Monday, April 13, 2020

Changing our Teaching

In Learning Hasn’t Changed from Ideas and Thoughts, Dean Shareski shares,

“Learning hasn’t changed but the teaching has changed”

We hear so much about online learning and how this will all look different to our students. We talk about how this will be a new normal for them.

After reading this article, I agree with the author. Learning hasn’t changed a bit. It is our teaching that needs to be changed.

My goals for my students haven’t changed over time. I still want them to learn important skills and strategies. I still want them to learn how to use these things in real life. I want them to learn these things so that they can be successful in the future. Learning these things is not new.

How I help them learn these things are important and with having to teach online, I need to figure out how to change my teaching in order to accommodate their learning.

I have to change my mindset on how I teach.

I can’t teach the traditional way online. It is impossible. There are too many new variables in the students’ lives that impact learning the traditional way online. Students are cooped up at home with other family members of different ages and different needs. Technology may need to be shared with all members of the household. Parents may need the computer for work and other children in the house have to share the computer for their school work also.

I think it is important to look at activities that may not require technology in order to learn a specific skill. They might need instructions given in a short video or email, but the actual assignment would be done hands-on away from the computer.

I also need to take in consideration what supervision may be required of the assignment. If parents are working at home, helping their child with an assignment may take them away from their work.

I also need to consider what materials the student may have available at home. They may not be able to find the things they need to complete an assignment.

When planning assignments, I would want to give them choices. I would give at least three different assignments for them to choose from. I don’t want to give them too many because it might be overwhelming. The choices would involve different materials and possibly different stages of independence from supervision. From the choices, I hope that one of the assignments would fit their needs.

How has your teaching changed recently? Please share.

Photo by Ivan Aleksic on Unsplash

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