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.