Class #1

Prepping the recorded version of the lesson that I did live today

It is 5PM on the first day of my online classes for Tech in Ed.

From my standing desk in my bedroom, I taught 3 hours of live lessons (1.5 per section). These lessons were also provided as pre-recorded lessons on Blackboard, our university's LMS. Of my 33 students, 12 attended the live lectures (6 at 8:30AM and 6 at 12:30PM). I loved having the students in "class" and appreciated their questions and hearing about their experiences this past week.

I asked about personal struggles as we are all in various degrees of quarantine. I heard about the camaraderie between parents and college students, both negotiating work/study and home life with younger children running around.  One of my students lives in NYC, which currently has 1/2 of the CORVID-19 cases in the USA. My student went to the office of a relative to retrieve materials when the relative was afraid. Another noted her fears about group projects online. One student mentioned having done a presentation via Zoom this morning and a peer chatted, "You did a good job". This is one of the strengths of giving the students the option to meet on Zoom for class. Of course there was also mention of poor internet and shared internet... one of my students played Yahtzee with her grandparents on Facetime. :)

I took advantage of the opportunity to hire a Teacher's Assistant for the next 6 weeks. We have a senior who has worked for our department for the last couple of years. He took my Tech in Ed class in 2019 and was interested in a way to continue to get hours even while working off campus. I LOVED having him in classes today.

My TA's job is two-fold: monitor the chat for questions during the lecture and help with grading so that items are returned quickly. He will also be available to students by email. There was a really cool moment when I asked him to introduce himself and talk about his experience as a senior whose student teaching has been paused with no light at the end of the tunnel. He didn't hesitate. He told the students in both sections that it is hard to have spent 8 weeks in a class and suddenly lose contact with all of your students... but... he said he took inventory of his skills and knew he still needed to learn to teach... so he put an add on Facebook. My TA is now tutoring kids whose parents are at a loss for how to help manage their school assignments. Inspiring.

In addition to teaching online, I am also meeting with my department on a regular basis on Zoom. I meet with a few daily (administrative) and with others a few times a week. One professor and I particularly like to bounce ideas off of each other. Our current project idea is to create a fun video for the prospective students that we have been assigned. Today we met on Zoom to create our blue print and then we will each video separately. I will compile the video tomorrow. We want the prospective students to see that we are are creative about our students' learning during COVID -19.


Discoveries...

• I decided not to have the students turn off video (only audio). I think this was good because I needed to see their reactions to the content. Some still turn off video, which is fine.
• The chat button flashing orange helps me to see when a question comes in. This was less difficult than I expected, but I also had only 6 students at a time with very few questions.

Questions...

• Will more students come to the live lectures over time?
• Will those that come become more talkative as they adjust to the new normal?