Back to School :) Back To The Future

I can't wait to hear :)

"I forgot my mask at home"

"My Mom said I don't have to wear a mask"

"He/she is less than 6 ft away from me"

"I'm not feeling very well"

Please remember, wearing a mask is the most basic step we can take to keep COVID-19 from spreading in our communities. Masks are a must if we want to protect our citizens, get our students back to school, and keep our economy open for business.

Many families with school-aged children are sick of living and hearing about: a miasma of sleeplessness, squabbling, incessant interruptions and multiple simultaneous glitching Zooms, step over a kid who is crying on the floor about algebra...

Even parents, who have broadband access and enough functional devices to do Zoom school and work at the same time, said that online schooling was a miserable experience and that they would give anything never to have to repeat. 

Indeed, despite the uncertainty created by the pandemic, parents want their children to go back to school. 

Teachers also want to have their students back to school. These are unprecendented times, but one thing is certain: teachers are always on the lookout for finding the best way to serve their students no matter the circumstances. Learning is always the goal and quality instruction is the path. To optimize learning, we must utilize evidence-based practices:

1. Bell-to-bell instruction
2. Clear lesson goals
3. Structured lessons with an introduction, body, and close
4. Opportunities to respond
5. Consistent monitoring of performance
6. Effective feedback
7. Judicious practice

It's back to school time again and this year looks nothing like we have ever seen before. If you are going back to school in-person, chances are you will still be doing some sort of remote learning in the future. I know that my instruction will be a hybrid of in-person teaching and distance learning.

I have read a lot about teachers who created a bitmoji classroom! Creating their own virtual classroom helped them feel a little bit more "at home" with distance learning. To get your Bitmoji Google Slides, download the Bitmoji Chrome extension. Then, click the Bitmoji icon on your browser bar, select the Bitmoji you want, and drag and drop it onto the slide. To get your Bitmoji in Power Point, click on the Chrome extension icon, right-click on the Bitmoji you want, and save it as an image-then you can insert that image into your PowerPoint slide.

Parents need to know that none of us have it all figured out. We are all learning every day. We are surrounding ourselves with positivity and we are always keeping an open mind and heart. 

There is always something new to know and some new ways to grow! Sometimes we need to take stock of what is happening in our classroom and change up the structure we thought was going to work. We keep the best parts and we keep tweaking the rest! Teaching is indeed built on continual growth, not final answers.