Successes and Challenges of the First Few Weeks of Online Teaching

[Melissa Chessler]

Please share something you found successful and/or something you found challenging as you transferred your courses online over the past few weeks.  You may wish to share a successful demo, the way you structured a lesson or assessment, or a topic about which you'd appreciate suggestions.   You may respond to this post, or start a new topic to encourage discussion.

[Craig Halpern]

I am going to try to assess the learning that has been going on since the start of this virtual experience.  For my physics classes I am giving OEQs to be submitted by taking a picture or sending me a pdf of the work.

For Biology I made an open ended Google form.

I know they will use resources for these assessments, but I hope to show they have learned something up until this point.

[Matthew Reischer]

I created a Uniform Circular Motion Lab for Physics Honors that can be done at home and submitted as a Google Doc.

I converted underline to table cells in the Doc, that works well for hardcopy or online use.

I made some videos to help guide the students.

I hope to have students using their hands while at home, not just their computers.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fV3dMSRo4nF7XpocYIGi_OQbfqNTXTVXi_eNm_ReCSI/edit?usp=sharing

I also had Zoom classes every day and posted the videos afterwards.

It dropped from 80% attendance to 20 % attendance.

I am finding it very hard to get a read on student engagement and understanding.

On Friday, March 27, 2020 at 6:03:45 PM UTC-4, Melissa Chessler wrote:

[Craig Halpern]

I also did one using a website.  Here is mine.

[Jodi Foster]

Hi all-

Is anyone using AP Classroom? My students are struggling with glitching and I am not sure if this is normal.

I send them reminders each week to clear their history, cookies, and cache and restart their machines, but who knows!

-Jodi

On Friday, March 27, 2020 at 6:03:45 PM UTC-4, Melissa Chessler wrote:

[Alice Fahy-Elwood]

Hi Jodi - I am using in at Somerville High School for my Physics 2 students but only for MC questions that are not secure.  Other than one day where the site seemed to run slowly, they have not mentioned any glitchiness.

Alice

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[Megan Correia]

I've been using Google Classroom as my main hub.  Been relying pretty heavily on PhysicsClassroom.com and Screencastify to help me record my own voiceover lessons to post on Classroom for my kids. LOVE screencastify.  I have not done a 'live' lesson via Zoom or Google as of yet -- too many bugs and issues for me to feel comfortable yet.  Additionally, many of my students are still working... and in some cases, they are now a main source of income for their families (fast food is still open).  So I've been trying to be flexible with my expectations for student work due dates -- some of them need to share a single device with their entire family, bandwidth is an issue, etc.  My school is following the single session aka 1/2 day bell schedule for any live lessons or time sensitive stuff.  Anytime I expect something to be done in that 'class meeting' time frame, I give a few days advance notice so students can make arrangements for accommodations if that time frame doesn't work for them.  So far, no issues.  Google forms is what I am using for live assessments.  EdPuzzle has also been in heavy rotation for me for assessing.  Labs -- still trying to figure out!  PHET has a bunch of HTML5 sims that seem like they will be helpful.  Just assigned my first flip grid today so excited to see how that goes!  

If anyone wants me to record a screencast of my Google classroom or anything, let me know!  

[Craig Halpern]

Our union cautioned us against using zoom or Google meets as it doesn't meet FERPA or COPA.  I too have been using google classroom.  I post powerpoints with audio of me teaching.  I save them as a video and convert them to mp4s.  It sounds like a lot of work but it isn't that hard.  I have been assigning problems to my students about 7 a day or a Hewitt concept development sheet, and posting the solutions the next day.  I answer their questions in private messages.  I assign PHET labs, and for the older ones I use https://archive.cnx.org/specials/ I also have written virtual labs using physics classroom and https://www.thephysicsaviary.com/ .  I gave my classes a open ended test that was harder than what I usually give and had them take a picture and send me their work.

In biology I tested using a google form.  I post my powerpoints have them take notes, assign my usual worksheets and have modified my labs using on-line content.

[Reischer, Matthew]

I gave up on AP Classroom in October. 

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Mr. Matthew Reischer

matthew....@pennsauken.net

856-662-8500

Pennsauken High School

Teacher of Physics 

Teacher of Environmental Science

Robotics Team Coach

[Jodi Foster]

I feel that Matthew, but now I need to get these guys ready for taking a test on it.

The platform is unwieldy for teacher use, and they prompt kids to upload pictures of their work but do not give them upload options among other issues.

I am hoping that they put much more effort into the actual test platform.

Thanks for responding-

Jodi

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Jodi Foster

Teacher of Chemistry and Physics

Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School

74 Ridge Road

Rumson, NJ 07760

 

JFo...@RumsonFairHaven.org

732.842.1597

 Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value. - Albert Einstein