My school district has gone from planning for hybrid Learning four days a week (with students in cohorts) to jumping right into in-person learning five days a week (with an option for families to remain in remote learning). All in the span of six days.

Here’s how I’m feeling:

And this:

Anyone else?!

We’re currently waiting for more details about when this big change will actually begin. With so much out of my control right now (which doesn’t feel good to a control freak like me!), I’m looking for the best ideas I can find to help navigate yet another big change in this challenging year. Here’s what I’ve found.

Note to self: nothing is going to be perfect, we’re all just doing our best & making the best of our situation.

*Continue using your online learning platform and digital assignments. While my in-person students may be looking forward to using paper and being on screens less, it is not a good use of my time to create two different forms of the same assignment.

*Continue using tools where students can collaborate and see each other’s responses. Some tools we’ve used effectively include Google Slides (where students add their own slide to a class presentation), Padlet, PearDeck, and FlipGrid.

*Intentionally plan to slow down & not try to cover as much curriculum as we would in a “normal” year. It’s just not realistic or sustainable. Focus on the most important topics and standards. Choose the highest-quality assignments you can find and don’t worry about assigning three tasks when one assignment will do.

*Along those same lines, be realistic about how long it might take to conference with students or to meet with small groups.

*Continue using breakout rooms to allow your in-person students to talk and collaborate with remote students. This helps to keep everyone connected.

*Continue those morning meetings or class circles to maintain your classroom community. (And if you haven’t started implementing this powerful strategy, it’s never too late to introduce this routine!) Here’s a link to my post about class circles.

*Continue a focus on social-emotional learning. Teach kids to check in with themselves and their feelings and think about what they might need. Incorporate some time for deep breathing. Share jokes or funny videos. Allow everyone to respond to fun questions. Use “would you rather?” questions. Play games together. Here is a post on social-emotional learning, building classroom community when some students are in remote learning, and games for Zoom or Google Meet.

*Play with the technology you’ll be using before your first blended class lesson. Will you be using another device? Are you going to project the lesson on your interactive whiteboard or will you project the screen with your remote students’ faces or avatars? Will you use headphones or earbuds so your remote students can chat with you privately when needed? Try everything out in advance.

*Plan intentional times AWAY from screens. Lunch and recess should be times to view or listen to something fun, play outside and get some fresh air. Students who are remote should be encouraged to eat and play outside with no devices at all. Some fun options for science include Tinkercast or the Brains On! podcast. Some fun options for social studies include the history podcast Forever Ago and The Past and the Curious (another history podcast).

Have kids read REAL books (not just books or articles online) and practice handwriting, cursive practice, or any other writing assignment on paper instead of typing all the time.

Catlin Tucker’s online wellness choice boards (for both students AND teachers) include lots of other great ideas!

*Include as many hands-on science experiments as possible. Your remote students can also participate if you let them know in advance what materials they need.

*Flip some lessons by having students watch video instruction during the asynchronous time and then use your time together for them to collaborate for group discussions or practice math concepts with you there to guide the practice. This is similar to the idea of having students read an assignment independently for a book group and then come together for a discussion of the reading. Some good tools for this are EdPuzzle and Actively Learn.

*Take the learning outside as much as possible. While your remote students may not be able to do that from their homes (so the blended instructional time may have to continue in the classroom), you can take some of your in-person asynchronous time outside. Ask students to bring beach towels or blankets (and try to provide something to sit on for those who cannot bring something from home). Allow students to set up an outdoor spot for reading or math practice on a whiteboard or some kind of project work for social studies or science. Fresh air and a change of location are good for everyone.

*Recognize that just because your class has been “together” in a remote setting, this new learning environment is totally different! While you will have plenty of health and safety protocols to review with students, you might also need to revisit expectations for how we do things in a classroom! Taking some time to do some of what might seem to be beginning of the year activities will be good for getting everyone acclimated to being back in school and in a classroom setting again.

*Michael Linsin of Smart Classroom Management has some great tips for establishing rapport with your students while wearing a face mask! One suggestion is to lock in eye contact with students, THEN smile. He also suggests using air bumps (other non-physical gestures would work too), using your hands as you communicate, and limiting your talking by one-third to one-half. The link to his full post is HERE.

*And finally, continue to use frequent check-ins with your students about what is working well for them and what is not working so well. Google forms work especially well for these check-ins.

If you have been teaching in-person and online, what tips have been working for you? Please share!

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