Be the Teacher Students Need Today

Be the teacher your students need today. 

As I repeat that mantra in my mind, it seems so simple and empowering, and yet, as I turn on the news or read social media feeds, it feels like the idea of what our students need today is planted on shifting sand. Our country and the world are full of so much uncertainty and political unrest that it is easy to lose sight of what our schools need to stay safe and begin again. I am scared - many of us are. Unfortunately, I am most afraid of adults who have stopped taking thorough precautions and adhering to CDC guidelines, but I digress. 

Coping with and attempting to quell these fears, I take a page from Disney's Frozen 2 and focus on doing the next right thing. This summer, I have spent a significant amount of time reflecting on how to support teachers. They will inevitably be thrown into an impossible situation of teaching in a hybrid setting with a looming threat of becoming sick or exposing others to COVID-19. Ultimately, teachers need to be ready to be everything and anything for their students at a moment's notice. The schedules, general classroom practices, and expectations will shift drastically from week to week. So I return to the question that weighs on teachers' hearts right now: How do we prepare to be the teacher our students need? 

We have to prepare for the worst but be ready for the best. 

As I help teachers in my district and those in neighboring districts this summer, my advice has been to plan mentally for a semester of full remote learning. While I think we will oscillate in between hybrid and remote learning for much of the fall, preparing for remote learning will make every face-to-face encounter a bonus. Adjusting lesson plans from remote to face-to-face is much easier than the other way around. Also, even if we are in the classroom, typical practices such as sharing Chromebooks, grouping and rotating seats, helping students over their shoulders, and circulating the room have to change. 

Now more than ever, it is more important and appropriate to stop a lesson or change a plan to address social-emotional learning. Our students have learned more about life in the last few months than any of us realize. While they need to get caught up on skills and content, they have grown and changed. They need guidance and support, and they need opportunities to process the collective experience that we have encountered. Providing them with that outlet will allow them to make room in their minds for the course content that we hope to share with them this year. We can and need to help them become ready to learn. The best way we can be the teachers our students need today is to remind ourselves that we don't have stress about content. We can permit ourselves to change course! 

Every synchronous moment counts. 

When planning for this upcoming semester, consider what absolutely needs to be synchronous and what can be adapted and taught remotely or asynchronously. Prioritize direct instruction lessons and more challenging content. Again, it is okay to alter previous lesson plans from the years we had the opportunity to teach face-to-face every day. This year is different; we are in a new normal. Front-loading an entire unit with direct instruction may ensure that students receive critical skills that they will need to be successful for several weeks. When we teach that meaningful content, though, don't forget to stop for social-emotional learning again. What we think is essential is often more expendable than we realize. 

Again, do not shy away from social-emotional learning and community building. 

While we are all in the same boat in navigating a global pandemic, we are fighting drastically different battles. Some people live in fear of preexisting conditions; some have struggled with unemployment or loss of income. Others face depression, anxiety, or other social-emotional related difficulties. Personally, our household has been under extreme lockdown because we have a child with Cystic Fibrosis, a lung disease that also impacts all vital organs and his digestion. My son has remained relatively healthy to this point in his life, but his disease classifies him as terminally ill. While I have all the faith in the world that he will live a full and meaningful life, my family has to be incredibly cautious because when he contracts even a mild cold, he will most likely become very ill. A common cold or stomach bug results in a round of antibiotics and even hospitalization. We've been there; I don't want to be back anytime soon. My solution to keep him safe is to move out of my house, and I am fortunate enough to have several options of places to go and that my son can remain at home with my husband. This situation is my battle, and I fully acknowledge that we all have different struggles related to this impossible situation. We need to remember to recognize our students' feelings and empathize with each other. Regardless of the subjects we teach, we should make room for teaching empathy and giving our students space to cope with the storms they face. Even older students look to us to guide them through difficult situations. How we handle our struggles and our fears can help them process their own feelings and cope. 

Try something new every week. 

As we mentor, coach, guide, and teach students in person, online, and everything in between, we may find that traditional instructional practices are not as effective as they have been in the past. This coming school year, we mustn't be afraid to try something new. We may need to extend out of our comfort zones and incorporate new tech tools or strategies. Now is the time to get creative, and if a lesson fails, it is okay! We can permit ourselves to learn with the students as we use new tools or assign new projects to our students. With all the stress and challenges that are sure to come this fall, we do not need to reinvent the wheel entirely, but we can try one new strategy a week. We may find new instructional practices that make our classrooms better in any situation. 

Give yourself grace. 

Even if you weren't the perfect hybrid, remote, pandemic teacher this past spring, remember that you still made a difference in someone's life. You were still there for your students, and your efforts mattered. The personal videos, supportive emails, and cards that you delivered to your students meant something to them, even if they were not able to verbalize their gratitude. Thank you for what you have done for your students and for what you will continue to do. No matter what happens as we return to so much uncertainty, we will continue to love our students, teach them essential content, and inspire them to be their best selves. Give yourself grace as we all muddle through each day. Remind yourself to be the teacher your students need today. While it might look different tomorrow, what you do makes a significant difference and will make our world a better place. 

Asynchronous PDs: If there's a topic that catches your eye, click through it! I'm sharing these optional PD experiences as an a la carte menu to help teachers feel ready for back-to-school. Anything to help!

• App Smashing with Pear Deck
• Asynchronous vs. Synchronous Learning
• Blended Learning Principles and Strategies
• Collaborate, Create, and Celebrate: Using WeVideo to Amplify Student Voice
• Enhancing Student Learning with Padlet
• Flipgrid and Remote Learning 
• Making Small Groups Work
• Putting the Pieces Together with EdPuzzle

EdPuzzle: Using Tech To Solve an Instructional Problem

7:30 in the morning is not an easy time for many people, especially teenagers. One year, my students were more averse to alarm clocks than any group who came before them (or after them). I had up to eight students a day (out of 28) coming to class with tardy passes - a number and frequency I have never seen since. As a result, students would miss the few minutes of direct instructional time that I would deliver to students. This group would come in halfway through a grammar lesson, writing exercise, or reading discussion, thus missing the meat of the material and often great discussions, questions, and ideas shared by their peers. To solve this problem and find a way to provide that instruction to students who would walk in half-awake still frazzled from the frenzy of the morning, I turned to tech tools. Surely a tech tool or instructional practice had to exist that would allow me to supplement the missed time and provide the same (or as close to the same) experience as possible. 

That semester was the semester in which I started flipping writing and grammar instruction for all students, typically short mini-lessons that involved active practice and application immediately after learning the lesson. Students would start the period as they hustled into their seats, watching a quick video lesson while I circulated providing support, greeting students, and checking in with any latecomers. I realized that creating videos allowed me to double my presence in the classroom. I could be teaching and completing social-emotional check-ins at the same time. If a student was absent, they always could watch the video, or if they needed additional support, they could rewatch the video at their own time and pace. 

What tools are essential to a flipped style lesson or video delivery? 

A screencasting tool and a video editing platform are two essential tools for creating original video content for students. My two favorite tools for this process are Screencastify and WeVideo, which allows me to edit and refine the video. WeVideo has so many special effects, music, and transitions to include in the creation process. Making videos can be time-consuming but can be reused and reshared over again. I house my videos on YouTube solely for the ease of sharing and create playlists to keep them organized by course, year, or instructional purpose.  

My instruction was consistent for all students, but now they had access to me whenever, wherever, and however, they needed me. This on-demand playlist of writing instruction allowed me to be more present in the room, directing my attention to students in academic and emotional needs. As I explored video creation more, I realized that I needed another tool to make my lessons more personalized and engaging. EdPuzzle was the solution. 

How does EdPuzzle work? 

EdPuzzle was (and still is) one of my favorite tools for providing instruction to students in any format. Making videos interactive and engaging, EdPuzzle encourages students to take an active role in their learning. Instead of passively watching a video or not watching altogether, this tool tracks student viewership. EdPuzzle also allows teachers to insert voice comments, written comments or links, multiple-choice questions, and open-ended questions during the video. This type of interactive structure keeps students actively listening and demonstrating their comprehension along the way. Teachers can craft entire lessons using a video from YouTube or any other video platform. They can access a library of already created videos and lessons or make their own from scratch. This webtool is user-friendly both on the teacher and student end. Teachers can share lessons with other teachers or find inspirational ideas from the EdPuzzle library. 

With EdPuzzle, I now had more flexibility to provide face-to-face feedback, incorporate individualized and small group work, and use station-rotation to create an active learning experience for my students. The use of a few tech tools not only solved my students' alarm clock problem helped me revolutionize the effectiveness of my writing lessons while creating more time for classroom activities. 

Aside from the traditional way of assigning a video to each student, how else can EdPuzzle be used? 

EdPuzzle is traditionally pushed out to students to complete independently, but the more I used it, the more I began to experiment with a small group and whole class lessons. I used Librivox recordings of Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew to create videos for whole-class activities. I inserted voice comments and open-ended questions to facilitate discussion while we listened to and processed through the play. The video would stop playing at crucial moments that necessitated further discussion. While the video played, I walked the room with my script and helped students follow along. I could read facial expressions and mentally gauge their comprehension, thus allowing me to provide immediate clarify or feedback to a particular line or scene. I also liked how knowing the length of the video gave me a better estimate of the pacing. If a student was absent, they did not miss out on the same experience as everyone else. They simply need the link, which can be shared with an entire class through a learning management system or assigned directly to an individual student. 

EdPuzzle can also be used for small group inquiry. If students are researching a project, they can watch and complete the EdPuzzle together. They can answer open-ended questions, find evidence through external resources or readings, and can engage in dialogue with one another throughout the process. This use for EdPuzzle works well with a station rotation classroom model. The answers students provide can serve as a useful formative assessment for a teacher to review later if that teacher is working or teaching in another station. 

Note that the free version allows teachers to store up to 20 videos, but the paid version allows for unlimited videos. The paid version also allows institutions to create a school library, making it even easier to collaborate and share. If you are looking for professional development, EdPuzzle has an entire library full of different topics, including Google Tools, Project-Based Learning, Diversity and Inclusion, 21st Century Learning, and more. These professional development experiences are free and can be completed at one's own pace. For people looking to prepare for whatever the fall might bring, this resource would be a great place to start!  

No matter what problem we are trying to solve, the intentional use of technology can allow us to create new experiences that may save time, provide more feedback, or enhance the student experience. I did not realize what EdPuzzle could do for my classroom before I started using it, and it even solved a problem or two I didn't realize I had. Find the tool that can solve your problem or maybe even wake up your classroom in ways you never imagined.