Month: August 2020

Returning to School in the Time of Covid-19

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Teaching

I’m worried. I’ll return to school in three weeks along with many other teachers in England. I love teaching. It’s more like a calling than a job to me. I love interacting with my students, giving them problems to solve, providing hands on experiences, making them discuss content, and seeing those lightbulb moments. I love it!

When school buildings closed in March and teaching moved online, it wasn’t the same. Not to say that some students didn’t thrive in ways they hadn’t before, because some did, but teaching over video, is not the same. Asynchronous interactions with classes is not the same. Not doing laboratory or practical work, is not the same. Teaching in person is so much better. I want to return to school. I want to see my students. I want us to go back to as close to normal as possible.

But I’m worried.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson wrote in an article for the Mail on Sunday,

“But now that we know enough to reopen schools to all pupils safely, we have a moral duty to do so.” and “Keeping our schools closed a moment longer than absolutely necessary is socially intolerable, economically unsustainable and morally indefensible.”

 

 

Do we really know enough to reopen schools to all pupils safely? 

Before moving to England, I taught in the largest school district in Georgia (Gwinnett) for 10 years. Georgia has one of the earliest return to school dates in the US, and many have already been in school for a week.

Last week, a viral photo of a packed hallway at an Atlanta area high school started circulating. It showed the first day of school (August 3rd).

(The school initially suspended the student who posted the photo, but it was revoked. A suspension is like exclusion in the UK.)

This week? The school had to close for two days for a deep clean after nine students and staff members tested positive for coronavirus. 

Another district in metro Atlanta has over 800 students and 42 teachers in 19 different schools in quarantine due to either direct exposure to or contracting the virus. 

School has been back in session for in person learning with staggered dismissal times for just over a week, and already they are seeing a surge in cases. 

And then an article in The Times today reveals that secondary students transmit the virus like adults. Public Health England believes that tougher rules may be needed for secondary students compared to primary students due to this. Not to mention, in the US, nearly 100,000 children tested positive for the virus the last two weeks in July.

Let's get back to school - but safely!

I completely believe getting back to school is important for children and their learning, especially for older students preparing for exams next summer. 

(Although positively, a survey has revealed that children coped well with school closures.)

Staggered break times, staggered lunch times, staggered start and end times will all help some, but I’m not sure it will be enough when over 1,000 students are walking our halls (or corridors). 

So what is the answer? Honestly, I don’t know. I’m a chemist/astronomer. Biology is my least favourite science, and I’m definitely not an epidemiologist. But I do know data, and I would say we don’t have enough data yet to know the impact of students being back full time. However, we can observe what happens in other countries as they go back to school. Will we learn from the lessons they teach us? I just hope that whatever happens, the safety of teachers and students will be more important than a political agenda.

Introducing Mrs Wilson Science YouTube Channel and Reflecting on Dr Abrams Space Across the Curriculum PD

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Exploring, Teaching
Introducing Mrs Wilson Science YouTube Channel and Reflecting on Dr Abrams Space Across the Curriculum PD

Introducing Mrs Wilson Science YouTube Channel!

I am so excited to introduce the new Mrs Wilson Science YouTube channel! I’ve been posting a few videos here and there to YouTube for years, but I’d always used my personal channel. I thought it was time to get a bit more professional and to separate personal and education focused videos. I plan to post videos explaining how to use technology tools like Teams, OneNote, and MS Forms. I will also post the occasional instructional video about different science topics. Please subscribe to my channel, and I look forward to sharing informative videos with you in the future!

The Space Foundation's Dr Abrams Space Across the Curriculum PD

Last week, I had the incredible opportunity to participate in a virtual PD with the Space Foundation. This is usually held in person at their headquarters in Colorado. However, the pandemic meant they had to get creative and move the experience online. This also meant it was much easier for international participants, like me, to get involved.

We spent the week working through a project based learning (PBL) task. We envisioned it was the year 2035 and we were tasked with setting up a lunar base. We worked in groups of 3-4, and I had the most amazing team. Even though we were in three different countries and time zones, we found a great working rhythm and were able to get everything done in an efficient manner. Not only that, but the experience included lesson plans for each day so that we can take the project and do it with students. 

I have quite a bit of experience with PBL working in two different schools with PBL programs. However, even with this experience, I got some great new ideas as part of the PD. I can’t wait to bring this back to school and create a way to share this with students!

The Space Foundation is a non-profit organisation, and the love to support teachers. If you’re looking for ways to incorporate space into your classroom, check out their student and teacher resources for ideas and support.

Check out our final project explaining the lunar habitat we designed.

Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert for 2020-2021: My Microsoft Journey

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Teaching
Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert for 2020-2021: My Microsoft Journey

I was so excited to learn yesterday that I have been chosen as a Microsoft Innovative Educator (MIE) Expert for the 2020-2021 school year. I didn’t realise how much I wanted to be a part of this incredible community of educators until I saw people on Twitter posting they had been selected last Friday – and I hadn’t received an email yet. I noticed they were all in the US, and I hoped the UK decisions were coming later – and it turned out I was correct. Now, I can’t wait to start this year of learning, innovating, and sharing.

Over the past year, I become a huge Microsoft fan. It was a process and took time, but when the pandemic forced school closures, I dived head first into the world of Teams and never looked back. 

Initially, I was hesitant. OneDrive, Teams, and Windows 10 were all introduced at the start of the school year, and we were told that we were moving away from Google Drive and associated tools. I was skeptical. I love using Google Drive to plan lessons – especially as I have an old MacBook Air at home with memory issues, so the cloud based format made preparing materials a lot easier. I’ll admit, I dug my heels in the ground for a while and was really reluctant to change.

And then there was Teams. When school started last September, I didn’t understand Teams, it’s purpose, or how helpful it could really be. To be honest, I don’t think the school had a clear idea or plan either, and part of it was the endless emails about being added to a new Team. Since then, we’ve worked out better parameters for setting up Teams, and I’ve grown very fond of the class Team and Teams meetings since we’ve been engrossed in pandemic teaching.

As I started to move away from using Google Drive products, I took a fresh look at PowerPoint, and I was impressed. I love the design ideas for each slide to help make each bit of info pop. It looks very slick and professional, and nothing like the PowerPoint of 10 years ago. 

Once in person school closed, I started using Teams and Stream. I am a huge fan of both, and Stream is particularly useful for safeguarding students, their data, and following GDPR. It makes it really easy to upload lesson videos, and using PowerPoint’s audio and video recorder has made it easy for teachers to create these lesson videos from existing resources. Not only that, I discovered it is possible to screencast from PowerPoint!

My last big delve into Microsoft this year has been OneNote. Now that I understand how it works and all the possibilities that surround using it (like Class Notebooks and Staff Notebooks), I really love using it. I even made a complete digital teacher planner that I can’t wait to use this year.

Through all of this, I’ve been an early adopter at school. As I’ve become comfortable using these different tools, I’ve shared with colleagues in trainings, videos, and being there to help. I’m now known as the Teams Guru or Queen of Teams at school. It’s really nice to be able to help others understand how to use these tools, and I am also part of a group that will be shaping our school’s IT vision for the future.

So now I am really looking forward to diving even further into the Microsoft world. Being part of the MIE Expert cohort will open so many professional development opportunities and connections, and I can’t wait to learn more incredible new tools to use with my students and colleagues.

(Below, you can see the self-nomination I created as part of my MIE Expert application. I created it using Sway, another Microsoft tool.)