week 4: Peardeck

Mid-year, my district upgraded all teachers to premium accounts on Peardeck. (I’m curious where the name Peardeck originated. I understand the deck of slides, but pear??). Using Peardeck has definitely increased my student engagement and given kids more opportunities to respond throughout the lesson. I do wonder if kids feel that Peardeck is overused as I know a lot of staff in my building utilize it weekly.

Peardeck is an add-on via google slides. As the teacher, you take a normal google slideshow and add different opportunities to respond to slides that you select. The formats of response are: multiple choice, written response, draggable, numerical response and drawing slide. In my math classroom, I’ve most frequently used the drawing slide. I like that I can see student responses in live time.

Peardeck also allows the teacher to star student responses (example of responses in picture) and then anonymously present those to the class. I gave students the problem 3x + 6 = 18 or 3(x+2) = 18 last week and I wanted them to realize they could solve it in two ways. All the student responses I saw solved it by first subtracting 6. So I quickly wrote down the solution of dividing by 3 as the first step. I anonymously presented my solution and told the class about this super awesome creative incredible student who came up with this other method. They thought I was being very silly. I eventually revealed my identity.

One challenge to Peardeck is it is challenging to grade students on participation. Each slide shows a list of students who have not yet answered the question. It’s easiest to note those not participating as you go along, but that is one more thing to keep track of during the lesson.

I like that Peardeck gives an option to have the lesson be teacher paced or student paced. I’ve turned on student paced when we hit a series of practice problems and I want kids to be able to go at their own speed. It’s also been helpful when I wanted them to be able to go back and forth between two slides to check their work.

week 4: summary of 9 Ways Online Teaching Should be Different from Face-to-Face

    The article I read is entitled “9 Ways Online Teaching Should be Different from Face-to-Face.” It discusses best practices for virtual learning while acknowledging the additional barriers present. I think it’s important to look at what skills or practices that we’ve strengthened from online learning do we want to carry over when in-person learning resumes.
    One section that has become apparent to me is “Content Needs to be Simplified and Slowed Down.” We have been teaching two new math lessons each week instead of five. While it is scary to me how our students are receiving 40% of the needed content each week, I also recognize narrowing down the curriculum is essential. I feel like we are covering all topics at a very surface level. On the flip side, it’s been a relief to have two days of content and two days of practice. I feel like it’s put less pressure on students and allowed them to experience more success during something that is not ideal.
    Another area that I agree with is “Traditional Grading Practices should take a Backseat to Feedback.” I don’t necessarily think I’ve done this well. For example, when I’ve given quizzes this year I’ve typically just entered the students’ grades. Sometimes this is due to the medium I’m using. I know I can set up a google form to provide immediate feedback after they take a quiz, however that’s more work and right now I don’t have a lot of free time. I do think I’ve improved my feedback during class as I look through students’ answers on peardeck, nearpod etc. I’m often saying, “Hey Aliyah, check your answer on slide 3 you forgot to do the inverse operation…” I’ve noticed lots of kids are glad to get the feedback and ask me “will you look at my slide?” I think my system is somewhat frustrating though as instead of walking around and giving kids direct feedback I’m saying everything on the google meet so all kids are constantly hearing me talk talk talk to their peers.

week 3: daily tech setup

    I’m grateful I’ve been able to work from school everyday during virtual learning. This has helped me establish routine, get out of my apartment and some time away from my wonderful roommate also working/grad schooling from home, and given me better access to my classroom resources and supplies. I want to reflect on my daily technology set up as I finally feel like I’ve less frantically multi tasking and trying to find certain tabs on my computers.
    I’m not sure if first hour plan is a blessing or a curse, but I typically roll into my room a few minutes before first hour and set up for the day. My desktop computer is straight in front of me. On this device, I pull up the following tabs: attendance, classroom relay (big brother), google classroom, gmail and any resources used during the day’s lesson (peardeck, Khan Academy, youtube video etc). On my chromebook to my left, I typically only pull up the google classroom/google meet. I watch my chromebook during class to ensure my presentations appear correctly and to monitor the chat.
    At the start of the year when I wanted to use my hovercam I switched my camera from my webcam to my hovercam on my desktop. However, then I disappear from video. While I don’t necessarily think students care that much about looking at ME, I think the connection of seeing your teacher on video is important. I finally realized that it is most reasonable to load my hovercam via my desktop and then also turn my chromebook camera on. (I think using the shortcut keys on google makes things SO much quicker. Control + d manages the microphone and control + e the camera).
    One student I was working with this week during open office hours was unable to continually see my hovercam and what I was writing underneath as it would show for a couple of seconds and then disappear. She had to leave the meet and rejoin multiple times due to her poor internet connection (made me wonder if she has a hot spot). I realized I was going to need to improvise so I started holding my whiteboard up to my webcam for her to see. I also thought about how I could adapt the assignment so she still was accomplishing the content but both her and I could be less frustrated about technology neither of us can control.
    As much as I finally feel like I’m in a routine for virtual learning, I am so sick of it. I’m trying to optimize on the moments where I have good connections with kids and feel like I’m actually teaching and interacting. A wide smattering of diverse technologies definitely makes it easier to connect, interact and guide kids through content.

week 3: summary of Repairing Harm- a Better Alternative to Punishment

  The article I read from the Cult of Pedagogy is entitled “Repairing Harm: A Better Alternative to Punishment” and it describes some of the features of restorative justice practices. Restorative justice is an area I unfortunately have not had much training in, but I greatly support the general philosophy behind it. The article discussed some of the main features of restorative practices being helping the student identify who was harmed by their behavior and make amends. I think restorative practices help repair the relationship between the teacher and the student better than traditional discipline as it focuses on mending harm when a relationship is broken and not just putting a bandaid on it. I was telling a mentor colleague just today that I am kind of excited for when we are back in person school as I feel like I have greatly strengthened my relationships with students and I’m hoping that will pay off in both my positive and negative interactions with them.
    I do agree with the article that traditional discipline focuses on exclusionary practices (sending a kid out of the room etc.). This is not a trauma informed practice as it sends the message “I can’t handle you right now and we need to be apart.” I think many of our kids with challenging behaviors get stuck in a revolving cycle of getting sent out of class and then becoming further behind with content so they goof of to cover for their confusion. I think traditional discipline is based on maintaining surface level order, while restorative practices are more so based on relying on a deeper level of relationship. I want to look for the need behind the behavior in my classroom and the discussions that stem out of restorative conversations can lend itself to that.
    For any peers that read this blog post, I am curious if you have experiences with restorative practices and how you trained/shifted your mind to approach discipline in a new way.

week 2: tech tool Jamboard

    I want to continue to experiment with using Jamboard in my middle school math classroom. Jamboard is a google interactive whiteboard system that allows collaborators to interact in the same space at the same time. In the past, I had seen it mostly used as a way for groups of people to collectively brainstorm on a topic. I had struggled finding a use for a math class as there is not as much “tell me what you think about xyz” type of questions.
    I realized I could copy/paste a screenshot onto a Jamboard. I recently took a worksheet on one-step equations and broke the worksheet of 30 problems up onto 5 different Jamboard slides. My students LOVED the chance to interact more in breakout rooms during the google meet and complete the assignment. From popping in and out of student breakout rooms, I was okay with the level of interaction. Some groups had more cameras and mics on than others.
    One large pitfall is that I did not require students to show their work as that would have been too cumbersome and frustrating to do online. All they had to do was write the answer. In person, this would never fly. It also took a lot of time to set up the Jamboards so I would have a separate one for each breakout group. I could not figure out a way to copy an already existing Jamboard with the worksheet already copied onto it. I also think that I would have to be very intentional with the material I select for them to complete. The topic was review and fairly easy. I don’t think the Jamboard would have been as effective with new material.
    I liked how using the Jamboard also required students to check one another’s work and be able to correct and help one another. Even when I wasn’t in the breakout room with the students, I could still give written feedback on their work. I don’t think Jamboard will ever be a daily staple or something I would use during an entire lesson, but I think it has potential to be a quick novel activity with significant student buy-in.

week 2: summary of Creating Moments of Genuine Connection Online

    The blogger I am following is Jennifer Gonzalez at the Cult of Pedagogy. She’s been writing online since 2013 and also has a podcast, social media presence, videos and a store. Her platform focuses on examining the art of teaching. Blog posts are divided into three categories: the craft, go deep and teacher’s soul. I’m eager to follow her work as I am a naturally reflective and analytical person and I benefit from reading/learning about how to handle a specific situation or approach a topic. I think sometimes when I have discussions about teaching with my jaded colleagues I don’t get as much guidance as I want. I also appreciate she does not shy away from blog posts addressing equity and racial diversity within education.
    The post I read is entitled “Creating Moments of Genuine Connection Online.” Next week brings us to ½ the way through the school year and the reality that I have only interacted with my students online is unsettling. The need for creating genuine connections has become increasingly apparent. She references Dave Stuart’s work which emphasizes six components of positive interactions: moments, genuine, connections, embedded, tracked, personal & academic. He incorporates some creative ideas such as sending students video messages, catching them in a breakout or waiting room or private messaging.
    I resonate with the importance of tracking these student interactions to ensure all kids have an attempted moment of genuine interaction in each cycle. This reminds me of when I wrote students positive sticky notes last year and tracked to ensure each kid received a note before repeating. This article reminds me that positive interactions can be an easy strategy that has huge dividends, even if it requires more creativity during virtual teaching. They help a student feel known, seen and valued as an individual.

purpose of blog

 This blog is for my assignment for EDUG-647-ON2 for Bellarmine University.