Learning During Lockdown

Wow, what an interesting time to be teaching. To say the last few weeks of teaching (and learning!!!) during lockdown have been a rollercoaster, would be an understatement. Trying to teach from home, as well as having my children at home doing their learning, alongside a husband who could not go to work has been an interesting, fun as well as at times overwhelming experience.

The government moving the holidays forward provided an opportunity to really explore what my class site would look like for the duration of lockdown, and most likely beyond lockdown as well. However, with all of the family home as well, and being unable to go anywhere other than around the block or in to the garden, trying to find time to focus on my project as well as planning for teaching from home was incredibly challenging. I am still not in a space where my project is starting to take the shape I want it to, as I am spending a significant amount of time also having to support my own children with their online learning, as well as answering multiple student emails, participating in meets and marking/providing feedback.

My class site was my first stop. Creating a one stop shop for my students to access all of the links etc that they would need. This has evolved over the course of lockdown, as I have adjusted it to better meet the needs of my students.

You can check out my Lockdown Learning Planner page here

Next, was creating the daily learning planner. While in my previous learning planner I created a new set of slides for each week, I decided to simply add to the same presentation, with the current week at the top of the presentation. This has helped keep it simple and everything is in one place.




We also talk through each day and the activities at our google meets, which we have three times peer week. I am also available every day during certain times for my students to connect in, if they need extra help, or just to say hi.

So where is my project at?

I have a daily check in form on my class site. The students complete this every day, and it is insightful. What has come through - that my students are lonely. They are missing the connections from school - social connection is so important! Through this form, I have been able to identify some of my students who are needing extra support - not just with their learning, but with coping and with feeling safe.

I have named each day and for each day, we have an activity related to the day.
Mindful Monday, Terrific Tuesday, Wellbeing Wednesday, Thankful Thursday, Fun Friday. These slides and activities are incorporated in to our daily planner, and it is the first slide the students see when looking at each day. I have also included questions relating to the activities in our check in form to check their understanding and to see if they are doing the activities for each day.

Next steps:
Design an interactive, online gratitude journal. What I am finding is that over the last few weeks there have been an overwhelming number of resources put out on to the market, and while many market themselves as digital, they are actually PDF downloads that require printing or software for editing online. I am thinking along the lines of a gratitude journal designed in slides.

Introduce it to my students. When? I am not sure. I have found that for a number of my students, including those who I would call tech savvy, they have found this time at. home to be quite overwhelming.