Remote Teaching

I suspect there may be a number of posts around on this and that this won't be the only post I write on this topic.

So, we are living in unprecedented times and as a result need to help our pupils to continue to learn but more importantly need to make sure our pupils are OK, providing them with support where and when needed. This brings new challenges and requires us to think and work in different ways.

Initial observations, no matter what platform you use, it's important to have consistency so the pupils don't get mixed up. 

We use Google Classroom, which I find really easy to use both in terms of setting work and getting it back in and marked...as long as it's done within an assignment. I'm finding shared / attached in emails harder to keep track of. Any hints welcome (I use assignments but some pupils are still sharing/attaching instead). 

I'm trying to encourage pupils to put thumbs up in the stream to show that they have read posts so that I don't feel I'm just talking into the void! This is working well. I've also started to share a meme a day in German with my KS4 and KS5 classes. I thought it would annoy them, having me sending them daft things each day at random times, however when I suggested scaling back on them they said please don't, we look forward to them. So now I have friends and even my daughter sourcing new memes for  me! If one positive comes of it this, hopefully it will mean pupils will have had some fun learning German.

We have been encouraged to use Google Meets for some live teaching and I've jumped on board with this too. I personally don't think a full lesson would be appropriate, so I've been doing about 15 minutes with classes to introduce or talk through work, it also gives pupils the opportunity to ask questions about the work. This has worked well with KS3. KS5 I did some speaking with as well last week which was also good. I've been a little more adventurous with y10 and y11 with Quizlets Live, which have been brilliant and hilarious in equal measure. They just get so excited! I also tried a scavenger hunt with y11; a slide with 10 items in German to find in their homes and bring back to show me. That was totally hilarious and they really enjoyed it. To be fair I just want to do some fun things with y11 in particular as my heart breaks for them with the sad ending they've had to their schooling and I don't want them to feel cut off and abandoned. Fun ideas for after Easter (2 weeks) welcome, same for y13....thinking of a project on how Germany has handled COVID-19 for them (great fun)

Positives from this experience for me are....

Google Classroom: since starting my new job I wanted to get back to using it properly. This has forcesd me to do that

Quizlet: similar to above, I used to use it loads and now will continued to develop its use

I've remembered about Learning Apps, which is a lovely site for creating activities to practise language, for matching to sorting and beyond.
I've also started to create very professional (cough) grammar videos for my pupils, so am anticipating making my millions as a YouTuber now.

Plus, how many amazing resources will I have ready made for next year!!

The most important thing for me is to see this as a learning experience, there is no right or wrong in this situation, we just have to make the best of whatever we do. 

All I want is for my pupils to know that I'm still there for them, even if not in the classroom and also that they know I worry about them, when I email asking them if they're OK, I'm not bothered about the work (shhhh don't tell them that!), I just want to know that they're OK.