Check the twitter posts below for more info,
In just a few short months the entire education system has changed, not only within Scotland but across the world. In response to the current COVID-19 crisis teachers have had to drastically alter their teaching practices to meet an entirely new set of challenges.
Prior to the outbreak of this pandemic I was completing my NQT year at Williamwood High School in East Renfrewshire. Although I am a Microsoft Certified Educator and have a strong background in digital technology switching to entirely remote learning was uncharted waters. I frantically began searching for any guidance or advice when making this transition. Through my great network of support on Twitter I was recommended a course by FutureLearn called ‘How to teach online: Providing continuity for Students’. This course brings together a global network of educators to share ideas and ask questions on how to best support students during this period of remote learning. I decided to focus on the very first question posed:
What do you think is the biggest challenge in online teaching?
As you can see from the results of this poll nearly half of the 10,000 course participants, including myself, selected ‘Keeping Students interested and engaged’ as their chief concern.
Having already identified a lack of engagement from my S1 Google Classroom I decided to make this my primary focus for my upcoming Professional Inquiry. Using the knowledge I gained from the FutureLearn course as well as guidance from my network of support in Williamwood I chose to alter my approach to online learning in order to boost engagement among my students. I presented my findings in the form of a Microsoft Sway and used a mix of quantitative and qualitative data to support my conclusions. I have attached the link to this report and hope that you find this useful.
Although we are living in unprecedented and uncertain times it has provided us as educators a unique opportunity to re-examine our own practice. By continually assessing and altering our own pedagogy we are giving our students the opportunity to become 21st century learners and gain the skills required to succeed in an increasingly virtual world.
Fionnuala Glover is a teacher of History at Williamswood High School in East Renfrewshire
Twitter @MissGlover19
Using Google Classroom Data to Gauge Engagement
Each class uses Google Classroom as the vehicle to support learning and teaching. The teachers set up a ‘task chart’ of activities as an introduction each Monday. Children and families have the flexibility to complete lessons and assessment across the week to suit their individual circumstances. A ‘learning log’ is then completed by each child to reflect the ‘task chart’ contents. This ‘learning log’ is a Microsoft Form which provides a useful report for teachers and SMT to analyse in terms of planning for the following week and Google Classroom engagement.
Any children who have not engaged are then flagged up to SMT. This will entail a cross-reference with a school Google Classroom usage report which we receive weekly from our Google Classroom Administrator showing who has logged in and the volume of activity for each child in the school.
Class teachers are consulted by SMT and a decision is then made to contact those families via Groupcall – a generic ‘We’ve noticed your child has had minimal engagement with their Google Classroom content this week. Please contact the school if there is anything we can do to support…’ type communication. For the most part, this is sufficient for the families to re-engage or let the school know in which ways they require support.
The next level up of contact would be a phone call from a member of the SMT. This personal touch is sometimes necessary and beneficial to reassure families and agree a more personalised support strategy for their child. The use of the ‘learning log data’ ensures a weekly touching base with all departments, stages and classes to allow us to target support and assistance for our school community.
Our Lady of the Missions have also created these handy guides for adults to help learners access Classroom:
https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/er/OurLadyMissions/parental-involvement/parents-2/
The pupils have been using,
and much more……
Aberdeenshire Council has had a dedicated learning with technology team for many years. The team always provided face to face CLPL activities covering a wide range of topics, for teachers and pupils from Early Years to Senior Phase.
Before we were placed in lockdown the Digital Learning Team put information to every school to advise that young people and staff could take school computers, iPads or Chromebooks home if this was required, and we included information on how to set these devices up for home use.
We are in the process of providing hardware to some of our students to allow internet access to allow remote learning.
We set up a Microsoft Team for staff and in this Team we provide channels for discussion, resources to share and a go to place for daily webinars.
We also created websites for parents and carers to allow them to support their youngsters in learning, and we pointed them to Internet Safety resources, Glow resources, Scholar resources and daily updates on learning activities for every age and stage. We also used Glide app , a free resource to allow parents/carers to see this information in the form of an app on their mobile devices.
Since lockdown we have delivered daily webinars using MS Teams to initially upskill teachers in their knowledge of the digital tools available in Glow, and how to quickly and easily make use of them in preparing and delivering learning activities.
As the weeks progressed, we began to look at more particular examples of using the technology to augment and enhance existing resources, and more of the chat became about learning and less about devices and software
We are continuing with our daily webinars, we now have guest presenters and are looking forward to welcoming some of our own practitioners to deliver webinars on how they are using the digital tools in Glow for learning and teaching.
These are difficult times, never before have all the students been out of school, but every day is a learning day and we are certainly discovering new and better ways to use digital tools more effectively with learners and staff.
We are currently developing plans around remote learning during this crisis and into the future, where learning and teaching will look different.
You will be able to find out more on Twitter by following #AberdeenLearns
Airyhall School have been creating their school using Animal Crossing and creating News Reports about the Battle of Culloden
Northfield Academy have been creating stop go animations
Seaton Primary School have creating analogue and digitally labelled pictures about artic animals
Heathryburn School having been collaborating using Jamboard
Firstly we know that children need to be able to reflect on their learning and articulate what their next steps are. Digital technologies, and in particularly using portfolios, has allowed them to do this. All children from P1-7 are able to use an iPad to take a picture or video of their learning, post to their portfolio and use the multimedia tools to explain not just what the task was, but what they have learned and what they need to work on next. This is instantly shared with teachers and families members, who make comments back. This has worked well for us, and we have seen an increase in parental involvement as a result. The crucial steps in this journey were helping the children to understand not just how to post to their portfolios, but what to post and why they are posting it. This engenders responsibility for their own learning, a trait we believe is crucial for further success. In order to achieve this we have had to invest in technology to ensure that all learners have equitable access to the digital tools they need.
Secondly we want our pupils to equipped with the appropriate skills for learning, life and work. We have developed our curriculum to ensure we focus on skills. Called ‘Skills Passport’, we use interdisciplinary learning, organised around a core set of skills, to give pupils experiences that will serve them well as they grow up. Digital technologies form a core part of this work. We have used filmmaking as a context for team work and creativity skills, design and technology to work on problem solving, food technology and thinking skills also formed part of the skills based curriculum.
Using digital technologies as an everyday part of schooling allows us to serve our pupils well by giving them the tools they need to reflect on their learning and the digital skills they need to succeed as they move through life.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiNisyhLItoC-HDVBc_BgHcotkj4U-dLQ
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