😷🦠 Remote Educator's Alphabet

🦠😷Remote Educator's Alphabet 🦠😷

A
🕰Asynchronous- I think this is one of those words that been used in theory more than practice until this pandemic. Now we are understanding the benefit, challenge, and necessity in offering student-paced access and opportunity to learn. 

🎧Airpods- Cut the cord!  While I knew earbuds or headphones make a significant difference on both sides, I hadn’t realized how much more comfortable and natural a wireless Bluetooth pair of earbuds or AirPods would be. Not tethering to a device can shift screentime and videoconferences from a lean-forward to a lean-back activity.

B 

📳Bandwidth-As a parent of a 17, 19, and 20 year old, I am critically aware of the limits of bandwidth. I’m suddenly perfectly comfortable with the home-bound college students sleeping until noon!

💻Blended- While I have long advocated and worked to shift toward a blended learning model with my colleagues, remote/distance/online learning is not blended learning, nor does it or should solely rely on technology. As always, technology is the tool we use to elevate instruction while still offering personal connections and individualized instruction. 

C 

🤳Coaches- Now is the time to lean on instructional coaches. We know and connect the content, the kids, the tools, and the users.  As the landscape continues to evolve, coaches are here to help all staff grow and adapt to equally (and rapidly) evolving needs and demands.

🤷🏼‍♂️Comfort Zone- We all need to breathe.  Whatever our roles, we are all learning more and at a faster rate than we would prefer, but flexibility and a growth mindset can expand comfort zones. Discomfort breeds innovation and I have seen more creative innovation, adaptation, and problem solving among staff members across the tech-readiness spectrum in the past few months than in the last few years!

D 

🔐Digital Divide  More than ever, the digital divide and issues of equity are in the spotlight, with students paying the price and lost in the shadows. its critical that districts and administrators recognize and evaluate shortcomings or limitations that are only perpetuating inequities an access and opportunity for or most vulnerable learners. 

👩🏻‍💻Digital Disposition- It has been critical to expand our own digital dispositions and attitudes toward academic, social, and professional technology to be able to navigate life in quarantine!  As the sage mystic Neal Sonnenberg so wisely stated, "You can't hide anymore."

E 

🧗🏽‍♀️Expectations - Now is the time to shift (not lower) expectations. While our distance learning has upended the look of teaching and learning, it has also created opportunities to engage students in ways that are new for all sides. Just like in our buildings, we need to explore creative ways maintain student engagement to keep learning alive. 

F 

🎬Flipgrid- The free and easy solution to students creating and sharing video content. Whether it’s book talks, reflections, or just riddles of the day, Flipgrid has become a go-to platform for students and teachers to make voices heard- even remotely!

🧬Fauci- This guy! Talk about an emerging voice and subject-matter expert!

G 

💻Google, Google, Google- Classroom, Slides, Meet, you name it. Google has the right tool for the job again and again, and constantly tweaking and rolling out improvements that our situation demand. 

📽Grid View- In Zoom or Meet, we are reminded through grid view the importance of face to face, especially among classmates!

H 

🔗Hyperlinks- Whether it’s a Zoom link, a Google Classroom assignment, or a hyperdoc loaded with links, the hyperlink is the quickly overlooked MVP for placing content and communication one click away for our students and families. 

I 

🎞Instructional Videos- I have never watched more tutorials or instructional videos than I have in the past few months. I know my learning style, and a clear concise tutorial always does the trick. And with tools like Screencastify, teachers (and students) have the tools to create their own tutorials for best practices as well! Our students watch YouTube tutorials night and day, so for a remote learning assignment, Why not transfer some how-to or informational writing skills Into video tutorials on whatever skill or topic kids choose?

J 

😎JedTalks- shameless plug: check out some posts from the archives!

🤳Jigspace If you have not seen this app, it’s a mind-blower for dipping toes into the world of AR (augmented reality) and considering its reach into classrooms. 

K 

👍Kulowiec- If you have a chance to be a part of an in-person or virtual workshop with Greg Kulowiec, buckle up: you will learn a lot- and fast!

👬Kids- Never out of site or out of mind.  They are the reason we got into this business, and though their faces may be in one inch video squares, they need us as much as ever to be present, no matter what that looks like.

L 

🕵🏽‍♀️Learning- Yes, the first few weeks were about shifting and survival, treading water while assessing and addressing connectivity and figuring out just what this might all look like, but student learning never left our focus or central mission. We just had to adapt and adjust our ability to provide a continuity of learning through different modes. 

M 

🗓Menus- It’s about choice. Whether it’s choice boards or activity menus, allowing choice and voice through personalized (and asynchronous) learning experiences, educators are finding new and powerful ways to meet kids where they are and shared the driving. 

N 

✏️Nickname- If you are a google meet user, you know the magic of the Nickname feature. I have my personalized nickname that district users can just use to join right from meet or their gmail window to join meetings or access me in seconds!

O 

🛠Online Learning Manipulatives- This site is exactly what it says. It’s the right tool for the job when looking for clear digital tools to visualize learning tools and practices. 

🚪Office hours- I offer daily office hours for drop-in tech support, troubleshooting, or coaching sessions. It’s comparable to those drive-by hallway encounters where a surprising amount of coaching can occur!

P 

⏰Pace- As teachers, parents, and learners ourselves, our worlds have slowed down and spread out. After schools sports, enrichment clubs and activities have evaporated and students school-days have taken on a whole new pace. When all the dust settles, let’s hope we bring some of this flexibility and openness toward shifted learning time and space back to our buildings and districts. 

📍Platforms- Padlet, Wakelet, Flipgrid, Google Classroom, Seesaw: Platforms like these have made remote learning possible, or at least provided a structure to meet the needs of learners, give voice to ideas, and make learning visible in a virtual learning environment. 

Q 

🎥Quik-  If you don’t know this App, Quik (made by Gopro) is an instant Photo/video Compiler and editor that Can be a powerful tool to collect, compile and share media across platforms. 

🔐Quarantine- Now this a word I never thought would intersect with either my personal or professional life, and now it’s part of our shared vocabulary and experience. 

R 

🤔Reflection- Reflection on practice, equity, and impact is always critical and now is no different. If educators, administrators, and district don’t reflect and closely examine the practices that have been able to be let go along with those that have emerged, we have missed the unexpected opportunity to hold a hard mirror to evaluate existing structures and practices.

S 

🎨Seesaw- I have always thought seesaw was an incredibly powerful tool with capacity to empower our youngest to show what they know and capture learning. Yes, it took a pandemic to turn the tide on some of the more reluctant colleagues, but it has become the preferred companion resource for google classroom to be the one stop platform for content collection, communication, and creation.

T 

🧩Troubleshoot/Tech help- Some days I bum about the amount of tech help vs. teaching help I’m providing through my coaching position, but I remind myself that everyone is maxed out and sometimes the small solutions are the teaching help that’s needed to unlock or enable the teaching practice that follows. 

😳Toilet Paper- Who knew?

U 

🤯Unexpected & Unprepared- That pretty much sums it up. Hopefully this summer schools and districts can put together the training we wish had been in place before remote learning began. 

📲Updates- It has been impressive to see how products and companies have adapted and updated to meet the constantly evolving needs of the remote educators and learners.   

V 

🖥Videoconferencing- Whether it's Zoom or Meet, the virtual meeting space has become the learning and "classroom" environment of the day.  It has been inspiring to watch how educators have shifted from the early class meetings in almost crisis-response mode to effective content delivery, with small meetings, breakouts, and 1:1 support.  It's been interesting to me how differently I'm able to approach a coaching conversation across shared screens and virtual space.

🌉Virtual Backgrounds- Yup, I love them.  My current favorite backgrounds are Seinfeld's kitchen, Superman's fortress of solitude, and the street set from Northern Exposure.

W 

🎆Wonderopolis- This site is an endless resource for daily wonders: stories and articles about very interesting things. Great launch pad for reading and writing activities across content and grades. 

🏫Wide Open School- This powerful site from Common Sense Media is a one-stop shop for any parent, provider or educator looking to supplement and support student learning with organized, vetted, and curated content across academic, arts, and social-emotional spheres. 

X 

💠XR (Extended Reality). This broad term applies to AR/VR and any tech-enhanced or virtual environment.  While stuck at home, it's a great chance to learn more about Augmented Reality (AR), the layering of interactive digital images or content over our real view.  Any player of Pokemon GO is already a skilled navigator of an AR world.  JigSpace is a great mobile app to get your AR feet wet!  

Y 

📺Youtube- The internet's ultimate training tool!  With the unavailability of many services during this shutdown, you tube tutorials remind us how learning is a lifelong skill, and they empower us to develop and grow our own skill set, whether it's replacing a kitchen faucet, designing google classroom assessments, or cooking fired rice!

Z 

🌠Zoom. As the zoom vs meet battle royals wages, we have become skilled users of a product hardly any of us even heard of weeks a few short weeks ago.  Just imagine what this experience would be like without videoconferencing capability.

😴ZZZs- I don’t know about you, but catching heavy ZZZs has been challenging. Weird dreams, distracted sleep, and upended routines are affecting everyone’s sleep patterns. 

What did I miss?  Feel free to share you own go-to or game changer!