Category: 3rd

We've certainly had an exciting first day of Distance Learning! While I derive no joy from the circumstances that are requiring it, I am optimistic about the results of our efforts in no small part due to the flexibility and teamwork that I am seeing from staff, students, and parents.

As much as I hate the saying, we are certainly "building the plane as we fly it." To push the metaphor, some of us are swapping out the engine while we're approaching the airport at speed and the engine manufacturer is tossing us parts.

TL;DR: Things are most certainly going to change for a variety of reasons. To that end, here are the most commonly asked questions that were sent to me yesterday, along with their answers.

1. Will there be a ZOOM or Google Meet live chat?

   1. No.
      All of my classes will have instruction shared via a mix of prerecorded video and written instruction.

2. When does your class meet?

   1. As we will not be having live meetings, this is less relevant. With that said, I DO have a schedule.
      1. I hope to have a video uploaded and shared with each class on Monday morning of each week that we are doing Distance Learning. (As we started this week on a Tuesday, the videos were posted Tuesday at 6am.)
      2. Most assignments are due by 1pm on Friday.
         1. THIS WEEK, I have made Intermediate and Middle School assignments due NEXT FRIDAY, 4-24, by 1pm.
      3. "Check In" assignments may be posted at any time for Intermediate & Middle School students.
         1. These will consist of questions that require short but well written (grammar, spelling, and punctuation matter) answers.
         2. These are not meant to trip up students but rather to get a sense for their progress and understanding during the course of the larger project. Based on the timing and nature of the questions, the due dates for these questions may vary.

3. Are you using Google Classroom? / What services are you using to assign work to students?

   1. It depends.
      1. Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grade curriculum for 4th Quarter is focusing on work in Code.org, one of the many services that can be logged into via Clever without an additional username/password. The video introduction and join code were shared via ClassDojo but the work is all in Code.org. As we transition to Google Classroom the notifications for assignments will remain the same format as what was shared in ClassDojo.
      2. 3rd and 4th grade students are receiving all of their course work using Google Classroom. Our first two weeks of 4th Quarter are using a lesson in Code.org but we will then transition to other lessons that will be handed in via Google Classroom.
      3. Media Arts Majors and Tech Concepts students will be making heavy use of Google Classroom.

4. What is the join code for Code.org / Google Classroom?

   1. For obvious reasons I will not be posting join codes on this public facing web page, but they do exist in the following locations if they are needed.
      1. Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grade codes for Code.org have been shared via their classroom teacher's ClassDojo Class Story page.
      2. 3rd and 4th grade students joined Mr. A Williams' Google Classroom early on during 3rd Quarter. As he and I are trading classes for 4th Quarter all of our 3rd and 4th grade students are already in their correct Google Classrooms. Codes for their Code.org lessons were shared in Google Classroom.
      3. Media Arts Majors joined my Google Classroom the first week of school and will not need any additional codes to see all of their classwork.
      4. Tech Concepts students have been sent a direct invitation to our Google Classroom. At the time of this writing all students in this class have accepted the invitation. In the case of new students being added to the class, they will also be sent an invitation.

5. I finished all of my work, now what?

   1. Bask in your awesomeness!
   2. Depending on your class, there are different things you can do to extend your learning.
      1. Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grade Code.org coursework is formatted very much like iReady, in that there is a lot of it but the assignment is time based. If you finish working on it for 30 minutes but wish to spend more time on it (assuming you're caught up on your other assignments) I have no problem with this.
      2. 3rd and 4th grade students who finish the "Flappy Code" lesson in Code.org are free to do any of the other Code.org activities, assuming of course that they are caught up on their other assignments.
      3. Media Arts Majors and Tech Concepts lessons each end with a section named "Extend" meant specifically to answer this question. Students who finish early and wish to do more with the same core competencies covered in the lesson should look to the "Extend" section for what to do next, assuming of course that they are caught up on their other assignments.