my priorities in the planning of my teaching are changing. I know I need to build in more support and feedback so the students really have a good sense of how they're doing instead of wondering so much and always asking what their mark is. I'm still thinking through the nuances of what that means and how it will end up playing out.
The Stretch Questions
5. What are you grateful for?
I am extremely grateful to be back to teaching one course instead of two this quadmester. The difference in workload and my ability to plan well for the course I do have is truly staggering.
6. Which changes do you want to keep?
I want to keep going with this new attempted habit of tackling annoying tasks head-on sooner rather than later and hopefully preventing some of the large kinds of issues I've had to deal with over the past few years especially. Maybe at midlife I'm finally growing up somewhat.
7. What are you scared of?
I have to be vague about this, but I'm waiting to hear what the next steps will be in a particular formal issue in my life, and it has potential to keep going on in a negative way instead of finally being over the way I really want it to be.
8. What has stayed the same?
Grade 11 chemistry is still my favourite course, and I'm so glad it's the course with which I get to finish the school year.
9. When did you last laugh?
I can't recall. I'll have to keep my attention open for this over the next bit -- I know I have laughed, I just can't recall why.
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Also, here's a random share of a tweet related to the #flipclasschat we had on Twitter this week, by Toronto colleague Andrea McPhee:
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