Going Green

As of Monday, October 12, we're officially in Phase Green.  Thankfully, this was also the week of Fall Break, so we only had 3 days of school before a 4 day weekend.  

Case numbers and percent positivity remain low in Monroe County.  We're averaging 2 or 3 COVID cases in the high schools per week, but these seem to be acquired in the community and isolated quickly so that we haven't had noticeable in-school transmission.  

 

I had previously been nervous about having all of the in person students in the building at once, but so many students have switched to all online that the in person numbers are not too high.  My largest class has 17 in person students, which I can fit in my room while maintaining physical distancing.  My smallest class is 8 in person students.

Things don't look as good in the rest of Indiana or in much of the country, so I'm not sure how long we can maintain our Monroe County bubble.

Some positives about Phase Green:

• I now only have 2 groups of students to keep track of: in person and online, instead of 3 groups during Phase Yellow: in person A-K, in person L-Z, and online.  It's surprised me just how much easier this is!

• We've returned to our normal maroon/gold alternating block schedule.  During hybrid, we had a modified block schedule of maroon maroon gold gold alternating Fridays.  It took me about 5 years to get the hang of a regular block schedule, and this new twist nearly pushed me over the edge.  Students had two days of class in a row, followed by almost a week off, which is terrible for language learning.  Not to mention keeping track of who is where on which day.  I don't recommend it!

• It's more practical to teach a lesson in person now than it was on a hybrid schedule.  I've been using the flipped classroom model and pre-recording lesson videos, which works well for some students, but many don't have the self-discipline to watch the video carefully and take good notes.  On Wednesday I taught the lesson live for in person students.  That way I could make sure that they were following along and could check for understanding.  Most of them preferred this method, and it definitely gave me a better feel for their comprehension.

• This isn't specific to Phase Green, but I LOVE my contact-free bathroom signout!  It is even better than my bathroom pass flowchart.  I'm keeping this forever!

Overall, it's really a year of figuring things out as I go and doing what I can.  I'm super grateful to be half time because all of the changes/new procedures/worries are exhausting!  

A teacher in Mishawaka (northern Indiana) expressed it eloquently to her school board this week:

A Whole New World

 

We returned to in-person hybrid instruction this week after 4 weeks of all online learning to start the school year.

It was my first time teaching students in the school building since March 12, 2020.  It's definitely very different.

(sanitizing shoe mats)

After all of the planning, discussion, changing of plans, and worry, I have to say that the first week went pretty smoothly.

About 1/3 of our students have remained completely online, and the remaining students are split into two groups that alternate attendance days.  So, instead of 1600 students in the building every day, there are more like 600 on any given day.

This certainly made maintaining physical distance easier.  My classes have between 6 and 12 students in them, which allows everyone to be well spread out.  

We have block scheduling, so that plus the hybrid schedule meant that it took all 4 days of the week before I met all of my in person students.  It was like 4 first days of school!  Needless to say, everyone was exhausted by Friday.

But students have generally been cooperative about mask wearing and physical distancing in the classroom.  

It's difficult, though, to figure out how best to help a student from 6 feet away and how to continue to work with my online students when I have students in the classroom.  I'm using a flipped classroom model, which is not how I chose to teach BCE (before COVID era), but it seems to me the best option in the CE (COVID era).  Many things just aren't ideal right now.

The first few days just felt weird, but by Friday I did feel like I was starting to get a little more comfortable.  It's just a very different school world now, and I think it will be for some time to come.

Ready, set...

I went in to school on Friday to make sure my room is ready for a hybrid return to in person instruction on Tuesday.

I've got 16 desks, spaced 6 feet apart,

my required CDC posters,

spray cleaner and paper towels (instead of books) on the bookshelf,

and the schedule on the board so hopefully we know who is supposed to be where.

Contact-free Bathroom Signout

 

People who have been reading my blog for a while know that mid-class requests to use the bathroom are the bane of my teaching existence.  

I thought I had solved that issue once and for all with my bathroom flowchart.  COVID-19 now laughs in the face of my naivety.

In preparation for a return to in person classes after Labor Day, I spent yesterday afternoon pondering a way to keep track of student bathroom use for contact tracing while not using a pass or a paper signout sheet.  

The solution: a Google Doc Contact Free bathroom signout.  

From the Course Resources page on Canvas, students click on the Restroom Signout button,

which takes them to a Google Doc which they can all write on.

Students will sign themselves in and out and will be able to check if they need to wait because a classmate is in the restroom without my involvement.  Hallelujah! 

Because 2020.

Need one for your German class?  Contact-free German Bathroom Signout Form

MTBoS Blaugust Report

 

Today is the final day of MTBos Blaugust!  This will be my 15th post for the month, which I am very pleased with, especially considering that I only blogged 17 times during the entire 2019-2020 school year.  

Many thanks to Sarah Carter (https://mathequalslove.blogspot.com/) and Druin (http://statteacher.blogspot.com/) for inspiring me to join in.  

We've made it through the first month of the 2020-21 school year!

Back to School

 

After starting the school year on August 12 with all students online, our school board voted on Tuesday to return to in-person learning on September 8.

We'll be moving into Phase Yellow, with elementary students attending 5 days a week and secondary students on a hybrid schedule.  Here's the secondary hybrid schedule:

Bloomington North is the only school in the district with block scheduling, and our hybrid schedule now looks like this:

Phew!  It's taken me about 7 years to adjust to block scheduling, and now this maroon maroon gold gold alternating maroon/gold makes my brain hurt!  I will definitely need to write everything down very deliberately.

Our community positivity rate has dropped to about 2%, which is quite good.  The big concern is that we are a university town, and 40,000 Indiana University students just returned to campus and started classes Monday. 

I just hope that we don't get everyone adjusted to being back in school, only to have to return to online learning a few weeks later.  Fingers crossed, and working to be 

It's β is not ß season

I think you have to have a healthy level of year to year amnesia to be a teacher.  Otherwise, no one would do it more than one year.  Case in point:

β is not ß season

There's always a phase about a week or two into the school year where my German 1 students struggle with typing German special characters, most especially ß.  

I give them a menu of options to chose from:  

But an ess-tset does look a lot like a Greek beta, so more than a few students type that instead of ß, and their answer is marked wrong even though it looks right.

It's especially intense this year since I have 3 full classes of German 1, which makes about 90 students.  

It's also harder to get the word out during remote learning.  In a classroom, once I notice it happening, I make multiple loud announcements, and this catches about 95% of the students.  

There really isn't an equivalent to a loud classroom announcement in remote learning.  I've put an announcement on our LMS, and I'm going through assignments to try to catch the students making this mistake.  And of course I'm replying to emails and Canvas messages asking "Why is my answer wrong?"  It definitely felt like that was all I did on Friday.

Sigh.  This too shall pass.